 Most of the original settlers were veterans of the American Revolution, including John Sample, John Gilmore, and Reuben Hildreth.The village was named Jefferson in 1820, after Thomas Jefferson, and that year saw the first church established.The population had reached 200 people by 1860 and the village contained two dry goods stores, one drugstore, a male and a female academy, a Masonic Lodge, a hotel, two tanneries, a wagon shop, and a blacksmith shop.