Editing Broome County, New York (section)

==History==
When counties were established in the [[Province of New York]] in 1683, the present Broome County was part of the enormous [[Albany County, New York|Albany County]], including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present State of [[Vermont]] and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766, by the creation of [[Cumberland County, New York|Cumberland County]], and further on March 16, 1770, by the creation of [[Gloucester County, New York|Gloucester County]], both containing territory now in Vermont.

On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, [[Tryon County, New York|Tryon County]], contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city of [[Schenectady, New York|Schenectady]], and the county included the western part of the [[Adirondack Mountains]] and the area west of the West Branch of the [[Delaware River]]. The area then designated as Tryon County now is organized as 37 counties of New York State. The county was named for [[William Tryon]], colonial governor of New York.

In the years prior to 1776, most of the Loyalists in Tryon County fled to Canada. In 1784, following the peace treaty that ended the [[American Revolutionary War]], the name of Tryon County was changed to [[Montgomery County, New York|Montgomery County]], for General [[Richard Montgomery]], who had captured several places in Canada and died attempting to capture the city of [[Quebec City|Quebec]], thus replacing the name of the hated British governor.

In 1789, Montgomery County was reduced in size by the splitting off of [[Ontario County, New York|Ontario County]]. The actual area split off from Montgomery County was much larger than the present county, also including the present [[Allegany County, New York|Allegany]], [[Cattaraugus County, New York|Cattaraugus]], [[Chautauqua County, New York|Chautauqua]], [[Erie County, New York|Erie]], [[Genesee County, New York|Genesee]], [[Livingston County, New York|Livingston]], [[Monroe County, New York|Monroe]], [[Niagara County, New York|Niagara]], [[Orleans County, New York|Orleans]], [[Steuben County, New York|Steuben]], [[Wyoming County, New York|Wyoming]], [[Yates County, New York|Yates]], and part of [[Schuyler County, New York|Schuyler]] and [[Wayne County, New York|Wayne Counties]].

In 1791, [[Tioga County, New York|Tioga County]] split off from Montgomery County, along with [[Herkimer County, New York|Herkimer]] and [[Otsego County, New York|Otsego Counties]]. Tioga County was at this time much larger than the present county and included the present Broome and [[Chemung County, New York|Chemung Counties]] and parts of [[Chenango County, New York|Chenango]] and [[Schuyler County, New York|Schuyler Counties]].

In 1798, Tioga County was reduced in size by the splitting off of [[Chemung County, New York|Chemung County]] (which also included part of the present [[Schuyler County, New York|Schuyler County]]) and by the combination of a portion with a portion of [[Herkimer County, New York|Herkimer County]] to create [[Chenango County, New York|Chenango County]].

On March 28, 1806, Broome County was formed by splitting several towns off from Tioga County.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gobroomecounty.com/history |title=A Brief History of Broome County (accessed 14 June 2019) |access-date=June 15, 2019 |archive-date=February 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203031505/http://www.gobroomecounty.com/history |url-status=dead }}</ref> At the time, this included all of Broome County's current area, as well as the then-named [[Owego (town), New York|town of Tioga]] (renamed the town of Owego in 1813) and the [[Berkshire, New York|town of Berkshire]]. Small portions of land were lost to [[Cortland County, New York|Cortland County]] and [[Tompkins County, New York|Tompkins County]] in 1815 and 1817, respectively.<ref name="newberry">{{cite web |title=New York: Individual County Chronologies |url=https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/NY_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm#BROOME |website=[[The Newberry Library]] |access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref> The towns of Owego and Berkshire were returned to Tioga County on March 21, 1822, establishing the present-day boundaries of Broome County.<ref name="newberry" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Child |first1=Hamilton |title=Gazetter and Business Directory of Broome and Tioga Counties, N.Y. for 1872–3 |date=1872 |publisher=The Jounal Office |location=Syracuse, New York |page=61 |url=https://www.tcpl.org/sites/default/files/content/archive/Directory_Broome_Tioga_p61to124.pdf |access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref>