Katonah is named for
Chief Katonah, a
Native American sachem from whom the land of Bedford was purchased by a group of English colonists. During the
American Revolution, most local men supported the Continental side, with some joining the New York 4th Regiment of the Line and the majority the local Militia. Though
Bedford Township lay in what was called the
Neutral Ground, its inhabitants were preyed on by military units and
irregulars affiliated with both sides of the war. The Katonah area suffered less from such depredations than other areas in the Neutral Ground because of the proximity of the Croton River and the "Westchester Lines", a sparse string of outposts defended by units of the Continental Army. Originally known as Whitlockville, the settlement changed its name, then moved south to its present site in 1897, when what is known by some as "Old Katonah" was flooded by the construction of the
New Croton Dam. This raised the water level behind it enough to submerge the existing Muscoot Dam, the waters it empounded, and the village, under the resultantly expanded
Muscoot Reservoir. More than 50 buildings were moved from the old site to "New Katonah", rolled on logs pulled by horses. The move was originally ordered to start in 1894, but litigation delayed this by almost three years. Evidently not all of the moved houses were within the affected area, leaving empty foundations where new houses would eventually be built upon. An eleven-year-old child named B. Robertson wrote the following to a children's magazine on March 2, 1897: Katonah was just one of a great number of settlements in northern
Westchester and
Putnam counties to be eradicated - variously moved, demolished, or burnt to the ground - during the creation of the
Croton Watershed as part of New York City's drinking water supply. ==Trademark attempt==