Richard Gilpin, Sr. (1752–1835) and his wife Mary Bortree (1760–1842) left Ireland in 1809 and settled in East Sterling with their seven children. They purchased 400 acres of land for a farm, and the Gilpin family cemetery was located behind their homestead on a wooded hillside above Wallenpaupack Creek. Richard’s slate-colored zinc tombstone has the earliest birth date, 1752, and is one of the most unique in the area. The cemetery contains approximately 79 graves, plus seven small stones of undetermined origin. The names represented there are a litany of the area’s earliest settlers. The oldest grave is that of James Dobson who died January 23, 1823. Five Civil War veterans are buried here, soldiers of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The most recent stone is dated 1938.
In 2012 the Greene-Dreher Historical Society was the recipient of a bequest from Marguerite Gilpin (1918–2011) who requested that the money be used for the preservation and maintenance of the Gilpin Cemetery. The Society acquired legal ownership of the cemetery in 2014, and it has assumed management responsibility for the restoration and maintenance of the cemetery. Although Marguerite Gilpin never lived here, her bequest will ensure that the Gilpin Cemetery will be preserved far into the future. The Gilpin Cemetery is maintained today by volunteers with the Society’s Adopt-a-Cemetery Program.