History
A Short History of the Town of Meredith
By Bernice Graham Telian, Town HistorianThe Town of Meredith was formed March 14, 1800, just three years after the formation of Delaware County, New York, on March 10, 1797.
The town was probably named after Reese Meredith, a wealthy merchant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a personal friend of General George Washington. In 1770 Reese Meredith was one of thirty original patentees of 30,000 acres in Albany County, which included our lands in the Franklin Patent. He remained the owner of two of the twelve Great Lots in the Franklin Patent and in his will, dated January 27, 1779 he bequeathed his “real and personal estate…in New York” to his three children.
When George Washington became President, he appointed Reese’s son, Samuel, as the first Treasurer of the Union. I believe that Samuel and his two sisters named the town after their father, Reese Meredith, shortly after his death.
At one time Meredith was a wilderness with tremendous overgrowth, an abundance of wild creatures such as bear and wolf, and the presence of Indian Tribes such as the Lenapes (as they called themselves), who lived in an area that stretched from our Catskill Mountains to Philadelphia. Other Indian Tribes were also present: the Mohawks along our local heads of the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers, and the bordering Oneida tribe. The land in the County began to see pioneers coming at the time after the Revolutionary War.
In Meredith, our recorded history begins with a tavern keeper, Joseph Bramhall, in the west end of the Township in 1787. Next in recorded history came Amos Bristol into West Meredith in 1790, who also operated a tavern, which housed a post office where mail was delivered by the stagecoach driver, and had an early Masonic Lodge room. These men had settled on the newly developed Susquehanna Turnpike, being constructed from Unadilla to Catskill, New York. In 1791 Nathan Stilson, his son Moses Stilson and his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Stewart, bought a 1,000 acre tract of land in West Meredith and all of their immediate family and other friends from New Milford, Connecticut came to establish Stilson Settlement in West Meredith. Here our first church was built and our first schoolhouse. By our 1800 census there were 34 heads of households in Meredith.
One man on the 1800 census was Samuel Law, a single man at that time, who had been born in Cheshire, Connecticut. He was very well educated and became the land agent for Patent Owners of large tracts of land. He is responsible for the development of Meredith Square. In the beginning it was called East Meredith but as he developed his plans it became known as Meredith Square, and a new town assumed the name of East Meredith.
This new town of East Meredith sprang up as the Ulster and Delaware railroad line laid its tracks through there, and a sawmill was built in 1846 that eventually became Hanford Mills. This mill grew with time, employed many people and provided the local farmers with feed and lumber. Today, Hanford Mills is known across the Nation as an old mill that still operates by a water wheel, and many tourists come to see its operation.
Meridale, once called Meredith Hollow, sits below Meredith Square on State Highway 28. Many of the old houses are gone; only one church remains, and the post office and the fire department. It was once a hub for the community with an opera house there, several stores, a blacksmith shop, a saw mill and a fulling mill.
Meridale was made famous with the naming of Meridale Farms, an operation of registered Jersey cattle that was to become known throughout the world. Meridale Farms was developed by Francis Wayland Ayer when he purchased land in 1888. He was a businessman from Philadelphia. He took in a partner, H. N. McKinney, and by 1921 the sale of one purebred Jersey cow brought them $10,000. Thousands of pounds of butter were being made and shipped to New York City. The operation provided work for many local people. Also, Meridale Farms picked up milk from local farmers. To accommodate the many people coming to their auctions, Ayer operated various Meredith Inns through the years. Neither the farm buildings nor the Inn still exist; in fact the land from Meridale Farms has been sold to a developer.
The Town of Meredith through the years was a prime farming community that helped New York State achieve record setting milk production. Unfortunately, few examples of our beautiful dairy barns remain today. Lands are crisscrossed with beautiful old stone walls, many of them built extra high to contain the many, many sheep we had in our earliest years.
Because of our elevation, harsh winters in Meredith are part of our history. Meredith had 18 rural one-room schoolhouses at one time and most of them closed during the months of January and February. Still there are stories of bobs, heaped with hay and fur robes, the horses driven by parents, taking the children off to school. Today, our own Highway Department and modern equipment solves winter traveling problems.
Views in Meredith are spectacular from our rolling hills and valleys. We are blessed with many soft maples. Maple syrup has been made in large quantities by individual farmers through the years and the maple trees are a colorful sight in the fall when the foliage turns color. There is one brilliant red one that stands in the middle of beautiful Hanford Mills in East Meredith.
Bernice Graham Telian is the author of Two Hundred Years of Rolling Suns: Meredith Township 1800 – 2000. Her book is available for sale through the Meredith Historical Society.
Book for Sale
The official bicentennial history of the Town of Meredith, written by Bernice Graham Telian, Town Historian, is available through the Meredith Historical Society. It can be obtained in one of three ways:
1) The book is offered for sale at each of the Meredith Historical Society programs for $25.2) The Historical Society offers a free copy of the book to anyone who donates at least $100 to the Society.
3) The book can be ordered by mail by sending a check for $30, which includes $5 for postage and handling, to the Meredith Historical Society, Box 26, Meridale, NY 13806.
For more information, call Frank or Cynthia Waterman at (607) 746-8083.