Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1908 — Our Oldest Permanent City. [ARTICLE]

Our Oldest Permanent City.

Albany, capital of the great Empire State, claims to be the oldest permanent settlement within the limits of our thirteen colonies, bat has greater historical significance on account of its strategic importance during the century of conflict between the English and French in America and in the American Revolution. In 1524 Verrazzano, a French navigator, sailed up the Hudson, and about 1540 a French trading post was set up near the present site of Albany. The continuous history of the place dates from the discovery of these regions by Henry Hudson in 1609, who was followed by Dutch traders, who in 1814 established a trading station on Castle island under the name of Fort Nassau. In 1664, after the transfer of New Netherlands to the English, the name of Albany was given to the settlement in honor of the Duke of York and Albany, afterward James ll.—Leslie’s Weekly. .