The first recorded contact by Europeans with local Mohawk, who had occupied the area for centuries, was the 1642 visit of Jesuit missionaries to the village Tiononderoge (in one of its variations).

After failing to Christianize the Mohawk, forces from French Canada twice attacked the village in 1667 and 1693 during rising conflict with the people in the valley.

(Numerous Catholic Mohawk had moved to the St. Lawrence River valley, where they settled in Kahnawake south of Montreal.)

Later, William Johnson arrived as a young immigrant from Ireland to begin his illustrious colonial career, first as an overseer of property in the town.

Learning the Mohawk language and ways, he was appointed British agent to the Iroquois in New York, and established strong relationships with them.

The Crown later made him a baronet for his contributions, and he was appointed British Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the northern colonies.

Due to the influence of Johnson and their long trading relationship with the British, the Mohawk and three other Iroquois nations allied with them during the American Revolution.

A log meeting house church was built by James Dempster, a Methodist minister who had arrived in America with Francis Asbury, at Warrensbush, probably in 1778.

[4] With the British defeat, the United States forced the Mohawk and other allied Iroquois nations to cede nearly all their territory in New York.

The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 eased transportation through the Mohawk Valley, connecting it to both the Great Lakes and the Hudson River and New York City markets.