....at Gilbert Lake State Park in New York State

History of Gilbert Lake State Park

The first known real estate advertisement for land in the Otego Patent appeared in a newspaper of 1770. It read:

FORTY OR FIFTY FAMILIES

Inclining to settle on good land, situated in the county of Albany, and Province of New York, on the head of the east branch of the Susquehanna; which is navigable for small craft to Harris’ ferry, may be supplied on very advantageous terms several large adjoining tracts. For further information, apply to Samuel Preston Moore, Joseph Fox, and Henry Hill in Philadelphia.

An early map of the Otego Patent, which included Laurens and most of Otsego County, shows that several of the grantees sold their Great Lots of one thousand acres to others. Only twenty names are listed on the map dated 1774.

The sixty-nine original petitioners listed in the document lived in the area of Burlington, New Jersey. Many were lawyers who held high offices in the Colonial government and many were merchants and landowners.

Richard Smith was the only grantee to actually occupy land on the Otego Patent. He was an important man in his day. He had been in law practice with Joseph Galloway in Philadelphia, and he was Clerk of the assembly of New Jersey in 1769. Later he was a member of the first Continental Congress, but he did not sign the Declaration of Independence because he previously had resigned due to ill health. He was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1735 to a prominent and wealthy family. He was thirty-four years old when he first came to the Otego Patent with William Ridgeway, Richard Wells, and others to make a survey of the patent in 1769. They traveled through Canajoharie and Cherry Valley to Otsego Lake. At George Croghans settlement, now the site of Cooperstown, they hired two Indian guides. Smith later identified one of the Indians as being, “the notorious sachem Joseph Brant, who has since figured as the Commander of a Bloody Bannditti.”

During the survey, Smith saw the small lake, now called Gilbert Lake, several small creeks, low hills, wild hops, and cherry trees. In his journal, he also mentioned seeing good sites for mills and bottom lands for farming. He undoubtedly saw the Indian campsites on Otego Creek and the Indian apple orchard at the mouth of the Otego Creek.

Smith intended to form a Quaker Colony. He induced several people, who had the necessary skills and character for pioneering, to settle on the Patent. Smith acquired four thousand acres and chose a site on the west side of Otego Creek for his house. In the spring of 1773, Smith made a second trip to the Otego Patent, cleared ground for his house, and helped build a road to Otsego Lake.

On July tenth, three of the men went to Cherry Valley for flour and salt, camp supplies, Smith’s two horses, and livestock - six sheep and four oxen - the first livestock on the Otego Patent.

Time was not wasted! The construction of Smith’s house began immediately. John Newsberry, a carpenter, and John Brown, a shingle and lathmaker, had been hired in Cherry Valley. On July 15^th four men completed the cellar. The next day, the men filled and squared white pine logs for the framework. The lumber was cut by means of a pit saw. The saw for this primitive sawmill was brought from Cherry Valley on a man’s back, probably by way of the Indian trail down the Susquehanna and over the hills to Smith’s place.

In the locality known as Butt’s Corners, Jacob Butts, an honored pioneer from Windam Co., Connecticut, settled in about the year 1790. He penetrated the wilderness alone, and, after building a log house, returned to Connecticut, packed up his household goods, and his wife, a wagon, yoke oxen, and a single horse, started for their forest home. It required no small amount of courage in that early day to undertake a journey of several hundred miles, over almost impassable roads and through a forest which at night resounded with the howls of wild animals. Mr. Butts and his companion were ready to face the hardships of pioneer life, and after a wearing journey of twelve days, arrived at their log cabin, and there erected the standard of “home.”

“Our forest life was rough and rude,

And dangers closed us round;

But here, amid the green old trees,

A home we sought and found.”

Benjamin Tiffany was a worthy pioneer in the vicinity of Gilbert’s Lake, having settled in 1794. One son, Mr. Thomas Tiffany, is the sole surviving member of the family, and resided in Mount Vision.

Gilbert’s Lake derived its name from Benjamin Gilbert, a Revolutionary soldier from Connecticut, who settled in its vicinity soon after the war. Two great-grand-sons, Lloyd and Morris, live on the estate.

William M. Houghton grew up on his father’s farm below the village of Laurens. In December 1970, Mr. Houghton wrote his memoirs. He described the last large lumbering operation in the area.

A sawmill operated by the name of Emmons Peck had the largest lumbering job in the central part of New York in about 1905 at Gilbert’s Lake. He was there for three years and used a small gauge steam train for hauling logs out of the woods, down the hill below the lake, to Laurens and on to Oneonta. The tracks ran along the East Side of the lake and close to the water. There were several log cabins on this job, as I have been told.

There was a persistent rumor that an early logger, DeCorsey Smith, cut off some timber a long time before, and not getting the logs out of the water soon enough, they all sank to the bottom of the lake where they rested for many years.

Peck’s mill was operated by a large steam engine that burned wood. His next job was in the Otego Creek Valley cutting off and sawing lumber from a hemlock swamp on the east side of the electric road directly south of the Gardner place buildings. This was possibly one-fourth mile and near that of Walter House’s farm buildings, presently Arthur Roger’s farm, but down on the flat. Peck was quite a sport and rode a four-cylinder motorcycle, something exceedingly rare in those days.

The Great Depression beginning in 1930 caused severe hardship throughout the country. However, two events helped a few people in this area during the depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps was created by the federal government to provide jobs for young men, and New York State acquired Gilbert Lake with 1,550 acres of farm land for a state park. Several local men, and others, joined the Corps and obtained jobs at Gilbert Lake. Five barracks, located on the east side of the lake, housed the men. Roadways, campsites (Deer Run), picnic areas and shelters, a waterfront and beach, cabins, and administration buildings were constructed. Gilbert Lake became one of the most beautiful recreation areas in the State.

In the year 1926, Gilbert Lake became a State Park. The Old Administration building and the Hill Top Camping Area were constructed by the Parks Department.

The old beach area was once located in front of the Old Administration Building – presently the Briggs Pavilion. A concession area, showers, bathrooms, and offices were all found in the same building. A grass beach area with diving boards off an older dock were part of the smaller recreation area.

Some of the original cabins were once located around the lake, but were moved up to their present location. Gilbert Lake now has one of the largest cabin colonies—with thirty-three cabins. Also, the park provides two hundred and twenty-one campsites with bathing facilities.

The new beach area and facilities were built and opened in 1980. All of the sand on the beach was transported in.

Gilbert Lake State Park continues to be the cleanest, friendliest, and most enjoyable park in New York State!!