Book Description

Excerpt from Troy's One Hundred Years: 1789 1889 In 1786, the site of the city of Troy was the seat of five or more farms, crossed by roads intersecting a highway running north and south, near the river. At that time Albany, named a city in 1686, Poughkeepsie, founded in 1735, Lansingburgh, laid out in 1771, and Hudson, incorporated in 1785, were all comparatively populous places. When three years later the small body of settlers at Troy publicly advertised their confidence of its becoming "at no very distant period as famous for its trade and navigation as many of the first towns," this boldly advanced expectation may have been regarded by the inhabitants of the older settlements on the Hudson as highly presumptuous and improbable of realization. However, in a short time creditable evidences of the enterprise and growth of the place began to be noted by observant travelers. One, seeing the advantageous situation of the village at the head of navigation, declared that it would not only be "a serious thorn in the side of New City (Lansingburgh), but in the issue a fatal rival." Another, cognizant of the success attending the business ventures of its emulous merchants, remarked that those of Albany viewed "this growing prosperity of their neighbors with an evil eye," and considered it as "an encroachment upon their native rights." Another, discovering in 1807 the extensive trade which "Troy had opened with the new settlements to the northward, through the states of New York and Vermont, as far as Canada," observed that "in another twenty years it promises to rival the old established city of Albany." These initial forecasts of the "ultimate ascendancy" of Troy became more significant as the village gradually expanded its area and enlarged its trade. The public spirit and local undertakings of its people began to be commended as exemplary and highly laudable. A distinguished metropolitan journalist, visiting the city in 1835, wrote: "Troy has been a pattern for all other places in respect to its industry and enterprise. Lansingburgh, four miles above, had attained almost to its present size when the first building was erected in Troy, and Albany, six miles below, had been in existence one hundred and eighty years. And yet Troy, far outstripping the former in a very short time, is now rapidly advancing on the latter." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.