Bainbridge, New York

The village of Bainbridge in Chenango County traces its origins to a grant New York State made in seventeen eighty-six to the so-called Vermont Sufferers, families who had supported New York in its bitter boundary dispute with Vermont and received land here as compensation. The town was first called Jericho when it was organized in seventeen ninety-one. In eighteen fourteen, with the War of eighteen twelve still being fought, residents voted to rename it Bainbridge in honor of Commodore William Bainbridge, the naval hero who captured the British frigate HMS Java in eighteen twelve. The village that bears his name grew into a modest Susquehanna River trading community, incorporated in eighteen twenty-nine, and still carries that War of eighteen twelve patriotism in its name today.