Notes for STEPHEN W VAN VELSOR:

Son of Samuel and Margaret (Allen) Van Velsor.
Born: November 21, 1801 in Cold Spring Harbor, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York.
Died: September 1, 1885 in Lyon's Farms, Essex County, New Jersey.
Buried: Section F; Lot 102: Evergreen Cemetery, Hillside, Union County, New Jersey.
Married: Sarah Elizabeth Beardsley November 26, 1832 in Lyon's Farms, Essex County, New Jersey.

Baily and Sarah Elizabeth Beardsley Van Velsor later lived on Broome Street in Lower Manhattan and their daughter, Jessie Louisa, was born there in April of 1843. She was the only one of their six children who was born in New York City. Baily and Sarah's Broome Street residence is where Walt Whitman, Sarah Margaret Fuller, Charles Anderson Dana and Horace Greeley collaborated many times as their guests. In fact, there was a small literary and philosophical coterie which met regularly at the Broome Street residence in the mid 1840's. Fuller was the editor-in-chief of the transcendentalist magazine, "The Dial", one of the most important periodicals in American literary history, and a writer of literary criticism for the New York Tribune from 1844 to 1846. Her book "Papers on Literature and Art" in 1846, grew out of her contributions to the Tribune. Dana was a writer for "The Dial" and managing editor of the New York Tribune. Greeley was the founder of the Tribune, at the time boasting the largest daily circulation in America. Walt Whitman lived in Manhattan until 1845 while working for a number of newspaper in the city.

Baily's Death Certificate states that his Christian name is spelled "Baily" (with no "e") and that he had been a resident of the state of New Jersey for 38 years, which would indicate that he moved to New Jersey in 1847. Walt Whitman made note of Baily on page 3 of his "Family Notes and Autobiography" in 1862 or 1863 in writing "return my book". We assume that means that Baily had not returned a book that Walt needed and Walt wrote him about it. His last place of residence was in Clinton Township. Baily died of apoplexy at 83 years old and nine months and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Hillside, Union County, New Jersey (Cemetery Lot #102 section F). Others buried in the Van Velsor plot are Allen Van Velsor (May 20, 1883) and Jane Van Velsor (November 2, 1888), possible a brother and a sister.