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Kortright
The Town of Kortright is located between the Towns of Stamford
and Delhi along the Delaware River.
One ancient map lists the town as The Manor of Cortwright in
the County of Albany and the Province of New York.
There were some settlers in the area before the Revolutionary War,
as in other area towns, but they were scattered when the war broke
out. After the war new immigrants, mostly from Scotland, started to
move into this locale. The town was originally parts of the Kortright,
Goldsborough, Bradish and Meredith Patents. Its southern boundary
was the Delaware River west to Delhi and was founded in 1793, four
years before the county of Delaware was founded. The act of 1797
directed that county business be transacted at the house of Gideon
Frisbee, in the town of Kortright, until further legislative action occurred.
This house is now the focal point of the Delaware County Historical
Association.
Thousands of acres of land were cut from the Town of Kortright to
form parts of the towns of Delhi, Stamford, Davenport and Meredith
between 1798 and 1831.
Many archeological finds attest to the presence of Native American
tribes living in the area in the past. By the time of the white settlement
most of them were gone.
The first church was the Presbyterian at Kortright Center in 1794
with the Rev. William McAuley as pastor and who served until his
death in 1851. Some of the people of note in the early days of the
town were, Asher Merwin and Silas Knapp, who built a hotel/store in
Bloomville in 1800, Jacob Every who built 2 grist mills, Thomas Fitch
and Rufus Bunnell who built many buildings and ran a mercantile
business. There were many farmers raising hops, cattle, sheep and
selling butter, wool and milk. Farming has always been the most
prominent industry in the town and it continues to be so today.
The 2000 census lists 1,633 residents of the town and there is a
growing number of people moving into the town, buying second
homes or retirement homes, because of the beauty of the scenery and
quiet lifestyle to be found here.
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