During the period of European settlement, commencing in 1781, the British government purchased blocks of land from the Mississauga Nation.
Kennedy's brothers (John, Morris, Samuel and George) subsequently acquired adjacent tracts in the Silver Creek Valley.
Nonetheless, both Wilbur Lake and Silver Creek played an important part in the area's ecosystem.
Charles Young, son of Georgetown pioneer James Young, in his reminiscence of old Georgetown relates that,"before dams were built to impede their passage, sea salmon swarmed up the Credit and all streams falling into Lake Ontario,
In 1915, Wilbur Lake disappeared during the construction of a wooden trestle for the Toronto Suburban Railway.
Silver Creek, a tributary of the Credit River is the only source of water that is still from (what once was) Wilbur Lake.