Fulton County History
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A Center for Tanning and Dressing Leather
Fulton County, named after Robert Fulton, the illustrious inventor of the steamboat, was created by an act of the Legislature, April 18, 1838. The county contains 544 square miles of rolling land, the highest elevation being Pinnacle Mountain, 2,514 feet above sea level. In the northern corner are also many small lakes, possessing those picturesque features characterizing the wilderness region of New York.
Not being situated on a stream suitable to be used as a means of travel, the county was not Native American habitation. The earliest grant for settlers was a royal grant including lands now in Fulton County, the Kingsborough Patent grant in 1753. Its value was greatly increased by Sir William Johnson’s settlements on it at Johnstown.
Sir William Johnson began the building of the first settlement of significance in the county. He induced families to come and settle on the unoccupied lands around Johnstown, including six hundred Scotch Highlanders who left their native land to settle in the new county of Tryon in 1773.
The American Revolution began with the Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. The war brought two raids into what is now Fulton County. One resulted in the Battle of Johnstown, said to be the last of the American Revolution, which took place October 25, 1781, six days after the surrender of Cornwalis at Yorktown. Following the war, New England settlers bought and settled lands mostly in the eastern and northeastern parts of the county and especially in and around what is now Gloversville.
The name of the large county with Johnstown as its county seat remained Tryon until April 2, 1784. Then the state Legislature changed it to Montgomery in honor of General Richard Montgomery, killed in the storming of Quebec in 1776. In 1788, the state declared the Old Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768 with the Indians null and void. Johnstown then became the county seat of a vast area. Ontario County was cut in 1789 and from then on, the division of the state into counties proceeded rapidly, with Hamilton, removed last from Montgomery in 1816, from then until 1838, Montgomery consisted of what is now that county and Fulton.
During the rapid settlement of the lands of the county following the Revolution, great progress was made in every endeavor. Johnstown was especially favored by the opening of the state road built through the village in 1806. This brought a steady stream of people from the east in many conveyances through Johnstown stimulating business. The Erie Canal was opened for business in 1825 and the Utica and Schenectady Railroad in 1836, both offering a better and cheaper way of transportation over the state road through Johnstown. The county seat was isolated from travel and could only be reached by poor roads. Fonda, on the canal and railroad, was more central for county business, and business owners pushed for the county seat to be changed to Fonda from Johnstown. Dissatisfaction of people living in the northern part of the county was so great that the new County of Fulton was set up on April 18, 1838, and Johnstown again became a county seat, and the same county buildings restored to use.
Fulton County has been a center for tanning and dressing leather and the manufacture of gloves and mittens for over one hundred and fifty years. Many of the New England settlers were makers of tinware and continued it after they relocated. Money was scarce and sometimes they bartered other merchandise. Among the articles a few deerskin were received. The residents soon learned how to turn the deerskins into gloves. For many years, gloves and mittens were made in the home. Finally, factories were built to carry out the work. It is from these small beginnings that the great glove industry of the community has come. Alongside of the glove industry, many other industries flourished and continue: the making of gelatin, records, freezer cabinets, wool blankets, plastic bags, leather novelties, children’s leather shoes, dies and machinery, awnings, boat tops, knit goods, plastic toys and others.