To the Editor:

Guilderland should be gearing up to celebrate its 220th birthday. That comes on April 5, the day of the first town meeting and creation of town government.

Guilderland had been authorized by the state legislature a couple of months earlier, on Feb. 26, 1803, in Chapter XIX of the Laws of New York that year, “An Act for Dividing the Town of Watervliet, in the County of Albany.”

Watervliet, now a city, but then one of the state’s original towns (created in 1788) originally encompassed much of Albany County. The legislature began breaking that large area into towns, starting with Coeymans (1791) and Berne (1795). Guilderland was third.

The 1803 law read: “An ACT for dividing the Town of Watervliet, in the County of Albany. BE it enacted by the People of the state of New York, represented in senate and assembly, that from and after the fourth day of April next, all that part of the town of Watervliet, in the county of Albany, within the following bounds, to wit: bounded on the south by the town of Bethlehem, on the west by the town of Bern, north-west by Princetown, northerly by the city of Schenectady, and north by the south bounds of the city of Albany, be and hereby is erected into a separate town, by the name of Guilderlandt, and the first town meeting shall be held at the dwelling-house of Henry Apple, in said town.”

The first meeting to elect town officers was held at Henry Apple’s house (now Appel Inn, near Guilderland Center) on April 5, the day after the authorizing law took effect. Nicholas V. Mynderse was elected as the first supervisor. Record-keeping was very important, and Peter C. Veeder was elected town clerk.

Like so much in Guilderland, the history of those early days lives on and reverberates in a sense. The Mynderse-Frederick House in Guilderland Center, just down Route 146 from Appel Inn, is home to the Guilderland Historical Society;  people live along and travel on Veeder Road every day.

The law further charged the town supervisors and overseers of the poor (destitute people were towns’ responsibility in those days) for the two towns to “meet together and apportion the money and poor belonging to Watervliet” and thereafter that “the said towns shall support and maintain their own poor.”

That meeting was held and, presumably, one of the new town of Guilderland’s first acts was to appoint an “overseer of the poor” (the term used in those days) to carry out the legal responsibility.

There were private turnpikes at that time, which charged people to use them, including the Great Western Turnpike (now Route 20) in Guilderland. But there were no state highways yet. Public highways were laid out, built, and maintained by town governments, so appointing an overseer of highways, or “pathmaster” as they were sometimes called, was another early order of business. There was no town highway department.

As the Encyclopedia of New York State History explains, “labor was assessed against each male town resident between the ages of 21 and 70, with eligible residents working at least one day and the remainder of the days apportioned by assessed property value.”

The “t” at the end of the new town’s name was soon dropped, the name shortened to “Guilderland,” and the town has endured for 220 years.

Commemorating the origins of the town would be a good step toward a greater understanding of Guilderland’s origin and historical development. That, in turn, would give us deepened insights into dealing with current issues.

In addition, as the American Association for State and Local History’s guide to historical celebrations, Commemoration explains, commemorations can inspire civic pride and deepen a sense of community.

“History does not repeat itself but it often rhymes,” humorist Mark Twain is reputed to have said. Some of the issues Guilderland faces today, for example, the appropriate role for town government, how and how fast should the town grow, were present on the day the town began.

Some things that might be done:

— The Guilderland Town Board could by resolution designate April 5 as “Guilderland’s Birthday” and April 2 to 8 as “Guilderland History Week” each year;

— There could be appropriate commemorative activities, for example, special exhibits at the Guilderland Public Library or presentations by the official town historian or Guilderland Historical Society;

— Some of the town government’s archival records (with appropriate security) could be put on temporary exhibit at Town Hall on April 2, and thereafter copies or facsimiles could be displayed on a continuing basis. Early town minutes, if they exist, might be particularly interesting to see;

— Special activities in Guilderland schools. The state “Social Studies Framework” prescribes study of  New York history at the Grades 4, 7, and 8. The Grade 4 document notes that “teachers are encouraged to make and teach local connections throughout the course.” In grades 7 and 8, “teachers are encouraged to incorporate local features of state history in the course.” For instance, what was it like to live in Guilderland during its early years? Where did kids go to school? Churches? Where did the new town government get the funds to take care of the poor and discharge its other responsibilities?;

— A new comprehensive history, “Guilderland:  The First 220 Years”; and

— Other activities by other groups.

Bruce W. Dearstyne 

Westmere

Editor’s note: Bruce W. Dearstyne has lived in Guilderland since 1979. He is a historian and the author of several books, including the second edition of “The Spirit of New York: Defining Events in the Empire State’s History” and “The Crucible of Public Policy: New York Courts in the Progressive Era,” both published in 2022.