Municipal Minutes and Ordinances of the Village of Athens

Collection — Container: Manuscript Shelves

Identifier: MSS 2020.0011

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Minutes Books and Ordinances of the Village of Athens contain the proceedings of the Village Government dating to its first recorded meeting in 1805. All decisions and relevant disucssions had during proceedings of the Village Government are recorded in these ledgers, as are names of present officers. Interestingly, the locations of meetings are also recorded as are various decisions regarding early licenscing and economic development efforts.

Dates

1805-1976

Biographical / Historical

The Village of Athens was the first of five villages to be incorporated in Greene County in the 19th century. Planned using a selection of surveys compiled in the 1790s, the Village of Athens owes its origins to the efforts of several businessmen and prominent residents at the instigation of Isaac Northrup beginning around 1800/1801. The Village was officially incorporated in 1805 within the boundaries of the Town of Catskill, and was followed by the incorporation of the Village of Catskill within the same Township the following year. In 1815 the Town of Athens was set aside from a division of the Towns of Catskill and Coxsackie, and since that time the Village of Athens has existed within the boundaries of an eponymous Township.

Extent

9 Volumes (Nine leather bound ledgers of various size.) : Handwritten ledger pages bound in boards. ; Various between 10.5" high by 8" wide and 14.5" high by 10" wide.

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The ledgers in this collection were placed in the care of the Vedder Research Library by Athens Village Historian Bettyjean Poole in August of 2020. The Minutes and Ordinance Books had been kept previously in the basement of the D. R. Evarts Library in Athens, and following a flood in the 1990s these books were rescued from the garbage with other water-damaged village papers and retained by Mrs. Poole pending a clear answer as to their long-term disposition.