AMSTERDAM

A short history of Amsterdam

Prior to settlement by Europeans, the region which includes Amsterdam was inhabited for centuries by the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy, which dominated most of the Mohawk Valley. They had pushed the Algonquin Mohican tribe to the east of the Hudson River.

Dutch settlers began to arrive in the area in the 1660s, founding Schenectady in 1664. They had previously been based in Albany, along the Hudson River to the east. They reached what would later be Amsterdam c.1710. They called the community "Veeders Mills" and "Veedersburgh" after Albert Veeder, an early mill owner. By the second decade of the 1700s, Scotch-Irish and German Palatinate immigrants began to arrive in the Mohawk Valley region, but few settled in Amsterdam. The governor of the colony granted a group of 100 Palatine German households land in the area that developed as Little Falls to the west, where the English planned they could serve as a buffer to French and Native American incursions.

The American Revolutionary War had little effect on the Amsterdam region. No major battles were fought there or in the surrounding region. The Battle of Johnstown was essentially the repelling of a raid by British forces and their Native American, mostly Iroquois, allies.

Amsterdam grew slowly after the war, primarily providing the services needed for the farming communities which surrounded it. It was located in the now-defunct town of Caughnawaga. When the Town of Amsterdam was created, the city changed its name to Amsterdam in 1803, possibly to encourage its selection as the seat of the town's government.

After the war, Loyalists such as the powerful Johnson family fled to Canada. Sir William Johnson had long been the British agent of Indian Affairs for this region. Many new land-hungry settlers came from New England as the state sold off former Iroquois lands for development. The settlement was incorporated as a village on April 20, 1830, from a section of the town of Amsterdam.

This was a period of rapid growth for the village, influenced by major transportation developments. In turn, the Mohawk Turnpike, the Erie Canal, and construction of the railroad across the valley improved trade. The steeply descending creeks in the region, which flowed from the foothills of the Adirondacks, were used to power an increasing number of mills. These manufactured goods were shipped from the region by land, canal and rail. Products such as linseed oil, brooms, knit ware, buttons, and iron goods were produced in the growing village, which became an important manufacturing center. It was best known, however, for its carpets, eventually becoming the carpet and rug manufacturing center of the U.S.

Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Amsterdam was a destination for immigrants from Europe: Irish, Italian, Polish, and Lithuanian peoples, among others, who found work in the factories.

In 1865, the population of Amsterdam was 5,135. New charters in 1854, 1865, and 1875 increased the size of the village. In 1885, Amsterdam incorporated as a city; it expanded by annexing Rockton to the north, and the former village of Port Jackson on the south side of the Mohawk River was annexed to become the fifth ward of the city. By 1920, the city's population was 33,524.

In the Great Depression, the mills slowed down their output but did not close. The city survived the two world wars without significant effect. Shortly after World War II, however, manufacturing in general began to move to the southern United States, where labor costs and taxes were lower. The mills of Amsterdam also shifted their jobs to the South. After a period in the South, that region lost industrial jobs to overseas locations.

Additionally, the second and third generations of the city's immigrant families often left to go to college and did not return, as there were few jobs to attract college-educated citizens. The city attempted to re-create its industrial base, but these efforts were not particularly successful.

In an attempt to draw people and business back to Amsterdam, the City and State began a program of urban renewal and arterial roadway construction, destroying much of the original fabric of downtown. Now, not only is there less to go downtown for, it's harder to get there. Once again, Amsterdam is somewhere to be bypassed on the way to somewhere else.

In the early 21st century, post-industrial Amsterdam is still trying to re-invent itself. The city suffered serious flood damage in late August 2011, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. The flooding threatened properties at the river's edge due to erosion and water damage.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Amsterdam, New York, revision 1383042711 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.