HISTORY. This county was one of the first settled in the state. Previous to the year 1620 several Dutch traders established themselves here, to traffic with the Indians for furs.

The first grant of lands was made in 1661, to Arendt Van Corlaer and others, on condition that they purchased the soil from the natives. The deed was obtained in 1672, and signed by four Mohawk chiefs. It comprised a part of the present city of Schenectady.

In November, 1665, Governor Nichols granted to Mr. Alexander Lindsay Glen, a Scotch gentleman of ancient and noble descent, a tract lying on the Mohawk, and comprising most of the present town of Glenville. Mr. Glen resided for a number of years in Albany and Schenectady, and in 1690 removed to his patent, where, in 1713, he erected a country seat, which he named Scotia, and which is still standing.

According to tradition, Neskayuna was settled in 1640. A patent for land in this town was granted to Harnon Vedder, in 1664.

On the eighth of February, 1690, the village of Schenectady, then containing sixty-three houses and a church, was burned, and sixty-three of its inhabitants murdered, twenty-seven carried captive, and others perished, from the severity of the season, in the attempt to escape.

The marauders who thus rushed upon the sleeping and defenceless inhabitants, like wolves upon the sheep fold, were a party of 200 Frenchmen and about fifty Indians, from Canada, who had nearly perished from hunger and cold in their murderous expedition.

Having plundered and destroyed the village, they commenced their return, but were pursued by the Albany militia and the Indians friendly to the English, and twenty-five of their number killed.

In 1748, the Canadian Indians made another hostile incursion into the county, and killed a Mr. Daniel Toll, who had gone about three miles from Schenectady, in search of some stray horses. On receiving intelligence of his murder, about sixty young men, from Schenectady, started in quest of the enemy. They were soon surprised by a party of Indians in ambush, and more than half their number were killed. The remainder succeeded in reaching a house near by, where they kept the enemy at bay, till the Schenectady militia came to their aid, when the Indians fled and returned to Canada. Thirty-two young men, of the best families of Schenectady, fell in this affray.

The county was, with few exceptions, settled by the Dutch, and remained a part of Albany county until 1809.

CITIES AND VILLAGES. SCHENECTADY city, the seat of justice for the county, is situated on the south branch of the Mohawk river, fifteen miles northwest of Albany. As has been already stated, it was founded at a very early period.

Previous to the construction of the Erie canal, it was a place of very considerable business, as goods intended for the western trade were shipped upon the Mohawk at this place. After the completion of the canal, most of this trade was transferred to Albany; but the numerous railroads which now center here, have given it a new impulse, and its business and population have materially increased within a few years past.

The city has some manufactories-the principal are flour, paper, cotton goods, iron, leather, tobacco, malt liquors, &c. Population 6555.

Union College, which is located here, was founded in 1795, and received its name from the fact that its founders were members of different religious denominations. It has a corps of eleven professors, and three principal edifices, two of brick and one of stone. Its apparatus is very complete, and its library large and valuable. It is amply endowed, and has property to the amount of $450,000. Attached to the college building is a tract of land, 250 acres in extent, a part of which is laid out in walks and pleasure grounds. Its situation is highly picturesque. Rotterdam is a small manufacturing village, in the town of the same name.

Duanesburgh is a village of some importance.

Peaks. c. Anthony's Nose. d. Sugar Loaf. e. Bull Hill. f. Breakneck Hill.

Rivers. C. Hudson River. S. Croton. b. Peekskill.

Lakes, &c. Mahopack Pond. i. Shaw's Pond.

Villages. CARMEL. Cold Spring.

BOUNDARIES. North by Dutchess county; East by the state of Connecticut; South by Westchester county, and West by the Hudson river.

SURFACE. Putnam is one of the most mountainous counties in the state. The hills are not, however, generally abrupt or precipitous, but rounded and susceptible of cultivation almost to their summits. It is well adapted to grazing.

The Highlands extend across the western part of the county. The range commences at the river, in the southwest corner of Philipstown, and takes a northeasterly course, extending into Dutchess county. In Philipstown there are several considerable peaks, the most prominent of which are Anthony's Nose, Sugar Loaf, Bull Hill, Breakneck Hill, and High Peak. The highest of these peaks is 1580 feet above the level of the Hudson. In the eastern part the Taghkanic range extends through the county, from north to south.

RIVERS. Beside the Hudson, which forms the western boundary of the county, the Croton river and its branches, and the Peekskill, are the only streams worthy of notice.

LAKES. Mahopack and Shaw's ponds, in the town of Carmel, are the only bodies of water of importance. The first is nine miles in circumference, and has two islands; the other is much smaller in extent.

THE CLIMATE is healthful, though cool.

GEOLOGY AND MINERALS. This county belongs to the southeastern primitive district of the state. Granite, gneiss, and primitive limestone are the principal rocks. In the town of Patterson, and at several other points in the county, beds of transition limestone occur. They are, however, of small extent.

The principal minerals of this county are iron ore, of the magnetic and hematitic varieties, in great abundance, and of superior quality; copperas, arsenic, copper ores, chrome iron ore, serpentine, asbestus, dolomite, tremolite, pyroxene, scapolite, epidote, zircon, sphene, albite, graphite, peat, and phosphate of lime.

SOIL AND VEGetable ProducCTIONS. As might be expected from its geological character, the timber is principally oak, chestnut, ash, maple, hickory, &c. The soil is perhaps naturally sterile, but treated with plaster, produces luxuriant crops of blue grass, herds-grass, and clover. The appearance of the farms indicate that the owners are possessed of competence.

PURSUITS. Agriculture is the principal pursuit of the inhabitants. Considerable attention is paid to the dairy, and to the rearing of cattle, sheep, swine and fowls. Much of the produce exposed for sale in theNew York markets is brought from this county.

Manufactures receive some attention.

The West Point foundry, at Cold Spring, is the largest in the United States, and employs more than four hundred men. There are one or two other foundries in the county. The other manufactures are of comparatively little importance. There are iron mines in Philipstown, Putnam Valley and Southeast.

Commerce. There is but one good landing on the Hudson in this county, that of Cold Spring. Some commerce is carried on from this point.

STAPLE PRODUCTIONS. Butter, beef, wool and mutton are the principal staples. Calves, lambs, fowls, &c., are also carried to the New York market in large quantities.

SCHOOLS. There are in the county sixty-three public schools. In 1846, these schools were taught on an average nine months; 3245 children received instruction, at an expense of $6562. The libraries of the district contained 8618 volumes. There were also, ten private schools, with 124 pupils.

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics and Friends.

HISTORY. This county was settled at an early period, but remained attached to Dutchess till 1812. At the base of the Sugar

Loaf, in Philipstown, stands Beverly house, formerly the residence of Col. Beverly Robinson, a loyalist, who, during the revolution, went with his family to New York, and thence to Great Britain. His estate was confiscated by the legislature, and his family banished. This house was the head quarters of General Putnam, General Parsons, and the traitor Arnold. It was here ́ that Arnold received the intelligence, that his treason was revealed, and from the landing on this estate he made his escape on board the British sloop Vulture.

From the foot of the peak called Anthony's Nose, to Fort Montgomery, a chain and boom were stretched, by order of the continental congress, in the autumn of 1776, for the purpose of obstructing navigation, and preventing the enemy from ascending the Hudson. This chain was broken the same year, by the British.

In 1778, Captain Machin, the engineer who had constructed the former chain, superintended the making of another, of twice its diameter, which extended from West Point, to a battery at Constitution Island. This was never broken by the enemy, but was taken up every autumn, and replaced in the spring. It weighed 186 tons.

VILLAGES. CARMEL, in the town of the same name, is the seat of justice for the county. In picturesque beauty, and healthfulness of situation, Carmel is surpassed by few villages in the state. Declining gradually to the shore of Shaw's lake, a beautiful sheet of water, it presents one of the loveliest landscapes on which the eye can rest. Population 350.

Cold Spring, on the bank of the Hudson, in Philipstown, is a thriving village, supported mainly by the mammoth iron foundry, about a mile from the landing. Population 1500.

Southeast is a well watered and fertile town. Joe's Hill, a noted eminence, extends west from Connecticut, into the centre of the town.

Iron ore is abundant in this town, and of good quality. There are several ponds of considerable size.