Labor and Working Class History Timeline for Troy and Cohoes, New York
A History of Working People in Troy and Cohoes, New York: A Time Line, 1600s to 1977
1660’s Lumber mill on Poestenkill built by two Dutchmen
1775-83 American Revolution
1791 Rensselaer County formed from Albany County
1791 Troy founded (first called Troy in 1789; incorporated as a city in 1816)
1791 Mahlon Taylor builds saw, grist and paper mills on Poestenkill
1794 First strike; New York City printers
1805 First known strike fund, collected by New York City shoemakers
1807 Troy's iron industry begun with founding of Albany Rolling and Slitting Mill
1809 Troy Iron and Nail Company formed; later became Burden Iron Company
1812 Arsenal built at Gibbonsville, later Watervliet
1816 Troy incorporated as a city
1817 Powers floor cloth business begins in Lansingburgh
1818 Brushes first made in Lansingburgh
1824 First women's strike as Pawtucket, R.I. weavers strike against wage cuts
1825 Marshall Textile Mills built on Poestenkill; Bells first made in Troy
1826 Andrew Meneely Bell Foundery [sic] founded in West Troy
1817-25 Erie and Champlain Canals built
1828 First workingmen's labor party formed in Philadelphia
1830 Meeting of Farmer's, Mechanics and Workingmen's Party in Troy
1832 Major legislation in New York for free public schools, end of imprisonment for debt and mechanics lien law passed with support of labor
1832 First railroad to Troy: Rensselaer and Saratoga line opened
1833 Troy Orphan Asylum founded
1835 Burden patents first horseshoe machine
1837 Financial panic in United States
1837 Harmony Mills complex begun
1840 Benjamin Marshall builds hydraulic power on Poestenkill for his Mt. Ida Cotton Mill
1841 Probable birth year of Kate Mullany. She died in 1906. Mullany organized and led the Collar Laundry Union in Troy. She was the first woman to be appointed to a national union office (National Labor Union).
1842 First strike at Harmony Mills caused by 20% wage reduction
1844 St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church organized
1845-49 Irish Potato Famine: Immigration to U.S. increases
1844-46 Ogden Mills built
1846 Fuller, Warren and Company, Troy's largest stoveworks founded
1846 Manning and Peckham, later Manning Paper Company built on Poestenkill
1846 St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church built; first Irish Catholic church in Cohoes
1848 St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in South Troy, known as the Iron Workers’ Church, is founded
1849 Erastus Corning built first steam powered rolling mill, at mouth of Wynantskill in South Troy
1849 Ogden Mills workers strike after 15% wage cut, but returned to work after a threat of outside workers
1850 Manning Paper Company formed
1852 Typographical Union founded; the earliest national union to remain in permanent existence
1853 Gilbert Car Manufacturing Company shops built on Green Island
1853 Harmony Hill Union Sabbath School founded by the Cohoes Company
1857 Founding of the International Iron Molders Local No. 2 in Troy
1857 Harmony Mills wage cut of 10% and later 25% and shutting down of mill precipitates strike; mill workers win 12 1/2 % wage increase
1857-58 Winter is difficult for Cohoes workers who must rely on soup kitchens of the Relief Committee for the Poor
1859 Strike by Troy iron workers wins right of union to regulate the work force
1860 Fugitive slave Charles Nalle is freed in downtown Troy by Troy citizens and Harriet Tubman
1860 Troy local of Typographical Union founded
1860 International Iron Molders Union meets in Albany; Troy Local is largest in country with 400 members
1861-62 Albany Iron Works in Troy rolls iron plates for the Monitor. The ship was launched in January 1862. The
plate-rolling started in September or October of 1861.
1861-65 American Civil War fought; Troy molders enlist in large numbers; Troy iron industry plays a significant role in Union cause especially with horseshoe production for Union cavalry and railroad track production
1862 Great Fire in Troy on May 10, destroys most of downtown area
1863 New York City draft riots; draft riot in Troy, July 15, 1863
1864 Regional trades assembly formed in Troy with 14 unions as members
1865 Bessemer steel made for first time in U.S. at Troy
1865 New York State Trades Assembly formed to help protect right to strike
1866-1871 National Labor Union with iron molder, William Sylvis as President; goals are 8-hour day, co-operative stores and workshops
1866 Great Lockout of Troy iron molders
1866 Cooperative Iron Founders Association of 70 members formed in Troy
1868 Kate Mullany, President of the Troy Collar Laundry Union, appointed Assistant Secretary of the National Labor Union
1868 Collar laundresses strike
1868 St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church founded in Cohoes; first French-Canadian church in Cohoes
1869 Knights of Labor formed
1869 Three-month strike of collar laundresses
1869 Dissolution of the Collar Laundry Union; cooperative is attempted, but fails by 1870
1870 Thomas B. Carroll, first Irish mayor of Troy is elected. He served from 1871 to 1873.
1871 Clinton Meneely opens Meneely Bell Company in Troy
1872 Mohawk and Hudson Paper Mills established at Waterford
1873 Gasholder House in Troy is built
1873 Industrial Council of Troy, first federation of Troy unions, formed
1873 Depression nationally; wages cut for iron and stove workers
1874 Strike of iron workers after 22% wage cut
1874 10-hour day law passed in Massachusetts
1877 Nationwide railroad strikes and violence
1877 Stove foundries negotiate contracts for prison labor and labor violence results
1878 Labor Reform Party formed in New York State
1879 Greenback-Labor Party elects mayors in four upstate New York cities
1879 Harmony Mills Company imposes a 10% wage reduction to meet competitors prices
1879 Ross Valve Company established
1880 Cohoes workers strike; win 10% increase in wages and a dinner break
1881 Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions formed
1881 Workingmen's Trade Assembly formed in Troy with headquarters at Murray Building
1882 Burden Office Building completed
1882 First Labor Day proclaimed by New York Governor, David B. Hill and parade held in New York City
1882 Strikes in iron industry in Troy especially at Malleable Iron Company, lasting 16 months and finally resulting in a wage reduction of 20%
1883 Iron workers accept a 10% wage cut until price of horseshoes rises and receive promise that the Burden works would not close
1883 New York State Bureau of Labor Statistics created
1884 Bureau of Labor Statistics investigated child labor in Cohoes focussing on 10-hour day, ventilation and amount of work required
1885 Contract prison labor abolished in New York State
1886 Haymarket Square massacre in Chicago
1886 Laundresses and collar sewers form Joan of Arc Assembly of the Knights of Labor
1886 Workingmen's Trades Assembly of Troy changes its name to Central Labor Council
1886 Strike and lockout of collar workers lasting 5 weeks over right to organize and recognition of Knights of Labor
1886 First ironing machines installed in plant in Troy and strike results
1886 Four month strike by iron workers
1886 American Federation of Labor formed
1888 James Hooley of Troy elected Vice-President of International Iron Molders Union
1890 United Mine Workers formed
1892 Homestead Steel Strike
1893 Central Labor Council of Troy changes its name to Central Federation of Labor of Troy
1894 Pullman strike led by Eugene V. Debs
1894 Laughlin Textile Mill built in Waterford
1900-1901 Major strikes by street railway motormen and conductors against the United Traction Company
1903 Starchers in Troy strike over presence of non-union workers in shops
1905 Injunction vs. picketing won by Troy Collar Manufacturers Association
1910 Cluett, Peabody and Company Bleachery built on Peebles Island
1918-1919 World War I; Many union men from iron industry and collar industry go overseas as Doughboys
1918 United Traction Co. strike
1921 United Traction Co. strike lasting almost one year
1921 Labor Temple on Congress St. destroyed by fire on October 16. Had been the temple since 1908 and all the union records stored there lost. Of 40 union charters, only 5 saved; those of the three oldest unions, the molders, typographers and cigarmakers lost
1922 Labor Temple rebuilt again on Congress St. on January 31.
1922 Ford plant on Green Island opens
1923 Survey of Troy indicates that 10,000 men and women produced 43 million
dollars in collars and cuffs
1929 Great Depression begins
1933 Trolley car era ends in Troy
1935 Social Security begins; CIO formed
1937 Garden Way opens in Troy
1938 Flood of 1938 destroys many mills on Poestenkill
1938 Troy City Hall burned
1941-1945 U.S. in World War II
1942 Cluett-Peabody is largest manufacturer of shirts in U.S.; over 4000 employees.
1946 Wave of strikes in many industries across U.S.
1947 Taft-Hartley Act passed
1948 Germania Hall burned
1949 McCarthy Era--CIO expels several unions for supposed communist leadership
1955 AFL and CIO merge; George Meany first president
1959 Dania Hall destroyed by fire
1962 Manning Paper Company transferred last of its plant from the Poestenkill to Green Island.
1972 Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway chartered
1977 New York State Urban Cultural Park System law
1977 Hudson-Mohawk Urban Cultural Park Commission (RiverSpark) formed by the local governments of Troy, Cohoes, Watervliet, Green Island, and the Village and Town of Waterford.
