Editing Fonda, New York

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name            = Fonda, New York
|settlement_type          = [[Village (United States)|Village]]
|nickname                 = 
|motto                    =

<!-- Images -->
|image_skyline            = File:NY30A north in Fonda.jpg
|imagesize                = 
|image_caption            = NY30A through Fonda
|image_flag               = 
|image_seal               =

<!-- Maps -->
|pushpin_map              = New York#USA
|pushpin_label            = Fonda
|pushpin_label_position   = <!-- the position of the pushpin label: left, right, top, bottom, none -->
|pushpin_map_caption      = 
|pushpin_mapsize          = 
|image_map                = 
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<!-- Location -->
|subdivision_type         = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
|subdivision_name         = United States
|subdivision_type1        = [[U.S. state|State]]
|subdivision_name1        = [[New York (state)|New York]]
|subdivision_type2        = [[List of counties in New York|County]]
|subdivision_name2        = [[Montgomery County, New York|Montgomery]]
|subdivision_type3        = [[Town (New York)|Town]]
|subdivision_name3        = [[Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York|Mohawk]]
|government_footnotes     = 
|government_type          = 
|leader_title             = 
|leader_name              = 
|leader_title1            = 
|leader_name1             = 
|established_title        = Incorporated
|established_date         = 1850

<!-- Area -->
|unit_pref                = Imperial
|area_footnotes           = <ref name="CenPopGazetteer2024">{{cite web |title=2024 U.S. Gazetteer Files: New York|url=https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2024_Gazetteer/2024_gaz_place_36.txt |publisher=United States Census Bureau |accessdate=March 10, 2025}}</ref>
|area_total_km2           = 1.58
|area_land_km2            = 1.40
|area_water_km2           = 0.18
|area_total_sq_mi         = 0.61
|area_land_sq_mi          = 0.54
|area_water_sq_mi         = 0.07

<!-- Population -->
|population_as_of         = [[2020 United States census|2020]]
|population_footnotes     = <ref name="Census 2020">{{Cite web| url=https://data.census.gov/table/DECENNIALPL2020.P1?q=&g=160XX00US3626462| title=P1. Race – Fonda village, New York: 2020 DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171)| publisher=U.S. Census Bureau| access-date=March 10, 2025}}</ref>
|population_total         = 668
|population_density_km2   = 478.27
|population_density_sq_mi = 1239.33

<!-- General information -->
|timezone                 = [[North American Eastern Time Zone|Eastern (EST)]]
|utc_offset               = -5
|timezone_DST             = EDT
|utc_offset_DST           = -4
|elevation_footnotes      = 
|elevation_m              = 90
|elevation_ft             = 295
|coordinates              = {{coord|42|57|16|N|74|22|32|W|region:US_type:city|display=inline,title}}
|postal_code_type         = [[ZIP Code]]
|postal_code              = 12068
|area_code                = [[Area code 518|518]]
|blank_name               = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
|blank_info               = 36-26462
|blank1_name              = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
|blank1_info              = 0950363
|website                  = {{URL|villageoffonda.ny.gov}}
|footnotes                = 
|pop_est_as_of = 
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}}
'''Fonda''' is a [[Village (New York)|village]] in and the [[county seat]] of [[Montgomery County, New York|Montgomery County]], [[New York (state)|New York]], United States.<ref name="GR6">{{cite web|url=http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/FindACounty.aspx |access-date=2011-06-07 |title=Find a County |publisher=National Association of Counties |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110531210815/http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/FindACounty.aspx |archive-date=2011-05-31 }}</ref> The population was 668 at the [[2020 United States census|2020 census]],<ref name="Census 2020"/> down from 795 in [[2010 United States census|2010]]. The village is named after [[Douw Fonda]],<ref name="gannett">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n127 128]}}</ref> a Dutch-American settler who was killed and [[scalping|scalped]] in 1780, during a Mohawk raid in the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], when the tribe was allied with the British.

The village of Fonda is in the town of [[Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York|Mohawk]] and is west of [[Amsterdam, New York|Amsterdam]]. In 1993, the Mohawk people bought land near the village to re-establish the ''Kanatsiohareke'' community formerly at this site.

The Fonda Fair is an annual agricultural event that takes place in August.

== History ==
[[File:Fonda, N.Y. LOC 89694450.tif|thumb|[[Perspective map]] of Fonda with list of landmarks from 1889 by [[L.R. Burleigh]]]]
The village of Fonda developed near the site of the former [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]] village of [[Caughnawaga Indian Village Site|Caughnawaga]], also known as ''Kanatsiohareke''. Here the Mohawk had cultivated corn in the floodplain on the north side of the [[Mohawk River]].

In the late 17th century, [[Kateri Tekakwitha]] resettled here. She was a Mohawk girl who had converted to [[Catholicism]] and become renowned for her piety. She lived here with relatives after her parents died in a [[smallpox]] epidemic. She had survived it but was marked by scars. The village has [[Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine & Historic Site|a national Catholic shrine devoted to her]]; she is the first Native American [[saint]]. After the French attacked the village in the late 17th century, Kateri and many other Catholic Mohawks moved to the Jesuit mission village of [[Kahnawake]], established on the south side of the [[St. Lawrence River]], opposite [[Montreal]] in Quebec.

European settlers, mostly German and English, officially organized the present-day village in 1751 at the former site of Kanatsiohareke. The settlement was later named for [[Douw Fonda]], a Dutch-American settler who was scalped in a Mohawk raid during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]].<ref name="gannett"/> His family were ancestors of the American actors [[Henry Fonda]], [[Jane Fonda]] and [[Peter Fonda]]. Henry Fonda wrote about them in his 1981 autobiography, as follows:

:<blockquote>Early records show the family ensconced in northern [[Italy]] in the 16th century where they fought on the side of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]], fled to [[Netherlands|Holland]], intermarried with Dutch burghers' daughters, picked up the first names of the Low Countries, but retained the Italianate "Fonda". Before [[Pieter Stuyvesant]] surrendered [[New Amsterdam|Nieuw Amsterdam]] to the English the Fondas, instead of settling in Manhattan, canoed up the Hudson River to the Indian village of Caughnawaga. Within a few generations, the [[Mohawks]] and the [[Iroquois]] were butchered or fled and the town became known to mapmakers as Fonda, New York.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050719082340/http://www.adherents.com/people/pf/Henry_Fonda.html Henry Fonda, Howard Teichmann: ''My Life'']}}, New York: Dutton, 1981, p. 20, excerpted in: "The Religious Affiliation of Henry Fonda, Actor", ''Adherents'', 21 July 2005, Retrieved on January 11, 2007</ref></blockquote>

==Nineteenth century to present==
After the opening of the [[Erie Canal]] in 1825, Fonda thrived with the growth in trade and traffic that accompanied it. The canal provided transportation and commercial links to communities around the [[Great Lakes]]. Fonda became a center of cheesemaking, which was part of the regional dairy industry. The area was devoted to agriculture. As the county seat, it also did well with the arrival of the [[railroad]] in 1835, which increased cross-state transportation and shipping of goods. The village was incorporated in 1850.

In the mid to late-20th century, [[NASCAR]] held four races at the local [[Fonda Speedway]] (in 1955, 1966, 1967 and 1968) as part of the [[Fonda 200]]. In 1973 the [[Caughnawaga Indian Village Site]], just outside the village limits, was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. It is the only Mohawk village in the country to have been fully excavated in archeological studies. The [[Walter Butler Homestead]] was listed on the [[NRHP]] in 1976.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>

== Kanatsiohareke==
In 1993 Tom Porter (Mohawk) re-established the first Mohawk community in the valley since 1783; he bought land between Fonda and [[Palatine Bridge, New York|Palatine Bridge]]<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.mohawkcommunity.org| title=Getting Here| publisher=Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community| accessdate=March 10, 2025}}</ref> to cultivate corn and other agricultural produce. Other Mohawk joined him at this historic village site, naming their community ''Kanatsiohareke''.<ref name="baugher"/> This is the first land the Mohawk have held in the valley since being forced out in 1783 after the Revolution, when Great Britain ceded its former territories in the colonies to the United States.<ref name="baugher">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qbhh1u8U1l0C&q=Jigonhsasee&pg=PA375 |title=Archaeology and Preservation of Gendered Landscapes  |author= Sherene Baugher and Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood |publisher=Springer |date=2010 |pages=48|isbn=9781441915016 }}</ref> The name ''Kanatsiohareke'' means "The Place of the Clean Pot", referring to a ten-foot-wide and ten-foot-deep pothole in the creek bed caused by rock scouring.<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community |url=http://www.mohawkcommunity.com/home/aboutus.html |website=Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community |access-date=Mar 17, 2022}}</ref>

==Geography==
Fonda is located in northeastern Montgomery County at {{Coord|42|57|16|N|74|22|32|W|type:city}} (42.954342, -74.375424),<ref name="GR1">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/gazette.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=2011-04-23|date=2011-02-12|title=US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990}}</ref> along the southern edge of the town of [[Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York|Mohawk]]. The southern boundary of the village and town is the [[Mohawk River]], an east-flowing tributary of the [[Hudson River|Hudson]]. The [[Erie Canal]] is part of the Mohawk River at this point. The village of [[Fultonville, New York|Fultonville]] borders Fonda to the south across the river.

[[New York State Route 5]], [[New York State Route 30A]], and [[New York State Route 334]] all serve Fonda, with NY 334 having its southern terminus at NY 5 at the western end. NY-5 leads east {{convert|10|mi|0}} to [[Amsterdam, New York|Amsterdam]] and southwest {{convert|11|mi|0}} to [[Palatine Bridge, New York|Palatine Bridge]], while NY-30A leads north {{convert|4|mi|0}} to [[Johnstown, New York|Johnstown]] and south {{convert|15|mi}} to [[Sloansville, New York|Sloansville]]. NY-334 leads northwest from Fonda {{convert|4|mi|0}} to [[Sammonsville, New York|Sammonsville]]. The [[New York State Thruway]] ([[Interstate 90 in New York|Interstate 90]] passes through Fultonville, just south of Fonda, with access from Exit 28. The Thruway leads southeast {{convert|40|mi|-1}} to the [[Albany, New York|Albany]] area and west {{convert|50|mi|-1}} to the [[Utica, New York|Utica]] area.

[[Amtrak]]'s [[Empire Corridor]] passes through the village, though it has no station here; the closest stations are [[Amsterdam station (New York)|Amsterdam]] to the east and [[Union Station (Utica, New York)|Utica]] to the west.

According to the [[U.S. Census Bureau]], the village of Fonda has a total area of {{convert|0.61|sqmi|2}}, of which {{convert|0.54|sqmi|2}} are land and {{convert|0.07|sqmi|2}}, or 11.35%, are water.<ref name="CenPopGazetteer2024"/> [[Cayadutta Creek]] joins the Mohawk River at Fonda.

==Demographics==
{{US Census population
|1870= 1092
|1880= 944
|1890= 1190
|1900= 1145
|1910= 1100
|1920= 2208
|1930= 1170
|1940= 1123
|1950= 1026
|1960= 1004
|1970= 1120
|1980= 1006
|1990= 1007
|2000= 810
|2010= 795
|2020= 668
|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census<ref name="DecennialCensus">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|title=Census of Population and Housing|publisher=Census.gov|access-date=June 4, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426102944/http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|archive-date=April 26, 2015}}</ref>
}}
As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2">{{cite web |url=http://factfinder.census.gov |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212221153/http://factfinder.census.gov/main.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-02-12 |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=2008-01-31 |title=American FactFinder }}</ref> of 2000, there were 810 people, 351 households, and 209 families residing in the village. The population density was {{convert|1,520.2|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. There were 409 housing units at an average density of {{convert|767.6|/sqmi|/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The racial makeup of the village was 97.53% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 0.37% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.25% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 0.49% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 0.12% [[Pacific Islander (U.S. Census)|Pacific Islander]], 0.12% from [[Race (United States Census)|other races]], and 1.11% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 2.22% of the population.

There were 351 households, out of which 29.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.2% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 17.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.2% were non-families. 35.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 19.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the village, the population was spread out, with 25.4% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 19.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 82.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.7 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $28,021, and the median income for a family was $35,714. Males had a median income of $28,333 versus $23,500 for females. The [[per capita income]] for the village was $15,330. About 6.7% of families and 11.7% of the population were below the [[poverty line]], including 13.9% of those under age 18 and 14.5% of those age 65 or over.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* {{Official|villageoffonda.ny.gov}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060501151118/http://www.fondafair.com/index.html Fonda Fair]
* [http://www.fonda.org The Fonda Family]

{{Montgomery County, New York}}
{{New York county seats}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Villages in New York (state)]]
[[Category:County seats in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Populated places established in 1751]]
[[Category:Villages in Montgomery County, New York]]
[[Category:1751 establishments in the Province of New York]]
[[Category:Populated places on the Mohawk River]]