From Prattsville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers
How Prattsville began
When was Prattsville founded?
1833
The Prattsville post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Red Falls (1848), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 774193 years
Founding year: the first Prattsville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Prattsville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The area of the town was first settled around 1763, and the region was then called "Schoharie Kill". An attempt during the American Revolution by the British and their Loyalist allies to drive the settlers out was thwarted when they were defeated by the settlers.
Prattsville was established in 1824 from the town of Windham. Some of the town was lost to form the town of Ashland in 1848.
Prattsville was later named after Zadock Pratt, a congressman and prominent citizen. Pratt built a tannery larger than any other in the world at the time, helping it become a major town in upstate New York. His life is depicted through a series of stone carvings called Pratt Rock which he commissioned during his lifetime.
Work is now proceeding at Prattsville on the great dam, which will be 150 feet high and wipe out 40 large farms in addition to the entire village of Prattsville. The famous Pratt farm and its pictured rocks, the Platner farm, with its $20,000 barns, Sheriff Churchill's farm. Sheriff Conine's farm, Higgin's farm, the Hull farm, the Devasego Falls House and other big boarding houses, 3 schools, 2 creameries, 7 stores, 4 churches, 3 hotels, 3 cemeteries, foundrj', and 100 residences will go to make room for
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Prattsville was settled by early comers from the Schoharie valley, and on the valley flats at Prattsville was fought an engagement of some importance between the settlers and the Tories and Indians, headed by a British ofhcer, named Captain Smith, who was shot and killed and whose remains buried near the creek were washed away in later years during a freshet. These early settlers came from Germany in 1710, and it took them two yea,rs.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Prattsville, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From the Library of Congress (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (7), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1905
1905