Henry Ramsay (May 18, 1808, in Guilderland, Albany County, New York – July 12, 1886, in

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

) was an American civil engineer and for a short time New York State Engineer and Surveyor in 1853.

Life

He was born on May 18, 1808, the son of Frederick Ramsay and Belle (Quackenbush) Ramsay. He was educated at the Lancaster School in Albany, and graduated from

The Albany Academy The Albany Academy is an independent college preparatory day school for boys in Albany, New York, USA, enrolling students from Preschool (age 3) to Grade 12. It was established in 1813 by a charter signed by Mayor Philip Schuyler Van Renssela ...

in 1826. Afterwards he taught school in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

. Later he became a

draftsman A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans for ...

, cartographer and civil engineer. In 1831, he married Isabelle Westervelt, and they had nine children. In 1842, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad between Albany and

. He laid out the course of the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

at Schenectady, to avoid the inclined plane at that terminus. Subsequently, he became Assistant Engineer on the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

enlargement. In 1849, he moved to Schenectady, and was for several terms City Surveyor. On December 10, 1853, he was appointed New York State Engineer and Surveyor, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of

William J. McAlpine William Jarvis McAlpine (April 30, 1812 – February 16, 1890) was an American civil engineer and politician from New York. He was New York State Engineer and Surveyor from 1852 to 1853. Life William J. McAlpine was born in New York City, the ...

, after Wheeler H. Bristol declined to take office. He died on July 12, 1886, in

Legacy

He endowed the Henry Ramsay Scholarship at

Sources

''The New York Civil List''
compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 37f; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsay, Henry 1808 births 1886 deaths New York State Engineers and Surveyors Politicians from Albany, New York 19th-century American railroad executives 19th-century American engineers Engineers from New York (state) Politicians from Schenectady, New York People from Guilderland, New York Businesspeople from Schenectady, New York The Albany Academy alumni