The city was named after its founder, Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Province of New York and a major general during the Seven Years' War in North America.

Gloversville and Johnstown constituted the center of the American glove industry for 90 years until competition from other countries drove most manufacturers out of business.

[4] Johnson was a trader who learned Indigenous languages and culture and formed close relationships with many Native American leaders, especially those of the Mohawks and other members of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Johnson's alliances and influence with the Iroquois played a significant part in the French and Indian War, in which he was a major general.

As a reward for his services, Johnson received large tracts of land in what are now Hamilton and Fulton counties.

After the onset of the American Revolutionary War, many British Loyalists, including Johnson's son John and his family, fled both Johnstown and the surrounding area for Canada.

[9] The house and estate were subsequently sold to Silas Talbot, a naval officer and hero of the American Revolution.

The Continental forces, led by Col. Marinus Willett of Fort Johnstown, ultimately put the British to flight after they had burned large tracts of land in the Mohawk Valley.

With plentiful forests of hemlock trees and the wood bark they produced, Johnstown became a center for tanning of leather during the late 19th century.

By the early 20th century, Johnstown, along with neighboring Gloversville, became known as the glove-making capital of the world, nicknamed the "Glove Cities".

Box manufacturers, thread dealers, sewing machine repairers, chemical companies, and many others have made a living helping to supply and service the industry.

It was built in 1890 by Charles B. Knox, a prominent Johnstown resident, who developed the granulated, unflavored gelatin still used in food preparation today.

[14] Johnstown is located along the southern edge of Fulton County, in the picturesque Mohawk Valley of upstate New York.

Although not a hilltown, Johnstown is close to the Adirondack Mountains that stretch across the northern portion of Fulton County.

Cayadutta Creek, which runs through the city, provided water power needed to generate the electricity required by the various industries that grew up in Johnstown.

Silas Talbot moved with his family to Johnstown, where he purchased Sir William Johnson's estate and manor house.

A hero of the American Revolution, he later served as a member of the New York Assembly (1792–1793) and as a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives (1793–1794) from that district.

In 1797 he supervised the building of the USS Constitution ("Old Iron Sides") at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts.

[19] One of the men who shaped Fulton County was Judge Daniel Cady, a prominent Johnstown resident.

With indirect connections by marriage to John Jacob Astor and that family's lucrative fur business interests, Daniel Cady, adept at managing these connections and his own business interests, joined the ranks of the wealthiest landowners in New York.

[21] A public servant as well as an astute lawyer and businessman, Judge Cady served in the New York state legislature from 1808 until 1814.

It was one of the first schools in New York to receive a teaching certificate issued by the newly formed state education system in the later 19th century.