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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Schenectady County, New York.
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This area of the river valley was historically occupied by the Mohawk people, the easternmost of the Five Nations comprising the Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee. They cultivated maize fields in the flats along the Mohawk River and had villages in the hills.
European settlement started in the present-day county by Dutch colonists in the 17th century; the village of Schenectady was founded in 1661. The fur traders in Albany kept a monopoly and prohibited settlers in Schenectady from the trade; those residents mostly became farmers. Other areas of the county were also developed for farming. The English enforced the Albany monopoly on the fur trade when they took over the New Netherland colony in 1664.
Major European immigration began in the mid-19th century, with the arrival of Irish refugees from the Great Famine. More immigrants were attracted to the city for its industrial jobs, including those from Italy and Poland. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city became an industrial powerhouse and center of innovation, the headquarters of General Electric and other national corporations.
Adjacent Counties
Settlements, Towns & Hamlets
- Alplaus
- Aqueduct
- Delanson
- Duane Lake
- Duanesburg
- East Glenville
- Glenville
- Mariaville Lake
- Niskayuna
- Princetown
- Quaker Street
- Rotterdam
- Schenectady (County Seat)
- Scotia
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