Editing Cold Spring, New York (section)

=== Permanent settlements ===
[[File:Cold Spring Parrot Gun and River.jpg|thumb|Parrott Rifle]]

The first permanent settler in the village of Cold Spring was Merrick Williams in 1730. In 1772, a highway master was chosen for the road from Cold Spring to the Post Road from New York to Albany. Prior to Williams presence, the land was woodlands. A small trading hamlet grew alongside the river by the early 1800s.<ref name="vocs">{{Cite web |url=http://coldspringny.gov/Pages/coldspringny_webdocs/cshistory |title="A History of Cold Spring", Village of Cold Spring, New York |access-date=December 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123012147/http://coldspringny.gov/Pages/coldspringny_webdocs/cshistory |archive-date=November 23, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A couple of sloops made regular weekly trips from Cold Spring to New York, carrying wood and some country produce, which came over this model road from the east. Those trips by sloop usually took a week.

In 1818, [[Gouverneur Kemble]] established the [[West Point Foundry]] opposite [[United States Military Academy|West Point]] to produce artillery pieces for the United States Government. The nearby mountains contained veins of ore, and were covered with timber for fuel. A brook provided hydropower, and the Hudson a ready shipping outlet. In 1843, the Foundry built the ''USS Spencer'', the first iron ship built in the U.S.<ref>[http://www.hvmag.com/Hudson-Valley-Magazine/January-2014/History-and-Preservation-of-the-West-Point-Foundry-in-Cold-Spring/ Levine, David. "History and Preservation of the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring", ''Hudson Valley Magazine'', December 24, 2013]</ref> With the influx of workers at the Foundry, local housing, businesses and churches increased, and Cold Spring was incorporated as a village in 1846. The first President of the Village was Joshua Haight. The Foundry became famous for its production of [[Parrott rifle]]s and other munitions during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], when the foundry grew to a sprawling 100-acre complex employing 1,400. It also manufactured cast iron steam engines for locomotives, gears, and produced much of the pipework for New York's water system. The rise of steel making and the declining demand for cast iron after the Civil War caused the Foundry to cease operations in 1911.<ref name="NysNrhpNom">{{cite web| url = https://cris.parks.ny.gov/| archive-url = https://archive.today/20150701003048/http://cris.parks.ny.gov/| url-status = dead| archive-date = July 1, 2015| title = Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)| publisher = [[New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]]| format = Searchable database| access-date = November 1, 2015}} ''Note:'' This includes {{cite web| url = https://cris.parks.ny.gov/Uploads/ViewDoc.aspx?mode=A&id=31127&q=false| title = National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: West Point Foundry| access-date = November 1, 2015| author = Lynn Beebe Weaver| format = PDF| date = November 1972}} and [https://cris.parks.ny.gov/Uploads/ViewDoc.aspx?mode=A&id=31126&q=false ''Accompanying photographs'']</ref> Many artifacts from the Foundry's history can be viewed at the Putnam History Museum on Chestnut Street. Built in 1830, the building was originally a one-room schoolhouse for the Foundry's teenage apprentices and the children of employees.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.coldspringonhudson.com/History%20and%20Heritage%20CS.htm |title="History and Heritage in Cold Spring-on-Hudson", Cold Spring Merchants Association |access-date=December 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130091327/http://www.coldspringonhudson.com/History%20and%20Heritage%20CS.htm |archive-date=January 30, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On January 22, 1896, local businessmen of Cold Spring formed a fire brigade known as the Cold Spring Hose Company, No.1. A horse-drawn hook and ladder was donated in 1899.<ref name=Grace>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Xbd-rXKJ2eEC&dq=history+of+cold+spring+ny&pg=PA127 Grace, Trudie A., ''Around Cold Spring'', Arcadia Publishing, 2011] {{ISBN|9780738575971}}</ref> The Municipal Building, designed by Louis Mekeel, was constructed in 1926 to house the company's first firetruck, an American LaFrance. The company, renamed Cold Spring Fire Company No.1 in 1900, serves the Villages of Cold Spring, Nelsonville and a district in the Town of Philipstown.<ref>[http://coldspringfd.org/history/ "A Brief History ...", Cold Spring Fire Company No.1]</ref>

Mr. Willis Buckner, a former slave from the South, was a driver and groom for [[Susan Warner|Susan]] and [[Anna Bartlett Warner]] at their farm on [[Constitution Island]]. Mr. Buckner taught Sunday School at the Methodist Church.<ref name=Grace/> In the early decades of the 20th century, blacks who stayed in this part of New York state migrated away from rural towns to nearby cities with waterfront manufacturing such as Peekskill, Beacon, Newburgh and Ossining. During the 1920s, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] had a presence in Cold Spring<ref>[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/25c948b0-7d17-0130-87ad-58d385a7b928 "Funeral procession for a Ku Klux Klan member, held in Cold Spring, Putnam County, New York, 1920s.", New York Public Library]</ref> as well as Fishkill and Nelsonville.

[[Pete Seeger]] formed the Clearwater organization, an environmental group dedicated to advances in sewer treatment, industrial waste disposal, and addressing the discharge of major pollutants into the Hudson.
In 1970, the sloop ''[[Hudson River Sloop Clearwater|Clearwater]]'' docked for a songfest at Cold Spring. As Seeger appeared on stage to thank the audience for coming, fifteen drunks stood up waving little American flags, yelling “Throw the Commies out.” That night someone cut the sloop's moorings and there were threats to torch the boat. All of this created tension within the Clearwater organization.
<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120315210223/http://ecotopia.org/ecology-hall-of-fame/pete-seeger/ Gosden, Steve. "Pete Seeger", EcoTopia]}}</ref>