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Poestenkill is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 4,530 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the Poesten Kill, an important stream in the area. The words poesten kil (with only one l) are traditionally supposed to signify "foaming water" or "foaming creek" in Dutch. While kil indeed means "water" or "creek" in Dutch, Dutch dictionaries do not support the claim of poest as "foam". It seems more likely that the creek was named after the nickname Poest for the 17th-century local farmer and miller Jan Barentsen Wemp, who had a pimple (poest) or had difficulty breathing (poesten = to breathe); he owned a farm and a mill on the Poestenkil creek. Among the earliest settlers in the town was Archelaus Lynd. He leased 300 acres of land from the Van Rensselaers and made his first clearing in the area of Hillside Cemetery, which was known as The Lynd Cemetery until about 1900. The Whyland and Ives families were other early settlers. The town is southeast of Troy and is centrally located in the county.
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