A Brief Outline of
the History of
PETERSBURGH, N.Y.
(through 1991)
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Our story begins with the birth of the land where Petersburgh now is situated. The “Taconic Orogeny” or the creation of the Taconic Mountain Range began some 450 million years ago at a time when the first fish began to appear in the seas and land plants and animals were still millions of years in the future.
Over the millennia these once massive mountains slowly eroded. Then about ten thousand years ago the last ice age smoothed them off to their current contours and produced the stream and river system we know today.
Sometime around 3,000 B.C. the first primitive people entered what is now the Little Hoosick Valley. While no major or permanent Indian settlements have been documented in this area we do know that the path of the Hoosick River provided a major highway for these early people between the Atlantic Coast and the interior regions of what is now New York State.
In 1631 Kiliaen van Rensselaer received title to a vast spread of land which included most of what is today Rensselaer County. For many years afterwards this land remained wild and vacant. The earliest European settlers in Petersburgh appear to have arrived sometime during the 1730’s. A petition in 1764 to the Governor of New York from several of these pioneers reveals that at that time they had been on their land for over 30 years.
These colonists were certainly of Dutch stock. As early as the late 1600’s Dutch trappers and later farmers had been pushing up the Hoosick River Valley. By 1740 a thriving settlement, commonly known as “Dutch Hoosic”, had been established at the juncture of the Hoosick and Little Hoosick Rivers (now North Petersburgh). The rich bottomlands that had been created by these two rivers were turned into productive farms. Indeed we have indications that much of this land was treeless at the time the settlers arrived and was thus only waiting for cultivation.
Nevertheless, times were hard. Continuous wars with the French and the Indians resulted in much destruction and bloodshed. On several occasions the primitive farms along the Hoosick and Little Hoosick were burned out and their inhabitants killed or dragged off as slaves to Canada. In 1747 the entire settlement of Dutch Hoosick was sacked and burned by French troops. Then in 1754 the rebuilt settlement was once again put to the torch by marauding Indians.
Finally, with the end of the last French & Indian War in 1763, life returned to normal, and by 1767 the area around Dutch Hoosick was once again filled with farmsteads. Some settlers had ventured up the Little Hoosick, including one “Pietrus Simmon” the farm master of the Patroon van Rensselaer. He established a farm on “… both sides of the Cleyne Hosick Creek” near where the Berlin Cemetery is now located.
At about this time a few settlers from New England began to push into the valley. By the time of the American Revolution this area, while still thinly populated, was nevertheless very agitated by the events of the day. Many of the original Dutch inhabitants retained their loyalty to the British Crown while the New Englanders seemed more disposed towards the rebellion. Families like the “Defoes” left to serve the King, never to return. Only the corruption of their name “Dayfoot” is left to mark their contribution to the settlement of the Little Hoosic.
As the Revolution was winding down the van Rensselaers decided to make a concerted effort to attract settlers to their lands. Since the coastal regions of Rhode Island and Connecticut were overpopulated and teeming with unemployed young men recently discharged from service in the Continental Army, the van Rensselaers sent out glowing advertisements to induce these people to settle in the Little Hoosic Valley.
The advertisements worked! Before long a flood of people with names like Hewitt, Church, Moon, Allen, Weaver, Lewis and Maxon came rushing in. They procured their leases and began to clear and work the land. However, it was not easy going for these young New Englanders. The first few winters were hard and they found themselves relying for help from the already established Dutch settlers.
Indeed, the van Rensselaer’s farm master, ‘Pietrus’ or Peter Simmon was so helpful that when in 1791 the northern part of Stephentown was broken off to form a new town, it was named after him.
On March 18, 1791 the New York State Legislature passed an act that as of April 4 of that year “… a distinct and separate town by the name of Petersburgh…” would be established. The original town boundaries included not only the present Petersburgh, but also much of what is today Berlin and Grafton. Indeed it is somewhat ironic that the man after whom Petersburgh was named actually lived in what is today the Town of Berlin.
The early years of the 19th Century saw Petersburgh grow into a boom town. Agriculture provided the major means of support for the town’s growing population, and the Little Hoosick and its many tributaries provided an abundant source of cheap energy.
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© Town of Petersburgh, NY