This territory has been inhabited for at least 2000 years by
Indigenous peoples of varying cultures. By 1000 CE,
Iroquoian-speaking people were settling along the St. Lawrence River and practicing agriculture, as well as hunting and fishing. The earliest French explorers recorded Stadacona and Hochelaga as villages of these people in the early 16th century; by the end of the century, later explorers found the villages abandoned. By the late 16th century, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians had disappeared from the
St. Lawrence Valley, probably due to warfare by the
Mohawk of the
Haudenosaunee over the
fur trade. By the time of later French contact, the Five Nations of the
Haudenosaunee:
Mohawk,
Onondaga,
Oneida,
Cayuga, and
Seneca, were allied in the
Iroquois Confederacy, based in present-day
New York. Onondaga settlements extended up along the south shore of
Lake Ontario. Both the Huron and Mohawk used the St. Lawrence Valley for
hunting grounds and as a path for war parties. The earliest European settlement in the area was a French
mission named
Fort de La Présentation (Fort of the
Presentation), built by
Abbé Picquet in 1749 as part of the colony of
New France. The mission attracted
Native Americans for the
fur trade, many of whom settled in the village and converted to
Catholicism. Mostly
Onondaga, the converted Iroquois at the mission became known to the French as
Oswegatchie after their transliterated name for the river. By 1755, there were 3,000 Iroquois living at the mission settlement. The Oswegatchie became known as one of the
Seven Nations of Canada. The residents were hostile to the encroachments of British colonists on their territory. During the 1750s and the
French and Indian War, warriors from this fort allied with French officers in attacking British colonists in the Champlain, Mohawk and Ohio valleys. The city is near the site of the 1760
Battle of the Thousand Islands between British and French forces during the
Seven Years' War (known in the later United States as the
French and Indian War.) After the British victory in the war, France ceded its land in Canada and east of the Mississippi to England. The English renamed this installation as Fort Oswegatchie, after the native name for the river. As with the other mission settlements, the British did not disturb the relationship of the Oswegatchie, as they called the native people, and their Catholic priests. The British considered this community part of Lower Canada or
Quebec province. The village remained under British rule until 1796 following the
American Revolutionary War. With the northern border redefined by
Jay's Treaty, the settlement became part of United States territory. The community was incorporated as a village in 1817 and chartered as the City of Ogdensburg in 1868. This post US Civil war period saw Ogdensburg as a location of Fenian activity,
Thomas Miller Beach spent some time in fall of 1868 in the city in his activities with the
Fenian Brotherhood. In 1940, the town was the site of the signing of the
Ogdensburg Agreement between
Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King and
United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This renewed the ties between the two countries after the 1939 outbreak of
World War II in Europe. The celebrated
German POW Franz von Werra escaped from Canada to Ogdensburg in a rowboat. ==Sports==