CORTLAND, a city and the county-seat of Cortland county, New York, U.S.A., in the central part of the state, on Tioughnioga river, at the junction of its E. and W. branches. Pop. (1890) 8590; (1900) 9014, of whom 682 were foreign born; (1905) 11,272;(1910) 11,504. It is served by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the Lehigh Valley railways. The Franklin Hatch library and a state normal and training school (opened in 1869) are in Cortland. The city has important manufactories of wire, and wire-cloth and netting (one of the largest in America), cabs, carriages and waggons, iron and steel, wall-paper, dairy supplies, corundum wheels, and clothing. The value of the city’s factory products increased from $3,063,828 in 1900 to $4,574,191 in 1905 or 49.3%. The town of Cortlandville, which formed a part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, was first settled in 1792, and until 1829 was a part of the town of Homer; from which in the latter year it was separated, and made the county-seat. In 1900 the village of Cortland in the town of Cortlandville was chartered as a city.
See H. C. Goodwin, Cortland County and the Border Wars of New York (New York, 1859).