Brief History of the Town of New Baltimore
Dean’s Mill about the turn of the 20th
century - there were grist mills, saw mills, and even a paper mill in
New Baltimore - prominent examples besides Dean’s were Van Bergen’s on
the Coxsackie Creek, the Powell mill on the Potic Creek, and the
Croswell paper mill on the Hannacroix.
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New
Baltimore was carved from the Town of Coxsackie on March 15, 1811 by an
act of
the New York State Legislature. Originally
part of the homeland of the
Mahican Indians, the Town’s
boundaries were within the patents granted by the Dutch and English
governments
to early settlers such as Barent P. Coeymans and Mathias Houghtaling.
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Badgley
store and post office
in Grapeville - turn of 20th century - Charles Badgley was Grapeville
Postmaster - Building burned 1910.
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Original
settlement dates from at least 1713. Even
before formal creation of the Town,
the area had thriving mills and
farms from the hamlet on the Hudson to what became the settlements of
Medway,
Grapeville, Stanton Hill, Staco, and their surroundings.
Farming continued to grow in subsequent
years
and continues on a smaller scale today. By 1875, there were 248 farms
with 33,
882 acres under cultivation. By the
period between World Wars I and II, the Town was second in the County
behind in
Cairo in acreage devoted to fruit growing and had the largest
individual
orchards.
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Baldwin shipyard about the turn of the 20 century - built
about 150 vessels from the mid-1800s through the
beginning of the 20th century - New Baltimore had numerous
riverside businesses over the years, including Hudson
River trades, ice houses, general stores, hotels, and at
least 2 short-lived newspapers.
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New Baltimore has been closely associated economically with the Hudson.
The natural little bay on the River=s west shore
made a ready spot for handling cargo and passengers, with farmers and millers
forming long lines to unload their goods. Shipbuilding
and repair reached its peak in the mid-nineteenth century
when the Baldwin family took charge and built over 150 barges,
tugboats, ferries, and other craft. Because of
business demands, the hamlet and other parts of Town had hotels and
stores of various types, which lasted well into this century.
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the middle of
the
1800s to the advent of powered refrigeration, ice harvesting became a
prominent
local business, with as many as nine ice houses in Town at one
time.Besides
tending their farms,
mills, and maritime businesses, the settlers began to create the
institutions
that make up a town. |
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Churches. Religion formed an
important part of the
Town’s early life. Methodist ministers
traveled upriver in the late 1700s to establish religion on the
Coeymans
Patent. New Baltimore was part of their
circuit. Many settlers in the late 1780s
were Quakers. They had migrated from
Rhode Island and Long Island to Westchester County and up the Hudson in
search
of good farmland, centered at first in the Stanton Hill area. The Medway Congregational Christian Church
was established in 1807, followed by the Grapeville Baptist Church, the
New
Baltimore Reformed Church, the Medway Methodist Church, First Baptist
Church of
New Baltimore, and most recently, the Grace Covenant Church.
Schools. In 1812, the New
York State Legislature
provided for establishing a system of common schools throughout the
State. Quickly taking the
initiative, the newly
organized New Baltimore Commissioners of Common Schools met and divided
the
Town into 9 school districts. By 1866,
the Town’s districts numbered 17. As the
1920s dawned, many rural school districts were facing shrinking
enrollments and
tax bases and pressure increased for the consolidations that the State
had been
promoting for some years. Thus, the
Town’s schools started to disappear into surrounding districts, with
the last
going in 1963.
Fire
Companies. In 1896, property belonging
to a local tailor
burned in the hamlet. As a result,
several prominent businessmen organized the Cornell Hook and Ladder
Company,
named in honor of a primary benefactor of the Company.
As the population grew toward the
western
part of Town, local citizens were motivated to establish another
company.
Previously relying on Greenville or Coxsackie for fire coverage, they
established
the Medway-Grapeville Fire Company, which was formally incorporated in
1947.
The
Town has never been isolated from the rest of the world, with River
traffic and
ten New York Central trains stopping at New Baltimore Station daily in
1910. However, the opening of Route 9W
may have been the pivotal point in Town history. A
result of the coming of the automobile age
and the first modern highway built to link Albany to the south, this
road made
it easier to commute. So today, New
Baltimore with its rich history is primarily a residence for those who
still
farm and run local businesses, retirees, and people who work in places
like
Albany, Selkirk, and other parts of Greene County.
Read History of Town Supervisors
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