John H. Starin

John Henry Starin

File:Starin Estate.jpg

Residence of John Henry Starin

John Henry Starin (August 27, 1825 - March 21, 1909) was a U.S. Representative from New York, grandson of Thomas Sammons.

Born in Sammonsville, Fulton County (then a part of Montgomery County), New York, Starin pursued an academic course in Esperance, New York. Began the study of medicine in 1842. He established and conducted a drug and medicine business in Fultonville 1845-1858. Postmaster of Fultonville, New York from 1848 to 1852. Founder and president of the Starin City River &amp. Harbor Transportation Co.. He served as director of the North River Bank, New York City, and the Mohawk River National Bank. He was also interested in agriculture and stock raising.

Starin was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1881). He served as president of Fultonville National Bank 1883-1909. He engaged in railroading. He served as member of the New York City Rapid Transit Commission. He died in New York City March 21, 1909. He was interred in Starin mausoleum, Fultonville Cemetery, Fultonville, New York.

Glen Island

In 1978 Starin purchased a series of small islands off the coast of New Rochelle, New York which he turned into an amusement park by the name of Glen Island. He maintained the islands as a select summer resort, operating 12 steamboats to and from New York City. The islands were so popular that hundreds of thousands of visitors were brought every season to the attractions which included a zoo, a natural history museum, a railway, a German beer garden (around the castle-like structure which still stands today), a bathing beach, and a Chinese pagoda. A chain ferry transported visitors from a mainland dock . By 1882 attendance reached half a million and within six years it broke a million. In spite of the large number of visitors, Starin stressed the well-behaved nature of the crowds and the orderly character of the experience, governed by a 'middle-class code of conduct'. His desire was to offer an environment of order and civility which contrasted to the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of New York City. One of the effects of Glen Islands popularity in the beginning of the twentieth century was the building boom in New Rochelle, which had rapidly grown into a summer resort community.

The Starin Mausoleum

Starin Mausoleum in Fultonville Cemetery

The Starin Mausoleum was constructed in the Old Fultonville Cemetery around 1886. The building was approximately 45 feet tall, 25 feet across, and 15 feet deep. The Starin mausoleum no longer stands in the Old Fultonville Cemetery, yet remnants of the foundation can still be found. When John H. Starin died in 1909, he left a sum of money to the village of Fultonville to take care of the mausoleum. In the 1970s the mausoleum began to fall into disrepair. Sometime around this time, it was also vandalized on Halloween by a group of teenagers, who destroyed most of the caskets and bodies. In the summer of 1975 the mausoleum was taken down and the remains that were left in the mausoleum were re-interred in front of where it once stood and markers were placed on the graves. At the point of the demolition, which Jake Stevens headed, there was very little left to the mausoleum. Today, a modest upright granite slab with a bronze face marks his grave as well as his family member's graves.

Further Information

For further information on the Starin Family, please contact the historian of Fultonville at fultonvillehistory@gmail.com.

Source

• United States Congress. "John H. Starin (id: S000808)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.