Background
Cyrus Gates was born to Russell and Ester (Briggs) Gates in Four Corners, Maine, New York Today this area is where Corson and Old Nanticoke Roads intersect. Cyrus would follow his father by continuing to farm and staying on the land.
Cyrus Gates was born to Russell and Ester (Briggs) Gates in Four Corners, Maine, New York Today this area is where Corson and Old Nanticoke Roads intersect. Cyrus would follow his father by continuing to farm and staying on the land.
Cyrus would serve as a deacon in the Maine Baptist church, as he maintained a proactive and sacrificial abolitionist stance. Even before Cyrus built his Greek Revival home in 1848 he had taken to harboring runaway slaves. When Cyrus built his new home in 1848 he continued in his activism.
He built a secret access door to a hidden part of the attic.
If ever needed, this hiding space would add to the safety of runaway slaves that he was harboring at his home. Cyrus" main occupation was that of a cartographer and surveyor-and would map 15 counties for the state of New New York
Cyrus also served for several years as the local Justice of the Peace in the then newly formed Town of Maine. Although Cyrus did not farm as vigorously as his father had, he was still able to produce: apples, maple sugar, honey, as well as other standard farm produce.
South. In 1848 when Cyrus was 45 years old he began building a Greek inspired farmhouse.
He hired a man from New York City named Charles Yarrington to build lieutenant By the standards of the day and Cyrus" rural location, the style of the house would be considered quite extravagant and over-done for a stick frame farmhouse. In fact, the locals feeling somewhat miffed by Cyrus" use of an out of town builder, called the new house "Gates" white elephant." Construction on the building commenced in January of 1848.
Great x2 Granddaughter of Cyrus-Louis Gates-Gunsalus says that the house was completed enough to be lived in by the end of that year.
The inside carpentry and other finish work of the house would not be completed until 1851.