Finances.— The assessed valuation of tax able property is $61,194,631, of which $55,700,114 is for real estate, and the net bonded debt $4,379,620. The maintenance and operation of the city in 1919 was $1,256,360. There are several national banks, one State' bank and two trust companies. There is one savings bank and three building and loan associations.
Government.— Troy is governed as a second class city of the State of New York and in addition to general State laws retains features of its old charter. The city is well governed, the principal problem being the comparatively great length, narrow width and steep grade of some streets leading to the residential districts on the heights to the East. The State of New York and city of Troy are co-operating in the election of an extensive system of docks to serve as terminals for traffic created by the New York State Barge Canal system.
History.— The site of Troy was the seat of several farms, in 1786, when Albany had been called a city for a hundred years. The Mohe gan Indians formerly had a fortified village on the site of Troy at a point just north of the Poestenkill Creek. The Mohawk tribe of Indians had a palisaded village on the west side of the Hudson River on an island formed by the third and fourth branches of the Mohawk River at its mouth. Hostilities broke out- be tween tribes, in which the Mohawks were suc cessful, and the Mohegans were finally driven to the Connecticut River. The Dutch families, who afterward took possession of this ground on the east side of the river, found a natural meadow land, and they called it aPafraets Dad," *The paradise of a lazy man." The islands forming the delta of the Mo hawk River, opposite Troy, were the .scene of much activity during the Revolutionary War. The American army encamped here to obstruct the march of Burgoyne. The island which was formerly the site of the Mohawk Indian vil lage, above referred to, was fortified on its north side by earthworks, under the superin tendence of Thaddeus Kosciuszco. Gen. Philip Schuyler commanded the American troops, with his headquarters at Van Schaick's house, which is still standing. The fortifications may vet be plainly seen. From these islands the American army marched north under General Gates, who succeeded Schuyler, and soon afterward fought the British at Schuylerville in what is known as the battle of Saratoga.
Three miles above the site of Troy stood a village called New City, afterward Lansing burg. In 1787 New City had nearly 500 in habitants, Albany had about 3,000, and Troy consisted of a few farmhouses. The deeper channel in the river at Troy made navigation so much easier than at New City that the enter prising settlers who began to arrive from New England, seeing its advantages, located here. The settlement grew rapidly, being known at this time as °Van der Heyden's.° In 1789 the settlers changed the name to Troy. The falls on the Poestenkill Creek were taken advantage of, and three mills were here erected, a saw mill, a grist mill and a paper mill; the last, the first of its kind in northern New York, was built in 1792. In 1808 a rolling mill was estab
lished on the Wynantskill Creek. Troy soon outstripped Lansingburg, and in 1793 the State legislature decided on Troy as the county-seat of Rensselaer County.
During the War of 1812 the merchants of Troy supplied large quantities of provisions to the American army. Samuel Willson, who slaughtered cattle and packed beef in Troy, supplied his beef to the army °packed in full bound barrels of white oak? It soon became known as °Uncle Sam's? as Samuel Willson was familiarly called, and from this grew the well-known appellation, °Uncle Sam, as ap plied to the United States.
The charter incorporating Troy as a city was passed by the legislature in 1816.
The State dam was constructed across the Hudson River at Troy in 1823. This marks the tidal point of the Hudson River. At this time commerce with New York was mainly by sloops, of which 39 were recorded as owned by Troy merchants. In addition to its rapidly growing commerce, Troy now began to acquire fame as an educational city; the Emma Willard Seminary, established in 1814 and removed to Troy two years later, was developing a national fame; and in 1825 the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was opened. The population of Troy was now 7,859. The population and industries increased rapidly, and it became an important manufacturing centre. Its collar and cuff and iron industries gave its growth a great impetus. Its remoteness from the mines has caused it to lose its supremacy in the iron industries, but the collar and cuff industry has steadily in creased. Industrially, the city is noted for hav ing a group of precision industries, that is, works where machining is done to a standard of one one-thousandths of an inch instead of the usual machine shop standard of one one hundredths-inch. This was the determining factor in the government enlarging the Water vliet arsenal during the war and after the war. Precision trained mechanics of this sort are found in few other centres in America. Troy has had several destructive fires. The most notable was the one of 10 May 1862, when the total value of property destroyed was $4677,892; about 800 buildings were burned.
The village of Lansingburg and the city of Troy gradually grew toward each other until the dividing line was not apparent to the eye, yet each maintained its separate government.
In 1900 an act was passed by the legislature an nexing Lansingburg and other outlying territory to the city of Troy. This act did not take effect until 1 Jan. 1901, too late to receive notice in the United States census of 1900. However, an enumeration was taken by the census officials, as shown in the census reports, giving the popu lation of Greater Troy as 75,057. The popula tion at present is estimated at 80,000. Consult Weise, One Hundred Years.'