OLD GILLILAND HOMESTEAD

4091 ROUTE 9
TOWN OF PLATTSBURGH
CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK

By: David C. Glenn
March 16, 2009

In 1786 William Gilliland, the pioneer settler of Clinton and Essex Counties, deeded most of his properties, those with clear title, to his children to keep them out of the hands of his creditors. He deeded the Friswell Patent at the mouth of the Salmon River in Clinton County to his twenty-year-old daughter Jane Willsborough Gilliland on September 23, 1786.  It stayed in her hands for the next ten years until shortly after her father died in February of 1796, then it was deeded by Jane and her husband John Bleecker to her brother William on November 22, 1796.  
Her brother, William Gilliland (1768-1847) the son of the pioneer settler,  built a house and started a farm on his property along the Plattsburgh Road (Now New York State Route 9) just north of the Salmon River in 1809 according to an article in The Plattsburgh Sentinel newspaper of August 13, 1886 titled Recollections, On the Death of William Gilliland.
The house and farm are listed on the Town of Plattsburgh assessment roll of 1811 taken between May 1 and June 1 of that year as shown in Hurd’s History of Clinton and Franklin Counties.  It is safe to assume the house was present as early as 1810 since even then construction did not take place during the winter months or early spring.  1809 is the earliest date listed for the house. 
Members of the Gilliland family lived and died in the house from its 1809 construction until 1916 when it was sold to Marie Booth in 1916. Judge John Booth and his wife Marie used the house as a summer home for many years. It eventually passed on to their children. In 1955 it was sold to Newton and Marion Keith, owners and operators of the adjacent Royal Savage Inn property. After Newton Keith’s death it was sold in 1969 to David Glenn, the author of this article.
The house still stands at 4091 Route 9, Plattsburgh, New York and is occupied by David and his wife Lynne.  The major barn also still stands and was the oldest part of the Royal Savage Inn until it was sold in 2004. Shortly after, the Inn was torn down except the original barn portion which is being turned into a year round home.
In 2002 the Town of Plattsburgh erected a blue and yellow New York State historic marker to commemorate the site which reads as follows: