Wells Lake (January 12, 1772 – November 26, 1839) was an American farmer and politician from
New York.
Life
Wells Lake was born January 12, 1772, in
Stratford, Connecticut, the son of David (1733-1800) and Sarah Wells Lake (1742-1803). Through his mother, Lake is a direct descendant of Connecticut Governor
Thomas Welles
Thomas Welles (14 January 1660) is the only person in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and fro ...
. It is unclear when Lake moved to New York, but it was there that he met his wife, Ruth (née Hine) Lake (1782-1827), and married her in 1801. Ruth's brother, Reuben Holmes Hine, was the New Paltz Town Supervisor in 1842 and a New York State Assemblyman in 1844.
He lived in that part of the
Town of New Paltz which was separated in 1845 as the
Town of Lloyd, in
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster.
History
...
.
He was a member of the
New York State Assembly (Sullivan and Ulster Co.) in
1820-21; and (Ulster Co.) in
1823
Events January–March
* January 22 – By secret treaty signed at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance gives France a mandate to invade Spain for the purpose of restoring Ferdinand VII (who has been captured by armed revolutio ...
He was a member of the
New York State Senate (2nd D.) from 1825 to 1828, sitting in the
48th,
49th,
50th and
51st New York State Legislature
The 51st New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 1 to December 10, 1828, during the fourth year of DeWitt Clinton's second tenure as Governor of New York, and—after ...
s.
Separated by his terms in both New York State branches, Lake served as the Supervisor of New Paltz from 1818 to 1819 and 1821 to 1824.
In 1834, he served as President of the Ulster County Jackson Republican Convention.
["Voices of Ulster, Ulster County Jackson Republican Convention", ''The Evening Post'' (August 7, 1834), p. 2.]
He died on November 26, 1839, in New Paltz, and was buried in the Highland Cemetery in
Highland, New York.
Personal life
Wells Lake and his wife Ruth had at least 11 children:
# Hiram Lake (1801-1837)
# Mary Lake (1803-1853)
# Lewis Hine Lake (1803-1873)
# Sarah Lake (1807-1875)
# Stephen Lake (1809-1861)
# Harriet Lake (1811-1902)
# Lydia Lake (1814-1880)
# Eli Lake (1816-1877)
# Ruth Lake (1816-1888)
# Emily Lake (1818-?)
# Olive Lake (1821-?)
His son Stephen served as the second Town of Lloyd Supervisor from 1849 to 1851. Stephen's brother-in-law, Reuben Deyo (1800-1864), had served as the first following the Lloyd split from New Paltz (1845-1848).
His daughter Ruth married John Benson Schoonmaker (1810-1895), and they named their son Wells Lake Schoonmaker, after Ruth's father. Wells L. Schoonmaker served as the Town of
Marbletown Supervisor from 1884 to 1885. Another son, Hiram Schoonmaker (1836-1910), married Josephine Chambers, daughter of Supervisor and State Senator
George Chambers
The Hon. George Michael Chambers ORTT (4 October 1928 – 4 November 1997) .
References
Sources
''The New York Civil List''compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 126f, 142, 197, 200 and 286; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
''The History of Ulster County, New York''by
Alphonso T. Clearwater (pg. 270f)
''De Witt Clinton and the Rise of the People's Men''by Craig Hanyan & Mary L. Hanyan (pg. 258)
1773 births
1839 deaths
People from Ulster County, New York
New York (state) state senators
Members of the New York State Assembly
New York (state) Democratic-Republicans
Farmers from New York (state)
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