Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Cemetery, Site

Location

232 Wyckoff Rd, Gilboa, NY 12076, USA

Lat/Long

42.395506, -74.432777

Grant Recipient

Gilboa Rural Cemetery

Schoharie Reservoir was formed by the damming of Schoharie Creek. It was placed into service in 1926 and is one of two reservoirs in New York City’s Catskill water system.

From 1918 to 1921, a large number of bodies, headstones and monuments were contracted to be removed from lands acquired by the Board of Water Supply for the Reservoir and reinterred elsewhere. Reinterments in this plot occurred in 1921. Not all bodies were moved to this plot as some families chose other locations for the deceased.

In making the removals, graves were opened, the bodies removed and placed in individually numbered pine boxes. In cases where no bodies were found in the originally excavated area, the excavation was enlarged to ensure there actually no remains at that location. In the new cemetery, the reinterments were made in individual plots marked by a bluestone marker inscribed with an identifying number, except where the new graves were marked by stones removed from the old cemeteries.

The following cemeteries were removed to make way for the reservoir: Hoagland Cemetery, Old Gilboa Cemetery, Gilboa Cemetery Association, Emory A. Lewis Cemetery, Adelia McCauley Cemetery, Charles Lewis Farm Cemetery, cemetery on Starr D. Mase farm. (Gilboa Rural Cemetery, Schoharie County NYGenWeb Site. Accessed 26 March 2025)