Brandreth Birthday A young man born in Leeds, England and who emigrated to the United States in 1835 was responsible for there being a large birthday party given on the northern shore of Brandreth Lake in the Central Adirondacks. This weeklong party was given by his numerous descendants in celebration of the 150th. Anniversary of Brandreth Park which was created when that young man born in Leeds purchased the 26,000 acres of land in 1851 for 15 cents an acre. Benjamin Brandreth was the name of this young immigrant. On arriving in the United States, he immediately set about to make his fortune. He rented a house on Hudson St. in New York City and soon had converted it into a mom and pop pill factory that manufactured laxative pills. Within just four years of his arrival in this country, his wealth was estimated to be in excess of $200,000! His "Universal Vegetable Pills" contained his secret mixture of sarsaparilla, aloes, gamboge and colocynth and he called them, "among the most powerful cathartic cannon in the botanical armory." But it wasn't just his "powerful" pills that made him rich. Much of his success was due to his talent in advertising his product. For years, it was his advertising account at the fledgling New York Herald that kept the paper afloat. According to Federal excise taxes paid by patent medicine makers between the years 1862 and 1882, Benjamin Brandreth had an annual gross income that surpassed $600,000. But Brandreth came to the New World with more than just a dream of becoming wealthy. He also came with the idea of owning land. In addition to his large purchase in the Adirondacks, he also purchased over 90,000 acres in Virginia and thousands of acres in Pennsylvania and Texas. What he probably never thought of in his dreams was that there would come a day in July of the year 2001 when over 250 descendents of his would gather on the north shore of Brandreth Lake to pay homage to him and the wilderness park he created. Brandreth Park is not a Great Camp. There are no multi-million dollar great camps on it. What it is is a Great Family Forest and Game Preserve with only a handful of modest camps owned by some of Benjamin Brandreth's many descendents on it. The entire property is held in common and the family itself limits the number of camps they allow themselves to build on it. At a luncheon given for guests of the family, Norm McDonald, the current President of Brandreth Park, gave a brief history of the park and a short biography of its founder. He told of how it was the guide, John Plumley, who first showed the land to Brandreth, coming in by what was then called the Carthage Road and is now called the North Point Road. He mentioned how the guide, Reuben Carey, had long been a caretaker on the property. Coming up to more recent times, Norm asked Clarence Foster and his wife, Phyllis, and Bill Draper and his wife, Brenda, to come up and stand next to him so that everyone could see them and thank them for past and current service as caretakers. Bill Draper is the current caretaker. Clarence Foster is now retired but was the caretaker for over twenty years at Brandreth Park. After a large ovation, Norm asked the Fosters about their experience of living and working almost eight miles in from North Point Road and an additional eleven plus miles from Long Lake. Clarence laughed and his wife, Phyllis, reminisced about how they had to take their children and then their grandchildren to the North Point Road on snowmobiles in the winter so that they could catch the school bus for school in Long Lake. In closing his short talk, Norm McDonald said that he hoped this generation of Brandreths would pass on a park that was in even better condition than the one that was bequeathed to them. After the luncheon, expertly catered by the current crop of children of the Brandreth clan, the guests were given a tour of some of the cottages while family members made ready for a guideboat race upon the lake. As said earlier, none of these camps are impressive in their size but all were charming. Were it not for some of their furnishings being of museum quality, especially examples of twig furniture, a person of average means could imagine themselves vacationing by the shore of this remote lake where no power boats are allowed to break the quiet. It was taking a step back in time. Water is obtained by pumping it out of the lake and into small water towers that then feed the water by gravity into the various camps. Because the camps are more than twenty miles from the nearest fire station, the park has its own Fire Marshall and its own equipment for fighting fires. Earlier in the week, a representative from the New York Fire & Signal Co. was in to inspect fire extinguishers and to sell replacements if they were needed. For the guests, the day came to an end with a trip down to the beach to watch a flotilla of guideboats form and then race upon the lake. The family probably owns the largest collection of guideboats in the Adirondacks with the only possible exception being the Adirondack Museum. Here were the Queens of Adirondack lakes owning one lake and only grudgingly willing to share it with a few, upstart kayaks. Here was the Chipmunk, a guideboat built by Reuben Carey, looking as new as the day it was first launched and being just as seaworthy. The party, which had begun for the Brandreths during the previous weekend, would be coming to an end in a few days. The Brandreths, which now include Potters, Kings, and Brandreths of many other last names because of marriage would continue for a few more days to meet and come to know long lost aunts, uncles and cousins who live lives in all quarters of the United States but share a common ancestor and the park he left behind. What will the next 150 years bring? If the current descendents and tenants in common have anything to say about, time will stand still behind the gates at Brandreth Park Brandreth Park Birthday By: Pete Klein News Correspondent Blue Mnt. Lk., N.Y.