| "Fulton
County Court House" | |
 Sir William Johnson CA 1772
town named for him on March 12, 1776 when he served as one of the three presiding judges. By that time, of course, the Mohawk Valley was already boiling with revolutionary sentiment which led Sir John to decamp - along with 170 tenants and friends - for St. Regis in Canada on May 1, 1776. The session held on October 9, 1781 in the Courthouse was one fraught with danger for the participants, but, happily, they were then unaware of the approaching onslaught. A powerful Loyalist raiding party was on its way down the Mohawk Valley headed for Johnstown, commanded by Major Ross, seconded in command by Captain Walter Butler. Captain Butler had appeared as a lawyer in the old courthouse prior to the conflict and his father John Butler, had served as one of the three judges at the first session held in the courthouse and had formed and commanded as its |
colonel, the Loyalist unit known as Butler's Rangers. Many of the persons in Court that October day would be under fire at the Battle of Johnstown just 17 days later.
The Battle of Johnstown was fought October 25, 1781, and is considered one of the battles of the Revolution fought in New York State. The Loyalist forces were driven back to Canada and a couple days later at a fording on the West Canada Creek, Capt. Walter Butler was killed. News reached Johnstown about the same time of the death of the notorious Walter Butler and the defeat of Cornwallis and the British Army at Yorktown. Bonfires were lit in the street and the courthouse bell was rung and it is said the residents rejoiced more over the death of Butler than the defeat of the whole British Army. On April 2, 1784, the county lost its Loyalist designation of "Tryon" and was officially renamed Montgomery County after a Revolutionary War hero, General Richard Montgomery, who was killed during the storming of Quebec, in 1775. And, of course, the courthouse became the Montgomery County Courthouse. In 1792, the Supervisors of the county ordered two large and two small stoves be purchased for the courthouse, that the lot be comcompletelynced and that a row of elms or willows be planted in front of the building. Clearly, comfort and beautification must have been the consideration of the elected leaders of the community, stealing a very early lead on some later national political figures. On October 26, 1807, town meetings in the courthouse were prohibited, and, on October 30, 1810, the Supervisors forbade |
 The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York | |
