Let’s face it. Some famous people should not be, and there are those who, while unknown now, should be.

Troy is one of America’s enduring small-city stories, born of early settlement in the post-Revolutionary era, shaped by industrial innovation in the 19th century, and continually renewed by the people who lived, worked, and built their lives here. Understanding Troy’s history teaches us how ordinary residents became part of a larger shared legacy.

Located on the east bank of the Hudson River in Rensselaer County, Troy was formally incorporated as a village in 1791 and as a city in 1816.

It became a hub of commerce, transportation, and manufacturing during the early American Republic. Troy’s rise was tied to its strategic location and the energy of its people, comprising entrepreneurs, artisans, laborers, and leaders who contributed to the American industrial revolution in ways that, for many, went unnoticed beyond the local level.

Troy was a magnet and magical. Newbies to Troy tell me that every time. They feel the magic.

The names that do appear in historical records, like industrialists behind the W. & L. E. Gurley Co., makers of precision surveying instruments, and the Meneely family of bell makers whose products rang across the United States and abroad, remind us of the city’s technical and manufacturing prowess. Names like Burden, Winslow, and Griswold are now just names on a building or manhole cover, but 150 years ago, these names were known around the world........

© The Saratogian