The Williamstown post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Checkered House (1850), Kasoag (1850) and Maple Hill (1864), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 652 in 18202020 census: 1,335210 years
How historic is Williamstown?
B
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Williamstown post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Williamstown’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Williamstown is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Williamstown’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 Williamstown’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 (±4.4 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 Williamstown’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
After the Revolutionary War, Williamstown did not exist until plans were made to settle west of the Hudson River. In 1791 Nicholas and John Roosevelt purchased 525,000 that covered most of Oswego, Oneida, and a small chunk of Herkimer counties known as the Roosevelt purchase. In 1794 it was then purchased by George Scriba, which then became the Scriba Patent. Scriba then broke up most of the land that he purchased into townships and given what is now Williamstown the name Franklin, Township No.5. Ichabod Comstock was the first to settle in Franklin in 1801. Judge Henry Williams relocated to Franklin from Camden, New York in 1802 and shortly after Williams came to Franklin the people renamed the town Williamstown in Williams’s honor. Williamstown became an official town after separating from Mexico, part of Oneida County at the time on March 24, 1804. Oswego County wasn’t formed unti…
The territory cuibraceJ within the present boundaries of this town originally comprised a portion of the old town of Williamstown, then Oneida county, which was formed March 24, 1804. Richland was set off February 20, 1807, and Albion erected from Richland, March 24, 1825.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The greater part of Williamstown is still unimproved. The principal business of the inhabitants is lumbering, and the chief exports are lumber and leather. The Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburgh railroad passes through the town, and has two stations in it, one at Kasoag and the other at Williamstown village. The timber of Williamstown was originally very heavy, embracing the various kinds which are yet to be seen covering the surface of hill
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.
Timeline
Williamstown, 1816 to 1934
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Williamstown post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Williamstown rank for history?
Williamstown is more historic than 56% 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 Williamstown?
19% of Williamstown’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1984.
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 (2), 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), 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.
1867
