Editing Milan, New York (section)

==History==
[[File:1760 Livingston Rowe Deed Upper Nine Partners Patent New York.jpg|thumb|left|This 1760 deed transferring 911 acres from Robert Livingston, 3rd Lord of the Manor to Johannes Rowe Jr., is the first land sale.]]

[[Image:1766 Rowe r.jpg|thumb|left|Johannes Rowe Jr. built this house c. 1766. Photographed in 1940, it was taken down shortly thereafter.]]
The area that comprises Milan today was the western part of the [[Little Nine Partners Patent]] of 1706. Milan was largely a farming and mill town and remains very rural.

The first settler in the area was Johannes Rowe. The son of a [[Palatinate (region)|Palatine]] immigrant, Rowe bought {{convert|911|acre|km2}} from [[Robert Livingston (1708–1790)|Robert Livingston]], 3rd Lord of the Manor of Livingston, and built a stone house in 1766 on what is now Rowe Road near the Milan Town Hall.<ref name="JHSmith">"History of Dutchess County New York," James H. Smith, 1882, D. Mason & Co. publisher</ref><ref>"History of Little Nine Partners," Isaac Huntting, 1897.</ref> The remains of the house were photographed in 1940 for the [[Historic American Buildings Survey]].

===Establishment of town and post office===
The New York State Legislature voted on March 6, 1818, to create the town of Milan from the western part of the town of [[North East, New York|North East]], to be effective "from and after the last day in March" 1818.<ref>"Laws of the State of New York passed at the forty-first session of the Legislature," Albany 1818. Chapter XXVIII.</ref> The session laws stated that the first town meeting would be held the first Tuesday of April and at the home of Stephen Thorn, who was elected [[town supervisor]] along with John F. Bartlett, [[town clerk]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hsYpAQAAMAAJ&dq=Milan+Thorne+Bartlett&pg=PA370 The History of Dutchess County, New York, Frank Hasbrouck, Higginson Book Company, 1909, page 370.]</ref>

Two 19th century histories of the town of Milan and Dutchess County (1877 and 1882) state there is no knowledge or evidence as to why the name "Milan" was chosen,<ref name="JHSmith"/><ref>"General History of Duchess County 1609–1876" by Philip H. Smith, 1877: author and publisher</ref> but the name Milan had appeared in other areas of the state, and it was not unusual to take European city names at the time. What is now the city of [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]] was known as "Milan" for a brief period between 1809 and 1812. A settlement {{convert|40|mi}} south of Syracuse was originally called "Milan" in 1790 before incorporation in 1802 as the town of [[Locke, New York|Locke]].<ref>[http://www.co.cayuga.ny.us/locke/ourtown/history/summary.htm Town of Locke Historian Esther Thorton] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101107114627/http://co.cayuga.ny.us/locke/ourtown/history/summary.htm |date=November 7, 2010 }}</ref> An unincorporated village there continued to be referred to as "Milan"<ref>[http://history.rays-place.com/ny/cayu-locke-ny.htm History of Locke, New York From: History of Cayuga County, New York By: Elliot G. Storke, Assisted by: Jos H. Smith Published by: D. Mason & Co., Syracuse, New York, 1879]</ref> but the Milan designation for that post office was changed to "Locke" on July 29, 1817. This cleared the way for the operation of the Milan post office on August 14, 1818, at what is now Case's Corners.<ref name="postal">"A postal history of the town of Milan," Roy Ahlquist, 1992.</ref>
[[File:MilanPOc1880.jpg|thumb|right|The Milan post office operated from 1818 to 1908 at what is now Case's Corner. A rare cancellation shown above.]]

=== A town "in-between" ===
The main thoroughfares for the community ran from the [[Hudson River]] to [[Salisbury, Connecticut]], and travelers referred to the road as the "[[Toll roads in the United States#History, funding through toll|turnpike]]." It later became recognized as the Salisbury Turnpike, and sections of the road still exist today and bear that name.

In addition to farming and local mills in Milan, [[lead]] and [[iron ore|iron]] were mined in areas around what is now [[Millerton, New York]], and Salisbury, Connecticut, which was then brought to Livingston's furnaces at [[Ancram, New York|Ancram]] in Columbia County. Milan was "in-between" those towns and the river and as a result had a great deal of important commercial traffic going east–west through the town.<ref name="postal" />

=== Remains least populous town ===
The early population peaked in 1840 at 1,745 residents and went into decline until 1930 with only 622 residents.<ref name="census">US Federal Census schedules</ref> It was the opening of the [[Erie Canal]] (1825) and then the development of the railroad and the move to river cities and the [[western migration]] that caused the decline. Also, Milan's soil was hilly and rocky and tough to farm. Then following the 1930s and the [[Great Depression]] the population grew again, due in part to the construction of the [[Taconic Parkway]], which ended in Milan at the time, and then the post-[[World War II]] boom.

The 1840 population level was reached again in 1980, some 140 years later. From the 1980s to the turn of the new century, Milan was one of the fastest-growing towns in Dutchess County.<ref name="census" /> However, it remains the least-populous town in the county.<ref>[http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/Planning/PLhistoricalpop.pdf Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development]</ref>

=== State historic markers ===
Partial [[List of New York State Historic Markers in Dutchess County, New York|list of New York State historic markers]] in Milan:

* Jackson Corners—Colonial Inn: built about 1773 Stage Inn, doctor's office, hotel, store, post office of Jackson Corners.
* Jackson Corners—Nobletown Road: running from post road in Livingston, through Gallatin, Ancram, state line, Nobletown, to Barrington, N.H.  In use before 1798.
* Turkey Hill Road—Fulton Homestead: John Fulton, first owner. Deed recorded October 12, 1795, has always been in possession of the Fulton family. In Fulton name Until 1933.
* Turkey Hill Road—Burial Ground: Chief Crow and other Mohican shacomecos of Moravian faith buried here. Last burial about 1850.