Chemung County, New York
Chemung County is a county in the southern tier of the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 88,830.[1] Its county seat is Elmira.[2] Its name is derived from a Delaware Indian village whose name meant "big horn".
In the late 1870s, the Greenbacker Party became prominent in Chemung and nearby counties in western New York. Here it was primarily allied with labor in a critique of capital, reaching its peak in 1878, the year following the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Scranton General Strike in Pennsylvania. There were also strikes that year in Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo, starting with the railroad workers. In Steuben and Chemung counties, Greenbackers were elected to county councils in 1878 instead of Democrats, and others were elected from there and nearby counties to the state legislature, gaining votes of more than 25 percent in several of the Southern Tier counties. It gradually declined after that, due to internal dissension and the strength of the two major parties.[5]
