In 1797, Samuel Allen arrived in what is now Waddington village as the first settler. While the first official owner of property, Allen found a Dutch family living in a hut on the site of the village, squatters all dressed in animal furs.

This village was attractive to early settlers in part because of its potential for waterpower. In 1798, approximately a dozen families had settled into the village. That same year, Jacob Redington, a revolutionary war hero who later also served in the War of 1812, led a Fourth of July celebration of Independence. At the end of Point Iroquois, Redington read the Declaration of Independence and muskets were fired to celebrate. Canadians on the other side of the river began waving white flags of truce with the assumption that the war with the British had started again.

In June of 1800, the following people purchased land including John Tuttle, Benjamin Bartlett, Godfrey Myers, Benjamin Campbell, Elias Dimicic, Reuben Fields, Asa Freeman, Samuel Allen, Edward Lawrence, Asa and Jason Fenton, Alexander Brush, James Kilborn, Jacob Carnes, Allen Patterson, Jacob Redington, Robert Sample, Caleb and Cornelius Peck, Henry Allen, William Osburne, Ira Paine, Oliver Lindsley, Joseph Orcutt, Henry and Joseph Irwin, John Montgomery (A picture of the Fenton house appears here).

The village was re-named Waddington in 1818 and the town separated from the township of Madrid, forming the township of Waddington 1859.

In June of 1800, the following people purchased land including John Tuttle, Benjamin Bartlett, Godfrey Myers, Benjamin Campbell, Elias Dimicic, Reuben Fields, Asa Freeman, Samuel Allen, Edward Lawrence, Asa and Jason Fenton, Alexander Brush, James Kilborn, Jacob Carnes, Allen Patterson, Jacob Redington, Robert Sample, Caleb and Cornelius Peck, Henry Allen, William Osburne, Ira Paine, Oliver Lindsley, Joseph Orcutt, Henry and Joseph Irwin, John Montgomery.