Before the American Revolution, the eastern portion of what is now Oswego County was part of the territory of the Oneida Nation.

After the Revolution, the government of New York acquired vast inland territories from the Oneida Nation and sold the land to speculators.

[1] He established two villages that were to serve as ports: on Oneida Lake, at the mouth of Scriba Creek, he built Rotterdam, now known as Constantia.

On Lake Ontario, at the mouth of Little Salmon Creek, he built Vera Cruz, near the present-day hamlet of Texas.

Its name came from early landowners Erastus and Charlotte Gay, who purchased all of Lot 14 in Section 11 (the town of Constantia) in 1831.

At one time Gayville had a hotel with a ballroom and bar, several sawmills, and a Methodist Protestant congregation that met in the schoolhouse.