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TROY—TROYES
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Troy. Opposite Troy on the west bank of the Hudson, and connected with it by bridges, are Cohoes, Watervliet and Waterford. Industrially and commercially they virtually form a part of Troy. Troy is the seat of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824 by Stephen van Rensselaer as a “school of theoretical and practical science,” incorporated in 1826, and reorganized in 1849 as a general polytechnic institute. It is the oldest school of engineering in the country, and has always maintained a high rank of efficiency. The large gifts (about $1,000,000) to the school made by Mrs Russell Sage in 1907 enabled it to add courses in mechanical and electrical engineering to its course in civil engineering. The institute had 55 instructors and 650 students in 1910. The Emma Willard School, founded as the Troy Female Seminary in 1821 by Mrs Emma Willard (1787–1870),[1] is one of the oldest schools for women in the United States. Other educational institutions include Troy Academy (1834), a non-sectarian preparatory school; La Salle Institute (conducted by the Brothers of the Christian Schools); St Joseph’s Academy (Roman Catholic) and St Peter’s Academy (Roman Catholic). Noteworthy buildings of a public and semi-public character include the post office, the public library, containing in 1910 43,500 volumes, the Troy Savings Bank building, the city hall, the Rensselaer county court house, a Y.M.C.A. building and St Paul’s Episcopal, the Second Presbyterian and St Mary’s (Roman Catholic) churches. An area of 175 acres is comprised in the city’s parks, the largest of which are Prospect Park and Beman Park. In Oakwood cemetery, 400 acres, are the grave of General George H. Thomas, and a monolithic shaft to the memory of General John Ellis Wool (1784–1869), who served with distinction in the War of 1812 and in the Mexican War, and in the Civil War commanded for a time the Department of Virginia. In Washington Square there is a Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, 93 ft. high. Altro Park, on an island a short distance down the river, is a pleasure resort in summer.

Two rapid streams, Poesten Kill and Wynants Kill, flowing into the Hudson from the east, through deep ravines, furnish good water-power, which, with that furnished by the state dam across the Hudson here, is utilized for manufacturing purposes. In 1905 the value of Troy’s factory product was $31,860,829 Of this $11,271,708 was the value of collars and cuffs (89·5% of the value of the total American product), an industry which gave employment to 49·3% of the wage-earners in Troy, and paid 42·1 % of the wages. Closely allied with this industry was shirt-making, with an output valued at $4,263,610. Troy is the market for a fertile agricultural region, and the principal jobbing centre for a large district in north-eastern New York and eastern Massachusetts.

The site of Troy was part of the Van Rensselaer manor grant of 1629. In 1659 it was bought from the Indians, with the consent of the patroon, by Ian Barentsen Wemp, and several families settled here. In 1707 it passed into the hands of Derick van der Heyden, who laid out a large farm. During this early period it was known variously as Ferryhook, Ashley’s Ferry and Van der Heyden’s Ferry. In 1777 General Philip Schuyler established his headquarters on Van Schaick’s Island in the Mohawk and Hudson, then the principal rendezvous of the army which later met Burgoyne at Saratoga. After the close of the war there was an influx of settlers from Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont; a town was laid out on the Van der Heyden farm, and in 1789 the name of Troy was selected in town meeting; and in 1791 the town of Troy was formed from part of Rensselaerwyck. The county-seat was established here in 1793, and Troy was incorporated as a village in 1794 and was chartered as a city in 1816. The first newspaper, The Farmer’s Oracle, began publication in 1797. In 1812 a steamboat line was established between Troy and Albany. Troy benefited financially by the War of 1812, during which contracts for army beef were filled here. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 contributed greatly to Troy’s commercial importance. During the Civil War army supplies, ammunition and cannon, and the armour-plate and parts of the machinery for the “Monitor” were made here. The first puddling works were opened in 1839, and Troy was long the centre of the New York iron and steel industry; in 1865 the second Bessemer steel works in the United States were opened here. Troy has three times been visited by severe conflagrations, that of June 1820 entailing a loss of about $1,000,000, that of August 1854 about the same, and that of May 1862, known as “the Great Fire,” the destruction of over 500 buildings, and a property loss of some $3,000,000.

See Arthur J. Weise, History of the City of Troy (Troy, 1876), and Troy’s One Hundred Years (Troy, 1891).

TROY, a city and the county-seat of Miami county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the west bank of the Great Miami river, about 65 m. W. of Columbus. Pop. (1899), 4494; (1900), 5881 (234 foreign-born); (1910), 6122. Troy is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railways, and by the Dayton & Troy and the Springfield, Troy & Piqua electric inter-urban lines. The Miami and Erie Canal, formerly important for traffic, is now used only for power. The principal public buildings include the court house and the city hall, and there are a public library (housed in the city hall) and a children’s home. Troy is situated in a good general farming region, of which tobacco is an important crop; and there are various manufactures. The municipality owns and operates the Waterworks and electric-lighting plant. The first settlement was made in 1807, and Troy was first chartered as a city in 1890.


TROYES, a town of France, capital of the department of Aube, 104 m. E.S.E. of Paris on the Eastern railway to Belfort. Pop. (1906), 51,228. The town is situated in the Wide alluvial plain watered by the Seine, the main stream of which skirts it on the east. It is traversed by several small arms of the river, and the Canal de la Haute-Seine divides it into an upper town, on the left bank, and a lower town on the right bank. The streets are, for the most part, narrow and crooked. It is surrounded by a belt of boulevards, outside which lie suburbs. The churches of the town are numerous, and especially rich in stained glass of the Renaissance period, from the hands of Jean Soudain, Jean Macadré, Linard Gonthier and other artists.

St Pierre, the cathedral, was begun in 1208, and it was not until 1640 that the north tower of the facade was completed. With a height to the vaulting of only 98 ft. it is less lofty than other important Gothic cathedrals of France. It consists of an apse with seven apse Chapels, a choir with double aisles, on the right of which are the treasury and sacristy, a transept without aisles, a nave with double aisles and side chapels and a vestibule. The west facade belongs to the 16th century with the exception of the upper portion of the north tower; the south tower has never been completed. Three portals, that in the centre surmounted by a fine flamboyant rose window, open into the vestibule. The stained glass of the interior dates mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries. The treasury contains some fine enamel work and lace. The church of St Urban, begun in 1262 at the expense of Pope Urban IV., a native of the town, is a charming specimen of Gothic architecture, the lightness and delicacy of its construction rivalling that of churches built a century later. The glass windows, the profusion of which is the most remarkable feature of the church, date, for the most part, from the years 1265 to 1280. The church of La Madeleine, built at the beginning of the 13th century, and enlarged in the 16th contains a rich rood-screen by Giovanni Gualdo (1508) and fine stained-glass windows of the 16th century. The church of St Jean, though hidden among old houses, is one of the most picturesque in Troyes. The choir is a fine example of Renaissance architecture and the church contains a high altar of the 17th century, stained glass of the 16th century and many other works of art. St Nicholas is a building of the 16th century with a beautiful vaulted gallery in the interior. The church of St Pantaléon of the 16th century and that of St Nizier, mainly of the same period, contain remarkable sculptures and paintings. St Remi (14th, 15th and 16th centuries) and St Martin-ès-Vignes (16th and 17th centuries), the latter notable for its 17th-century windows, are also of interest. The old abbey of St Loup is occupied by a


  1. Emma Hart was born in Berlin, Connecticut, became a teacher in 1803, and in 1809 married Dr John Willard of Middlebury, Vermont, where she opened a boarding school for girls in 1814. In 1819 she wrote A Plan for Improving Female Education, submitted to the governor of New York state; and in 1821 she removed to Troy. Her son took charge of the school in 1838. She prepared many textbooks and wrote Journal and Letters from France and Great Britain (1833). See the biography (1873) by John Lord.