Saratoga County

Saratoga County was taken from Albany in 1791; greatest length N. and 5. 47, and greatest breadth E. and W. 30 miles. Centrally distant from Albany 36 miles. "Its name is supposed to be a corruption of the Indian word Sah-rah-ka, or the 'side hill.' The greater part of the lands in this tract were originally granted by the English crown to a company of 13 individuals, by the title of the patent of Kayaderosseras. Smaller portions were included in other patents.

Thus Van Schaick's, of an earlier date, included the town of Water- ford and adjacent country. The Saratoga patent embraced six miles square on the Hudson river north of Van Schaick's; and the apple patent, located on the Mohawk, extended 'three miles back into the woods,' towards Ballston Lake. The first recorded grant of lands in
the Kaynderosseras patent was made in August, 1702. A good portion of the land is now held under a rent charge of from 15 to 20 cents an acre, derived originally from the above patent. Settlements were made in 1715 under that patent, and some probably earlier, along the Hudson, upon the patents of Van Schaick and Saratoga;
but there was then none north of Fish creek, now Schuylersville, and few between that and the Mohawk. Until the conquest of Canada by the English, settlements were slowly made. After this, although rapidly formed, they were confined some years to the banks of the Hudson and Mohawk."

The surface of the county presents a broad diversity, having the Kayaderosseras and Palmertown mountains in the northwest, and in the southeast, sandy plains, generally level, and along the Hudson and some of the smaller streams, extensive tracts of rich alluvion. There are several small lakes, the largest of which are Saratoga, Ballston, or the Long Lake, Round Lake, Owl Pond, & c. This county is rich in historical incidents.