History :

Greenville's almost two hundred years history is broadly painted with agriculture and tourism. Organized in 1803 as the Town of Greenfield (as Freehold in 1808 before settling on Greenville in 1809), Greenville was split off from the Town of Coxsackie. Bordering Greenville are the Greene County towns of Durham on the west, Cairo on the south, Coxsackie and New Baltimore on the east, and the Albany County towns of Westerlo and Coeymans on the north. An off-center bull's eye of State Routes 81 and 32 is a quick map locator of Greenville.

The Hudson River traffic lies fifteen miles away, and the railroads passed to the east and north, with the 1830s Catskill & Canajoharie almost touching Greenville's southern boundary.

Thus, much of Greenville's first century of history was based on its semi-self-sufficient hamlets and the surrounding farms. The early patents in the 1700s - Coeymans, Hallenbeck, Van Bergen, Prevost - were sold to and settled by the newcomers, most of them from New England and Dutchess County. Indians had sporadically camped on the Freehold flats area and on the King Hill area, and traces of their presence were dug up for decades. A handful of settlers moved into eastern Greenville in the mid-1700s but were forced out with the hostilities of the Revolutionary War.

The post-Revolutionary War period saw rapid growth. The Knowles, Lake and Spees families are noted among the earliest settlers of this time period. The Town of Greenville's first federal census in 1810 records 2300 citizens. The major hamlets were Greenville, Freehold and Norton Hill. Other hamlets formed, usually near a waterway or crossroads. Some, like Greenville Center and Gayhead, are still large enough to be recognized. Others, like West Greenville, East Greenville, Surprise, O'Hara's Corners, and Place's Corners are historical memories and curiosities.

Early transportation developed from the turnpikes, most of them running east-west, reflecting the westward movement. The Coxsackie Turnpike ran over what is mostly Routes 26 and 81, and the Schoharie Turnpike ran over what is mostly Rt. 67. The Greenville & Potter Hollow Turnpike, the Coxsackie-Oak Hill Turnpike, and the Greenfield Turnpike also marked well traveled routes. Other roadways were the typical dirt paths and roadways that endured until the beginning of the paved roads in the 1920s. Routes 81 and 32 were among the first to be concrete covered, with the county highways next. Many will remember the salting of town roads in the summer time to keep the dust down, and most of these roads were greatly improved by the Erwin plan of the 1950s. Finally, in the 1980s, the last dirt road yielded to being oiled and stoned. The state, county and town highway departments take care of these roads, a duty that private residents endured before the 20th century.