Kingston, a city and the county seat of Ulster co., New York, on the W. bank of the Hudson river, about 90 m. N. of New York and 55 m. S. of Albany, and on the N. bank of Ron-dout creek, which is navigable for 3 m. and is its harbor; pop. in 1874, about 22,000. It is the terminus of the Delaware and Hudson canal, and of the New York, Kingston, and Syracuse, and the Wallkill Valley railroads, which communicate by ferry with Rhine-beck, a station on the Hudson River railroad on the opposite bank of the river. Steamboats connect it with New York, Albany, and intermediate places. It has a wharfage front of 4 m. Forty-three steamboats owned in the city are employed in transporting freight and passengers, and in towing. The shipment of coal, blue stone, brick, ice, cement, lime, lumber, etc, exceed 2,500,000 tons per annum. Kingston is the centre of the blue-stone or flagging trade. The quarries are scattered through a region nearly 100 m. in length, reaching from the Delaware river to the Hudson, and the stone is brought to the city by wagon, rail, and canal. Hydraulic cement, for which Ulster co. is celebrated, is mainly shipped from Kingston, amounting to a yearly aggregate of 1,500,000 barrels.

The largest cement manufactory in the country, that of the Newark lime and cement manufacturing company, situated in the city, turns out 225,000 barrels yearly. The stone is obtained by tunnelling the hills which face the creek and river, and by running galleries in the layers of rock. These galleries are nearly two miles in length, and are often sunk to a depth of 200 ft. The average thickness of the layers is 30 ft., and they incline at all angles from vertical to horizontal. The city also contains four founderies and machine shops, a planing mill, a manufactory of malt, four of cigars, one of glue, a tanning and currying establishment, nine breweries, 13 carriage factories, several boat and ship-building establishments, five brick yards, five national banks with an aggregate capital of $1,125,000, and three savings banks. It is divided into nine wards, and is governed by a mayor and 18 aldermen. The recorder holds a police court, and there is a volunteer fire department. The streets are lighted partly with gas and partly with kerosene. The disbursements for the year ending March 9, 1874, were $90,518 29. The bonded debt at that date amounted to $650,660, of which $600,660 was contracted to pay for stock in railroads.

Besides the county buildings, there are the music hall, the almshouse, the city hall (in progress), and several hotels. The educational institutions, besides several large private schools, embrace a number of graded and ungraded public schools, having in 1873 46 teachers; pupils enrolled, 3,291; average attendance, 1,951. The number of children of school age (5 to 21) was 7,235; expenditures for school purposes, $55,380, of which $32,248 were for teachers' wages. There are one daily and five weekly newspapers, and 21 churches, viz.: Baptist, 2; Episcopal, 2; German Evangelical Lutheran, 2; Jewish, 2; Methodist, 4; Presbyterian, 2; Reformed, 3; Roman Catholic, 3; children's church, 1. - Kingston was incorporated as a city by act of March 29,1872. It was formed from a portion of the town of the same name, and in cludes the greater part of the former villages of Kingston (pop. in 1870, 6,315), incorporated in 1805, and Ron-dout (pop. in 1870,10,-114), incorporated in 1849, and the unincorporated village of Wilbur. The first permanent settlement was made soon after 1665. The first state convention of New York adjourned from Fishkill to Kingston in February, 1777, and here framed the first constitution of the state.

In September following the state legislature met here, but dispersed on the approach of a British force under Sir Henry Clinton, which on Oct. 17 plundered the village and burned every house but one.