What Is It Named After: The Old Sawmill In 'Donckers'

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The name of New York's third largest city rolls off the tongue, but as far as early English settlers were concerned, the original moniker was too much of a mouthful.

A sawmill built where the Nepperhan and Hudson Rivers meet was at one time the most notable landmark on the spot along the Hudson, according to "Hudson River Waterfront Present and Future: Historic River Towns of Westchester County" from the Westchester County Dept. of Planning. The mill was so important for the region's growth into a major trading center that Nepperhan is now more commonly known as the Saw Mill River.

If the city's namesake was a sawmill, then why don't we just call Yonkers, Milton?

Well, in 1646, a young lawyer working for the Dutch West India Company, by the name of Adriaen van der Donck, not only negotiated with the native Americans for a large swath of land now known as Yonkers, but he also built the thriving sawmill near the banks of the Hudson. van der Donck is said to have gone by the nickname "De Jonkeer" or the “the young gentleman.” His holdings were referred to as “De Jonkheer’s Land” or as “Donckers.” The English eventually elided the term to a the name Yonkers that we know and love today.