In 1791, the newly formed Saratoga County Board of Supervisors met for the first time at Mead’s Tavern in Stillwater, in the eastern part of the county. It was common for elected officials or committees to meet at a public house before building a town hall.
Within the next few years, when it was decided that a courthouse building and jail should be erected, the Town of Ballston was chosen for it’s central location.
Captain Edward A. Watrous donated a site on his farm for the courthouse on Middeline Road in Ballston and construction began in 1795. Court was first held there the next spring. A small hamlet grew, known as “Courthouse Hill,” it was complete with taverns, hotels and law offices. The county seat seemed to be firmly cemented at that location, but that changed in 1816. [Read more…] about How Ballston Spa Became the Seat of Saratoga County
A man with the ominous-sounding name of Isaiah Blood, born on February 13, 1810, once operated one of the largest tool factories of its kind in New York State, along the Kayaderosseras Creek in 
The last week of the year 1843 was a difficult time for Ballston farmer Uriah Gregory. On December 29th Uriah lost his beloved wife, Tamer, his partner of more than sixty-five years, with whom he shared a life in the earliest days of the new nation. 
Today the crossing of Middle Line Road and Geyser Road in Saratoga County contains a few houses and a small parking lot to access the Kayaderosseras Creek. But in the mid-1800s, it was the site of a thriving hamlet of several hundred inhabitants called Milton Center.
