MECHANICVILLE

mechanicville, a village of saratoga county, new york, u.s.a., on the west bank of the hudson river, about 20 m. n. of albany; on the delaware & hudson and boston & maine railways. pop. (1900), 4695 (702 foreign-born); (1905, state census), 5877; (1910) 6,634. it lies partly within stillwater and partly within half-moon townships, in the bottom-lands at the mouth of the anthony kill, about 1-1/2 m. s. of the mouth of the hoosick river. on the north and south are hills reaching a maximum height of 200 ft. there is ample water power, and there are manufactures of paper, sash and blinds, fibre, &c. from a dam here power is derived for the general electric company at schenectady. the first settlement in this vicinity was made in what is now half-moon township about 1680. mechanicville (originally called burrow) was chartered by the county court in 1859, and incorporated as a village in 1870. it was the birthplace of colonel ephraim elmer ellsworth (1837-1861), the first federal officer to lose his life in the civil war.