USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Plymouth > History of the town of Plymouth, Connecticut : with an account of the centennial celebration May 14 and 15, 1895 : also a sketch of Plymouth, Ohio, settled by local families > Part 7
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ELIPHALET HARTSHORN ABNER BLAKESLEE ASHER BLAKESLEE arbetrators.
It was a significant mistake which the arbitrators made in rendering their decree in the widow's name-" Marah " instead of " Mary"-for the life of the " well beloved" of her husband had been made " bitter " by becoming a burden to her unloving children ; the name the "arbitrators" gave her befitting, not because, as Naomi, she had been deprived of her sons, but because they had been continued to her. God save us all from unloved, and so dreary old age.
Mr. Ford appointed executors of his will, his wife and Capt. Thomas Blakeslee. His body was buried in the old burying ground in Thomaston, his tombstone bearing the following inscription :
" Here Lyeth ye Body of Barnabas Ford, he dyed March ye roth 1746-7 in ye 53d year of his age."
Peace be to his ashes !
Captain Thomas Blakeslee, next in consequence to the minister, in the early New England communities, was the cap- tain of the "train band," or military company organized in each town. Nor was this office a merely ornamental one in those days. In a frontier settlement, as Northbury was, exposed to attacks of Indians from Canada, where the settlers took their guns to meeting with them on the Sabbath, as they did when they met for a time, before the first meeting house was built, in a log house in the neighborhood of the old Deacon Daniel Potter place, the command of the military company was liable to be a very practical matter, and they chose the best men for the posi- tion, as the Plymouth, Mass., colonists chose Miles Standish.
The first captain of Northbury, as his tombstone with hon- orable pride declares, was Thomas Blakeslee. He was appointed to his command at the May session of the General Assembly in 1740, as the following entry in the Colonial Records shows: "This assembly do establish and confirm Mr. Thomas Blachley to be captain of the third company or train band in the town of Waterbury, and order that he be commis- sioned accordingly." The company was organized that spring. At the same session of the assembly John Brunson was appointed to be the lieutenant, and Daniel Curtiss the ensign in the same company, which newly acquired honors are immediately recog- nized in the records of the society, in which these gentlemen, who, in the record of the year before are mentioned under their plain names, in the record next following, that of August. 1740, have their military titles given them. The first " train band" of the town was at the center ; the second in Westbury. now Watertown. It will be observed that in the captain's com- mission his name is spelled " Blachley."
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTHI.
Capt. Blakeslee was born in North Haven, then a part of New Haven, in the year 1700. From North Haven he went first to Sunderland, Mass., on the Connecticut river above Had- ley, where likely he married his wife Mary Scott, the daughter of Richard Scott of that town, and sister of Lydia, the second wife of Isaac Castle. They had nine children, four born before coming to Northbury in 1731. David, born November 2, 1722 ; Reuben, March 9, 1724 ; Moses, June 30, 1727 ; Mary, Septem- ber 7, 1729 ; and five born here : Submit, in 1731 ; Experience, January 3, 1735; Lydia in 1737: Esther in 1839; and Abigail in 1741. They came from Sunderland on horseback, the hus- band with two of the children on one horse, and the wife with the other two on another. Capt. Blakeslee was by occupation a farmer, owning land on both sides of the Naugatuck river, as- appears from his will. His house, doubtless of logs, stood where the old Castel house now stands in Thomaston, on Centre street. There is a tradition that it was surrounded with pali- sades, as a refuge for the settlers in case of an Indian attack. His name appears, in his own signature, in the earliest public document, the petition of September 29, 1736, of the " up river inhabitants" to the town for winter privileges ; that is, the privi- lege of hiring a minister for the three winter months with exemption from paying taxes to the town for that period. In this petition his name, which heads the list of petitioners, is spelled " Blasle," as it is in the early society records. At the first meeting of the society of Northbury, that in which the society was organized, "Mr. Thomas Blasle," not yet captain, was appointed with Joseph Clark, John How, John Brunson and Gideon Allen, " committee for Mr. Samuel Todd's House," the house which the society agreed, as a part of his " settlement" to build for their first pastor.
On the reorganization of the society, after the break up on the question of a meeting house, of which account will be given when we go on with the history of the society, Capt. Blakeslee was chosen at the annual meeting, in December, 1742, one of the "prudential" or society's committee, which shows that at that time he still adhered to the Congregational society, though it had been turned out of the public building by the majority of the proprietors, who had " declared for the church of England," one of which proprietors Capt. Blakeslee was. and one of the remonstrants to the legislature against the building of a new meeting house, a circumstance we should bear in mind when we come to the question of the origin of the Episcopal Church.
Abram, the brother of Capt. Thomas, had six children, John, Zopher, Abram. Jude, Stephen and Joel, the youngest of whom died in North Haven some fifty years ago.
Of Capt. Thomas' children, the oldest, David, who was a captain after his father, married Abigail - and lived on his father's place, where he kept tavern. He had six children, Adna, Eli, Asa, David, Phoebe and another daughter. Adna, who attained to the distinction of major, married Hannah Graves and lived on the old Blakeslee place below the case shop.
SOME OF THE PIONEERS.
He was the father of Junius, who married Abigail Cooper and had ten children, three of whom are Abraham, William and Adeline, wife of Israel Woodward, Esq.
Phobe married Jesse Fenn who lived where Burr's store now stands He was one of twelve children of Thomas Fenn, who lived, all of them, to be over fifty years of age. one of whom was Jason, father of the late Elam Fenn of Town Hill.
Experience, daughter of Capt. Thomas, married her cousin Jude, known as Ensign Jude, his commission being still in exist- ence, in the possession of his descendant B. B. Satterlee. Ile lived on the old Blakeslee place, next south of T. J. Bradstreet's. He was a tanner, his tannery being in the fork of the roads opposite his house, on Twitch Grass Brook. He had ten chil- dren, Abi, Polly, Bela, Hannah, Micah, Esther, Betty, Bertha, Levee, and Levi.
Abi married Jesse Humaston, son of Caleb, and their daughter Sidna married Sherman Pierpont, father of the late George Pierpont of Plymouth Centre.
Bela married Olive Brown, and lived on the ground where Mrs. Edward Thomas now lives. He acted for many years as lay reader in St. Peter's ; being called " Deacon Bela." He had ten children, the regulation number in the Blakeslee family in those days, one of whom, Clara, married John Satterlee, who had six children, four of them living to mature age ; Merrit L .. who emigrated to Chicago fifty-two years ago, when that city was scarcely more than a village, and who has witnessed and lived through the wonderful changes since, residing there still in blind old age ; Alfred B., who studied for the ministry, graduat- ing first at Brown University and then from the Baptist Theo- logical Seminary in Rochester, N. Y. He went in 1854 to India as a missionary, where he died of Asiatic cholera. Ilis widow died on her passage home, leaving a daughter, who now resides in Cleveland, O. The third brother is our honored townsman, Bela Blakeslee Satterlee, well known for his anti- quarian tastes and researches, and to whom the town is so greatly indebted for his interest and labor in searching out. collecting and preserving the materials of its history, without which these sketches, or any worthy record of its past, could not have been written. More than all others Mr. Satterlee is the connecting link between the primitive period and the present of the history of Plymouth, and the town should appreciate and recognize its obligations to him in this respect.
Micah, son of Jude, married Rhoda Hopkins and had ten children. He lived near his father Jude's place. He attained to the military rank of Colonel, B. B. Satterlee having in his possession his several commissions up to that grade. He had a daughter Philena, who married Randall T. Andrews, the father of the present Randall T. Andrews; also a son Marvin, who was the father of Stephen Burritt, who was the father of Augus- tus, the present postmaster in Thomaston : also a son Edward. the father of Lyman W. Blakeslee ; also a daughter named from her mother, Rhoda Hopkins. the wife of John Bradley. Edward
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
and Marvin built the houses in which T. J. Bradstreet and Dr. Woodruff now live. Edward was the selectman under whose supervision the covered bridge in Thomaston was built in 1836. Hannah, daughter of Jude, married Nathaniel Marsh, whose son Levi was the father of Riley Marsh, Mrs. Edward Thomas and Mrs. Noah Norton.
Abigail, daughter of Capt. Thomas, married Jacob Potter, whose youngest son Demas was drowned in Todd Hollow pond. Their oldest son Zenas, married Betty Blakeslee, and their oldest son Sherman, married Polly Luddington, granddaughter of David Luddington, whose father gave him the farm on which the Potter brothers now live, who with Mrs. Geo Gordon, are children of Sherman and Polly Luddington Potter.
David Luddington was a famous marksman. He shot the last deer killed in Plymouth on the meadow under the Spruces, firing across the river, and the deer not falling at the first shot, firing again, when he found on reaching the deer, that both bullets had gone through him.
Moses Luddington, David's father, went from Wallingford, first to Goshen, where the inhabitants all slept in the fort at night from fear of Indians, and worked together during the day, taking the work on the several farms in turn, and from Goshen came here. He was a surgeon in the French and Indian war, and was killed near Lake George. He was crawling along on his hands and knees, carrying bullets to the men in the fight, when a bullet hit him, as his leg was doubled under, and went through both above and below the knee. The powder horn he carried is now in the possession of the Potter brothers, as is also David's gun. With this he shot several bears, one on a tree just opposite the Potter brothers' house, on what was the old Dr. Weed place. David was such an unerring shot that he was not allowed to shoot in turkey shoots of the day.
Aaron, brother of David, accompanied his father to the war, and returned. He shot the last bear killed in Plymouth, in Todd Hollow. He afterwards moved to Norfolk, where he died at an advanced age.
Capt. Blakeslee died in 1778, and was buried in the old graveyard in Thomaston, his tombstone bearing the following inscription :
"In memory of Mr. Thomas Blakslee, the first captain in Northbury who died with the gravil June ye 5 A. D. 1778 in the 78th year of his age.
Those days which to the dead were lent, To serve God and man he freely spent. But when his judge for him did call With patience bid farewell to all."
The gravestone of his son David bears the following inscription :
" In memory of Capt David Blakslee who died with the stone Feb. rth A. D. 17SI in the 59 year of his age.
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SOME OF THE PIONEERS.
Worn out with pain, He resigned his breath ; Trusting with Christ His soul will rest."
Capt. Thomas' wife was an equally important person in her department, in a time when doctors were few, and not always at hand, as the following inscription on her tombstone, also in poetry, testifies :
" In memory of Mrs. Mary Blakslee relict of Capt Thomas Blakslee who died with a fit of the apoplexy, Oct. ye 4th A. D. 1781 in the 79th year of her age.
Forty-two years of her frail life. She served in office of mid wife ; Females lament that she is gone. And learn to do as she hath done."
This wife of Capt. Thomas was the woman who, in the legend of Bronson in his history of Waterbury, chanced to have the prayer book, the discovery of which was the origin of Epis- copacy in Northbury, a pretty myth which disappears before the recovered documents of the time.
Capt. Thomas left a will which is recorded in the probate office in Woodbury, to which district Waterbury at that time belonged. It bears date of July 21, 1766.
In the Waterbury list of 1737, Capt. Blackslee's estate is entered £64 16s, being the sixth in point of size of the settlers of that time, Ebenezer Richason being entered at £95, John Sutliff, Sr. at £91. Samuel Towner at ESS, Gideon Allen at £74, and Jeremiah Peck at £69.
Such is the record of an honest sturdy man. of their descent from whom his posterity have no reason to be ashamed.
CHAPTER VI.
REVOLUTIONARY TIMES
The History More or Less Uncertain-Hot-Bed of Toryism-Northbury the Home of the Only Tory Known to Have Been Executed in Connecticut-Last Pensioner of the War Born in This Parish, With a Sketch of His Life and Enlistment.
T 'HE part that the inhabitants of Northbury parish took in the revolutionary war at this late day can only be told in a fragmentary way. The town records of Waterbury and Water- town, of which this parish was a part, during the stormy days when the struggle for independence was going on, afford but little information, while the official papers of the State leave the subject a matter of more or less uncertainty and conjecture. It is known that the parish was a stronghold of toryism, a majority of the leading men west of the river holding fast to their British allegiance. Bitter enmities were engendered and violent acts were committed. The disgraceful doings of the north military company or trainband led to its dissolution by the General Assembly, its members being added to the Farmingbury and Westbury companies and to Captain Nathaniel Barnes' company in the same parish. These tories, however, should be judged leniently, for they were connected by ties of religious association and support with the mother country, and their pastors, sincere men, taught them that the colonial cause was treason against government and God. While all the action against the tories was not justifiable, it was not to be wondered at as human nature is constituted. A tory was hung up almost dead on the green, and a hook was shown in an old tavern which stood near the Andrew Buel place, where others were so hung. Devil's Lane was near that tavern, and County Sheriff Lord of Litchfield afterwards made arrests there, so that they said "the Lord came down from Litchfield and took the devil out of Plymouth," though he soon returned. The only tory known to have been executed in Connecticut was Moses Dunbar, who was taken from Plymouth, tried in Hartford for high treason and hung from a tree near where Trinity College now stands, on March 19, 1777. Dunbar was a young man, barely over thirty years of age, honest in his convictions, and was probably a victim of a law that unnecessarily deprived him of his life, as the death penalty against treason was soon afterwards repealed. He
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offered to confine himself to his farm if allowed his liberty and hold no intercourse whatever with his neighbors. His family were highly incensed against him because of his joining the Episcopal church and later espousing toryism. So indignant was his father that he offered to furnish the hemp for a halter to hang him with.
The only records indicative of the revolution was a vote December 7, 1778, in consideration of provision running to an extravagant price, to furnish Mr. Storrs certain articles at speci- fied prices. In 1774, when Congress resolved on non-intercourse with Great Britain, Phineas Royce was moderator of a special town meeting in Waterbury, a mark of his prominence. At that meeting Nathaniel Barnes, Dr. Roger Conant, and Jotham Curtis, of Northbury, were on the committee to see that no tea, molasses, sugar, coffee, spices, etc., were brought into town and sold. At another meeting held January 12th, Stephen Seymour, Randal Evans, and David Smith, of Northbury, were on a com- mittee to receive donations contributed for the relief of the poor in Boston, whose port was then closed by the British fleet. Northbury sent Deacon Camp, father of Deacon Camp, lately of Plainville, through the wilderness of Maine with Arnold, to besiege Quebec in the winter of 1775. Daniel Rowe, grand- father of A. Markham on his mother's side, was at the battle of Saratoga and was the first to reach Benedict Arnold after he was wounded and rendered efficient aid.
David Smith, who lived where the Quiet House now stands, attained the rank of major, and subsequently became general of the Connecticut militia. He was in General Wooster's regiment which took part in the operations along Lake George and Champlain. He was at the battle of Germantown, October 4. 1777, and wintered at Valley Forge in 1777-78, and was there appointed brigadier major to General Varnum's brigade by general orders March 29, 1778. He was a prominent man at the time of the incorporation of Plymouth, having been sent to the legislature as a representative from Watertown for several terms. He was a merchant and his store was located in the rear of the present town building in Plymouth. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Captains Jotham Curtis and Nathaniel Barnes received £6 and £16 respectively as bounties at Fishkill in October, 1777. by Lieutenant-Colonel J. Baldwin, for taking their companies to the aid of the Continental army on the North river. They also turned out to repel Tryon's invasion at New Haven. July 5. 1779. Captain Curtis' company was composed as follows: Lieutenant, Timothy Pond; ensign, Samuel Scoville ; privates. Andrew Storrs, Phineas Royce, Stephen Curtis, Randal Evans, Samuel Curtis, Benjamin Upson, Samuel Penfield. Charles Cook, Ebenezer Cook, John Dunbar, Aaron Dunbar, Joel San- ford, Jason Fenn, Ithiel Fancher, Joel Fancher, David Foot. David Humaston, John Sutliff, Samuel Griggs. Zachariah Hitchcock, James Curtis, Eliakim Potter. Bartholomew Pond. Hezekiah Tuttle, Parker, William Southmayd.
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
Lemuel Cook, Last Pensioner of the Revolutionary War.
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REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
In the successful campaign in the French war, when Crown Point and Ticonderoga were taken, Waterbury furnished a com- pany in which John Sutliff was lieutenant; in that war Daniel Porter was ensign, and Asher Blakeslee, Enos Ford, and others were engaged.
The oldest survivor of the Revolution and the last pensioner of that war was born in Northbury parish in 1764. His name was Lemuel Cook and he was a son of Henry Cook, the first settler of the town. He enlisted at Cheshire when only sixteen years old. He was mustered in " at Northampton, in the Bay State 2d Regiment, Light Dragoons; Sheldon, Col., Stanton, Capt." He married Hannah Curtis at Cheshire, by whom he had eleven children. He married a second time at the age of seventy. About thirty years previous to his death he removed to the town of Clarendon (near Rochester), Orleans County, New York. He died there May 20, 1866, aged 102 years. The late Rev. E. B. Hillard visited Mr. Cook in July, 1864, and the latter related the circumstances of his enlistment and early services as follows :
" When I applied to enlist, Captain Hallibud told me I was so small he couldn't take me unless I would enlist for the war. The first time I smelt gunpowder was at Valentine's Hill ( West Chester, New York). A troop of British horse were coming. ' Mount your horses in a minute,' cried the colonel. I was on mine as quick as a squirrel. There were two fires-crash ! Up came Darrow, good old soul ! and said, . Lem, what do you think of gunpowder? Smell good to you?'
"The first time I was ordered on sentry was at Dobbs' Ferry. A man came out of a barn and leveled his piece and fired. I felt the wind of the ball. A soldier near me said. ' Lem, they mean you ; go on the other side of the road.' So 1 went over ; and pretty soon another man came out of the barn and aimed and fired. He didn't come near me. Soon another came out and fired. His ball. lodged in my hat. By this time the firing had roused the camp; and a company of our troops came on one side, and a party of the French on the other : and they took the men in the barn prisoners, and brought them in. They were Cow Boys. This was the first time I saw the French in operation. They stepped as though on edge. They were a dreadful proud nation. When they brought the men in. one of them had the impudence to ask, 'Is the man here we fired at just now?' 'Yes,' said Major Tallmadge, 'there he is, that boy.' Then he told how they had each laid out a crown, and agreed that the one who brought me down should have the three. When he got through with his story, I stepped to my holster and took out my pistol, and walked up to him and said. . If I've been a mark to you for money, I'll take my turn now. So, deliver your money, or your life !' He handed over four crowns. and I got three more from the other two."
Mr. Cook was at the battle of Brandywine and at Cornwallis' surrender. Of the latter he gives the following account :
" It was reported Washington was going to storm New
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
York. We had made a by-law in our regiment that every man should stick to his horse : if his horse went, he should go with him. I was waiter for the quartermaster ; and so had a chance to keep my horse in good condition. Baron Steuben was mustermaster. He had us called out to select men and horses fit for service. When he came to me, he said, 'Young man, how old are you?' I told him. 'Be on the ground to-morrow morning at nine o'clock,' said he. My colonel didn't like to have me go. 'You'll see,' said he, 'they'll call for him to- morrow morning.' But they said if we had a law, we must abide by it. Next morning, old Steuben had got my name. There were eighteen out of the regiment. 'Be on the ground,' said he, 'to-morrow morning with two days' provisions.' ' You're a fool,' said the rest ; 'they're going to storm New York.' No more idea of it than of going to Flanders. My horse was a bay, and pretty. Next morning I was the second on parade. We marched off towards White Plains. Then ' left wheel,' and struck right north. Got to King's Ferry, below Tarrytown. There were boats, scows, etc. We went right across into the Jerseys That night I stood with my back to a tree. Then we went on to the head of Elk. There the French were. It was dusty; 'peared to me I should have choked to death. One of 'em handed me his canteen ; 'Lem,' said he, ' take a good horn-we're going to march all night.' I didn't know what it was, so I took a full drink. It liked to have strangled me. Then we were in Virginia. There wasn't much fighting. Cornwallis tried to force his way north to New York ; but fell into the arms of La Fayette, and he drove him back. Old Rochambeau told 'em, 'I'll land five hundred from the fleet, against your eight hundred.' But they darsn't. We were on a kind of side hill. We had plaguey little to eat and nothing to drink under heaven. We hove up some brush to keep the flies off. Washington ordered that there should be no laughing at the British ; said it was bad enough to have to surrender without being insulted. The army came out with guns clubbed on their backs. They were paraded on a great smooth lot, and there they stacked their arms. Then came the devil-old women, and all (camp followers). One said, 'I wonder if the d-d Yankees will give me any bread.' The horses were starved out. Wash- ington turned out with his horses and helped 'em up the hill. When they see the artillery, they said, 'There, them's the very artillery that belonged to Burgoyne.' Greene come from the southard ; the awfullest set you ever see. Some, I should pre- sume, had a pint of lice on 'em. No boots nor shoes."
Mr. Cook's condition, Mr. Hillard described as follows :
" The old man's talk is very broken and fragmentary. He recalls the past slowly, and with difficulty ; but when he has fixed his mind upon it, all seems to come up clear. His articu- lation, also, is very imperfect; so that it is with difficulty that his story can be made out. Much of his experience in the war seems gone from him ; and in conversation with him he has to be left to the course of his own thoughts, inquiries and sugges-
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REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
tions appearing to confuse him. At the close of the war, he married Hannah Curtis, of Cheshire, Connecticut, and lived a while in that vicinity ; after which he removed to Utica. New York. There he had frequent encounters with the Indians who still infested the region. One with whom he had some difficulty about cattle, at one time assailed him at a public house, as he was on his way home, coming at him with great fury, with a drawn knife. Mr. Cook was unarmed ; but catching up a chair he presented it as a shield against the Indian's thrusts, till help appeared. He says he never knew what fear was, and always declared that no man should take him prisoner alive. His frame is large, his presence commanding ; and in his prime he must have possessed prodigious strength. He has evidently been a man of most resolute spirit ; the old determination still manifest- ing itself in his look and words. His voice, the full power of which he still retains, is marvellous for its volume and strength. Speaking of the present war, he said, in his strong tones, at the same time bringing down his cane with force upon the floor. ' It is terrible ; but, terrible as it is, the rebellion must be put down !' He still walks comfortably with the help of a cane ; and with the aid of glasses reads his 'book,' as he calls the Bible. He is fond of company, loves a joke, and is good-natured in a rough sort of way. He likes to relate his experiences in the army and among the Indians. He has voted the Democratic ticket since the organization of the government, supposing that it still represents the same party that it did in Jefferson's time. His pension, before its increase, was one hundred dollars. It is now two hundred dollars. The old man's health is comfortably good ; and he enjoys life as much as could be expected at his great age. His home, at present, is with a son, whose wife, especially. seems to take kind and tender care of him. Altogether. he is a noble old man ; and long may it yet be before his name shall be missed from the roll of his country's deliverers."
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