Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Cemetery, People

Location

19-21 Cherry St, Red Hook, NY 12571, USA

Lat/Long

41.996801, -73.872028

Grant Recipient

Historic Red Hook

Alexander Gilson was born in Red Hook, NY ca. 1823. For fifty years, he worked as the gardener and manager of the nurseries and grounds at Montgomery Place, the residence of the Livingston, Barton, and Hunt families. Throughout his career, he was a well-known African American horticulturalist credited with cultivating Begonia Gilsonii, Aschyranthus Gilsonii, and other plant varieties. His accomplishments were noted in such journals as American Agriculturalist, The American Florist, and American Gardening. In the 1889 Vol. IV issue of The American Florist, a reader provided insight to the naming of Begonia Gilsonii:

Its history is this: Mrs. Livingston, a lady from New York state and who had a colored gardener named Gilson, sent a piece of a new double-flowering begonia which her gardener had raised, to Mr. Smith for his opinion and wished him to suggest a name for it. Mr. Smith, in compliment to the gardener who raised the plant, named it after him, Begonia Gilsoni [sic].

Alexander Gilson retired from his position at Montgomery Place in 1885 due to illness. He was buried here at the Red Hook Methodist Burial Ground following his death on April 25, 1889.