Template:Wp-Hillsdale, New York-History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Much of what would become the Town of Hillsdale was part of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck. Due to overlapping boundary lines, portions of the eastern part were claimed by the Province of Massachusetts. Kakeout was established by settlers from New England who raised sheep. Around 1745, Martin Krum, is reported to have purchased 800 acres in the western portion of the town from the Van Rensselaer family. Robert Noble and his associates procured the Indian title to land about five miles square in the eastern part and called it Nobletown. The Van Resselaer's and the Livingstons leased land on their vast estates to tenant farmers, but those who had emigrated from Massachusetts did not recognized the landlords' titles. The dispute was not settled until 1773.

In 1776 Henry Knox passed through Hillsdale while transporting cannons from Albany, New York, to aid the Continentals in the siege of Boston. Two markers are posted in Hillsdale along the Henry Knox Trail.

This territory was taken from the Town of Claverack in 1782.^[1] The Columbia Turnpike was chartered by the state legislature in 1799. The road ran from the Massachusetts state line to the Hudson River port of Hudson as a way to bring farm produce, especially wool, rye, and wheat from the farm communities downriver to New York City. Revenues from tolls covered construction and maintenance. The East Gate tollhouse was located in Hillsdale. In 2016, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Dr. Joseph P. Dorr House and Pine View Farm are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.