Worcester stands at the divide between the Hudson and Susquehanna watersheds. It was a Mohawk hunting ground when the Servos family, Palatine Germans, began settlement, perhaps by 1740. Between 1774 and 1780, skirmishes took place along the Charlotte River between American rebels and bands of soldiers, Tories, and Iroquois under Chief Joseph Brant. Major settlement of the Schohanna Valley was made in 1787-1788 by Silas Crippen and other Revolutionary veterans from New England and the Hudson Valley, and John Champion settled East Worcester in 1788. The hamlet of Worcester grew with the arrival of the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad during the Civil War. Incorporated in 1797, the township was named after Worcester County, Massachusetts, the previous home of many settlers. Once known for producing hops, lumber, and potatoes, the area also became a prosperous dairy region. Its population is about 2,000. Prominent residents of the area have included Abram and Eliza Garfield, parents of the nation's twentieth president; Timothy Murphy, frontier scout and hero of the Battle of Saratoga; Civil War generals Delevan Bates, Napoleon McLaughlen, and Abner Doubleday; Seth Flint, General Grant's bugler and witness to Lee's surrender at Appomattox; Lewis Waterman of Decatur, inventor of the fountain pen; Andrew S. Draper, the state's first Education Commissioner; Sherburn M. Becker, the "Boy Mayor" of Milwaukee; and Jim Konstanty, famous World Series pitcher with the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies "Whiz Kids."