History

In the early 1600's, the site of a cluster of islands located where the Hudson and Mohawk River meet along with the surrounding area became known as Half-Moon Point. The area had been an Indian trading site for some years controlled by the Mohawks who bartered among themselves and with other tribes. Passage across the river at Half-Moon was facilitated by the low waters which ran from the Point to Haver (Peebles) Island. Initial settlement of Half-Moon Point centered in present-day Waterford where Dutch traders, trappers and homesteaders who had traveled up the river from Albany made their homes. As settlement in Waterford took hold, the more pioneering Albany Dutch went north from Waterford and entered the wilderness that is now part of the Town of Halfmoon. The pattern Albany Dutch settlement extended up the Hudson River as more families came to the area. A group of Schenectady Dutch, mostly farmers, traveling from the southeast settled in Clifton Park, then later moved into the Town of Halfmoon.

The early settlers of Half-Moon were under the jurisdiction of Albany County from 1683 until 1791 when Saratoga County was made a separate governing body. Half-Moon at that time also extended across the Mohawk River to include the Boght and Niskayuna to the north boundary of the manor of Rensselaerwyck. One of the four "mother towns" of newly created Saratoga County, Halfmoon included the present area of Waterford until 1816, Clifton Park until 1828, and Mechanicville which was taken off in 1910. When its boundaries were finally fixed, the Town of Halfmoon emerged somewhat irregularly shaped and without a central focus of settlement.