Welcome To Worcester

Welcome To Worcester. . , The Town of Worcester (pronounced WUS-ter) occupies 47 square miles in the southeastern corner of Otsego County, New York, in the divide between the Hudson and Susquehanna watersheds. It was a Mohawk Indian hunting ground when Palatines began settlement, perhaps by 1740. There were skirmishes along the Charlotte River between American rebels and bands of Redcoats, Tories and Iroquois under Chief Joseph Brant, 1774-1780., Major settlement of the Schohanna Valley, where this marker is located, was made by Silas Crippen and other Revolutionary veterans from New England and the Hudson Valley, 1787-1788. John Champion settled near East Worcester in 1788., The hamlet of Worcester grew with the arrival of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad during the Civil War. The township, incorporated in 1797, is named after Worcester County, Massachusetts, where many of the settlers came from., 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 and Napoleon McLaughlen; 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; Neila Goodelle, nationally-acclaimed radio and film star; and Jim Konstanty, famous World Series pitcher with the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies "Whiz Kids."