1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oneonta

ONEONTA, a city in the township of the same name, in the south-central part of Otsego county, New York, U.S.A., on the N. side of the Susquehanna river, about 82 m. S.W. of Albany. Pop. (1880) 3002, (1890) 6272, (1900) 7147, of whom 456 were foreign-born, (1910, U.S. census) 9491. The city lies about 1100 ft. above sea-level. It is served by the Ulster & Delaware, by the Susquehanna division of the Delaware & Hudson, and by the Oneonta & Mohawk Valley (electric) railways. In Oneonta are a state normal school (1889), a state armoury, and the Aurelia Fox Memorial Hospital. The city is situated in a good agricultural region. The principal manufactures are machine shop products (the Delaware & Hudson has repair and machine shops at Oneonta), knit goods, silk goods, lumber and planing mill products, &c. The first settlement was made about 1780. The township was erected in 1830 from parts of Milford and Otego. Oneonta was known as Milfordville until 1830, when it received its present name. It was first incorporated as a village in 1848, and was chartered as a city in 1908, the charter coming into effect on the 1st of January 1909. The name “Oneonta” is derived from Onahrenton or Onarenta, the Indian name of a creek flowing through the city.

See Edwin F. Bacon, Otsego County, N. Y. (Oneonta, 1902); and Dudley M. Campbell, A History of Oneonta (Oneonta, 1906).