VAN RENSSELAER, Stephen, III (1764-1839)
Adamsite of New York 
10th congressional district
Served in House 1821-1829
Biography
Representative from New York; born in New York City November 1, 1764; completed preparatory studies and attended Princeton College; graduated from Harvard University in 1782; major of militia in 1786, colonel in 1788, and major general in 1801; member of the New York state assembly 1789-1791, 1798, and 1818; member of the New York state senate 1791-1796; elected lieutenant governor of New York in 1795; unsuccessful candidate for New York governor in 1801 and 1813; served as major general of Volunteers in the War of 1812; member of the canal commission 1816-1839, and served fourteen years as its president; member of the New York state constitutional convention in 1821; founded the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy in 1824; was a supporter of John Quincy Adams; elected as a Federalist to the Seventeenth Congress by special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative Solomon Van Vechten Van Rensselaer; elected as a Adams-Clay Federalist to the Eighteenth Congress; elected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth and to the succeeding Congress (February 27, 1822-March 3, 1829); chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Eighteenth through Twentieth Congresses); was not a candidate for reelection; devoted his time to landed interests and to educational and public welfare matters; regent of the University of New York 1819-1839; died on January 26, 1839, in Albany, N.Y.; interment in the family burying ground; reinterment in Albany Rural Cemetery.Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
