The Lebanon Reservoir Story: Early Settlement
The Hartshorn family that developed and currently manages Lebanon Reservoir Campground also has deep roots in the area, tracing its ancestory to the late 1700s when the first European settlers moved here from Connecticut. Hartshorn descendants of these early settlers became prominent farmers and in the twentieth century leaders in the dairy industry with their Holstein cattle.
Smith’s Valley, as the region at the base of the hills was first known, took its name from Colonel William Smith (1755-1816). A Revolutionary War veteran, Smith married Abigail Adams, the daughter of President John Adams. The 24,400 acre land grant Colonel Smith received in Central New York as a reward for his distinguished service in the Revolutionary War, comprised six townships, three on the northern tier of Chenango County (Sherburne, Smyrna, and Otselic) and three adjacent towns on the southern tier of Madison County (Hamilton, Lebanon, and Georgetown). He received the patent for these areas in 1794. One of the districts, no. 5, the Town of Lebanon, dates to 1807. Smith lived in the Valley for a time and his brother Justus became the land agent to sell property.
As early as 1794, David Hartshorn arrived from Lisbon, Connecticut and established a farm on the Chenango River that later became part of the Town of Lebanon. By 1817, the name Smith’s Valley became Randallsville when the first Post Office was established (named after the Postmaster-General at the time) and David’s oldest son became the first postmaster. Many Hartshorn’s are buried in the Smith’s Valley Cemetery located on Armstrong Road, including Gailan Hartshorn, who founded Lebanon Reservoir Campground along with his wife, Carolyn Faucett Hartshorn in1963.
In 1814, Amos Kingsley III (1768-1847), a tavern keeper and ordained minister from Becket, Massachusetts, acting on an urge to move west, traveled to Hamilton on horseback. He learned that property was available in Smith’s Valley and contacted the Smith family. The Smith’s sold Kingsley the Colonel’s large mansion and 250 acres where they settled the next year. Amos paid $40.00 per acre for the land and soon acquired more property to create a 700 acre estate. Behind the house on a stream, later named Kingsley Brook, he built a saw mill. This stream later became the namesake for Kingsley Brook Reservoir, now known as Lebanon Reservoir.
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