Norwalk, history from 1896, Part 36

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne.
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: The author,
Number of Pages: 553

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Norwalk > Norwalk, history from 1896 > Part 36

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

William Ogilvie, born May 11, 1815, son of Jabez Fitch and Amelia (Ogilvie) Com- stock, married June 3, 1856, Margaret Eliot, born Oct. 11, 1831, daughter of Thomas and

254

NORWALK

Hannah Dawes' (Eliot) Lamb, and had William Ogilvie Comstock, who married Jan. 8, 1890, Madelaine, daughter of William and Clara (Tileson) Bryce, and had William Ogilvie and Clara Bryce.

Thomas Hoyt, before noted, son of Goold and Elizabeth (Dimon) Hoyt, married, Jan. 5. 1795. Elizabeth Phillips, of the same Oblong family. The Phillips blood, however, in Norwalk to-day, is not, at least to any great extent, that of the Ogilvie-Phillips family, but rather as here appears.

THE EBENEZER PHILLIPS LINEAGE.

Ebenezer and Philetus Phillips,' sons of William Phillips, of Smithtown, L. I., and grandsons of Rev. Geo. Phillips,3 a great-uncle of Dr. John Phillips, the founder of Phil- lips Academy, of Exeter, Mass., married two sisters, the first, Mary, the second, Esther, daughters of Daniel Benedict,4 of Norwalk. The Phillips family were of Colonial fame. Rev. Geo., grandfather of Ebenezer Phillips, of Norwalk, was uncle of Hon. John Phillips, the first mayor of Boston, and great-uncle of Hon. Samuel Phillips, who was father of Judge Samuel Phillips, and grandfather of Rt. Rev. Dr. Phillips Brooks, late Bishop of Massachusetts.

Ebenezer Phillips, of the Oblong, born July 15. 1753, married, Jan. 17, 1782, Mary, daughter of Daniel Benedict, formerly of Norwalk, but later of Salem, Westchester Co., N. Y Mr. Phillips5 removed to Norwalk and resided, first, on Benedict's, now Prospect Hill. He afterward occupied the 1896 Bryan place. On Oct. 27. 1794, he purchased of Capt. Samuel Burrall, a relative of his wife, "the south building spot formerly belonging to Thos. Benedict." paying for the same the sum of ninety pounds. Here he built, in 1795.

'Rev. Andrew Eliot, of Fairfield (see page 246), had a brother Samuel whose son, William Greenleaf Eliot, married a daughter of Judge Thomas and Margaret (Greenleaf) Dawes. This Judge Thomas Dawes' father, Col. Those, was first cousin of Wil- liam Dawes, born 1745, died 1779, who rode with Paul Revere on a memorable Revolutionary night. War- ren, Revere and Dawes planned and executed the Massachusetts alarm, Apr. 19, 1775.

GENERATION I .- Christopher Phillips, of Nor- folk County, England.

GENERATION II .- Rev. Geo. Phillips, born 1593, son of Christopher, was a Cambridge man held in high repute, arrived in Salem, Mas -. , 1630, with Sir Richard Saltonstall, was a planter of Watertown, Ma --.. and first minister there, married a daughter of Richard Sargent, and had :

GENERATION III .- Samuel, son of Rev. George Phillips, born 1625. Harvard graduate 1650, minister 1652. of Rowley, Mass., married Sarah, daughter of Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich, Mass., and had :

GENERATION IV .- George.2d. born June 3, 1664.

Harvard graduate 1686, minister in Jamaica, L. I., 1693, married Sarah Hallett, daughter of William, 2d. and grand-daughter of William Hallett, proprietor, 1652, of the extensive Hallett's Cove (Astoria, L. I.) estate, and had :

GENERATION V .- Wm, 3d. of Smithtown. L. 1., who, with wife Sybil, were parents of Ebenezer and Philetus Phillips, of Norwalk. The great grand- children of Ebenezer Phillips, Mrs. Rev. D. L. Fer- ris, Edward C. Stuart, William S. and Mary P. Chi- chester reside in Stamford and Norwalk to-day.

3Born 1664, died 1737, son of Rev. Samuel and Sarah (Appleton) Phillips, of Rowley, Mass.

+Son of Samuel and grandson of Thos. Benedict. His daughter, Anna, was the mother of Capt. Sam- uel Keeler, of War of 1812.

SHe had a brother Zebulon, who married Anna Keeler, of Norwalk. Ebenezer Phillips removed in 1795 to the Van Buren house of 1896. When he left Benedict's, now Prospect Hill, he transplanted four saplings, which grew to become the fine West Ave. Stuart elins.

255

NORWALK.

the " Phillips House," corner, to-day, of West Avenue and Prospect Hill Street. His children were :

ESTHER, born March 5, 1787 : died Feb. 12, 1788.

ESTHER, 2d. born Apr. 17. 1788 ; married Edward Crosby

SALLY, born Dec. 11, 1790 ; married Wm. P Stuart.

ELIZABETH, born July 9, 1798; died Jan. 25, 1865, unmarried.

Edward Crosby, born Oct. 3, 1786, died Nov. 8, 1810, was son of Benjamin and Rachel Crosby, of Duchess County, N. Y' After his marriage to Esther Phillips he lived on the late Bryan premises on the upper harbor. He was young and known as a short-hand writer. He died soon after his marriage, leaving a daughter, Mary Phillips Crosby, who married Dr. Thomas Belden Butler, of Wethersfield, afterward Judge Thos. B. Butler, of Norwalk. Subsequently to her husband's decease Mrs. Edward Crosby built in about 1830, what has since been known as the Butler house on West Avenue, now the home of Mrs. Judge Butler's second cousin, Miss Mary P. Chichester. Judge Butler had no children. He died June 8, 1873, and his wife died July 10, 1878.

Sally, daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Phillips, married William P. Stuart, son of Ezekiel and Rhue Stuart, a merchant at No. 28 Exchange Place, N. Y., and had :

- died in infancy.

EDWARD WILLIAM, born Nov. 4, 1819; died Dec. 7, 1884.

MARY ELIZABETH ; married E. V. A. Chichester.

Edward W. Stuart, son of Wm. P. and Sally Stuart, married April 30. 1856, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Eli B. Bennett, of Norwalk, and had :

WILLIAM PHILLIPS, died young ; EDWARD CROSBY ;

MARY EVERSLEY, (Mrs. Rev. David L. Ferris).

Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Wm. P. and Sally Stuart, married Edwin Van Ant- werp, son of Alfred Chichester, of Norwalk, and had :

MARY PHILLIPS ;

WILLIAM STUART.

"This was a prominent family in said county, branch-embracing, as is believed, the family of the father and mother of Enoch Crosby, the Revolution- ary " spy," who is buried in the Gilead Cemetery, Southeast, N. Y., his tombstone being thus inscrib- ed: " In memory of Enoch Crosby, who died June 26, 1835, aged $5 years, 5 months and 21 days." He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Crosby, of Barnstable, Mass. He removed (a family record tes- tifies) when a young man, with his father to Carmel,

N. Y. His wife, born Jan. 14, 1755, was a widow Nickerson to whom he was married in 1785. His son, Enoch, Jr., born March 14, 1796, married, Feb. 7, 1836, Calista, daughter of Heckaliah Bailey, who was a cousin of Horace Bailey, the father of the late Mrs. Thaddeus Crane,* of Somers, N. Y. Lewis, a brother of Enoch Crosby, Jr., married Cornelia, daughter of Joseph Crane, and had a son, Benjamin, who lived in New Canaan. The services for his country of Enoch Crosby, Sr. (the spy), are an imperishable record.

*Daughter of Horace and Fanny (and wife) Bailey. of Som- ers, N. Y. Educated at St. Mary's Hall, Burlington, N. J., she afterward married Thaddeus Crane. Junior, of the extendedly known Thaddeus Crane family of Westchester County, N. Y., and was the devoted mother of one of the three lamented school vouthe. William Crane, Edward Morris and Charles Bostwick,

who, at the close of a holiday were drowned in the Norwalk waters, June 7, 1873. William Crane was a great-grandson of Col. Thaddeus Crane, of the Revolution. Edward Morri- Was a lad of English birth, whose promise interested the late John Ireland Tucker, D.D., of Trov, N. Y., and Charles Bostwick was a nephew of Gen. Wm. IL. Seward, of Auburn, N. Y.

256

NORWALK

OF ABIJAH COMSTOCK LINE.

Gen I .- CHRISTOPHER AND HANNAH (Platt) COMSTOCK.

.. II .- MOSES AND ABIGAIL (BRINSMADE) COMSTOCK.

.. III .- ABIJAH AND DEBORAH (BENEDICT) COMSTOCK.

Whatever may have been the age of Christopher Comstock or Comstocke at his Norwalk arrival, his wife, evidently, was very young and he brought her, as did Jacob Jen- nings, a century later his own bride, to a home already established. This home (formerly the Ely-Betts home) which Mr. Comstock a few years afterward converted into an " ordin- ary " or " inn," was planted in one of the old settlement's pleasant fields, and here was born, in 1684-5, his youngest son, Moses, who married February 23rd, 1709. Abigail, daughter of Daniel Brinsmade, of Stratford. Moses was twenty-four and Abigail eighteen when pronounced man and wife. The bride had quite possibly visited, before marriage, her Norwalk grandmother, Mrs. Daniel Kellogg, and here first met her future part- ner. To Moses and Abigail was born, among other children, Abijah, who upon reaching majority married, May 30th, 1745, one of the youngest of Norwalk brides (nine days short of seventeen years of age), Deborah, daughter of Thomas Benedict.4th. The two were quite likely wedded in the bride's home (the old red house which is remembered, to- day, and which stood a little southwest of the residence on West Avenue of Congressman E. J. Hill of 1896) and were waited upon by the four colored girls who were employed by Mrs. Comstock's father. Mrs. Comstock was a sister of Thomas Benedict, 5th. a Norwalk merchant and public man, and also of the honored Mrs. Hannah (Benedict) Carter, of New Canaan, and herself and husband chose for their home the handsome acres at the extreme head of Five Mile River, and adjoining Winnipauke Ridge, close by the Oblong. Here was built the comfort-establishment, enlarged to-day, which now, in olden style, adorns the Vista farm and where, peacefully and in plenty, reside their descendants of the fourth generation. Abijah Comstock was a practical man and a man of conviction-courage. He believed the cherry to be the forbidden fruit, and consequently, albeit his house-grounds were cherry-productive, the birds unmolestedly feasted upon this product of his spreading estate. In the winter of 1747 (Jan. 26) his oldest son was born, who took his grandfather Benedict's name, Thomas. This son ranged the fields and unquestionably worked the lands until Feb. 1, 1776, when he was married to Phobe Selleck. Thomas and Phoebe planted themselves in Silvermine, in their father Comstock's home, now the " Wardwell house." In this house was born to them, on May 5, 1779, their son, Nathan Selleck Com- stock, who lay an infant about two months old when Tryon-affrighted Norwalk mothers and children flocked to and filled the premises on the night preceding the town's burning in 1779 (July II). The patriotism of Thomas and Phoebe Comstock in receiving and car- ing for their unexpected guests was not forgotten, and when their son, the child of those fearful days (Nathan S.) reached manhood he saddle-rode from Silvermine to Ohio to look at the family-bestowed " fire lands" of that State. Nathan S. Comstock married Betty.

257

NORWALK.

daughter of Ezra Seymour, of White Oak Shade (note page 115), and had the two child- ren, living in 1896, the esteemed Seymour Comstock' and his sister, Mrs. David S. Rock- well, of New Canaan. Samuel Comstock (Maj.), born July 15, 1767, brother of Thomas and the youngest son of Abijah and Deborah Comstock, received the Vista farm from his father. He married, Dec. 6, 1793, Catherine, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Green) Clock, of Darien, and reared a family of twelve members. The undulating estate required industrious working. A good share of it was meadow and there were wood and orchard lands. The help was to some extent colored, and " Harry " out-doors and " Belinda " in- doors were kept continually employed. The old Vista store near by was at one time a busy spot. Such Norwalk men as Benj. Isaacs and John Cannon had accounts with it.

Samuel, Jr., born July 4. 1802, the oldest son of Maj. Samuel and the grandson of Abijah, had hardly completed his "schooling " when his father, in 1818, died. The youth was compelled to buckle on armor, which he manfully did, and became his widowed mother's arm. His brother William married and left home, as did also his brother, Rev. David Comstock. Thomas Anthony, the youngest brother, bought a site on Canaan Ridge. He married Polly, daughter of Samuel and Deborah (Raymond) Lockwood, who had a farm nearly adjoining their son-in-law. Anthony Comstock, Sr., had a son, An- thony, Jr., who is the head, to-day, of one of the benevolent organizations of New York City. Dinah, sister of Samuel Comstock, Jr., married Rev. Chester Isham, and Ruth, another sister, was principal of the New Haven Dwight Place Comstock Seminary.

Samuel Comstock, Jr., married, in 1837. Sarah, Daughter of David and Cynthia (Abbott) Comstock, of Comstock Hill (Silvermine), Norwalk. Their children were and are Hannah (deceased), Sarah, Eliza, Josephine, Clementine and Samuel. Samuel Com- stock, Jr., died March 11, 1871. His widow, born 1812, survives to-day.

Seymour Comstock still comfortably lives, at a prolonged age, at the foot of Church Hill (lower ex- tremity of Haynes Ridge), New Canaan. He has been an excellent and enterprising resident of that town and has witnessed many changes therein. It seems to have been originally determined that the south end of Haynes Ridge should form the town's business and "town moot" (meeting) centre. Here was built the first meeting house, town house, school and, probably, store. There is a record of the lay- out of the Haynes highway before the parish was or- ganized, and there are those living who tell that the seat of the local marketing was thence gradually transferred to its present site. New Canaan's primal " summer boarders " were accommodated in the neighborhood of Mr. Comstock's premises, while the remains of the ancient Boult cider mill stand in his lot. Between Mr. Comstock's residence and the grounds of St. Mark's Church lay the former Han- ford Fayerweather home-lot. Mr. F., although not a churchman, secured, by another's intercession, to

St. Mark's Parish, its present church site. He was a particular friend of Harriet, daughter of the patriot Capt. Stephen Betts, who was a St. Mark's pillar. The Episcopalians desired to remove from their old quarters-upper end Haynes Ridge-but found it dif- ficult to obtain a new lot. Miss Harriet Betts plead- ed with and finally prevailed upon Mr. Fayerweather and the prayer was granted. New Canaan was an- ciently Norwalk-approached via White Oak Shade, and the Stamford road lay somewhat west of the present business street. The town was Salem-reach- ed via Haynes and Smith Ridges. These two ridges were connected by a highway running southwesterly from Smiths Ridge until it joined Haynes Ridge at the Col. Enoch St. John corner. Two familiar New Canaan and Salem old-time figures-seated finely upon the saddle-were those of Col. Enoch St. John and Col. Thatcher Hayes. A goodly portion of the route between Salem and New Canaan was once pop- lar-bordered. Diverging to the east from the Salem highway, roads conduct to Wilton and Ridgefield.

258

NORWALK.

MOSES COMSTOCK LINEAGE.

The year 1684 had reached its last day when Norwalk's first Moses (son of Chris- topher) Comstock was born in, it is probable, that old Indian hiding lot (north corner, 1896, East Avenue and Fitch Street). The boy in all likelihood was a pupil of Thomas Hanford (son of Rev. Thos.) in the antiquated school building which seems to have stood just north of the East Norwalk Cemetery of this date.1

Leaving school training behind, the youth, as has been seen (note page 146) mar- ried Abigail Brinsmade and chose for a home-site the ground-rise known to-day as Com- stock's Hill in lower Silvermine. Among his children, as enumerated on page 251, was Moses.2d. This son, upon reaching maturity, founded his home near the brow of Northern Canoe Hill, since called " Ferris Hill," where his wife and himself brought up their child- ren, Elizabeth, Phoebe, Sarah, Moses, 3d. Abijah, Aaron, Enos and Caleb. Moses Com- stock,2d. who died in 1789, was a man of probity, but one who had his peculiarities. At the foot of the hill (Ferris) on which he lived stretched a diversified tract through a por- tion of which to-day peacefully winds a small stream. The ancient name of this tract. the ownership of Moses Comstock, 2d. was "Comstock's Park."? Its proprietor stocked the territory with game, and it was a handsome addition to the Comstock estate.

Elizabeth, Sarah and Phœbe, daughters of Moses Comstock. 2d. are remembered to- day, the latter as the " Miss Phoebe " of fifty odd years ago. Moses,3d. a brother of the three sisters, lived at the upper end of Haynes Ridge, New Canaan, a few rods west of

'Rear of the 1896 W. S. Hanford East Norwalk residence. This fact is ascertained from ancient rec- ords. The path leading to the " Plantinge" (Bene- diet's Farm, Pine Hill and Marvin Bros.' lands of 1896) branched, anciently, more at right angle from the "Towne Street." The Gregory's Point road of to-day, which has taken the place of the old " Pasture path," starts from about the same point ( opposite Hanford's store of 1896) as did the former "way," but instead of running for a few rods due easterly and thence southerly, it cuts off a portion of the fathers' " burying ground," thus making a somewhat more direct line from the " Streete" to the " Neck " ( East Avenue and Gregory's Point. ) The bodies which were removed in this straightening process were, unquestionably, those of the earliest pioneers.

By careful perusal of preserved land and "pro- prietors' " records facts of ancient history-interest are disclosed. The first Norwalk "Town House" was, as is well known, the first meeting house. When, however, the second meeting house was built (on Earle's Hill) the use of said place of worship for secular purposes was abolished. A Town House proper had now, consequently, to be provided. A traveler through Norwalk, in 1704 (Madam Knight), was surprised to find the tavern close by the Church,

(both stood on Earle's Hill) and although her Nor- walk landlord provided her with a savory lunch of venison, vet was she in no mood to recognize the con- sistency of the two buildings' locality-approximation. A good move, in this direction, had been commenced by shuting the Church doors against business in- trusion, and hence we ascertain, from land records, that a " Town House" was built where now stands the Street line car house, cor. Knight and Wall Sts. This seems to have stood until the burning of the town, after which the new structure was planted on what is now called Town House Hill, which second recorded Town House gave way in 1835, to the pres- ent brick structure. The first parsonage was of course that of Rev. Thos. Hanford, corner of present East Avenue and Fort Point Street. The second par- sonage-site was bought by the town (after Mr. Han- ford's day, whose own home was private property). It was owned by Joseph Gregory and is to-day occu- pied by the Consolidated road for station purposes. It is on the east side of East Avenue. Its owner, Joseph, son of John Gregory, Ist. had twelve years be- fore bought the first meeting house, for which he paid the sum of £12.

"This park and certain of the habits, etc., of its owner's family are touched upon in the following

259

NORWALK.

his brother Aaron's home. Enos (or Enoch), another son of Moses,2d. married, Dec, 3. 1772, Ann Weed, and had eight children, the seventh of whom, Watts, born Dec. 19, 1790, was the New Canaan citizen of that name who built and occupied the brick building now the home of his son, Charles Comstock, of that town, and near the spacious Alexan- der summer country seat, at present in process of erection.

AARON (SON OF MOSES2d.) COMSTOCK LINE.

The leaves of the Upper Haynes Ridge trees had just fallen when on Oct. 21, 1780, Moses Comstock, son of Moses and Abigail (Brinsmade) Comstock, and grandson of Christopher, the settler, gave to his two sons, Moses and Aaron, broad acres at the Ridge's far end that heretofore had known the name of " Platt's Farm" embracing, in part, (1896) the New Canaan Child estate. The two brethren there peacefully lived and died. Aaron was precise and his sense of order was so early developed that the nice manner in which she kept her wool for spinning and the regularity in size and shape of her wool or flax skeins first led him to seek the hand in matrimony of Anne Hanford, his future wife. The two enjoyed their "parade ground " home and the visits to it of the large Comstock family, particularly of Aaron's honored sister, "Miss Phoebe," of Comstock's Hill, whose always neat appearance upon her pillioned horse and accompanied by her faithful " Onesi-

"Letters of a Traveler," published some years since by William Cullen Bryant :

" A robust old gentleman, a native of Norwalk, Conn., told us that he had been reading a history of that place by the Rev. Mr. Hall. 'I find,' said he, ' that in his account of the remarkable people of Nor- walk he has omitted to speak of two of the most re- markable, two spinisters, Sarah and Phæbe Comstock, relatives of mine and friends of my youth, of whom I retain a vivid recollection. They were in opulent circumstances for the neighborhood in which they lived, possessing a farm of about two hundred acres; they were industrious, frugal and extremely charit- able; but they never relieved a poor family without visiting it, and inquiring carefully into its circum- stances. Sarah was the housekeeper and Phoebe the farmer. Phoebe knew nothing of kitchen matters, but she knew at what time of the year greensward should be broken up and corn planted and potatoes dug. She dropped Indian corn and sowed English grain with her own hands. In the time of planting or of harvest it was Sarah who visited and relieved the poor. I remember that they had various ways of employing the young people who called upon them. If it was late in the autumn, there was a chopping- board and chopping-knife ready, with the feet of neat-cattle, from which the oily parts had been ex- tracted by boiling. 'You do not want to be idle,' they would say : 'Chop this meat and you shall have your share of the mince pies that we are going to make.' At other times a supply of old woolen stock-

ings were ready for unraveling. 'We know you do not want to be idle,' they would say. 'Here are some stockings which you would oblige us by unraveling.' If you asked what use they made of the spools of woolen thread obtained by this process, they would answer: 'We use it as the weft of the linsey-woolsey with which we clothe our negroes.' They had negro slaves in those times, and old "O'ne", a faithful black servant of theirs, who has seen more than a hundred years, is alive yet.

"They practiced one very peculiar piece of econ- omy. The white hickory you know yields the purest and sweetest of saccharine juices. They had their hickory fuel cut into short billets, which before plac- ing on the fire they laid on the andirons, a little in front of the blaze, so as to subject it to a pretty strong heat. This caused the syrup in the wood to drop from each end of the billet, where it was caught in a cup, and in this way a gallon or two was caught in the course of a fortnight. With this they flavored their nicest cakes.

"They died about thirty years since, one at the age of eighty-nine, and the other at the age of ninety. On the tomb-stone of one of them, it was recorded that she had been a member of the Church for seven- ty years. Their father was a remarkable man in his way. He was a rich man in his time, and kept a park of deer, one of the last known in Connecticut, for the purpose of supplying his table with venison. He prided himself on the strict and literal fulfilment of his word."

260

NORWALK

mus," is a Norwalk Revolutionary memory.' In that house (now Jones') hard by in that day, to the Haynes patrimony, and, for many a year after, next to the sunny Mitchell and Bonny residence, were reared their children :

THADDEUS, born Aug. 6. 1775, died young.

AARON, born Mar. 25, 1777. THADDEUS.2d. born Sept. 10, 1779.

LUCRETIA, born Sept. 7. 1782 ; married Gold, uncle of Prof. Samuel St. John, of New Canaan.

HANNAH, born Sept. 8, 1785 ; married Edward Nash, of New Canaan.

DANIEL, born Aug. 4, 1789.

ANNE (MARY ANN), born Feb. 12, 1790; married Erastus Seeley.

Aaron, 2d. son of Aaron Comstock, married Esther, daughter of Enos Kellogg.

SEYMOUR-COMSTOCK LINEAGE.

Maj. Jonathan Selleck, son of David and Susannah Selleck, the settlers, came to Stamford in 1660. He married, May 11, 1663, Abigail, daughter of Hon. Richard Law, of Stamford, "the first gentleman of the colony," and had Jonathan. born July 11, 1664, who married Jan. 5, 1685, Abigail. daughter of Maj. Nathan Gold, of Fairfield, and had Nathan, born Sept. 12, 1686, who married, Aug. 12, 1708, Susannah, daughter of William

IMiss Phoebe, born Sept. 26, 1763, and her sister, Sarah, left, finally, the Ferris Hill home and estab- lished themselves on the old Moses ComstockIst. (their grandfather) estate on Comstock Hill. They were maiden ladies who kept the ancient place until it was accidently set on fire by their slave, Onesimus. The old building having burned down, the sisters re- moved a few rods further down the hill (south) where they passed the remainder of their days. "Miss Phoebe's" reminiscences are found in "Hall's Nor- walk," page 173. Their uncle, Abijah,Ist. ( son of Mosesist.) lived, first, in what is now the " Wardwell house" in Silvermine. It seems highly probable that he built the same. He surrendered it, however, to his son, Thomas, who there resided and there receiv- ed the fleeing sufferers at the time of Tryon's fiery raid in 1779. When Abijah Comstock gave up his Silvermine home to his son, Thomas, he established the large farm in Vista, which his great grand-children to-day enjoy, and which is with grace presided over by his grand-daughter-in-law, the widow of Samuel Comstockzd. herself the daughter of David Comstock (son of David), of Comstock Hill.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Norwalk, history from 1896, Part 36

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne. Publication date: 1896 Publisher: The author, Number of Pages: 553

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne.
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: The author,
Number of Pages: 553