Altamont, New York

, Welcome to Altamont , The Village of Altamont and its immediate surroundings were once part of a tract of land deeded in 1630 by the Dutch West India Company to Killian Van Rensselaer (c. 1586-1643),a wealthy 17th century Dutch diamond and pearl merchant from Amsterdam. Established as a patroonship, the tract encompassed hundreds of square miles on both sides of the Hudson River, both south and west of Albany. Settlers needed the Patroon's consent to build and farm, and were required to pay rent, either in money or goods, for the leased land., In April, 1712 a small group of Palatine immigrants ventured into the wilderness from Albany, their destination being the farm lands of the Schoharie Valley. The distant mountains, upon closer view, became the cliffs of a geological formation, later termed the Helderberg Escarpment. The trail followed by the Palatines is described in Judge John Brown's 1823 pamphlet "A Brief Sketch of the First Settlement of the County of Schoharie by the Germans” and is now called "Main Street” in the Village of Altamont. , In the years before the War of the Revolution, ancestors of local families began to settle in the area surrounding what would eventually become the Village of Altamont. Frederick Crounse (1714-1777) and his wife Elizabeth (1716-1796), exhausted from their travels of many months from Germany, settled south of the village sometime after 1754. Their sons Frederick and Philip also developed farms south of the village. Around 1745, Jurrian Severson settled near what is now the intersection of Brandle Road and Main Street. Jacob Van Aernam (1732-1813) also settled on a farm south of the village. The early settlers put aside whatever trades or occupations they may have had in the Old World and became farmers, establishing themselves in the wilderness. Most spoke German or Dutch; few were able to read and write. They cleared the land and hewed out an existence. There were no formal schools for the children and no doctors. If you got sick, you got better by using whatever natural remedies you could find, or you died. It was a tough existence, but they were independent, yet reliant on neighbors and their God., As more settlers arrived, trails became tracks, and tracks became roads. Commercial traffic grew between markets in Albany and Schenectady. Jurrian Severson's grandson George (1766-1813) opened the Wayside Tavern ca.1785, at what is today the corner of Helderberg Avenue and Main Street. The Tavern was approximately a day's ride from both Albany and the settlements in the Schoharie Valley, and it became a stagecoach stop., Around 1800, Albany merchant Benjamin Knower acquired land and built a hat factory near an inn run by Jacob Aker, east of the current Gun Club Road. Benjamin also built a home, and soon others built in the area around the Knower place. Benjamin Knower died in 1839, and in his honor, his neighbors named the little settlement of homes and businesses Knowersville., During the 1850s the newly formed Albany and Susquehanna Railroad Company proposed a new southwesterly route from Albany to Binghamton, including land west of the hamlet of Knowersville. The first train came through Knowersville 16 September 1863, jumpstarting development and initiating the biggest building boom in our Village's history. The new railway offered regular commercial and passenger service to Albany, and a faster means to move products to multiple markets, as well as transportation for building materials and other supplies., Population grew. New structures were built near the train station, beginning in 1864. A new, larger school house was built on School Street in 1879. On 26 July 1884, David Crowe published the first edition of the Knowersville Enterprise. On 30 April 1886, fire destroyed several businesses and residences on Church Street. The size and power of the fire overwhelmed the community's ability to contain it. The Great Fire clarified the obvious - the growing hamlet needed to provide security for its citizens, in the form of a consistent water source, and to provide fire protection. To pay for such services, the hamlet needed to incorporate, and gain the authority to levy taxes. A committee was constituted to review existing laws, survey the land, and to do the groundwork for incorporation. On 18 October 1890, by a vote of 102 to 3, Altamont became an incorporated Village. A month later, on 17 November, voters unanimously elected the administrative office village's first administrative officers, with local attorney Hiram Griggs elected the first President of Altamont. Prior to incorporation, a group of residents petitioned the Postmaster General to change the hamlet's name from Knowersville. Mail for Knowersville was too often mistakenly routed to Knowlesville in Orleans County, New York, resulting in delays and inconvenience. In late August, 1887, the Enterprise reported that effective 1 October 1887, "Altamont” would be the hamlet's new name. Altamount, or"high mountain" was derived from High Point, a picnic spot on the Helderberg escarpment overlooking the village. , The Museum In The Streets® project was produced by James M. Gaughan, Mayor, 2005-2017,