History of the Gilboa Historical Society: Our Founders
Panel 1: Founding members, movers, and shakers
Richard Lewis was the town historian the lead speaker during the formation of the society, and its first president in 1998. The vice president was Cindy Buel; treasurer, Wilma Jones; and secretary, Shirley Kutzscher.
Two strong members at the start of the Historical Society were Beatrice Mattice, historian of the Town of Conesville with her immense knowledge about Gilboa and the neighborhoods around this area; and Kristen Wyckoff, with both her knowledge of Devonian fossils and our guru in artistic matters.
Other essential early members were Carolyn Brown, Pete and Jane Fox, Marlyn Kessler, Mary Jane Laben, Cynthia Mattsen, Marianne Neuber, Janette Reynolds, Cathy Sanzari, Linda Stratigos, Wally and Sylvia Van Houten, and Mary Wyckoff.
Early artifacts in the GHS collection from Richard Lewis
Gilboa Monitor newspapers: Richard Lewis inherited a number of Gilboa Monitors dating from 1878 through 1980. In time, he had them microfilmed through the Capital Newspaper Project. Subsequently, Lee Hudson expanded the numbers of newspapers in our collection and had them all digitized. They are accessible at fultonhistory.com and nyshistoricnewspapers.org.
Photographs of the 1910 village: Richard received a phone call from a man who claimed to have a box of photographs that appeared to be of properties in the village of Gilboa. Richard naturally thanked the man and arranged to have the pictures shipped here. It turns out that these pictures were created by the New York City’s Board of Water Supply to establish value of the properties confiscated under eminent domain. These pictures have been scanned and are being made available online. In total, we have pictures of most of the properties in the village and are working with the Board of Water Supply archives of New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection to round out our collection. We also have title maps and tax rolls to define each of the properties.
YOU can help!
We are currently asking for volunteers and content (text and photos) for each of these displays. Please contact Gerry Stoner if you have interesting content for any of these displays, or would like to work on an area of interest to you.
Navigating the Gilboa Historical Society pages
The narrow column on the right has three scroll-down windows (at the end of this window on your phone or pad):
- Current activities of the society.
- Links to our Society web pages.
- Benefits of Membership in the Gilboa Historical Society.
We ARE open during daylight hours! SPECIAL TOURS can be set up by calling (607) 652-2665, (607) 588-9413, or (607) 588-6267
MUSEUM IS SEASONALLY OPEN WEEKENDS 12–4:30 pm from Memorial Day through Columbus Day.
GHS Board Meetings
are in the Gilboa Museum on the 4th Wednesday of each month at 1:00.
General Membership Meetings are on the 3rd Wednesday of each month March through December. A short business meeting starts at 6:00; ends at 6:30; and the guest speaker starts at 6:45. Indoors or outside, depending on the weather.
For INDOOR events, please be prepared to wear masks on request and observe distance between strangers.
OUTDOOR events have no Covid-related limitations.
2023 ACTIVITIES
March 2023
02 Family private Tour-on Call
15 At 6 pm, General Membership bus. mtg; refreshments; speaker and topic at 7:pm NYC DEP on new Reservoir Overlook, underground release, and other coming work on the Schoharie Reservoir.
22 Board meeting, 1:00
April 2023
Fundraiser for psychics lecture TBD
04 Franklin School class Tour-on Call
19 At 6 pm, General Membership bus. mtg; refreshments; speaker and topic at 7:pm TBA
26 Board meeting, 1:00
May 2023
04 Family private Tour-on Call and fossil hunt in Schoharie Creek
17 At 6 pm, General Membership bus. mtg; refreshments; speaker and topic at 7:pm TBA
18 G-CCS 5th grade class Tour-on Call
24 Board meeting, 1:00
27 Opening of the regular Gilboa Museum season with a live performance with Reggie Harris
June 2023
10 Gilboafest & Catskill Conquest Rally. Daylong festival, please keep tuned!
21 General Membership meeting, 6 p.m. Shopping Bag Auction, refreshments.
28 Board meeting, 1:00
July 2023
16 19 At 6 pm, Field trip to the C.S. Best House and Medical Museum.
16 Psychic Fair I (Rain Date 7/23)
19 General Membership program: Field trip to Best House, 6 p.m.
22 Artist Clover Archer’s presentation at 1:00 on her genealogical display of the Stryker Family.
26 Board meeting, 1:00
August 2023
16 General Membership meeting, 6 p.m. Ice Cream Social and FisherCats, refreshments by Stewart Shops
23 Board meeting, 1:00
September 2023
10 Psychic Fair II (Rain Date 9/17)
12 Conesville Historical Society private Tour-on Call
20 General Membership meeting, 6 p.m. Canal Street Strings, refreshments
27 Board meeting, 1:00
October 2023
8 End of regular season of open weekends at the Gilboa Museum
11 National Fossil Day
18 At 6 pm, General Membership bus. mtg and election of board members; refreshments; speaker and topic at 7:pm TBA
25 Board meeting, 1:00
November 2023
12 Holiday Fair and Boutique, 11–4:
15 At 6 pm, General Membership bus. mtg; refreshments; speaker and topic at 7:pm TBA
29 Board meeting, 1:00 (5th Wednesday to clear Thanksgiving week)
December 2023
13 At 6 pm, Raffle & Bottle Auction, refreshments (2nd Wednesday to clear pre-Christmas)
27 Board meeting, 1:00 p.m.
Unlinked pages are under construction.√
GHS Facebook page
Gilboa Fossils, a site of the Gilboa Historical Society
A full featured long playing video of the Gilboa Museum by Kristen Wyckoff.
Gilboa Historical Society
GHS Home Page
GHS History
GHS Founders
GHS Support
Our First Decade
Plans for Expansion
History Center Displays I
History Center Displays II
History Center South Wall
Cultural & Natural History
Our Tri-County Community
GHS in the 2020s
GHS Activities
GHS Psychic Fair I
GHS Ice Cream Social & FisherCats
GHS Boutique with Psychics
GHS Facilities
Who We Are, our organization
GHS Board of Directors
GHS By-Laws
GHS Board Minutes
GHS Committees
GHS Endowment
Map to the GHS Complex
Our Publications
GHS Quarterlies
Tri-County Historical Views
Podcasts from Historical Views
GHS YouTube Channel
Gilboa geography in 1915
Valley and Village
Gilboa Valley
Gilboa Village
Retail stores
Retail services
Residences and small farms
Iron bridge area west of creek
Iron bridge area east of creek
Church Hill
Gilboa property database (photos and information on properties searchable by individual, family, or neighborhood) under construction.
Schoharie Reservoir, 1904–
Plans leading to Gilboa Reservoir
Why Gilboa?
Construction Infrastructure
Materials
Stream Control
Shandaken Tunnel
Intake House
Scrubbing the Valley
Dam and berm
Maintenance 1927–2000
Board of Water Supply resources
Communications between you and the GHS is key to your enjoyment and our success. Underlying this linkage is a secure, local database that stores only as much of your information as you are comfortable with sharing. If you want to keep in touch with us only via email and are not comfortable sharing more information, please send us your email address on this form.
Our annual membership is based on an anniversary date established when we process your check. A renewal would simply add 12 months to the projected expiration date, while lapsed memberships are seen as new ones without penalty for the lapse.
Member benefits
- All GHS Newsletters and mailings.
- Gift shop discounts of 10% on all sales.