Mohawk Valley History
“Montgomery County, nestled in the heart of the Mohawk Valley, is home to ten towns, one city and just over 50,000 residents. Located at the foot of the Adirondacks, this Leatherstocking region is filled with beautiful countryside, including numerous parks and recreation facilities.” – Montgomery County, NY
Photo of the Nellis Tavern located just outside St. Johnsville, NY, by Ginny Rogers.
Contact us with questions, inquiries or to suggest additional resources to add to our website.
Local history and genealogy library with an archival collection. Our mission is to collect and preserve anything related to Montgomery County and our parent, Tryon County.
Please be advised, the Montgomery County Department of History & Archives will be closed to the public due to minor renovation beginning January 3rd, 2023. We will still be able to provide research requests via scanning or mail. Please call the department at (518) 853-8186 before stopping in in case our completion dates have been changed.
Thank you for your patience
Amsterdam
City Historian
RobertVon Hasseln
Phone: (518) 841-4366
Email: rvonhasseln@amsterdamny.gov
Historic Amsterdam League
PO Box 132
Amsterdam, N.Y. 12010
historicamsterdam.org
Canajoharie
Canajoharie Town Clerk’s Office (not town historian)
12 Mitchell Street
Canajoharie, NY 13317
(518) 673-3112
Fonda
Montgomery County History & Archives Department
Old Courthouse
9 Park Street
P.O. Box 1500
Fonda, NY 12068-1500
Map
Phone: 518-853-8186 or 518-853-8187
Fax: 518-853-8392
Hours: Monday – Friday 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
County Historian/Records Management Officer: Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar
Assistant: Earlene F. Melious
Fort Johnson
Montgomery County Historical Society
Old Fort Johnson
P. O. Box 196
Fort Johnson, NY 12070
518-843-0300
museum@oldfortjohnson.org
The Montgomery County Historical Society is a non-profit organization established in 1905 to collect and preserve Mohawk Valley history for the enrichment of the public. Old Fort Johnson, the 18th century home of Sir William Johnson, has been operated as a museum by the Montgomery County Historical Society for over 110 years.
Fort Plain
Fort Plain Museum & Historical Park
389 Canal Street
Fort Plain, New York
(518) 993-2527
The Fort Plain Museum began operation in 1961 as the Fort Plain Restoration with an emphasis on rebuilding Revolutionary War Fort Plain. The Museum is located in the Village of Fort Plain and Town of Minden. The village of Fort Plain was originally named after the fort, an important military outpost in the Revolutionary War. Research is again underway focusing on the fort’s role in American history as the defender of the Mohawk Valley.
Fort Plain Free Library
19 Willett St.
Fort Plain, NY 13339-1130
County: Montgomery
Phone: (518) 993-4646
Images from the library’s Erie Canal and Clinton Liberal Institute Collections. The collections illustrate how crucial the Canal was in the history of the village of Fort Plain and shares some of the many images and artifacts that the library has on permanent display relating to the coeducational, military preparatory school that existed in the village at the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Glen
Historian
Steve Helmin
36 Main Street
Fultonville, NY 12072
Phone: 518-853-3118
Hagaman
Village Historian
John Tokarowski
96 Pawling St.
Hagaman, NY 12086
518-378-4265
Palatine
Town Historian
This position is currently vacant.
The Palatine Settlement Society
7355 St. Rte. 5
P. O. Box 183
St. Johnsville, NY 13452
pss.secretary@palatinesettlementsociety.org
Back in the Fall of 1982, a group of about 70 individuals met and formed “The Palatine Settlement Society” to begin the process of creating a living museum, a “dorf”, or village, with adjoining farms, forts, trademan’s buildings, and churches as might have been developed by the first settlers in the central Mohawk Valley in the 18th Century. Milford Decker, St. Johnsville Town Historian served as its first president.
St. Johnsville
Margaret Reaney Memorial Library
19 Kingsbury Avenue
St. Johnsville, New York 13452
518-568-7822
If your ancestors lived in St. Johnsville, this library has a collection that includes surname and obituary files, county histories, church and cemetery records, individual family manuscripts, gazetteers, scrapbooks and pamphlets. Also copies of the St. Johnsville Enterprise and News newspaper dating back to 1901.
Montgomery County is proud of its place in history and has preserved abundant collections of cultural and natural artifacts and historic sites. Explore the timeline of Montgomery County history spanning the centuries from Native American dominance through the French & Indian and Revolutionary Wars to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the Erie Canal.
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Montgomery County historic locations in yellow.
Fulton County History, Museums, Historical Societies and Historians
