William & Charlotte Kelderhouse Farm

Kelderhouse farm amongst the grass

NPS credit/ A. Stotz

Quick Facts

Amenities

1 listed

Restroom

Thomas Kelderhouse bought the land for his farm in 1863, during the Civil War. The 65-acre farm was a central gathering place for Port Oneida residents. The present house, built in 1910, was originally home to William and Charlotte Kelderhouse and their children. Not only was it a farmhouse, it was also a grocery store, telephone exchange, and post office, all run by Charlotte, as well as a community meeting location. Local families often rode horses down to the Kelderhouse store with baskets of eggs and rode home with groceries.

Several gardens, planted and maintained by the Lakeshore and Kelderhouse decendents, harken back to the gardens that most farmsteads cultivated to help feed families and others. Laura Basch remembers picking vegetables from their garden and walking through the woods to neighboring farms, sharing what she had just picked.

Sugar maples, planted by the students of the Port Oneida school and that still stand near the house, were tapped by the Kelderhouses.

Apple trees with heritage variety apples were planted in around the early 1920's. A remnant orchard of apple trees is being restored. You can see, near the house, a fenced-in tree nursery of about 250 heritage apple trees, representing about 30 varieties including Cortland, Russet, Wagener, Ben Davis, Wolf River, Rhode Island Greening, Champion, and Spy. There is also a pear tree between the house and the nearby cemetery.

You may pick limited amounts of ripe fruit for personal consumption.

The property is currently mostly covered with grasses. The Lakeshore and Kelderhouse decendents are re-planting some of the fields with the crops and grains once raised here and nearby, including the Native "three sisters"- beans, corn, and squash, as well as raspberry and blackberry bushes.

Kelderhouse Cemetary

The Kelderhouse Port Oneida Cemetery is located at the corner of M-22 and Port Oneida Road. This is a privately owned cemetary, not park property. 
Many of the pioneers of the area are buried here.