Biography

Wilhelmus Mynderse was born at Albany, July 11, 1767, and died Jan. 31, 1838, in the house he built and for years occupied. He was the earliest resident proprietor of a large portion of what is today the village of Seneca Falls. He owned a one-fifth interest in the Bayard  Land Co., then the owners of the land and water power of present Seneca Falls village. He was the resident business agent of this land company for thirty years. He located in Seneca Falls permanently in 1795. No other single individual had as much to do with the beginning of the settlement of Seneca Falls, its subsequent growth to a prosperous village and the location there of early industries as did Wilhelmus Mynderse. Seneca Falls was originally called Mynderse Mills after him.