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The Town of Windham was formed in
March, 1798, from part of the Town of Woodstock in Ulster
County. Records disagree as to whether it was the 23rd
or 27th of that month. Two years later, Windham
became the western half of the newly-created Greene County.
The town increased in size when a part of Freehold was
annexed on March 26, 1803. (This is not the hamlet of
Freehold, which is located in the town of Greenville, but
rather an early designation for the town of Durham.)
Windham’s earliest pioneers were
predominately of German Palatine and English decent. Some
settlement took place in the western part of the town prior
to the Revolutionary War, but it was not until after the war
that New Englanders and residents of neighboring towns and
counties began to come to the mountains in greater numbers.
Between 1813 and 1851, as the
population increased, this vast territory was carved up to
create the even mountaintop towns of Ashland, Halcott,
Hunter, Jewett, Lexington, Prattsville and Windham. The
towns of New Goshen and Greenland were the first to be
created, on January 27, 1813. New Goshen was renamed
Lexington, and Greenland became Hunter. The town of
Schoharie Kill, named for the creek that flowed through it,
was formed from the northeast corner of Windham on March 8,
1833. A month later, it was renamed Prattsville in honor of
Colonel Zadock Pratt, a tanner, banker and future U.S.
Congressman. Ashland was created from parts of Prattsville
and Windham on March 23, 1848. Jewett was formed from parts
of Hunter and Lexington on November 14, 1849, and Halcott
was created from part of Lexington on November 16, 851.
The present-day town of Windham
includes hamlets of Hensonville, Maplecrest and Windham, and
regions known locally as Brooklyn, Brooksburg, Mitchell
Hollow, Nauvoo, North Settlement and part of the hamlet of
East Windham.
The town and hamlet of Windham were
probably named for either the town or county of Windham in
eastern Connecticut. Many of our earliest settlers emigrated
from communities in the central and western parts of that
state.
The hamlet of Windham, or more
specifically, the business district of Main Street, has
undergone several name changes. It was known as Osbornville
when a post office was established there on February 22,
1831, with Bennett Osborn as its first postmaster. In 1836,
when Zadock Pratt was a candidate for congress, Bennett
Osborn campaigned for his opponent, so during his first term
of office in Washington, Pratt saw to it that Osbornville
was changed to Windham Centre, and William Robinson replaced
Bennett Osborn as Postmaster. The name of the hamlet was
shortened to Windham on June 24, 1873.
Between the junction of State Route 23
and 296, and where Route 296 meets South Street, you come
upon an area known as Brooklyn. It probably took its name
from the large number of city people who spent their summers
at one of the boarding houses in the vicinity.
Lying to the southeast was a hamlet
known as Bailey’s Four Corners. It was established as a post
office on February 21, 1850, wit Ethan S. Bailey appointed
as its first postmaster. His house stood near the
intersection of State Route 296 and County Route 65 that
created the four corners. Today, this hamlet is called
Hensonville. John Henson was appointed postmaster on June
23, 1853, and the community was renamed for his family.
The hamlet of Big Hollow was located
about two miles southeast of Hensonville. It was an
appropriate geographic name for a small community lying in a
valley, or “hollow”, surrounded by the Blackhead mountain
range, the highest peaks in town. This, no doubt, earned
Windham its “Land in the Sky” nickname. Tourists had long
come to the mountains for their health, as it was thought
that the high altitude, clean air and pure water could cure
many ills. Referring to a place as being in a hollow, it was
believed, could be detrimental to the tourist industry. It
was for this reason that a new name was chosen, one that
suggested mountain peaks and streets lined with maple trees.
Big Hollow became Maplecrest on May 23, 1921.
The section of Windham known as
Mitchell Hollow was first settled in the late 1700’s by the
Mitchell family. Little is known of their history. They
either died off or moved away before Mitchell Hollow was
settled to any considerable extent.
The region known as Nauvoo was
christened for a town in Hancock County, Illinois, where
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,
better known as Mormons, resided before their migration to
Utah. Windham’s Nauvoo was named in honor of its citizens
who embraced the Mormon faith and left their mountaintop
homes to head west.
The section once known as Union
Society is now called Brooksburg. It took its original name
from an old meeting house in the vicinity that was used by
people of all religious denominations.
The aptly-named North Settlement was
populated at an early date by families traveling along the
famed Susquehanna Turnpike. The roadway ran from Salisbury
in Litchfield County, Connecticut to Wattle’s Ferry (now
Unadilla) in Otsego County, New York.
From the beginning, Windham was an
agrigultural community with numerous churches and one-room
schoolhouses. Sawmills, gristmills, tanneries and other
industries vital to the community were subsequently added.
The depletion of hemlock trees, whose bark was used in the
tanning vats, forced the tanneries to relocate further
south.
Families with a spare room began
taking in summer boarders by the mid-1800’s to supplement
their meager incomes. Eventually, some of these private
homes were enlarged into boarding houses and hotels with
modern amenities, and tourism became the major source of
income.
Today, Windham provides a wealth of
year round activities for residents and tourists alike. A
man made flood control dam in Maplecrest furnishes the
community with a place to swim. Its pavilion is an ideal
site for family reunions and town picnics. The surrounding
mountains are filled with hiking trails providing scenic
views. Outdoorsman have designated seasons for hunting and
fishing. Fine dining establishments, community festivals,
church socials, youth programs, a family-oriented movie
theater, concerts in the old Presbyterian Church that now
serves the town’s civic center, two 18-hole golf courses,
and a preeminent ski slope help Windham live up to its other
nickname the “Gem of the Catskills”. |
