Hagaman, NY

Hagaman is a Montgomery County village in the Town of Amsterdam, and its older name, Hagaman's Mills, tells you what built the place. Joseph Hagaman founded the settlement in 1777; mills followed along the North Chuctanunda Creek, and the hamlet incorporated as the Village of Hagaman in 1892. The village sits northeast of the City of Amsterdam, with the Mohawk Valley and the old mill corridor shaping the map. It is an easy place to miss if you are looking only for a county seat, but the local story is right there in the name: one settler, a creek lined with mills, and a village that kept its founder's name.