This year marks the 192nd anniversary of the establishment of Clifton Park. Separated from the Town of Halfmoon on March 3, 1828, it was the last town to be formed in Saratoga County.
The first Town Board meeting occurred on April 1, 1828 at the inn of James Groom at Grooms Corners. The first town officers were elected, and town justices, highway supervisors, and school district commissioners were all selected. The first supervisor of the new Town was Ephraim Stevens who ran a large hotel. (He is now buried under a 1972 addition to the Clifton Park Methodist Church).
The crossroads that bore his name, Stevens’s Corners, became known as Clifton Park Village, and the hotel still stands. Nathan Garnsey, Jr., a former Halfmoon town supervisor whose home also still stands, on Route 146 in Rexford, became the second town supervisor in 1829, but Stevens would later serve several more terms. Many town meetings were held at the Grooms Tavern, the community’s first Town Hall.
In 1828 Southern Saratoga County was booming. The Erie Canal had opened three years previously and was bringing increased commerce and industry. The new Erie Canal was an object of national pride. It was considered the eighth wonder of the world, and truly an engineering miracle. This artificial river wove its way through the new town of Clifton Park carrying immigrants west to settle the new nation. Hotels and taverns stood along major turnpikes running north and south, and busy roads running east and west. People were pouring into the area, mostly from New England and Southern New York State, looking for land and work.
It was largely because of this population explosion that it was decided to create two towns out of one. The area of the Town of Halfmoon that became Clifton Park, already had an identity of its own. It had been referred to as Clifton Park since a land patent by that name had been created in 1708 by Queen Anne of England. This land patent had been granted to several land speculators in hopes that they in turn would find settlers to build homes and farm the land. Native People referred to this patent as Shenendehowa (a grassy plain).
Clifton, meaning place on a cliff, probably takes its name from the cliffs along the Mohawk River near Rexford. The area of the patent continued to be referred to as Clifton Park, and it was natural that the new town should assume this name. During the first year the town was simply referred to as Clifton. By 1829 however, it became Clifton Park to differentiate itself from other places in New York already known as Clifton.
John Scherer is the Clifton Park Town Historian and also Senior Historian Emeritus at the New York State Museum. He holds a Master’s degree in Museum Studies and American Folk Life from the Cooperstown Graduate Program. If you want to learn more about Clifton Park history read “Bits of Clifton Park History by John Scherer,” or consult the Clifton Park Halfmoon Library website for presentations on Clifton Park history and a multi media program on the Erie Canal in Clifton Park.
This essay is presented by the Saratoga County History Roundtable and Brookside Museum. Visit their websites and follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/
Photo of Tavern of James Groom where the Town of Clifton Park was formed on April 1, 1828, postcard view by Parker Goodfellow, c.1910.
There’s a nice manuscript map of early Clifton Park on the State Archives website. It dates from 1765, and shows the lots laid out with the names of a few early landowners. It looks like lots 6 and 9 of subdivision I belong to a John Warren.
If you zoom in closely you can see a sketch of a little house where Stony Creek flows into the Mohawk.
http://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/37447
Clifton, meaning place on a cliff, probably takes its name from the cliffs along the Mohawk River near Rexford. Old story NO PROOF.What we do know for fact and not probability is that Clifton Park was named by Nanning Harmansen.In 1703 and 1707 Nanning Harmansen appealed to Lord Cornbury for his letters of patent for land that he bought from the Indians known as “Shonondehowah”(1703) and “Shonondehaway”(1707).The second request stated “we want the land to be known by “YOUR” name of Cliftons Park” The area was named the Clifton Park patent.If Lord Cornburys enemies at the time are to be believed he was a vain man .Another patente, Peter Fauconnier a French refugee, who was Receiver General and Treasurer to Lord Cornbury , had a patent named the Hyde Park Patent in Honor of Lord Cornbury. As we know Edward HYDE was Lord Cornbury . But why Clifton. Lord Cornbury was also the 9th Baron CLIFTON.
Clifton Park Patent granted 9/23/1708
Lord Cornbury, also known as Edward Hyde, the 3rd Earl of Clarendon, was awarded the title of Governor of New York in 1701 after his support of William III of Orange in the Glorious Revolution. One of his duties was to grant land patents, and he and other European authorities began to grant land patents in the area around the current area of Clifton Park.
The first settlements in what is now Clifton Park were established in the 17th century. The town or area was named in 1707 by Nanning Harmansen. At that time Harmansen sent letters to Lord Cornbury requesting letters of Patent for Land he bought from the Indigenous Americans known as Chenentahowa (Shenendehowa). He also stated in this correspondence that he wanted the patent to be known by “Your name of Cliftons Park”, and the patent was named the Clifton Park Patent. The name Harmansen chose was an honorarium to Lord Cornbury who descended from the House of Clifton.