Joel T. Headley


Joel Tyler Headley was an American clergyman, historian, author, newspaper editor, adventurer and politician who served as Secretary of State of New York. Headley belonged to the American Party.

Life

He was born at Walton, New York to a Presbyterian clergyman father, and he determined to take up the same occupation. He graduated from Union College in 1839 and took a course in theology at the Auburn Theological Seminary in Auburn, New York. After being ordained, he preached at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, but soon had to give up his profession due to the strain, going to Europe in 1842. He turned to history writing, producing many works on various subjects. His writings were among the first to call attention to the Adirondack Mountains as a health resort, and his best known work is The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution. He later accepted the solicitations of Horace Greeley and became associate editor of the New York Tribune.
Headley selected Newburgh, New York as his country seat; its close proximity to New York City and upstate New York was appealing. Outside of the city boundary, in the mostly rural town of New Windsor, Headley purchased approximately 13 acres of land in the summer of 1850. The property, overlooking the Hudson River, formerly belonged to the Christie family. In Newburgh, Headley selected the architectural firm of Andrew Jackson Downing and Calvert Vaux to build his home. Though he could afford a much grander house, he decided to subdue tastes and preferred the focal point of the property to be its natural surroundings rather than the house itself. Downing and Vaux set to work on the "villa", including the design in Downing's 1852 work Cottage Residences, Design No. 14, "A Cottage in the Rhine style".
Headley was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1855; and was New York Secretary of State from 1856 to 1857, elected on the American Party ticket at the 1855 New York state election. He died in Newburgh, New York in 1897, having lived there for many years.

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