Bolton Town

Warren County, New York

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Bolton Town Hall is located at 4949 Lake Shore Drive, Bolton Landing, NY 12814.
Phone: 518‑644‑2444.

Neighborhoods

Beginnings [1]

By 1799 Bolton was of sufficient importance to be recognized as a separate community, and on March 25 the town was carved from the older town of Thurman. A section of the new town of Bolton was lopped off in 1807 to form the town of Hague, and in 1810 and 1838 slices of Bolton became parts of Caldwell and Horicon.

As early as 1800 Bolton was hospitable to visitors. A history of the town says that while "there was not any regular tavern ... at every house the doors were open to guests, and liquor was dispensed with intoxicating liberality." A little later Roger Edgecomb, who had a frame house (rare in those days of log cabins) and sold liquor, enlarged the building to make the first tavern.

But, despite this forecast of Bolton's future importance as a summer resort, lumbering continued to be the principal industry until the War between the States. About 1820 John J. Harris operated three saw mills, Samuel Brown two, and John Moss, first judge of Washington County, one. Samuel Brown also established a potash factory and David Lockwood had what was probably the first tannery in the town. In those days the tanning process required great quantities of hemlock bark. A second potash mill was opened by Reuben Smith in 1815 and a third by Thomas Wright, an enterprising settler who already owned a store, operated a carding machine, and, in 1830, built the only forge in Bolton.

  1. Writer's Program of the Works Progress Administration, Warren County, A History and Guide, American Guide Series, Federal Works Agency, Warren County Board of Supervisors, Glens Falls, 1942

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