In 1859, Giles Stoddard Jr. and his wife Sarah Niles Card built the first log house on what is now known as Allegany State Park, on 132 acres then known as Stoddard's Hollow. Giles Stoddard Jr. helped fell the first trees cut from the valley's native forest, and together he and Sarah farmed the land and raised eight children. Stoddard's Creek, which ran through the farm, continues to feed present Red House Lake. Giles Stoddard Jr. enlisted to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War, and when he returned from the war, he built a frame house and a large barn on his property just south of the present Red House Store. The Giles Stoddard Jr. family home, built before the Civil War, was located south of the Red House Store in the Town of Red House before the park was established and the lake was built.