Welcome to Troy County, NY, History and Genealogy.  This is is a central point of entry to independent not-for-profit web sites with historical or genealogical content. Although independent, it is affiliated with The American History and Genealogy Project. To learn more about this group, click the link above.

TROY CITY, seat of justice for the county, lies on the east side of the Hudson, 6 miles north of Albany, at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. There is some reason to believe that its present site was visited by Hudson, the first navigator of Hudson river, in 1609. In the record of his voyage, it is stated he “went sounding his way above the highlands, till at last the Crescent (the ship in which he made his voyage) had sailed beyond the city of Hudson, and a boat had advanced a little beyond Albany.” Probably this boat ascended to the rifts which lay at the northerly part of the city, where the ordinary tides spent their force, and the navigation was interrupted. For more than a century after Hudson’s voyage, the territory now comprising the site of Troy, (although within the limits of the grant made to the patroon,) probably remained part of the hunting ground of the Mohawk Indians. In 1720, a grant of 490 acres, extending along the Hudson between the Poestenkill and Meadow creek, comprehending the original allotments on which the city was erected, was made in fee by the proprietor of the manor of Rensselaerwyck to Derick Van Derheyden, at the small rent of three bushels and three pecks of wheat and four fat fowls annually. From the date of the grant, and possibly from a period a little earlier, this plain and the first range of hills adjoining, was possessed by the grantee and his descendants, and small portions of it cultivated as a farm. After the revolution, emigrants from New England, seeing the advantageous situation of Van Derheyden, as it was then called, induced the proprietors to lay it out into town lots. At this period Lansingburg, then called the “New City,” was a village of considerable size and commercial importance; the city of Albany lay a few miles to the south, and had for many generations been the centre of trade for the entire country around. These circumstances at the first appeared unpropitious to the growth of this place. The establishment of the Federal government in 1789, and the settlement of the “new state” of Vermont, gave an impulse to the spirit of enterprise. The village of Van Derheyden being at the head of the natural navigation of the Hudson, after some struggle began to outstrip the “New City,” which had been unwisely located above the rifts. The earliest surveys of the three allotments into which the site was originally divided, were made between the years 1786 and 1790; one or two slight buildings in 1786, and a small number the two years following. It is stated that by the spring of 1789, five small stores and about a dozen dwelling-houses had been erected. The appellation of Van Derheyden’s Ferry was now changed into the more classic name of Troy. In 1791, the county of Rensselaer was detached from Albany, and Troy was selected as the county seat. In 1793 the first courthouse was erected, and the jail the following year. The influential men among the first settlers were the friends of order, and supporters of the institutions of religion. When they were too few to support a clergyman, they were accustomed to assemble in a store at the sound of a conch-horn, and afterward in a school-house. Here they usually listened to a sermon read by Dr. Samuel Gall, or the late Col. Pawling, a revolutionary officer. In 1791, the inhabitants, too few to consult their denominational preferences, by an united effort erected a frame in a house of public worship, which was covered the following year, and although unfinished, was used as a place for public worship. This building became the first edifice of the Presbyterian congregation. The Rev. Dr. Jonas Coe was their first minister. His services at this period were divided between Troy and Lansingburg, his residence being in the latter place. An Episcopal church, an edifice of small dimension of brick, was erected in 1804, which was enlarged some years afterward, and is now known as St. John’s church. In 1805, the Baptist congregation erected a house of worship in Third-street, which was afterward enlarged. The Methodist Episcopal congregation erected their first house of worship in State-street in 1809. Fr: The Troy Female Seminary, located in this place, holds a high rank among the institutions of learning in our country. John II. and Sarah L. Willard re the principals, and Nancy Hinsdale the vice-principal: there ;re besides 21 teachers and officers. The following account and historical sketch has been kindly furnished by an individual well acquainted with it. The school of which the Troy Seminary is a continuation, was begun in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1814, by Mrs. Emma Willard. It there obtained considerable celebrity, and the Principal was solicited to remove it to Waterford, in this state. She consented on the condition that the most influential gentlemen of that place should unite in carrying before the legislature a petition for incorporating and endowing a public institution for females. Their approbation of this measure was made to depend on that of De Witt Clinton, then governor of the state. On being presented with the plan, he expressed his high approval, and introduced the subject into his message. In the winter of 1818—19, the petition was, under his auspices, presented to the legislature, and for the first time the rights of woman in regard to education, were plead in a legislative hall. Among its supporters were Mr. Van Buren, and Mr. John C. Spencer. The justice of the claim was acknowledged, an institution on the proposed plan incorporated, and a bill for endowment brought in, but the adjournment of the legislature prevent- ed its passage. In the spring of 1819, the proposed school went into operation in Waterford, in the large building now occupied as a hotel, that having been hired for two years. The next winter- session of the legislature defeated the hopes which had been excited of an endowment, but in the mean time private patronage was abundant. In 1821, the school being large, and no place being provided in Waterford for its accommodation, it was removed to Troy, the corporation of that city having voted $4,000 for a building. Since that period, the rents of the building have been made to meet the interest and almost all the principal of the moneys expended in its several enlargements and in the additions to its grounds. Since 1837 this institution has received from the state a share of he literature fund, by which the library, apparatus, &c., previously furnished by the Principal, have been made more complete. This school has educated at least five thousand pupils; of whom about one tenth have been teachers, and it has furnished Principals for many of the most distinguished female schools in every part of the Union. The present Principal of this seminary, Mrs. Sarah L. Willard, spent nineteen years in the institution a~ pupil, teacher, and vice-principal, before assuming its government. But the larger number of the young ladies here educated have married, and are now, many of them, standing in the Northwestern view of the Troy Female Seminary. first circles and among the first women of our country in regard to piety and moral worth, domestic usefulness, and intellectual and social accomplishments. Several of the pupils have been distinguished as authors. About twenty teachers are constantly employed. The number of pupils being about two hundred, gives an average of one teacher to ten pupils. The objects of education as stated in the original plan are considered to be, first, religious and moral; second, literary; third, domestic; and fourth, ornamental. But to obtain these ends, the physical and mental powers must be developed and strengthened in due order and proportion. Great care has been bestowed on health, and but one death of a pupil, and that a sudden one from organic affection of the heart, has occurred. The Rensselaer Institute is an excellent institution under the charge of Professor Eaton. Many young men are here fitted for the profession, of civil engineering. The system of teaching is thorough and practical. The city of Troy is regularly laid out, on a plan similar to that of Philadelphia. The principal street is River-street, which’ extends along the Hudson the whole length of the city, and is ornamented with many splendid and spacious stores. It is the theatre of a very extensive business. The remaining portion of the place generally exhibits the quiet aspect of the country. Many of the buildings, both public and private, are spacious and elegant. The courthouse, built of Sing Sing marble, is a splendid edifice, after the Grecian model. St. Paul’s church is a noble Gothic edifice, erected at an expense of about 50,000 dollars. There are in Troy sixteen places of public worship—viz, 4 Presbyterian, 3 Episcopal, 2 Methodist, 1 Scotch Presbyterian, 2 Baptist, 1 Catholic, 2 African, and 1 Friends meeting-houses. On the Wynant and Poestens kills, which here empty into the Hudson, are several extensive manufacturing establishments. The city is abundantly supplied with excellent water from the neighboring hills. Hydrants are placed at the corners of the streets with hose attached, which in case of fire, as the natural head of the water is 75 feet above the city level, supersedes the use of fire-engines. Troy is indebted in a great measure for its prosperity to its advantageous situation, and the enterprise and industry of her inhabitants. She has extensively availed herself of the facilities afforded by the river and the Erie and Champlain canals. The tides of the Hudson frequently ascend to a dam thrown across the river about a mile and a half above the centre of the city. By means of a lock, sloop navigation is thus afforded to the village of Waterford. Within the last few years Troy has increased rapidly in wealth and population. In 1820 her population was 5,268; in 1830, 11,566; in 1850, 28,785. The Rensselaer and Saratoga railroad, 24 miles to Ballston Spa, crosses the Hudson at this place by a bridge 1,600 feet in length. Rensselaerwyck, or the manor of Rensselaer, includes a very extensive tract on both sides of the Hudson, in nearly the centre of which is the city of Albany. It is 24 miles wide on the river, and about 42 miles long, east and west. It includes in its area all of Rensselaer county, excepting the towns of Schaghticoke, Hoosick, and Pittstown, and the greater part of Albany county. The title to this patent is derived from several successive grants by the government of Holland, dating as far back as 1641, when the first grant was made to Killian Van Rensselaer, who had purchased the native right to the soil, under conditions stipulated by the government of Holland. “When this country changed masters, passing from the Dutch to the English, again for a short time to the Dutch, and finally again to the English, some controversies arose about indemnities, but the private right of the original proprietor of the colony of Rensselaerwyck was never questioned. And on the 4th of March, 1685, the whole was confirmed by letters patent, under the great seal of the province of New York, by Thomas Dongau, lieutenant-governor of the same. The original design of the Dutch government extended only to the founding of colonies in this country by citizens of Holland, who should amicably acquire the Indian title to the lands; and the founder of a colony was therefore styled its patroon by the bill of privileges and the deed of conveyance, the latter of which was only granted when the native right bad been ac- quired by purchase.” A great portion of the land is permanently leased, and rent annually paid in the products of the soil to the patroon at Albany. Lansingburg was incorporated in 1801. It is beautifully situated on the Hudson, 3 miles N. of Troy, 9 N. from Albany, and 1 S. from Waterford. Formerly it was called the “New City,” and the ra- pidity of its growth at that time excited wonder. The village is regularly laid out with capacious streets in squares of 400 by 260 feet, and is a place of considerable manufacturing and commercial business. There are here 2 Presbyterian, 2 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Episcopal, and 1 Universalist church, an academy in high repute, 2 printing offices, a bank, many mercantile stores, &c., and about 400 houses. Three of the sprouts of the Mohawk enter the Hudson near the village, and the Cahoes Falls are often distinctly heard in the still- ness of the night. The annexed engraving is from a view taken near the bridge a short distance above the village, connecting it with Waterford. In the extreme distance on the right, the bridge over the Hudson, at Troy, is visible. Lansingburg was organized as a village in 1771, and is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, chartered village in the stale.” The village of Greenbush, opposite Albany, contains upwards of 100 dwellings. During the last war with Great Britain, the United states cantonment was erected here about 2 miles eastward of Albany. The buildings are now in a ruinous condition. Scaghticoke Point is a large manufacturing village containing upwards of 150 dwellings, 13 miles NE. Hoosick Falls, 24 miles NE. of Troy, is a manufacturing village containing about 80 dwellings. Northwestern view of Lansingburg. (Historical Collections of the State of New York, Past and Present, John Barber, Clark Albien & Co. 1851)

You are the 724th Visitor to this USGenNet Safe-Site™ Since July 20, 2000.