- Jamestown
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/jaymz"town'/, n.1. a village in E Virginia: first permanent English settlement in North America 1607; restored 1957.2. a city in SW New York. 35,775.3. a city in central North Dakota. 16,280.4. a seaport in and the capital of St. Helena, in the S Atlantic Ocean. 1475.
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Site of the first permanent British settlement in North America.It was founded in May 1607, on the Jamestown Island peninsula in Virginia's James River. Named after King James I, it initiated the cultivation of tobacco and established the continent's first representative government (1619). When Williamsburg replaced it as the capital of Virginia in 1699, it fell into decline. By the mid-19th century, erosion had transformed the peninsula into an island. In 1936 it was incorporated into the Colonial National Historical Park.* * *
city, Chautauqua county, southwestern New York, U.S. It lies at the south end of Chautauqua Lake, 70 miles (113 km) southwest of Buffalo. It was named for James Prendergast, a settler from Pittstown, who in 1811 purchased 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of land there and built a mill; a settlement developed, and furniture and textiles were early manufactures. Abundant waterpower, the opening of the Erie Canal (1825), and the arrival of the Erie Railroad (Erie Railroad Company) in the 1850s encouraged industrial development.Jamestown's manufactures include precision bearings, furniture, diesel engines, vehicular cooling systems, brass furniture hardware, and refractory products. Many dairy farms are in the vicinity, and the city is a base for the nearby resort areas of Chautauqua Lake and the Allegheny Mountains. Jamestown Community College, part of the State University of New York (New York, State University of (SUNY)) system, was founded in 1950. Inc. village, 1827; city, 1886. Pop. (1990) city, 34,681; Jamestown MSA, 141,895; (2000) city, 31,730; Jamestown MSA, 139,750.city, seat (1874) of Stutsman county, southeast-central North Dakota, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the James River and Pipestem Creek, halfway between Bismarck (west) and Fargo (east). The site was settled in 1871 by construction crews of the Northern Pacific Railway (Northern Pacific Railway Company). The garrison at Fort Seward guarded the railroad workers from 1872 until the fort was abandoned in 1877. Jamestown was named by a railroad official both for its location on the James River and for the Virginia city (see Jamestown (Jamestown Colony), Virginia). The economy is based on manufacturing (including farm and construction equipment, aircraft parts and equipment, road signs, and canvas), food processing, and agriculture (including livestock, dairy products, wheat, barley, rye, oats, flaxseed, and sunflowers). The city is the site of the North Dakota State Hospital (opened 1885), the Anne Carlsen Center for Children (opened in 1941 by the Lutheran Hospitals and Homes Society), and Jamestown College (founded 1883). Frontier Village, at the city's southeastern edge, includes reconstructed pioneer buildings, a huge concrete statue, 26 feet (8 metres) tall, of an American bison, and a museum with exhibits on local history, wildlife, and Native Americans. The adjacent National Buffalo Museum has its own bison herd. Another attraction in Jamestown is the North Dakota Sports Hall of Fame. The city is the birthplace of the American writer Louis L'Amour (L'Amour, Louis). Jamestown Dam, just north on the James River, provides flood protection, water for irrigation, and recreation opportunities. Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge is about 30 miles (50 km) north. Inc. 1883. Pop. (1990) 15,571; (2000) 15,527.seaport town and capital of the British overseas territory of St. Helena (Saint Helena), in the South Atlantic Ocean. The town was founded in 1659, when the British East India Company built a fort and established a garrison at the site on James Bay, naming it for the duke of York (later James II). Jamestown, consisting of little more than a single street, runs up a narrow, deep-sided valley for about 1 mile (1.6 km) to a height of 500 feet (150 metres). The main sources of revenue are customs duties, wharfage, and the sale of postage stamps to philatelists. Plantation House (the governor's residence; built 1792) and the Cathedral of St. Paul's are 2 miles (3 km) south of the town. Longwood House, where Napoleon I was exiled and died in 1821, is 2.5 miles (4 km) southeast and is owned by the government of France. Pop. (1998) 864.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
