Ok culled straight from wikipedia, but still interesting.......
Originally part of the Land Grant to the Livingston family, this area on the Roeliff-Jansen Kill was originally called "Livingston Forge" after the iron foundry on the river. Throughout the eighteenth century. the Livingston forge created metal products for the community, and the town was sometimes known as "Scotchtown" due to the immigrants of Scottish ancestry to flocked there. As the Revolution drew near, the factory produced shot, cannonballs, and perhaps most importantly, the chain which stretched across the Hudson River at West Point.
After the Revolution, the town was established from part of the Town of Livingston in 1803, but was then called the "Town of Gallatin." In 1814, the name was changed to "Ancram," after the town in Scotland where the Livingstons had their origins. Part of Ancram was taken to form a new Town of Gallatin in 1830.
Mining of iron and lead was important in the early economy, and the town of Ancramdale was originally known as "Ancram Lead Mines"
