Boston Corner is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of the town of Ancram in

Columbia County, New York Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,570. The county seat is Hudson. The name comes from the Latin feminine form of the name of Christopher Columbus, which was at th ...

, United States and the town of

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

in Dutchess County. The District of Boston Corner was incorporated by Massachusetts in 1838 from a tract of unincorporated land west of the town of

Mount Washington, Massachusetts Mount Washington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 160 at the 2020 census, making it the least populous town in Berkshire Coun ...

,Massachusetts, General Court. An Act to incorporate the District of Boston Corner. 1838 Mass. Acts 403, Ch. 112. https://archive.org/details/actsresolvespass3738mass/page/403/ and was ceded from Massachusetts to New York on January 11, 1855, because its geographical isolation from the rest of Massachusetts made maintaining law and order difficult. Three railroads— New York Central's

Harlem Line The Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line, originally chartered as the New York and Harlem Railroad, is an commuter rail line running north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Sou ...

, the

Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway The Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway was the first railroad to run east from Poughkeepsie, New York, and was taken over by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and assigned to the Central New England Railway in 1907. History Beginnings T ...

, and the

Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad The Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad was chartered on June 29, 1870 for the purpose of building a railroad from Rhinecliff on the Hudson River east to the Connecticut state line. Construction started on the line in 1872. The following is a list ...

—once served the hamlet. All lines have since been abandoned. *''See

Boston Corners station The Boston Corners station was a former New York Central Railroad station that served the residents of Ancram, New York. History Boston Corners was the first stop of the New York and Harlem Railroad in Columbia County, between Dover Plains (to ...

History

1878 description

Note, that although the above description implies the Morrissey/Sullivan fight (and resulting riot) was a primary cause for the annexation; those events actually took place on October 12, 1853, twelve weeks after the cession was agreed to by both states but more than a year before Congress made the transfer official.

References

External links

The Battle of Boston Corners
{{Coord, 42, 03, N, 73, 31, W, display=title Hamlets in New York (state) North East, New York Hamlets in Columbia County, New York Hamlets in Dutchess County, New York Border irregularities of the United States 1855 establishments in New York (state)