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120-463: Auriesville is a hamlet in the northern part of New York state and west of Albany. It was the site of Ossernenon, a Mohawk village where French Jesuits established a mission. This operated from 1667 until 1684, when the Mohawk destroyed it as part of continuing confrontations with French colonists. Auries is said to have been the name of the last Mohawk known to have lived there. Later settlers named

240-562: A Saw mill on East 74th Street and the East River, where a 13,710-meter (8.52 mi) long stream that began in the north of today's Central Park, which became known as the Saw Kill or Saw Kill Creek, emptied into the river. Later owners of the property George Elphinstone and Abraham Shotwell replaced the sawmill with a leather mill in 1677. The Saw Kill was later redirected into a culvert, arched over, and its trickling little stream

360-445: A sawmill was located in the northern forest at what was later the corner of East 74th Street and Second Avenue , at which African slaves cut lumber. The New Amsterdam settlement had a population of approximately 270 people, including infants. In 1642 the new director Willem Kieft decided to build a stone church within the fort. The work was carried out by recent English immigrants, the brothers John and Richard Ogden. The church

480-544: A citadel to contain Fort Amsterdam was being laid out by Cryn Frederickz van Lobbrecht at the direction of Willem Verhulst . By the end of 1625, the site had been staked out directly south of Bowling Green on the site of the present U.S. Custom House . The Mohawk-Mahican War in the Hudson Valley led the company to relocate even more settlers to the vicinity of the new Fort Amsterdam. In the end, colonizing

600-506: A county administrator, who acts on behalf of the legislature, the legislature must maintain ultimate control over the actions of the administrator. Many, but not all, charter counties have an elected executive who is independent of the legislature; the exact form of government is defined in the County Charter. In New York, each city is a highly autonomous incorporated area that, with the exceptions of New York City and Geneva ,

720-642: A land-use classification for private land under its Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan (APLUDP). The APLUDP extends the boundaries for its classification of hamlets "well beyond established settlements" to allow for growth. In New York, a village is an incorporated area. About 85% of villages fall within a single town. Villages in the State of New York are classified by the Census Bureau as incorporated places . Like all municipal corporations, villages have clearly defined legal boundaries. A village

840-567: A large coliseum-sanctuary on the grounds, with seating for up to 6000 worshipers. The property now includes more than 400 acres (1.6 km). While in the 19th century Ossernenon was associated with Auriesville, twentieth-century research has placed it approximately nine miles west of the current hamlet by that name. 42°55′46″N 74°18′59″W  /  42.92944°N 74.31639°W  / 42.92944; -74.31639 Hamlet (New York) See also: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The administrative divisions of New York are

960-417: A mayor and (usually) four trustees. The board is responsible for approving mayoral appointments, managing village finances and property, and approving a budget. The mayor, who is generally the chief executive of the village, may vote in all business before the board and must vote to break a tie. The mayor generally does not possess veto power, unless this is provided for by local law. Administrative duties of

1080-624: A mindset that resembles the American Dream were already present in the first few years of this colony. Writers like Russell Shorto argue that the large influence of New Amsterdam on the American psyche has largely been overlooked in the classic telling of American beginnings, because of animosity between the English victors and the conquered Dutch. The original 17th-century architecture of New Amsterdam has completely vanished (affected by

1200-424: A mission village known as Caughnawaga and spelled as Kahnawake , reflecting Mohawk pronunciation. The Jesuits founded the mission south of Montreal in 1718 for Mohawk and other Iroquois peoples, and other converts to Catholicism . Most residents were Mohawk. Today, Kahnawake is recognized as a Mohawk Indian reserve within the boundaries of Quebec . The Mohawk village of Ossernenon was destroyed ca. 1666 in

1320-426: A missionary. In late September 1646, he set out for Ossernenon on a peace mission to the Mohawk with Lalande, a young Jesuit lay brother. Jogues was killed on October 18, 1646. Lalande was killed the next day while trying to recover his colleague's body from the village path. From 1655 to 1658, Father Simon Le Moyne reported traveling a number of times to Ossernenon from Quebec as an ambassador to negotiate peace with

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1440-690: A punitive French raid in retribution for the killing of French missionaries, after which its exact locus became lost. French Jesuit missionaries Saint René Goupil , Saint Isaac Jogues , and Saint Jean de Lalande , were martyred by the Mohawk at Ossernenon: Goupil in 1642 and Jogues and LaLande in 1646. Ossernenon was located south of the Mohawk River, about nine miles to the west of present-day Auriesville. Taken captive in Canada by Mohawk warriors, Jogues and Goupil were brought as prisoners in 1642 to Ossernenon. They were ritually tortured and then enslaved by

1560-608: A set of documents that have survived from that period, untranslated. They are the administrative records of the colony, unreadable by most scholars. Since the 1970s, Charles Gehring of the New Netherland Institute has made it his life's work to translate this first-hand history of the Colony of New Netherland. The scholarly conclusion has largely been that the settlement of New Amsterdam is much more like current New York than previously thought. Cultural diversity and

1680-607: A squadron of ships from Zeeland. The commanders were Jacob Benckes (Koudum, 1637–1677) and Cornelis Evertsen de Jongste (Vlissingen, 1642–1706) under instruction of the States General of the Dutch Republic . Anthony Colve was installed as the first Dutch governor of the province. Previously there had only been West India Company Directors and a Director-General. Amidst the recapture, New York City would be again renamed, this time to New Orange . However, after

1800-602: A town; 35.9% were living in a town but outside a village. Whereas cities and villages can cross county boundaries, each town in New York is completely contained within a single county. New York towns are classified by statute as being a town of the first class or a town of the second class . Additionally, a town of the first class can further be classified as a suburban town upon meeting certain criteria. Originally, towns of different classes possessed different powers. Since 1964, all towns, regardless of classification, have had

1920-582: A transcription of the text, see Schagenbrief and Transcriptie Schagenbrief The deed itself has not survived, so the specific details are unknown. A textual reference to the deed became the foundation for the legend that Minuit had purchased Manhattan from the Native Americans for twenty-four dollars' worth of trinkets and beads, the guilder rate at the time being about two and a half to a Spanish dollar . The price of 60 Dutch guilders in 1626 amounts to around $ 1,100 in 2012 dollars. Further complicating

2040-481: A uniform statewide Village Law (twelve villages still operate under charters issued by the state legislature prior to a revision of the State Constitution in 1874 that forbade chartering villages). Also, villages are part of a town (or towns; some villages cross town borders), with residents who pay taxes to and receive services from the town. Cities are neither part of nor subordinate to towns except for

2160-510: A village becomes a city, the Legislature requires clear evidence, usually in the form of a locally drafted charter, that the community in question seeks to incorporate as a city. The forms of government cities can have are council–manager, strong mayor–council, weak mayor–council or commission. Forty-six cities, the majority, use the mayor–council form. The City of New York is a special case. The state legislature reorganized government in

2280-494: A village or town but will perform some of the functions of the other form. Villages remain part of the towns in which they are located; village residents pay both town and village taxes, and vote in both town and village elections. Towns can contain several hamlets and communities. If the United States Postal Service (USPS) has a post office in a hamlet it often will use the name of that hamlet, as will

2400-735: A voyage of 64 days. For a variety of reasons, primarily a shortage of supplies, Mayflower could not proceed to the Hudson River, and the colonists decided to settle near Cape Cod, establishing the Plymouth Colony . The mouth of the Hudson River was selected as the ideal place for initial settlement as it had easy access to the ocean while also securing an ice-free lifeline to the beaver trading post near present-day Albany. Here, Indigenous hunters supplied them with pelts in exchange for European-made trade goods and wampum , which

2520-698: A world where the city remained Dutch until the Napoleonic Wars and retained its name also afterward. One of New York's Broadway theatres is the New Amsterdam Theatre . The name New Amsterdam is also written on the architrave situated on top of the row of columns in front of the Manhattan Municipal Building , commemorating the name of the Dutch colony. Although no architectural monuments or buildings have survived,

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2640-423: Is Sherrill, New York , with just 3,071 inhabitants in 2010. The smallest city by area is Mechanicville, New York , which covers 0.91 sq mi (2.4 km ) (of which 0.08 sq mi (0.2 km ) is water). Some places containing the word "city" in their name are not cities. Examples include Johnson City , Garden City , and New City . Several cities, such as Albany, are divided into wards for

2760-408: Is a municipality that provides services to the residents, services that may or may not include garbage collection, management of cemeteries, street and highway maintenance, street lighting, and building codes. Some villages provide their own police and other municipal services. Villages have less autonomy than cities. While cities are not subject to a town's jurisdiction, villages legally remain part of

2880-402: Is commonplace to change boundaries and define new CDPs for each census. The Census Bureau formerly referred to CDPs as "unincorporated places" from 1950 through the 1970 decennial censuses. The term CDP was first used for the 1980 census , and minimum population criteria for CDPs were dropped with the 2000 census . Though the term "hamlet" is not defined under New York law, many people in

3000-456: Is contained within one county. Cities in New York are classified by the U.S. Census Bureau as incorporated places. They provide almost all services to their residents and have the highest degree of home rule and taxing jurisdiction over their residents. The main difference between a city and a village is that cities are organized and governed according to their charters , which can differ widely among cities, while most villages are subject to

3120-558: Is in three towns and two counties. Five towns are coterminous with their single village and have a coterminous town-village form of government. Despite their names, Greenwich Village , the East Village , and Queens Village are not villages, but neighborhoods of the City of New York . A borough is one of the five major administrative divisions of the consolidated City of New York . Boroughs do not currently exist elsewhere in

3240-425: Is then voted upon by the qualified voters living in the proposed village only. Some villages have fewer than 500 residents, having incorporated before the present population requirement or fallen below the old 500-resident threshold after incorporation. A village may also be dissolved, returning all government control to the town level. The process of dissolution can be initiated by the village board itself, or upon

3360-406: Is water. The town of Webb ( Herkimer County ) has the greatest land area, at 451 sq mi (1,170 km ). The smallest town, Green Island ( Albany County ), covers 0.7 sq mi (1.8 km ). The town of Hempstead ( Nassau County ) has about 760,000 people (2010 census), making it more populous than any city in the state except New York City . Red House ( Cattaraugus County ),

3480-606: The Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York . Articles VIII (titled "Local Finances") and IX (titled "Local Government", but commonly referred to as the "Home Rule" article) of the state constitution establish the rights and responsibilities of the municipal governments. The New York State Constitution provides for democratically elected legislative bodies for counties, cities, towns and villages. These legislative bodies are granted

3600-520: The Counts of Angoulême . The first recorded exploration by the Dutch of the area around what is now called New York Bay was in 1609 with the voyage of the ship Halve Maen (English: "Half Moon"), commanded by Henry Hudson in the service of the Dutch Republic, as the emissary of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and stadholder of Holland. Hudson named the river the Mauritius River. He

3720-720: The Dutch with the New Amsterdam Trail. The Dutch-American historian and journalist Hendrik Willem van Loon wrote in 1933 a work of alternative history entitled "If the Dutch Had Kept Nieuw Amsterdam" (in If, Or History Rewritten , edited by J. C. Squire , 1931, Simon & Schuster ). A similar theme, at greater length, was taken up by writer Elizabeth Bear , who published the " New Amsterdam " series of detective stories that take place in

Auriesville, New York - Misplaced Pages Continue

3840-561: The Hudson River ), near what is now Albany. A fort and sawmill were soon erected at Nut Island. The windmill was constructed by Franchoys Fezard and was taken apart for iron in 1648. The threat of attack from other European colonial powers prompted the directors of the Dutch West India Company to formulate a plan to protect the entrance to the Hudson River. In 1624, 30 families were sponsored by Dutch West India Company moving from Nut Island to Manhattan Island, where

3960-577: The Nicasius de Sille List of 1660, which enumerates all the citizens of New Amsterdam and their addresses, it can be determined who resided in every house. The city map known as the Duke's Plan probably derived from the same 1660 census as the Castello Plan. The Duke's Plan includes two outlying areas of development on Manhattan along the top of the plan. The work was created for James (1633–1701),

4080-519: The United States Census Bureau as "a statistical entity defined for each decennial census according to Census Bureau guidelines, comprising a densely settled concentration of population" that is not part of a city or a village "but is locally identified by a name." CDPs may cross town and county borders. CDPs are defined collaboratively by state and local officials and the Census Bureau. They are defined for each census, and it

4200-511: The fires of 1776 and 1835 ), leaving only archaeological remnants. The original street plan of New Amsterdam has stayed largely intact, as have some houses outside Manhattan. The presentation of the legacy of the unique culture of 17th-century New Amsterdam remains a concern of preservationists and educators. In 2009 the National Park Service celebrated the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson 's 1609 voyage on behalf of

4320-458: The wall of Wall Street , and neither the remainder of the island of Manhattan nor of wider New Netherland fell under its definition. In 1524, nearly a century before the arrival of the Dutch, the site that would later become New Amsterdam was named Nouvelle Angoulême by the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano , to commemorate his patron King Francis I of France , whose family consisted of

4440-427: The 19th century. Lastly, Jogues gave the distances from the Mohawk villages of Andagaron and Tionontoguen , by which the historians figured the site. As noted above, based on extensive archeological work and analysis of historic documents, late 20th-century ethnohistorians and archeologists disagree with this conclusion. They have established that Ossernenon was located nine miles west of Auriesville at what they call

4560-479: The Bauder site, also on a tributary of the Mohawk river. In 1884, Joseph Loyzance, then parish priest of St. Joseph's, Troy, New York , purchased 10 acres (40,000 m) of land on the hill at Auriesville. A student of the lives of the early missionaries, Loyzance erected a small shrine under the title of Our Lady of Martyrs . He was the first to lead a number of pilgrims to the place, on 15 August of that year. It

4680-414: The Bauder site. Catholic historians wanted to establish the location of the deaths of three Jesuit Catholics who were martyred in the 1640s by the Mohawk, as well as others held and ritually tortured by the tribe. Ossernenon was also known as the birthplace of Kateri Tekakwitha , whose reputation as a Mohawk virgin had grown since the 17th century. In 2012, she was canonized, with the distinction of being

4800-530: The Duke of York and Albany, after whom New York , New York City , and New York's Capital – Albany , were named just after the seizure of New Amsterdam by the English . After that provisional relinquishment of New Netherland, Stuyvesant reported to his superiors that he "had endeavored to promote the increase of population, agriculture and commerce...the flourishing condition which might have been more flourishing if

4920-765: The English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York after the Duke of York (later James II & VII ). After the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–67, England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands agreed to the status quo in the Treaty of Breda . The English kept the island of Manhattan, the Dutch giving up their claim to the town and the rest of the colony, while the English formally abandoned Surinam in South America, and

Auriesville, New York - Misplaced Pages Continue

5040-512: The Mohawk. Goupil was killed later in 1642. After several months, Jogues was ransomed by Dutch traders from Fort Orange (Albany), with the aid of Protestant minister Johannes Megapolensis , who had good relations with the Mohawk. Jogues sailed down the Hudson River to return to France by way of New Amsterdam . In 1644, François-Joseph Bressani was ritually tortured by Mohawk at Ossernenon after being taken captive. Later on, Joseph Poncet also suffered that treatment. Jogues returned to Quebec as

5160-540: The Mohawk. Many Mohawk left Ossernenon, establishing a new village circa 1659, which they called Caughnawaga, on the north side of the Mohawk River. As noted above, archeologists have correlated references to this with evidence found at what are known as the Freeman and Fox Farm sites. In 1666, the Marquis de Tracy conducted a punitive expedition against the Mohawk, destroying Ossernenon and their two other villages on

5280-577: The Munsee were fired upon as they were preparing to depart. This triggered attacks on Pavonia and Staten Island . Stuyvesant reported 28 farms destroyed, 40 deaths and 100 captives taken in what later became known as the Peach War . In 1661, the Communipaw ferry was founded and began a long history of trans-Hudson ferry and ultimately rail and road transportation. In 1664, Jan van Bonnel built

5400-761: The New World, were thoroughly documented in city maps . During the time of New Netherland's colonization, the Dutch were the pre-eminent cartographers in Europe. The delegated authority of the Dutch West India Company over New Netherland required maintaining sovereignty on behalf of the States General, generating cash flow through commercial enterprise for its shareholders, and funding the province's growth. Thus its directors regularly required that censuses be taken. These tools to measure and monitor

5520-542: The U.S. Census Bureau as minor civil divisions . Like New Jersey and southern New England , all of New York is incorporated; all residents who do not live in a city or on an Indian reservation live in a town. Towns provide or arrange for the primary functions of local government. While some provide most municipal services for all town residents and selected services for residents of villages, some provide little more than road maintenance. There were 933 towns in New York. As of 2000 , 45.8% of state residents were living in

5640-548: The archaeology of New York City. For instance, the Castello map aided the excavation of the Stadthuys ( City Hall ) of New Amsterdam in determining the exact location of the building. The maps enable a precise reconstruction of the town. Fort Amsterdam was located at the southernmost tip of the island of Manhattan, which today is surrounded by Bowling Green. The Battery is a reference to its battery of cannon. Broadway

5760-451: The area in the 1890s in an effort to consolidate. Other cities, villages, and towns were annexed to become the " City of Greater New York ", (an unofficial term, the new city retained the name of New York), a process basically completed in 1898. At the time of consolidation, Queens County was split. Its western towns joined the city, leaving three towns that were never part of the consolidation plan as part of Queens County but not part of

5880-495: The area of the proposed village must have at least 1,500 inhabitants and not be part of an existing city or village. Additionally, the proposed village can be no more than 5 square miles (13 km ) in area unless its boundaries are to be coterminous with a school, fire, improvement or other district, or the entire town. The process of incorporation begins with a petition by either 20% of residents or owners of 50% of assessed real property. If deemed legally sufficient, incorporation

6000-499: The calculation is that the value of goods in the area would have been different from the value of those same goods in the developed market of the Netherlands. The Dutch introduced windmills first at Noten Eylandt for a sawmill, to exploit the stand of hardwoods found there. Later they exploited the hydropower of existing creeks by constructing mills at Turtle Bay (between present-day East 45th–48th Streets) and Montagne's Kill, later called Harlem Mill Creek (East 108th Street). In 1639

6120-427: The cities of New York and Albany city charters, which were recognized by the first State Constitution in 1777. All other cities have been established by act of the state legislature and have been granted a charter. Cities have been granted the power to revise their charters or adopt new ones. There are no minimum population or area requirements in order to become a city. While there is no defined process for how and when

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6240-486: The city of Sherrill , which for some purposes is treated as if it were a village of the town of Vernon . Some cities are completely surrounded by a town, typically of the same name. There are sixty-two cities in the state. As of 2000 , 54.1% of state residents were living in a city; 42.2% were living in New York City; 11.9% were living in one of the other 61 cities. In 1686, the English colonial governor granted

6360-610: The consolidated city. Each borough individually elects a borough president and used to elect two at-large city council members, in addition to those elected based on each borough's population. The borough presidents once wielded considerable power as members of the New York City Board of Estimate , but the position is now largely ceremonial and advisory. Boroughs function as counties for certain purposes, but have no county government. The five New York City district attorneys , however, are still elected by county (for example,

6480-713: The construction of Fort Amsterdam . A fortification was completed in 1626. The families were then dispersed to Fort Wilhelmus on Verhulsten Island ( Burlington Island ) in the South River (now the Delaware River ), to Kievitshoek (now Old Saybrook, Connecticut ) at the mouth of the Verse River (now the Connecticut River ) and further north at Fort Nassau on the Mauritius or North River (now

6600-614: The county also publish maps that conflict both in the number of hamlets and their boundaries. Nevertheless, all land not within a village is administered by the town. Most of the rest of New York's hamlets, however, have less well-defined boundaries, and most towns have areas that are not considered to be a part of any hamlet. The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) puts hamlet names on rectangular green signs with white lettering at roadside locations of its choosing. The NYSDOT and local governments also provide community identification signs on some scenic byways to be placed at

6720-595: The county boundaries—each have a Borough Board made up of the Borough President, the borough's district council members, and the chairpersons of the borough's community boards. A mayor serves as the city's chief executive officer. The most populous and largest city in the state is New York City , with a population of over 8.5 million inhabitants and comprising just over 300 sq mi (777.00 km ) of land (468.87 sq mi (1,214.368 km ) total area, which includes water). The least populous city

6840-565: The district attorney for Brooklyn is called the Kings County District Attorney). New Amsterdam By 1655, the population of New Netherland had grown to 2,000 people, with 1,500 living in New Amsterdam. By 1664, the population of New Netherland had risen to almost 9,000 people, 2,500 of whom lived in New Amsterdam, 1,000 lived near Fort Orange , and the remainder in other towns and villages. In 1664,

6960-712: The executive branch. All town justices were originally part of a town's board. Today, justices belong to a separate judicial branch known as Town Court or Justice Court, part of New York's Justice Court system. A town may contain one or more villages. Many towns have no villages. Five towns are coterminous with their single village and share the same name: Green Island in Albany County ; East Rochester in Monroe County ; and Scarsdale , Harrison , and Mount Kisco in Westchester County . A sixth,

7080-663: The first Spanish Colony in the Americas. Allegedly of Portuguese and African descent, he arrived on Manhattan Island during the winter of 1613–1614 under the command of Thijs Volckenz Mossel captain of the Jonge Tobias , trapping beavers and trading with the local population as a representative of the Dutch East India Company. He is the first recorded non-Indigenous inhabitant of what would eventually become New York City. The territory of New Netherland

7200-400: The first Native American so honored. More than 2,000 Native Americans, the majority of them Mohawk, from both the United States and Canada traveled to Rome for the canonization . Archeologists have identified the Mohawk village of Caughnawaga (also spelled Gandawaga), where Tekakwitha lived during her childhood, as a new village site on the north side of the river, founded in 1659. Caughnawaga

7320-752: The form of government selected by the residents and approved by the New York State Legislature. Each type of local government is granted specific home rule powers by the New York State Constitution. There are still occasional changes as a village becomes a city, or a village dissolves (stops existing), each of which requires legislative action. New York also has various corporate entities that provide local services and have their own administrative structures (governments), such as school and fire districts. These are not found in all counties. Almost every piece of land in

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7440-477: The fort used the triangle between the Heerestraat and what came to be known as Whitehall Street for marching drills. Verhulst, with his council, was responsible for the selection of Manhattan as a permanent place of settlement and for situating Fort Amsterdam. He was replaced as the company director of New Netherland by Peter Minuit in 1626. According to the writer Nathaniel Benchley, to legally safeguard

7560-463: The founding of Catholicism in present-day New York, was debated by scholars. After its destruction by French forces in the 1660s, the site gradually was lost. Nineteenth-century historians, such as John Gilmary Shea and Gen. J. S. Clarke of Auburn , disagreed over the location. They concluded that the present Auriesville is where Father Jogues and his companions were martyred in the 1640s. They based this on documentation describing Ossernenon as being on

7680-541: The general provisions of the County Law. Although all counties have a certain latitude to govern themselves, "charter counties" are afforded greater home rule powers. The charter counties are Albany , Broome , Chautauqua , Chemung , Dutchess , Erie , Herkimer , Monroe , Nassau , Oneida , Onondaga , Orange , Putnam , Rensselaer , Rockland , Schenectady , Suffolk , Tompkins , Ulster , and Westchester . Sixteen counties are governed through an assembly with

7800-565: The island of Run in the East Indies to the Dutch, confirming their control of the valuable Spice Islands . The area occupied by New Amsterdam is now Lower Manhattan . The indigenous Munsee term for the southern tip of the island was Manhattoe , and variations of this name were also applied to the first Dutch settlement there. With the construction of Fort Amsterdam , the town also became variously known as "Amsterdam" or "New Amsterdam". New Amsterdam's city limits did not extend north of

7920-477: The law of the ship had applied. On May 20, 1624, the first settlers in New Netherland arrived on Noten Eylandt (Nut or Nutten Island, now Governors Island ) aboard the ship Nieu Nederlandt under the command of Cornelius Jacobsen May , who disembarked on the island with thirty families to take legal possession of the New Netherland territory. The WIC ordered engineer and surveyor Crijn Fredericxsz for

8040-465: The least populous, has 38 permanent residents (2010 census). The use of "town" in a community's name is irrespective of municipal status. Elizabethtown , Germantown and Stephentown are towns. Cooperstown , home of the Baseball Hall of Fame , is a village, Jamestown and Middletown are cities, and Levittown is an unincorporated hamlet. A census-designated place (CDP) is defined by

8160-561: The liberty of their consciences in religion", negotiated with the English by Peter Stuyvesant and his council.) Sometimes considered a dysfunctional trading post by the English who later acquired it from the Dutch, Russell Shorto , author of The Island at the Center of the World , suggests that the city left its cultural marks on later New York and, by extension, the United States as a whole. Major recent historical research has been based on

8280-593: The limits. Based on the ZIP Code, the United States Postal Service (USPS) identifies the correct location for mail delivery. The New York State Gazetteer , published by the New York State Department of Health in 1995, includes a list of hamlets in the state. The criteria used for inclusion in the Gazetteer are not stated. The Adirondack Park Agency also uses the term "hamlet", though as

8400-516: The local fire department or elementary school. Businesses may also use the name of a hamlet as part of their name. The United States Census Bureau will, with consideration from the town, designate a census-designated place (CDP) that may use the name of one or more hamlets, though boundaries may differ from what is used by the ZIP code, local fire department, etc. Towns in New York may be further subdivided into wards, although as of 2017 , only fifteen of

8520-473: The mayor include enforcing laws and supervising employees. A village may also have a full-time village manager who performs these administrative duties instead of the mayor. In 2007, sixty-seven villages had such a manager. Some villages have their own village justice, while others utilize the justice of the town or towns in which they are located. While most villages are subject to a uniform statewide Village Law, twelve villages operate under charters issued by

8640-620: The mid-19th century; the New York City Council is currently elected from special districts, which are allowed to cross borough lines. New York City has a unique system of divisions, some of which possess governmental power, see Divisions unique to New York City . In New York, a town is a municipal corporation, and is the major division of each county (excluding the five boroughs that comprise New York City ), very similar to townships in other states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Towns in New York are classified by

8760-452: The new Borough of Queens. (A small portion of the Town of Hempstead was itself annexed, also.) The next year (1899), the three eastern towns of Queens County separated to become Nassau County . The city today consists of the entire area of five counties (named New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond). While these counties have no county government, boroughs—with boundaries coterminous with

8880-483: The newly discovered and mapped territory New Netherland for the first time. It also showed the first year-round trading presence in New Netherland, Fort Nassau , which would be replaced in 1624 by Fort Orange, which eventually grew into the town of Beverwijck , renamed Albany in 1664. Spanish trader Juan Rodriguez (rendered in Dutch as Jan Rodrigues), was born in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo ,

9000-522: The now afflicted inhabitants had been protected by a suitable garrison...and had been helped with the long sought for settlement of the boundary, or in default thereof had they been seconded with the oft besought reinforcement of men and ships against the continual troubles, threats, encroachments and invasions of the British neighbors and government of Hartford Colony, our too powerful enemies". The existence of these city maps has proven to be very useful in

9120-416: The only body that can create governmental units is the state. All of them have their own governments, sometimes with no paid employees, that provide local services. Centers of population that are not incorporated and have no government or local services are designated hamlets . Whether a municipality is defined as a borough, city, town, or village is determined not by population or land area, but rather on

9240-599: The pilgrims would fast for their journey, pray and receive Holy Communion there. The Catholic Church purchased and consecrated more ground to keep the surroundings free from undesirable development. Following the canonization of Jogues in 1930, the church built the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs at this site, recognizing other Jesuit martyrs from the French colonial period. It built

9360-432: The power and fiscal capacity to provide an array of local government services. Such services generally include law enforcement and public safety, social and health services (such as Medicaid ), and education (special needs and community colleges). Every county outside of New York City has a county seat , which is the location of county government. Nineteen counties operate under county charters, while 38 operate under

9480-480: The power of a board of supervisors , composed of the supervisors of its constituent towns and cities. In most of these counties, each supervisor's vote is weighted in accordance with the town's population in order to abide by the U.S. Supreme Court mandate of " one person, one vote ". Other counties have legislative districts of equal population, which may cross municipal borders; these counties may also have an elected County Executive. Most counties in New York do not use

9600-493: The power to enact local laws as needed in order to provide services to their citizens and fulfill their various obligations. The county is the primary administrative division of New York. There are sixty-two counties in the state. Five of the counties are boroughs of the City of New York and do not have functioning county governments. While originally created as subdivisions of the state meant to carry out state functions, counties are now considered municipal corporations with

9720-491: The province's progress were accompanied by accurate maps and plans. These surveys, as well as grassroots activities to seek redress of grievances, account for the existence of some of the most important of the early documents. There is a particularly detailed city map called the Castello Plan produced in 1660. Virtually every structure in New Amsterdam at the time is believed to be represented, and by cross-referencing

9840-527: The purposes of municipal representation. Each ward elects one member to the city's legislative body, and the wards are redistricted roughly every ten years. These divisions can go by other names by city; in Buffalo they are known as districts . These divisions can either be numbered or named. New York City was divided into wards at various times in its history between 1683 and 1938, although they were gradually replaced by Assembly and Senate districts starting in

9960-749: The roadside boundaries of hamlets, as decided by the sign provider. Many towns have special zoning or planning districts and planning strategies for their hamlets, and many places welcome signs at the gateways to the hamlets. Some hamlets are former villages that have dissolved their incorporation ( Old Forge in Herkimer County ; Rosendale , in Ulster County ; and Andes in Delaware County , for example). Notwithstanding hamlets are not cities or towns, many of them are called out in formal addresses for those residents residing within

10080-450: The same legal powers as were once available only to suburban towns. Even so, towns of different classifications continue to have organizational differences and certain conditions that must be met before a town's classification changes. The town board serves as the legislative branch. The board is composed of one elected town supervisor (or chief executive officer in suburban towns) and a specific number of elected council persons; towns of

10200-575: The second class generally have two but may have four council persons, whereas towns of the first class generally have four but can have two or six. The supervisor presides over the board, voting on all matters but not possessing veto or tie-breaking power. Certain towns operate under a town manager form of government, creating an executive branch in the town government, as permitted by legislation enacted in 1976. As such, some supervisors have additional authority or executive powers, whereas some towns have town managers or chief executive officers who serve as

10320-536: The settlers' investments, possessions and farms on Manhattan island, Minuit negotiated the "purchase" of Manhattan from a band of Canarse from Brooklyn who occupied the bottom quarter of Manhattan, known then as the Manhattoes , for 60 guilders ' worth of trade goods. Minuit conducted the transaction with the Canarse chief Seyseys, who was only too happy to accept valuable merchandise in exchange for an island that

10440-489: The signing of the Treaty of Westminster in February 1674, both the Dutch territories were relinquished to the English. With the effective transfer of control on 10 November 1674 (N.S.), the names New Netherland and New Orange reverted to the English versions of "New York" and "New York City", respectively. Suriname became an official Dutch possession in return. The beginnings of New Amsterdam, unlike most other colonies in

10560-405: The south side of the Mohawk and west of Schoharie Creek , as is Auriesville. They thought they established it from contemporary maps, and from the letters of Jogues, Bressani, and Poncet. Joliet had put the village of Ossernenon at the confluence of Schoharie and Mohawk rivers. Jogues described the ravine in which Goupil's body was found, with features which people believed they recognized in

10680-418: The south side of the river. The French forced the Mohawk to agree to accept Jesuit missionaries. In the next years, the French established a permanent Jesuit mission at what developed as Auriesville. Father Boniface, James de Lamberville , Jacques Frémin , Bruyas, Jean Pierron and others laboured here until 1684, when the Mohawk destroyed the mission. The exact location of Ossernenon, closely associated with

10800-456: The state has more than 3,400 active local governments and more than 4,200 taxing jurisdictions. Counties and incorporated municipal governments (also known as "general purpose units of local government"; i.e., cities, towns and villages) in the State of New York have been granted broad home rule powers enabling them to provide services to their residents and to regulate the quality of life within their jurisdictions. They do so while adhering to

10920-404: The state is part of a city or town, which is part of one county. The exceptions are the city of Geneva ; New York City ; and ten Indian reservations . As of 2009 , New York has 62 counties (including New York City's five boroughs ), which are subdivided into 933 towns and 61 cities (including Geneva in both Ontario and Seneca counties, but excluding New York City and Sherrill ). In total,

11040-641: The state legislature prior to 1874. Before a revision to the State Constitution in that year, villages were formed by the state legislature through granting of charters. Many villages reincorporated, dumping their charters in favor of the Village Law. The villages that retain their charters are Alexander , Carthage , Catskill , Cooperstown , Deposit , Fredonia , Ilion , Mohawk , Ossining , Owego , Port Chester , and Waterford . These villages must still comply with those aspects of Village Law that are not inconsistent with their charters. To be incorporated,

11160-580: The state use the term hamlet to refer to a community within a town that is not incorporated as a village but is identified by a name, i.e. an unincorporated community . A hamlet often has a name corresponding to the name of a local school district , post office , or fire district. Because a hamlet has no government of its own, it depends upon the town or towns that contain it for municipal services and government. Because they do not have governments, hamlets have no clear boundaries . Suffolk County publishes maps that give hamlet boundaries, but towns within

11280-423: The state's 932 towns used this system. In towns operating under the ward system, citizens vote for councilmen who represent a specific area (ward) of the town, as opposed to the at-large councilmen elected in the majority of the state's towns. Towns vary in size and population. The largest town by area is Brookhaven ( Suffolk County ), which covers 531.5 sq mi (1,377 km ), but more than half of that

11400-478: The state. Each of the five boroughs of the city is coextensive with a county of the state of New York. Under New York State's General Municipal Law , a borough results when the towns, villages and cities in a county merge with the county itself. This occurred in 1898 when New York City merged with surrounding counties, cities and towns to form its present configuration. The five boroughs are: The boroughs were originally intended to retain some local governance in

11520-508: The submission of a proper petition to the board. The village board must produce a "dissolution plan" that settles specific matters, such as the village's debts, its employees and property, and the financial impact dissolution would have on village and non-village town residents. This plan is voted upon by village voters only. About 15% of villages cross other municipal boundaries. More than 70 villages are located in two or more towns. Seven villages are in two counties. The village of Saranac Lake

11640-704: The summer of 1654 directly from Holland, with passports that gave them permission to trade in the colony. Then in early September, 23 Jewish refugees arrived from the Brazilian city of Recife , which had been conquered by the Portuguese in January 1654. The director-general of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant , sought to turn them away but was ultimately overruled by the directors of the Dutch West India Company in Amsterdam. Asser Levy , an Ashkenazi Jew who

11760-405: The term "Board of Supervisors." 34 counties have a County Legislature, six counties have a Board of Legislators, and one county has a Board of Representatives. The five counties, or boroughs, of New York City are governed by a 51-member City Council. In non-charter counties, the legislative body exercises executive power as well. Although the legislature can delegate certain functions and duties to

11880-503: The town of Palm Tree in Orange County was incorporated in 2019 and is coterminous with the village of Kiryas Joel , having acquired land from the town of Monroe . When such an entity is formed, officials from either unit of government may serve in both village and town governments simultaneously. A referendum is held to decide whether residents prefer a village-style or town-style government, which will then function primarily as

12000-419: The town or towns in which they are located. Village residents pay both town and village taxes, and vote in town and village elections. Those services not provided by the village are provided by the town or towns containing the village. As of the 2000 census, 9.9% of the state's population was living in one of the 556 villages in New York. The legislature of a village is the board of trustees, composed of

12120-509: The typical grid become enforced long after the town ceased to be Dutch. Most of the Financial District overlaps with New Amsterdam and has retained its original street layout. The 1625 date of the founding of New Amsterdam is now commemorated in the official Seal of New York City . (Formerly, the year on the seal was 1664, the year of the provisional Articles of Transfer, assuring New Netherlanders that they "shall keep and enjoy

12240-507: The valuable sugar plantations and factories captured by them that year on the coast of Surinam , giving them full control over the coast of what is now Guyana and Suriname . On 9 August 1673 ( N.S. ; 30 July 1673 (O.S.)), during the Third Anglo-Dutch War , the Dutch quickly but briefly retook the colony of New Netherland, which the English called "New York", with a combined fleet of a squadron of ships from Amsterdam and

12360-580: The various units of government that provide local services in the American state of New York . The state is divided into boroughs , counties, cities, towns, and villages. (The only boroughs, the five boroughs of New York City, have the same boundaries as their respective counties.) They are municipal corporations , chartered (created) by the New York State Legislature , as under the New York State Constitution

12480-511: The village after him. Since the late 19th century, a Catholic tradition developed associating Auriesville with the site of the Mohawk village Ossernenon, where Jesuit missionaries were martyred in 1642 and 1646. The National Shrine of the North American Martyrs was built here in 1930 and has added to its grounds. But, according to Dean R. Snow and other late 20th-century archeologists specializing in Native American history, Ossernenon

12600-429: Was castoreum —the secretion of the animals' anal glands—which was used for its medicinal properties and for perfumes. The expeditions by Adriaen Block and Hendrick Christiaensen in 1611, 1612, 1613 and 1614, resulted in the surveying and charting of the region from the 38th parallel to the 45th parallel . On their 1614 map, which gave them a four-year trade monopoly under a patent of the States General , they named

12720-496: Was a prohibitively expensive undertaking, only partly subsidized by the fur trade. This led to a scaling back of the original plans. By 1628, a smaller fort was constructed with walls containing a mixture of clay and sand. The fort also served as the center of trading activity. It contained a barracks, the church, a house for the West India Company director and a warehouse for the storage of company goods. Troops from

12840-537: Was actually mostly controlled by the Weckquaesgeeks. An official letter of November 7, 1626 in which Pieter Schagen informed the States General of the purchase (by Peter Minuit ) of Manhattan ("'t eylant Manhettes", groot 11000 morgen ) from the "wilden" (wild ones). This area amounts to 94 square kilometres (36 sq mi). Schagen also mentioned the successful first harvest and the shipload of 7,246 beaver skins ( Nationaal Archief , The Hague ). For

12960-564: Was also covertly attempting to find the Northwest Passage for the Dutch East India Company . Instead, he brought back news about the possibility of exploitation of beaver by the Dutch who sent commercial, private missions to the area the following years. At the time, beaver pelts were highly prized in Europe, because the fur could be felted to make waterproof hats. A by-product of the trade in beaver pelts

13080-446: Was called Arch Brook. On August 27, 1664, while England and the Dutch Republic were at peace, four English frigates sailed into New Amsterdam's harbor and demanded New Netherland's surrender, effecting the bloodless capture of New Amsterdam . On September 6, the local Dutch deciding not to offer resistance, Stuyvesant's lawyer Johannes de Decker and five other delegates signed the official Articles of Surrender of New Netherland . This

13200-686: Was finished in 1645 and stood until destroyed in the Slave Insurrection of 1741 . A pen-and-ink view of New Amsterdam, drawn on-the-spot and discovered in the map collection of the Austrian National Library in Vienna in 1991, provides a unique view of New Amsterdam as it appeared from Capske (small Cape) Rock in 1648. It was associated with Adriaen van der Donck 's Remonstrance of New Netherland , and may have inspired later views as by Claes Jansz. Visscher . Capske Rock

13320-583: Was located about 9 mi (14 km) west on a tributary on the south side of the Mohawk River. Archeologists who have excavated there refer to it as the Bauder site. The association of Auriesville with Ossernenon has not been supported by archeological evidence. Auriesville, located in Montgomery County , has been said to have developed at the presumed site of the Mohawk village known as Ossernenon. But, according to archeologist Dean R. Snow , it

13440-410: Was not until the late nineteenth-century that this Catholic tradition developed. It is disproved by archeological evidence discovered by Snow, Donald A. Rumrill, and other 20th-century archeologists who assert that Ossernenon was located approximately nine miles west of Auriesville on a tributary south of the Mohawk River. The archeological site associated with the former village of Ossernenon is known as

13560-468: Was one of the 23 refugees, eventually prospered and in 1661 became the first Jew to own a house in New Amsterdam, which also made him the first Jew known to have owned a house anywhere in North America. On September 15, 1655, New Amsterdam was occupied by several hundred Munsee , possibly in response to a Dutch colonist killing a woman stealing peaches from his orchard. No bloodshed occurred until

13680-529: Was originally a private, profit-making commercial enterprise focused on cementing alliances and conducting trade with the local Indigenous peoples. Surveying and exploration of the region was conducted as a prelude to an anticipated official settlement by the Dutch Republic, which occurred in 1624. In 1620 the Pilgrims attempted to sail to the Hudson River from England. However, Mayflower reached Cape Cod (now part of Massachusetts) on November 9, 1620, after

13800-532: Was settled at what archeologists refer to as the Freeman site. As was their custom, its Mohawk residents took the name with them also when they moved the village to another site nearby, now known in archeology as the Fox Farm site. Excavations have supported conclusions of Mohawk settlement here. The sites are both to the west of present-day Fonda . The Jesuits in Nouvelle France (Canada) later developed

13920-581: Was situated in the water close to Manhattan between Manhattan and Noten Eylant, and signified the start of the East River roadstead. New Amsterdam received municipal rights by a charter from New Netherland Governor Peter Stuyvesant on February 2, 1653, thus becoming a city. Albany, then named Beverwyck , received its city rights in 1652. Nieuw Haarlem , now known as Harlem , was formally recognized in 1658. The first Dutch Jews known to have arrived in New Amsterdam arrived in 1654. First to arrive were Solomon Pietersen and Jacob Barsimson, who sailed during

14040-404: Was soon being made by the Dutch on Long Island . In 1621, the Dutch West India Company was founded. Between 1621 and 1623, orders were given to the private, commercial traders to vacate the territory, thus opening up the territory to Dutch settlers and company traders. It also allowed the laws and ordinances of the states of Holland to apply. Previously, during the private, commercial period, only

14160-529: Was swiftly followed by the Second Anglo-Dutch War , between England and the Dutch Republic . In June 1665, New Amsterdam was reincorporated under English law as New York City, named after the Duke of York (later King James II ). He was the brother of King Charles II , who had been granted the lands. In 1667, the Treaty of Breda ended the conflict in favor of the Dutch. The Dutch did not press their claims on New Netherland but did demand control over

14280-526: Was the Feast of the Assumption , as well as the anniversary of when Isaac Jogues was first taken as a Mohawk captive to Ossernenon in 1642. Four thousand people went on a pilgrimage from Albany and Troy to Auriesville on that day. Other Catholic parishes subsequently adopted the practice of visiting Auriesville during the summer. Frequently there were as many as 4,000 to 5,000 people gathered there. Many of

14400-438: Was the main street that led out of town north towards Harlem. The town was surrounded to the north by a wall leading from the eastern to the western shore. Today, where the course of this city wall was, is Wall Street . Nearby, a canal which led from the harbor inland was filled in 1676, and is today Broad Street . The layout of the streets was winding, as in a European city. Only starting from Wall Street going toward uptown did

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