Albany County History
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History
Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage northward ended near Albany, where the river that bears his name became impassible for his ship. His Dutch sponsors built Fort Nassau on Westerlo Island in 1614, serving as an administrative outpost for the fur trading ventures of the Dutch West India Company in Manhattan.
When the first Europeans arrived, Native American settlements in Albany County would have been overnight camps or stopover points while traveling to other destinations, since battles between the Iroquois and Algonkians had discouraged settlement in the area.
Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage northward ended near Albany, where the river that bears his name became impassible for his ship. His Dutch sponsors built Fort Nassau on Westerlo Island in 1614, serving as an administrative outpost for the fur trading ventures of the Dutch West India Company in Manhattan. Ice and floods damaged this first fort, which was first relocated around 1615 to land at the mouth of the Normans Kill, then replaced by the larger Fort Orange further north in 1623. Begun as an outpost of Manhattan, Fort Orange was to become a permanent settlement, with Dutch and French Huguenot families among its first inhabitants.
The Dutch encouraged settlement through the manor system, with tenant farmers paying rent to the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, purchased by the Van Rensselaer family in 1629 and covering most of what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties. The West India Company formally established the village of Beverwijck in 1652, independent of the Manor. Twelve years later, the English took possession of the entire colony, renaming the town “Albany.”
Albany County was the northernmost and least developed of the ten original counties created within the Colony of New York on November 1, 1683. Undefined on the north and west, its eastern portion included much of Vermont and the southern area reached Dutchess and Ulster Counties. In 1772, Albany County was divided into thirds, with the northwest portion named Tryon County (later Montgomery) and the northeast area called Charlotte (renamed Washington.) During the next three decades, six new counties would be created from Albany County’s much-reduced territory, the last, Schenectady County, in 1808.
In 1686 Governor Thomas Dongan granted a charter to the City of Albany. Albany County’s other cities were chartered late in the nineteenth century. Soon after, settlers had spread throughout the County, and most of the present County towns were established, beginning with Watervliet in 1788.
The first commercial enterprise in Albany County was the fur trade, but with the founding of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, agriculture became the leading economic activity, centered on wheat for local consumption and export to New York City. Sheep and dairy farming became important after the construction of the Erie Canal in the 1820’s and the railroads in the 1830’s and 40’s. These events enabled wheat farmers in the western part of the State and Nation to compete with those in the east, and local farmers turned to more profitable ventures in dairy and cattle-raising. The waterways, railroads and highways of Albany County have been the backbone of its success, first in trading, then in manufacturing, and finally in government, banking and retail commerce. Early fur trade centered in Albany because the Hudson facilitated the transport of fur to Manhattan. The water-based mills of the County’s early industrial years flourished along County rivers and streams, with the Erie Canal bringing raw materials east, and finished products and immigrants west. In the twentieth century, truck transport encouraged the spread of homes, manufacturing, and commerce to suburban areas, increased dramatically by the building of interstate highways.
For over 200 years, Albany has been New York’s capital. The County is also a center for banking, retail, non-profit organizations, railroads, and international trade via the port of Albany. The City of Albany is the County seat and largest community, followed by the suburban towns of Colonie, Guilderland, and Bethlehem. Seven other towns and two small cities complete the picture of the county that lies at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers.
Adapted from the Albany County Land use and Development Plan