Augustus Martin

Augustus Martin was born January 14, 1808 in Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York, the seventh of nine sons and the eighth child born to John Gotlop Martin and his wife, Isabella Fulton Martin. He married Lydia Maria Benner on August 7, 1832, probably in Red Hook.

They had four daughters: Cora, born in 1838; Ella, born in 1840; Isabella, born in 1843; and Serena (called Teenie) born in 1845. Ella and Teenie never married, but lived together at Woodlandside, a house built by their father in 1860 at Barrytown-on-Hudson.

These were the "aunties" who Dorothy Beck would visit and correspond with as a child. Isabella married Luther L. Stillman and lived in Red Hook, and Cora married John Burkhart Scott.

Augustus Martin represented Dutchess County in the New York Assembly in Albany during the years 1852 and 1853. He listed himself as a merchant with a net worth of $1000 in the 1850 census.

Lydia Maria Benner was born December 8, 1811, the eldest child of Jacob Benner and Margaret Feroe Benner in Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York. She had two younger brothers. Henry, born February 19, 1815, and Robert, born February 1, 1818. Her mother died in 1824 when she was only 12, and her father married Helen Moore, with whom he had another daughter, Margaret.

Lydia died February 25, 1864 in Red Hook, and is buried in St. Paul's Lutheran Church Cemetery there. Her husband married her half-sister, Margaret Benner, and lived until 1875. He is buried with Lydia.