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Johnstown, New York

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Johnstown, Pennsylvania

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A city and the county-seat of Fulton county, New York, U.S.A., on Cayadutta Creek, about 4 m. N. of the Mohawk river and about 48 m. N.W. of Albany. Pop. (1890), 776 8; (1900), 10,130 (1653 foreign-born); (1905, state census), 9765; (1910) 10,447. It is served by the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville railroad, and by an electric line to Schenectady. The city has a Federal building, a Y.M.C.A. building, a city hall, and a Carnegie library (1902). The most interesting building is Johnson Hall, a fine old baronial mansion, built by Sir William Johnson in 1762 and his home until his death; his grave is just outside the present St John's episcopal church. Originally the hall was flanked by two stone forts, one of which is still standing. In 1907 the hall was bought by the state and was placed in the custody of the Johnstown Historical Society, which maintains a museum here. In the hall Johnson established in 1766 a Masonic lodge, one of the oldest in the United States. Other buildings of historical interest are the Drumm House and the Fulton county court house, built by Sir William Johnson in 1763 and 1772 respectively, and the gaol (1772), at first used for all New York west of Schenectady county, and during the War of Independence as a civil and a military prison. The court house is said to be the oldest in the United States. Three miles south of the city is the Butler House, built in 1742 by Colonel John Butler (d. 1 794), a prominent Tory leader during the War of Independence. A free school, said to have been the first in New York state, was established at Johnstown by Sir William Johnson in 1764. The city is (after Gloversville, 3 m. distant) the principal glove-making centre in the United States, the product being valued at $2,581,274 in 1905 and being 14.6% of the total value of this industry in the United States. The manufacture of gloves in commercial quantities was introduced into the United States and Johnstown in 1809 by Talmadge Edwards, who was buried there in the colonial cemetery. The value of the total factory product in 1905 was $4,543,272 (a decrease of 11.3% since 1900). Johnstown was settled about 1760 by a colony of Scots brought to America by Sir William Johnson, within whose extensive grant it was situated, and in whose honour, in 1771, it was named. A number of important conferences between the colonial authorities and the Iroquois Indians were held here, and on the 28th of October 1781, during the War of Independence, Colonel Marinus Willett (1740-1830) defeated here a force of British and Indians, whose leader, Walter Butler, a son of Colonel John Butler, and, with him, a participant in the Wyoming massacres, was mortally wounded near West Canada creek during the pursuit. Johnstown was incorporated as a village in 1808, and was chartered as a city in 1895.