Above: A slideshow of photos from the Lexington Bicentennial Parade on April 20, 2013. All photos by Donna Cavanaugh.
Happy birthday, Lexington: The Greene County town celebrated its 200th on Patriot's Day with a parade, a celebration of the town's founding families, and a few guest appearances straight from the 1800s.
With a population of just over 800, the New York town of Lexington is a fraction of the size of its Massachusetts namesake, where the first shot of the Revolutionary War was famously fired. But Lexington, NY is just as proud of its Revolutionary roots.
Founded in 1813, the town was initially named New Goshen, since many of its settlers hailed from Connecticut. But prominent settler Silas Fowler, who fought in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, argued along with several other Revolutionary War veterans that the town should adopt a more patriotic moniker -- and on April 1, 1813, the town was renamed "Lexington." In one of the photos above, Adam Cross takes a turn in the parade as Silas Fowler, accompanied by Jack Jordan as preacher Hezekiah Pettit.
