History of Town of Northumberland

(Abstracted from Saratoga County Communities and Historic Perspective prepared by the Saratoga County Planning Board in 1980.)

The Town of Northumberland was created in 1798, shortly after the formation of Saratoga County in 1791. Taken from the town of Saratoga, Northumberland lies in the northeast portion of Saratoga County, bounded on the east by the Hudson River.

Early settlers found fertile land for farming, forests for timber and several streams for waterpower. There were several clusters of settlement in the township before the American Revolution. Hugh Munro built a home and sawmill on the Snook Kill; John Laing settled in Palmertown about 1773, where he had a grist and sawmill. Laing and a partner, Peter Johnston, acquired much land following the Revolution and established a large lumber industry, which prospered until the War of 1812 when an embargo prevented the sale of their timber to Great Britain. Munro, a Loyalist, took down his sawmill and buried it before departing for Canada during the Revolution. He never returned and General Peter Gansevoort purchased his lands about 1783-84 under the state’s Act of Confiscation.

Gansevoort built saw, grist, woolen and flax mills on the Snook Kill and a square, two-story frame house, known as the Little Yellow House. In 1798 Herman Gansevoort, son of the general, took over his father’s lumber business. Herman was elected town clerk in 1803 and town supervisor in 1807. Before 1800 Herman probably built the Gansevoort Mansion, now owned by the Masonic Lodge. It was renovated in 1835 and acquired by Maria Gansevoort Melville in 1862, when her brother Herman died. Maria is the mother of noted author Herman Melville, who was a frequent visitor to this house.

Gansevoort developed a variety of enterprises in the nineteenth century, including three blacksmitheries, two wheel shops, shoe shop, general store and stone cutting shop. The Rensselaer, Saratoga and Whitehall Railroad ran through Gansevoort, which led to the erection of the Empire Hotel, and a freight house, depot and post office. The main industry, however, was agriculture, especially dairy farming. In the early 1900’s the Borden Milk Co. was formed. This was later taken over by a local dairyman’s league.

The Dutch Reformed Church of Gansevoort and the United Methodist Church of Gansevoort were both established around 1839.

Settlement began in earnest after the Revolution. Nicholas Palmer and his family arrived in 1796 and built their home and businesses on the Snook Kill between Gansevoort and Fortsville. The area became known as Palmer’s Ridge. The Palmer House, home of John Palmer, was the site of town meetings until 1818 when the Town of Wilton was established from the Town of Northumberland. Town meetings were often held in the homes of the town supervisor and the town clerk. They were also held in the Fake Tavern in Bacon Hill for many years.

Brownsville, named for Jonathan Brown, was located between Bacon Hill and Gansevoort, and included about 30 families, a cobbler’s shop, store and schoolhouse, in addition to Brown’s mill on Deer Creek.

With the opening of the Champlain Canal in 1823, the hamlet of Northumberland became a major shipping point for agricultural and forest products, as well as for ice. Jesse Billings, Jr. of Bacon Hill promoted the ice industry. He built and sold canal boats for himself and others and developed a thriving business harvesting and storing ice in the winter months and shipping it to New York City in the summer months. Billings also had a general store and a bank in Northumberland and docks along the canal which were used to ship ice and potatoes and to receive coal and supplies.

For more history on this area consult:
History of Saratoga County New York by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, 1878, PP 401-413.
Reminiscences of Bacon Hill and Vicinity by Mrs. J. B. Vanderwerker, 1928.
Town of Northumberland Historian, Georgia Ball, c/o Northumberland Town Hall, Gansevoort NY 12831.

Bacon Hill area farms included on the Bacon Hill Trailway:
Clinton Barber Dairy Farm
Bourret Brothers Dairy Farm
Percy Davis Horse Farm
Thomas Foster Sheep and Small Fruit Farm
Edgar King Family Dairy Farm
Lawrence Peck Family Dairy Farm
William Peck Family Dairy Farm
George Peters Horse Farm
Lyle Purinton Dairy Farm
Thomas Poultry Farm
Byron Winney Blueberry Farm