Worcester occupies forty-seven square miles in the southeastern corner of Otsego County, New York, between the Hudson and Susquehanna watersheds. It was a Mohawk hunting ground when Palatines began settling there, perhaps by 1740. From 1774 to 1780, skirmishes took place along the Charlotte River between American rebels and bands of Redcoats, Tories, and Iroquois under Chief Joseph Brant. Major settlement in the Schohanna Valley began in 1787 and 1788 with Silas Crippen and other Revolutionary veterans from New England and the Hudson Valley, and John Champion settled near East Worcester in 1788. The township was incorporated in 1797 and named after Worcester County, Massachusetts, where many settlers had come from. The hamlet of Worcester grew after the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad arrived during the Civil War. Once known for producing hops, lumber, and potatoes, the area also became a prosperous dairy region, with a population of about 2,000. Prominent residents 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 and Napoleon McLaughlen; 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; Neila Goodelle, a nationally acclaimed radio and film star; and Jim Konstanty, a World Series pitcher with the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies Whiz Kids.