Introduction

Stockport,

Columbia County,

New York

Capt. Franklin Ellis³⁸²

1878

     Stockport, the smallest town in the county, was erected from the towns of Stuyvesant, Ghent, and Hudson, April 30, 1833.  It received its name from Stockport, England, the native place of James Wild, at that time a prominent citizen of the town.  Its location is in the western range of towns, north of the centre.  Its greatest length is along the Hudson, which forms its western boundary.  Its area comprises a little more than six thousand acres of land, whose general surface is elevated, although not mountainous.  There are high hills along the Hudson, which slope eastward, forming table-lands of moderate height.  Near the centre of the town the general level is broken by ridges, extending north and south, from which is afforded an attractive view of the country miles around.  The soil is a fertile loam along the stream, somewhat slaty on the uplands in the central part, and clayey in the southern.

     The sunny hill-sides on the Hudson seem especially adapted for fruit culture, and large vineyards abound.  Near the mouth of Stockport creek are several containing more than forty acres each, whose yearly product aggregates more than one hundred tons of grapes.

     Stockport is remarkably well watered.  Kinderhook creek enters the town from the northwest, and flows a little east of the centre, where it forms a junction with Claverack creek, which flows from the southeast.  The united streams form Stockport (formerly Major Abram's) creek, which flows westward into the Hudson, having in its descent to the level of that stream several falls of considerable magnitude.  The other streams have, in the town, falls whose aggregate height is more than one hundred and fifty feet; and natural water-power is afforded at Stottsville, Stockport, Chittenden's falls, and Columbiaville.  This power has been judiciously utilized, giving Stockport great prominence as a manufacturing town, and forming the source of much wealth.