Chenango County, New York

Chenango County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Norwich
Year Organized: 1798
Square Miles: 894

Court House:

5 Court Street
County Office Building
Norwich, NY 13815-1602

Etymology - Origin of County Name

from the Onondaga Indian word meaning "large bull-thistle"

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Chenango County, New York was created March 15, 1798. Chenango County was organized from Herkimer and Tioga counties. It had ten townships and it covered an area nearly twice as large as it does today. The original towns were Cazenovia, Sangersfield, Hamilton, Deruyter, Sherburne, Brookfield, Norwich, Greene, Oxford and Jericho. The county seat is Norwich.

The original inhabitants of Chenango County were nomadic Native Americans of the Archaic Period (6000 BC – 700 BC) or earlier, who fished along the Chenango River re-using campsites over hundreds of years. Archaeologists have excavated a small village on the White Site near Norwich which has been carbon dated approximately AD 950. This site is one of the largest and best examples of the Hunter’s Home Phase of Indian occupation in the state. When European settlers arrived, the Chenango Valley had long been the traditional hunting and fishing grounds of the Oneida Iroquois. Full History at NYSAC

Geography

Chenango County is in the approximate center of the state, west of Albany, north of Binghamton, and southeast of Syracuse. The county is considered to be in the Southern Tier region of New York State.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 899 square miles (2,328 km²), of which, 894 square miles (2,316 km²) of it is land and 4 square miles (11 km²) of it (0.48%) is water.

The Chenango River, a tributary of the Susquehanna River flows southward through the county.

Neighboring Counties:

Madison County, New York - north
Otsego County, New York - northeast
Delaware County, New York - southeast
Broome County, New York - south
Cortland County, New York - west

Cities and Towns:

- Afton	village	Incorporated Area
- Bainbridge	village	Incorporated Area
- Columbus	town
- Coventry	town
- Earlville	village	Incorporated Area
- Georgetown	town
- German	town
- Greene	village	Incorporated Area
- Guilford	town
- Lebanon	town
- McDonough	town
- New Berlin	village	Incorporated Area
- North Norwich	town
- Norwich (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Otselic	town
- Oxford	village	Incorporated Area
- Pharsalia	town
- Pitcher	town
- Pittsfield	town
- Plymouth	town
- Preston	town
- Sherburne	village	Incorporated Area
- Smithville	town
- Smyrna	village	Incorporated Area
- Triangle	town

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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