Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers
How Root began
When was Root founded?
1823
The Root post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name. Six smaller post offices, Currystown (1821), Spraker's Basin (1826) and Flat Creek (1842), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 2,750 in 18302020 census: 2,013203 years
How historic is Root?
B+
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Root post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Root’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Root is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Root’s overall grade.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Root’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Root’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bonesteel SchoolschoolBratt SchoolschoolCanajoharie AirportairportCorbin Hill SchoolschoolSchool Number 11schoolSchool Number 12schoolSchool Number 3schoolSchool Number 4schoolSchool Number 5schoolSchool Number 5schoolSchool Number 6school
7cemeteries and burying grounds inside Root
Currytown Reformed ChurchFlandersGoveHaight FamilyLykerOlmsteadSpraker Hill
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Root’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Root’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The town of Root was part of a patent of 25,000 acres (100 km2) granted in 1737 to William Corry, George Clark, and others. The first British settler located near Currytown (named for William Corry) before the American Revolution, but this area was very much the frontier. During the Revolution, the small colonial community was raided and burned by Iroquois allies of the British commanded by Captain John Doxtader.
Root, once part of the original "Town of Mohawk", was created in 1823 from part of the town of Charleston. After the Revolutionary War, this area received many land-hungry migrants from New England. For decades, its culture largely was a continuation of that brought by the Yankee settlers.
The Root post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Root rank for history?
Root is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Root?
35% of Root’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.1 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1978.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2023