POTSDAM, N. Y., village in Saint Law rence County, on the Raquette River, and on the New York Central and Hudson River Rail road, about 20 miles from the Saint Lawrence River and 30 miles west of Malone. In 1786 the State of New York created a land com mission to further the settlement of the unex plored northern part of the State. Ten towns were established, one of which was Potsdam. Later Garrett Van Horn and David M. Clark son purchased the town of Potsdam. In June 1803 their agent, Benjamin Raymond, arrived at the place to sell the property. A number of persons from Vermont soon purchased land and settled here. The village of Potsdam was incorporated in 1831. It is in a productive agri cultural region, which has had extensive lum bering interests from its foundation. The first industrial establishment built by Benjamin Ray mond was a saw mill, and saw mills have been there for over 100 years. In a recent year, one Potsdam company alone had 1,000 men em ployed in lumber camps in the Adirondacks, and in spring floated down the Raquette River, to the Potsdam mills, 30,000,000 feet of log stock.
The village has flour and lumber mills, paper mills, creameries and machine shops. An ex tension of the water power is being developed in the vicinity. It has an extensive trade in lumber, paper, farm and dairy products, and men's clothing. The celebrated Potsdam sand stone (q.v.) is quarried in the vicinity, and is used in nearly all the large buildings of the town. It has the Potsdam State Normal and Training School, which has a library of 8,000 volumes, the Clarkson School of Technology, founded in 1895, the Crane Institute of Music, a high school and public elementary schools. There are seven churches. The two banks have a combined capital of $200000. The govern ment is administered by a village president and a board of five trustees elected annually. The village owns and operates the waterworks. Pop. 4,036.