Fort Plain

History

The village is in a region where the Mohawk people had four major villages along the Mohawk River in the 17th century. They historically had occupied territory west of the Hudson River and extending north to the St. Lawrence River and south to the Delaware Water Gap, but their main villages were located close to the Mohawk River. Due to losses from a smallpox epidemic in 1634, the Mohawk reduced their villages to three. By the early 18th century they had two major villages. The village of Fort Plain developed at the foot of the hill where the fort once stood. The Revolutionary War fort was constructed in 1776; a blockhouse was garrisoned here throughout the war. While many of the village's men were fighting elsewhere, the women, dressed as men, manned the fort and fought off Indian attacks. The village developed around Otsquago Creek at its confluence with the Mohawk River. Fort Plain became an incorporated village in 1832. The opening of the Erie Canal was an economic boom, stimulating the village to become a center of manufacturing during the 19th century. It produced textiles from cotton from the Deep South and furniture. Textile mills in upstate New York depended on processing southern cotton; these products made up a major part of exports from New York City in the antebellum years. Fort Plain was the site of the 19th-century Fort Plain Seminary, which ran into hard times and whose building was acquired and used by the Clinton Liberal Institute, before being destroyed by fire in 1900. Fort Plain is the birthplace of Bud Fowler, the first black professional baseball player. Fowler appeared in an exhibition game with a team from Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1878, 68 years before Jackie Robinson played in a professional baseball game in the major leagues. Numerous…

Geography

Fort Plain is located in western Montgomery County at . It occupies the eastern corner of the town of Minden and is bordered to the east, across the Mohawk River, by the village of Nelliston in the town of Palatine. The New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) passes through the community, with the closest access to the east at Exit 29 in Canajoharie. The intersection of NY Route 80 (Reid Street), NY Route 5S (Canal Street), and NY Route 163 is in Fort Plain. NY 80 leads east across the Mohawk River into Nelliston and southwest to Cooperstown, while NY 5S leads southeast to Canajoharie and northwest to Mohawk. NY 163 has its western terminus at NY 80 in the village and leads southwest to Sprout Brook. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the village of Fort Plain has a total area of , of which are land and , or 4.07%, are water. The village is located on the south bank of the Mohawk River, at the mouth of Otsquago Creek. The Erie Canal, using the Mohawk River, is adjacent to the village.

Race & ethnicity