From founding to incorporation: Millerton’s early years

MILLERTON — Much of what we know about Millerton’s founding years survives in the musty, timeworn pages of documents compiled by local historians. Now historical artifacts themselves, some of these volumes were written for their own time — not with a future readership in mind. Nevertheless, a clear picture remains of how and why Millerton was formed, and of the people and businesses that fueled its early growth.

Millerton was founded in 1851 — a full decade before the Civil War — at a moment when railroads were transforming rural economies, the nation was expanding westward and tensions over slavery were mounting. The first 25 years of Millerton were characterized by speed, with an almost overnight transformation from farmland to railroad hub.

According to A Beckon Call to a Village, a 2001 history compiled by former North East Historical Society president Diane Thompson, leaders in the Town of North East — which was founded in 1788 — understood the opportunity a rail line could bring.
A meeting was held at the Wakeman House, home of local farmer Walter Wakeman, where a small group of men began laying out plans for a village that did not yet exist. Among them were Alexander W. Trowbridge, Col. John Winchell, Walter Wakeman, Platt A. Paine and Gov. Alexander Holley.

Wakeman himself played a crucial role, selling a 66-foot strip of his farm – nearly half a mile long – to the railroad. Additional acreage followed to accommodate a depot, engine house, sheds and extra track.

Civil engineer Sidney Miller is credited with bringing the railroad to Millerton in 1851. According to historical documents, he was so well regarded that the village was named in his honor.

On September 1, 1851, the first train rolled into Millerton.

“Silence gave way to harsh noise as the path of the track was dug,” reads a passage in Railroads Dutchess County, NY 1848-1907 by William P. McDermott, written from the perspective of resident Eliza Lawrence who witnessed the transformation of Millerton. “The loud din of rail spokes hammered into wooden ties.”

Iron feeds industry

Iron production played a key role in Millerton’s early growth. In 1854, the Millerton Iron Company established a major foundry – a factory where metal is melted and poured into molds – in the area known as Irondale.

By 1882, the plant employed about 150 workers and by 1890 it was producing up to 12,000 tons of pig iron annually. The raw iron was used to manufacture cast-iron products, including railroad car wheels.

Irondale grew into a small industrial hamlet with a general store, grist mill and post office.

Two unidentified men stand near the mile marker that displayed Millerton’s distance from New York City.Photo Courtesy North East Historical Society

A village takes shape

With the railroad established, Millerton quickly expanded.

In 1852, just one year after the first train arrived, the Millerton Hotel was erected on North Center Street behind what is now the Oakhurst Diner. Built by Alexander Hawley, Alexander Trowbridge and James Winchell, the two-story building catered to rail passengers and visitors.

Under later owner A.J. Pulver, the hotel was modernized with steam heat, hot and cold running water, baths and even a billiard room – luxuries more often associated with city hotels. For roughly 50 years, it stood as a symbol of Millerton’s growth before being dismantled in 1936, its materials salvaged during the Great Depression.

Other hotels followed, including George Greathead’s Central Hotel in 1865 and the Brick Block Hotel, erected by James Conlan in 1872.

That early period saw the construction of a Greek Revival-style commercial building that housed E.W. Simmons & Co., Millerton’s first general store. Opened in partnership with Harvey Roe of Spencer’s Corners, the store sold groceries, lumber and building supplies.

When Roe relocated, Simmons continued to operate it alongside his clerk, James Finch, who later took over the building and sold furniture and general items for four decades.

As Millerton grew, so did its civic and spiritual life. Before their church was built in 1859, members of the Methodist Episcopal congregation gathered for services inside the Simmons building. Over time, the structure also housed a post office and a private school. That building was renovated in the 1980s and today serves as offices and commercial space at the intersection of John Street and North Center Street.

By the mid-1860s, Millerton’s commercial district continued to expand. In 1865, prominent builder Ambrose Beers constructed an Italianate-style carpenter shop that would later become home to Dewitt “Dewey” Husted and his wife, Etta. For 18 years, it operated as a confectionery and bakery. The building evolved, later serving as a sporting goods store and furniture annex, and after a 2008 renovation is now home to Elyse Harney Real Estate.

In the 1870s, what began as a single rail stop had matured into a full-blown commercial center with hotels, merchants, churches, tradesmen and more. In 1875, R. L. Valentine established an undertaking and funeral business that continues to operate today, one of the longest-running businesses in the village.

A photograph taken in 1910 by Millerton native Lorin Eggleston shows the Methodist Church on Main Street. The Methodist Church was originally constructed in 1859.Photo Courtesy Library of Congress

Millerton is incorporated and elects its first mayor

By 1875, Millerton was formally incorporated and recognized as a municipality. Kneeland J. Munson became the village’s first mayor.

One of 12 children, Munson was educated in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. After spending time in Kentucky, Iowa and Indiana, he returned home where he lived in a property known as “Sunnyside,” a residence on the corner of Main and Maple in Millerton. A North East Historical Society yearbook produced in 1975 to celebrate the village’s centennial said the house was demolished in 1964 to make way for an A&P.

In just 24 years, Millerton had transformed from farmland to railroad outpost to incorporated village, with even greater expansion waiting in the decades to come.

The village’s oldest building faces demolition

The Wakeman Home – believed to have been built around 1770 – remains one of Millerton’s oldest surviving homes, though its future is uncertain.

Located at 5953 N. Elm Ave., opposite the Four Brothers Pizza Inn on Route 22, the home is now unrecognizable from its original days. It was within these walls that local leaders are said to have met in 1851 to lay plans for the new village and chose the name “Millerton,” honoring engineer Sidney Miller.

In August 2024, Village Building Inspector and Code Enforcement Officer Ken McLaughlin said demolition proceedings had begun in coordination with the building’s current owner. Nearly two years later, however, the building still stands.