HOOSICK FALLS  , a

village of Rensselaer county, New York, U.S.A., in the township of Hoosick, 27 M . N.E. of Troy, on the Hoosick river . Pop. of the village (189o) 7014; (1900) 5671, of whom 1092 were foreign-born; (1905) 5251; (1910) 5532; of the township (1900) 8631; (1910) 8315 . Hoosick Falls is served by the Boston & Maine Railroad, and is connected by electric railway with Bennington, Vermont, about 8 m . E . The falls of the Hoosick river furnish water-power for the manufacture of agricultural machinery by the Walter A . Wood Mowing and Reaping Machine Co., which dates from 1866, the business having been started in 1852 by Walter Abbott Wood (1815-1892), who was a Republican representative in Congress in 1879-1883 . Other manufactures are knit goods, shirts and collars and paper-making machinery . Hoosick Falls was settled about 1688 by Dutch settlers—settlers from Connecticut and . Massachusetts came after 1763—and it was first incorporated in 1827 . Three miles N.E. of the village, at Walloomsac, in the township of Hoosick, the battle of Bennington was fought, on the 16th of August 1777 .