The Town of Stockport is a small and friendly community located in the Hudson Valley in scenic Columbia County, upstate New York. Our main town governing board presently consists of one supervisor, one councilwoman and three councilmen. Within this website, you will find listings of our departments. We have tried to make this website both informative and simple to use.

The first known Europeans to set foot in Columbia County were Henry Hudson and his crew. On September 17, 1609, Hudson stopped for a day at the mouth of what is now known as Stockport Creek, territory under control of the Mohican Indians. The first European settler in Stockport was Abraham Staats, who built a house at the spot Henry Hudson landed around 1660.

The present Town of Stockport was formed from parts of Stuyvesant, Ghent, and Hudson in 1833. Stockport is the smallest town in Columbia County at 13 square miles in area. It was named after Stockport, England, the hometown of James Wild, a prominent resident at the time.

At one time, this was the hub of industrial activity in Columbia County. The Claverack and Kinderhook Creeks join here to form the Stockport Creek, which flows out to the Hudson River. Waterpower was abundant and the historical evidence suggests that the motivation behind the Town’s formation was to benefit the proprietors of the many woolen mills along these sources of water power. These mills and associated buildings were used well into the 20th century.

Another concentration of mills was found in Columbiaville, one mile inland from the Hudson, on the Stockport Creek. Columbiaville was an incorporated village from 1813 until the formation of the Town in 1833. The Columbia White Sulfur Springs was located in the Hamlet of Stottville, at the southern end of Town. ​In the mid-1800’s, these sulfur springs were as well-known as those of Saratoga. People came from great distances to drink and bathe in the water. The mills and spas are long gone. Currently, the Town Stockport is a semi-rural town, primarily of residences and farms.