New York - Rensselaer County

Books on County Genealogy and History

Albany and Eastern New York Genealogy

History of Rensselaer Co. Cities and Towns

Indian History of the County

Map of Rensselaer Co. (1895)

Official NY State Website

Official Rensselaer Co. Website

Rensselaer Co. GenWeb Project

Rensselaer County Historical Society

Troy Visitors Center

The Hudson was the route by which the explorer arrived, and a constantly used highway since. Man made another of these waterways to and from the west in the Barge Canal; its outlet being in this county. The Indian had his trails from the north and east through Rensselaer; their place is taken by the best of modern railroads and highways.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that possibly in no part of the United States did settlement begin so promptly after discovery. Some of Hudson's crew, won by the natural advantages of this region, persuaded Hollanders to send a vessel to trade the Dutch products for the Indians' possessions and furs. In 1610 a vessel came; in 1614 a license was granted to fur traders to make four trips in three years; and in that same year Hendrick Christiaensen removed the debris from the ruins of a French fort on Castle Island, erected in 1540, and established there a trading post. In five years from its discovery, and six years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, there was a settlement where grew the future Albany. In 1623, French Protestants in Amsterdam, known as Walloons, were ready to set sail for Virginia, but persuaded by the Dutch West India Company, they came to New York and eighteen families made their way up the Hudson and located in part on the land opposite Castle Island, forming the first settlement in Rensselaer County.

The greater part of the county was included in the patent of Killian Van Rensselaer, given November 19, 1629. The first purchase of the land from the Indians was completed on July 27, 1630. Van Rensselaer was a wealthy diamond and pearl dealer, and used his wealth in the endeavor to build for himself in the new country an almost feudal estate over which he would be the Lord Proprietor. The lands were settled only under lease, upon the same rules of tenure in force at Albany and other parts of the Hudson territory, and led to the same difficulties in the collection of rents.

The settlement of the county did not proceed without the hardships and dangers which troubled all the outlying districts of the State. In the French and Indian wars the northern part of the county was repeatedly ravaged and the pioneers driven from their homes. The Battle of Bennington, or Walloomsac, as it should be named, was fought in Rensselaer, and led to the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga. In the Civil War the first troops from the north to tread the soil of Virginia were from this county, and it is said that no community, in proportion to its population, sent so many of its youth in the World War as did Troy, the principal city of Rensselaer.

Source: James Sullivan. History of New York State 1523-1927. 1927