Rensselaer Country is one of 62 counties in
New York State. It borders
Albany County and
Saratoga County on the west,
Columbia County on the south,
Washington County on the north, and the states of
Vermont and
Massachusetts on the east. Its current population is around 152,000.
Rensselaer County was created on February 7, 1791. It's land was carved out of 665 square miles of Albany County, stretching from the banks of the Hudson River to the New York state line. It was named after the Van Rensselaers, the patroons which set up the original Dutch colonies in the area, and still controlled much of the land in the Hudson valley at the time. In 1793, the city of Troy was selected as the county seat. The county government is now set up into a system in independent sections, broken into two "cities", six "villages" and fourteen "towns".
Cities:
Troy (County Seat)
Rensselaer
Villages:
Castleton-on-Hudson
East Nassau
Hoosick Falls
Nassau
Schaghticoke
Valley Falls
Towns:
Berlin
Brunswick
East Greenbush
Grafton
Hoosick
Nassau
North Greenbush
Petersburgh
Pittstown
Postenkill
Sand Lake
Schaghticoke
Schodack
Stephentown
Rensselaer County is home to Uncle Sam, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, the site of the American Revolution Battle of Bennington in the Town of Hoosick, and Fort Crailo in Rensselaer, where "Yankee Doodle" was written.