[2][better source needed] The town was named after Durham, Connecticut, and is in the northwestern corner of Greene County.

The first documented visit to the Durham area was by Eliab Youmans, who had been commissioned to survey the Maitland patents in 1767.

This patent of 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) was made to Colonel Richard Maitland, a British army officer of Scottish birth.

The patent encompassed land that now includes the Oak Hill area, as well as surrounding farmland leased by the earliest settlers.

In the early nineteenth century, Oak Hill matured into a vigorous industrial hamlet with highly productive mills and many fashionable homes.

The American Revolution forced the pioneers to temporarily abandon their homes until the end of the war.

The two remaining pioneers and Hendrick's widow, who remarried to Leonard Patrie, all returned by approximately 1782 to reestablish their homes.

DeWitt brought with him a small hand mill for grinding grain and was, in one respect, the first miller in the town, as well as being a farmer.