Bovina is a small New York town located in Delaware County in the Northern Catskills. The first European settlers came in the early 1790s and kept coming at a steady pace into the 19th century. By the time the Town of Bovina was created in 1820 from portions of the towns of Delhi, Middletown and Stamford, its population was over 1200 people. After peaking at 1400 in the 1840s, the town’s population steadily dropped. Today, the population is exactly half of what it was in 1820, though it is higher than its all time low in the 1960’s.
Though Bovina seemingly had been named in 1820 because of its dairying, the name may not have been referring to dairying but to a more generic term akin to ‘pastoral.’ General Erastus Root, who came up with the name, noted the area’s fitness for grazing as the reason his suggestion, with no specific reference to dairying. In fact, it is likely that Bovina’s pastures had many more sheep than cows in 1820. Regardless of Root’s intention, Bovina’s very name is related to its farming heritage.
We are proud to play a small part in keeping farming in Bovina going…
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