Worcester

Worcester. . , The Town of Worcester (pronounced wUS-ter) is at the divide between the Hudson and Susquehanna watersheds. It was a Mohawk, Indian hunting ground when the Servos family, Palatine Germans, began settlement, perhaos by 1740. There were skirmishes along the Charlotte River between American rebels and bands of soldiers, Tories and Iroquois under Chief Joseph Brant, 1774-1780. Major settlement of the Schohanna Valley, where this marker’s located, was made by Silas Crippen and other Revolutionary veterans from New England and the Hudson Valley, 1787-1788. John Champion settled East Worcester in 1788. The hamlet of Worcester grew up with the arrival of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad during the Civil War. The township, incorporated in 1797 is named after Worcester County, Massahusetts, previous home of many settlers., The area, formerly known for the production of hops, lumber and potatoes, has also been a prosperous dairy region. The population is about 2,000. Prominent area residents have included Abram and Eliza Garfield, parents of the nation's twentieth president; Timothy Murphy, frontier scout and hero of the Battle of Saratoga; Civil War generals Delevan Bates, Napoleon McLaughlen and Abner Doubleday; Seth Flint, General Grant's bugler and witness to Lee's surrender at Appomattox; Lewis Waterman of Decatur, inventor of the fountain pen; Andrew S. Draper, the state's first Education Commissioner; Sherburn M. Becker, the “Boy Mayor” of Milwaukee; and Jim Konstanty, famous World Series pitcher with the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies "Whiz Kids.", A project of the Worcester Historical Society, Inc. in memory of Catherine O. Clark, Display by Empire Signs and Graphics