618 Agricultikai. .Manual 



limiting grounds. This territory, including the greater part of 

 the land in this county, was granted by the English to a company 

 of thirteen individuals. The two patents were united by the 

 colonial government into a district in 1772. As late as the 

 middle of the nineteenth century land was still held under a 

 rent charge of from fifteen to twenty cents an acre, derived 

 originally from the Kayaderosseras patent. It is said that the 

 mineral waters were first used for medicinal purposes by Sir 

 William Johnson. 



The first settlements in the county were made by the Dutch 

 within a few years after their first colonization of the country 

 about Albany. Lying in the great thoroughfare between the 

 English settlement at Albany and the Erench posts on Lake 

 Cham/plain, the passing of military parties checked the progress 

 of settlement and exposed the few hardy pioneers to all the 

 dangers and anxieties of border warfare. Until the conquest of 

 Canada by the English, settlements were made slowly. After 

 this, although formed rapidly, they were confined for some years 

 to the banks of the Hudson and Mohawk. 



During the Revolution some of the most important events of 

 the war transpired w 7 ithin the limits of this county. On the 

 approach of Burgoyne in 1777, General Schuyler retreated from 

 Fort Edward to Saratoga, then to Stillwater, and finally to the 

 mouth of the Mohawk. The inhabitants of the county fled to 

 Albany, leaving their homes and fields of grain to be destroyed 

 by the enemy. General Gates, who superseded General Schuyler, 

 fortified himself at Bemus Heights, where two battles were fought. 

 Burgoyne then took position on the heights of Saratoga, just 

 west of the present village of Schuylerville, where he finally 

 surrendered, October 17, 1777. 



The destruction during this campaign of nearly every evidence 

 of civilized occupation within the county, together with the fear 

 of Indian hostilities, prevented the immediate return to the aban- 

 doned lands. After the close of the war, however, settlements 

 spread rapidly. 



The early but abortive efforts toward opening a canal from 

 the Mohawk along the west bank of the Hudson, around the 

 rapids, w T ere mostly made in Saratoga County. Although the 



