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Ulster is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 12,660 at the 2020 census. The town of Ulster is in the northeastern part of the county. The town is directly north of the city of Kingston. Ulster is partially situated inside Catskill Park. The New York State Thruway (Interstate 87) and U.S. Route 9W pass through the western part of the town. U.S. Route 209 crosses the Hudson River from the eastern side of the town. [edit] History
The town of Ulster, newest of the twenty towns in the county, was created by the Ulster County Board of Supervisors on 28 November 1879 with land taken from the town of Kingston. Formed in protest to what was considered political misrule by the authorities of the town of Kingston, the action of the supervisors was soon ratified by the state legislature. The first meeting of the town of Ulster was held in the hotel of George A. Stoddard on 2 March 1880. James Myer Jr. was its first supervisor. The new town contained approximately 27.5 square miles of land. It was bordered the city of Kingston on three sides, and by the Hudson River and the towns of Kingston, Saugerties, Hurley, Woodstock, and Rosendale. Rondout Creek separated tUlster from the town of Esopus to the south. "While the establishment of Ulster solved the problem of political corruption in the parent town of Kingston, another problem was inadvertently created. When the boundaries of Ulster were established, it was obvious just how severe the punishment of the town of Kingston had been: the new town had Eddyville with the Delaware and Hudson Canal terminus lock, the land bordering the Hudson with its icehouses and brickyards and all the advantages for trade and travel, the flat farm land of the Saugerties Road and the Brabant with its road leading into the interior. The Esopus Creek with all the potential for mills was locate within the new town. Finding a centrum or hub around which the township could unite was virtually impossible as it was little more than a collection of hamlets bound together by only a legislative act." (Burgher manuscript) Although the new town lacked a geographic center, Eddyville was its economic hub. Named for George Eddy, a mill owner whose family established a cotton mill and a sawmill on the Rondout, Eddyville became a thriving hamlet in large part due to the Delaware and Hudson Canal. Present East Kingston was first called Flatbush. Originally named by the Esopus tribe of the Lenape, the Dutchlater called it "Vlakke Basch". It became the site of cement works, ice houses and brickyards, and became second only to Eddyville in significance in the newly-formed Town of Ulster. Present Rider Park and Post Park are on former brickyards. The hamlet of Lake Katrine bears the name of the nearby lake. The lake was first called Auntrens Pond, and the area nearby was first called Pine Bush. Bluestone quarrying was the main industry in Ruby, which was known as both Dutch and German settlement in earlier times. "The township remained primarily rural and agricultural until the post World War II years when so much happened so quickly and Ulster had to move into the 20th century ready or not. A major corporation, IBM, opened its Kingston facility. The economy of Ulster, the city of Kingston and neighboring towns changed irreversibly as housing developments sprang up, schools were built and other businesses arrived." (Burgher manuscript) The town of Ulster is noted as being the "business hub" of Ulster County. Many historical sites dot the landscape. In 1999, Lisa Groppuso was the first female supervisor, elected on the Democratic ticket. Groppuso had previously served four two-year terms (1990-1998) as town clerk. In 2005 Ulster voters elected 21-year-old Nicky B. Woerner as the youngest town supervisor in New York State history, and elected the first Democratic town board in the town's history. [edit] Research Tips
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