Norwalk, history from 1896, Part 47

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

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RALPH ISAACS LINEAGE.

Ralph Isaacs, a not unimportant name in Norwalk's second half-century history, here appeared in about 1725. There had been those of his name in the land, but none in

'The St. John Coat of Arms ( Lord Bolingbroke ) was inscribed upon the tomb in the East Norwalk Cemetery of Joseph St. Johnzd .. This piece, a slate tablet, was, for some unaccountable reason removed from the St John monument and buried in the old Joseph St. John home ground, where (Earle place 1896) a section of it was found in 1893.

2Hon. Samuel Fitch (brother of Gov. Thomas Fitch) was appointed "Committee of war" March 17, 1756 to attend, assist and advise with Andrew Burr, David Rowland, Ebenezer Silliman and Joseph Platt relating to expedition against Crown Point. (See Connecticut Colonial Records.) He was uncle to Col, Thomas Fitch.

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NORWALK.

Norwalk before that date. The fact that his wife was from Fairfield evidences an acquaint- ance, on his part, with Fairfield County prior to his Norwalk residenceship. He bought and sold in this town, previous to the purchase of his family seat, an eligible site, crossed to-day by Morgan Avenue. The town had considerably outgrown its original limits, and its land records show that Thomas Hanford ad. was owner of the upland tract lying, largely, south of the present Betts woods, fronting which skirted the meadow, dotted in 1896. by the Morgan Avenue homes. This was a choice piece of real estate. Jonathan Elmer of Windsor stood possessed, in 1718, of a portion of this meadow, as did also John Keeler, Sr. On Dec. 16, 1718, Keeler sold his block of several acres to Benj. Lynes of Norwalk, an intimate friend of Rev. Stephen Buckingham, and on Jan. 26, 1720, Mr. Elmer did the same with his share of the original lot. On Aug. 15, 1720, Mr. Lynes parted with a slice of the property to Samuel Grumman, and on July 1, 1725, deeded the balance of it to Jonathan Jackson of Boston, as security for paper held by Jackson. Ralph Isaacs now made an offer for the entire Lynes interest. The note, therefore, held by Jackson, was taken up on Oct. 11, 1727, and the property quit-claimed first to Lynes and then to Isaacs.

As one steps from the platform of the Consolidated road's present depot in Fair- field, he finds himself upon the northern borders of one of those levels that appeared so to delight Ludlow, and close by the spot that Humphrey Hyde, a noted Fairfield settler and a particular friend of settler John Gregory of Norwalk, selected, in 1649, for a future home for himself and family. John, the oldest son of Humphrey Hyde, occupied his departed father's house, next the Rocks. He had married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Harvey, and taken her from her riverside Stratford hearth to Fairfield, where, on probably the identical grounds now covered by the railroad station referred to, was born, Sept. 25, 1670, Mary Hyde, who, girlhood passed, married a young man from the present Greens Farms, Benjamin Rumsey by name, and had in 1705 a daughter, called for her mother, who, at the age of twenty-one, married Ralph Isaacs, and coming to his meadow homestead at the northern base of the Grumman's Hill of 1896, was the ancestress' of a numerous and honored descent.

Ralph and Mary (Rumsey) Isaacs married March 7, 1725-6, and had :

Samuel, born Jan. 16, 1726-7. (Married Mary, daughter of James Brown.) Mary, born Sept. 27, 1728. (Died unmarried.) Esther, born July 19, 1730. (Married Benj. Woolsey of Dorsoris, L. I.) Isaac, born July 19, 1732. (Died unmarried.)

"The genealogy of Mary Rumsey (Mrs. Ralph Isaacs, Sr. ) runs thus : William Frost of Notting- ham, England, settled when well on in life, in 1639, in Fairfield on " Frost Square," where he died six years afterward. His oldest son, Daniel, who lived a short distance from his father, married, in 1639, Elizabeth,

daughter of John Barlow of Fairfield and had a daugh- ter Rachel, who married Robert Rumsey. Robt. and Rachel (Frost) Rumsey had a son Benjamin, who mar- ried Mary Hyde, which Benjamin and Mary Rumsey were the parents of Mary Rumsey, born 1705, who, ( Mar. 7, 1726 ) married Ralph Isaacs, Sr. of Norwalk.

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NORWALK.

Sarah, born Aug. 31, 1735. (Married David Bush of Greenwich.) Benjamin, born Sept. 19, 1737. (Married Sarah Scudder.)

Ralph, born June 4, 1741. (Married Sept. 8, 1761, Mary Perit.)

Grace, born June 10, 1743. (Married Rev. Luke Babcock of Yonkers, N. Y.)

While, through the aid of a vivid imagination, not a few, perhaps, of the ancient habitations of Norwalk are susceptible of picture-clothing, still plain fact itself will attest to the emanation of a remarkable procession of personages from the old Isaacs domicile, which stood in the to-day recalled green-carpeted St. John lot, which has parted with a portion of its emerald acreage to make room for the more pretentious denominated " Mor- gan Avenue " of later times.

Mr. Isaacs took his bride of twenty to the five acre meadow-home, where, to the young pair, the child, Samuel, was first given. This earliest born grew to love Mary, five years the senior of himself, and the daughter of barrister James Brown, and the two left father and mother and planted themselves in Lower Salem, where came to them Samuel B. Jr., Isaac and quite a little flock of Isaacs nestlings.

Mary, the second child vouchsafed Ralph and Mary Isaacs, was the first daughter to bless the hearthstone, and very properly took her mother's name. She died unmarried.

Esther, the next child's destiny, was a brief life of twenty-five summers, but her career was as signal as it was short, in that, marrying Benj. Woolsey, of a country-seat thousands of acres in extent near Dorsoris, L. I., she, before quitting the world, gave birth to the two distinguished daughters, Mary and Sarah, who were to wed, respectively, Tim- othy Dwight, D. D., and Moses Rogers. These two girls were not seven years old when their mother was called hence. Their father married, second, Anna Muirson, who bore to him a son, the father of Dr. Theodore D. Woolsey, President of Yale. (See page 166.)

Isaac, the fourth child, whose birthday corresponded to that of his sister Esther, went, as did his seven years older neighbor-boy, Thos. Fitch, afterward Col. Thos. Fitch, into the French war, in which strife both youth were officers. Isaac died a bachelor.

Sarah, next to Isaac, married David Bush of Greenwich, and had four children, viz .: Samuel, Mary (Mrs. Henry Davis of Poughkeepsie), Sarah (Mrs. Ira Rogers), and Elizabeth (Mrs. Henry Greig of Greenwich).

The mother of Mrs. Isaacs ( Mary Hyde ) was the daughter of John and Elizabeth ( Harvey ) Hyde. John Hyde was the son of Humphrey Hyde, the set- tler.

ISAACS-RUSco NOTE.

William Rusco, who early appears in Norwalk, and the European foreparent of the large Rusco fam- ily of Norwalk, was born in 1594. He came to Ameri- ca from Billerica, England and stopped first in Cam- bridge and next in Hartford. He was twice married. His first wife died in 1635, and he married, second,

widow Esther (possibly Hume). These had a son, John RuscoIst. (see page 113), who, by his wife ( Re- becca Beebe) had a daughter Rebecca, who married James BrownIst. of Norwalk. Jamesist. and Rebecca (Rusco) Brown had a son, James2d., who married Jo- anna Whitehead, born in 1690, in Southampton, L.I., and daughter of Samuel Whitehead, who was son of Isaac Whitehead, who lived in New Haven and in New Jersey. Mrs. James Brown 2d. (Joanna White- head) had a daughter Mary, born 1722, who married the oldest son, Samuel, of Ralph Isaacs, Sr. (see note page 113.)

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NORWALK.

Benjamin1st., born the autumn after his father had staked out the ground for the future St. Paul's Church, and for whom that parent built, later, the well-remembered Isaacs house, now supplanted by the Wall Street Masonic Temple, married Sarah, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (St. John) Scudder, and had :

Isaac Scudder, born Feb. 6. 1760.

Benjamin 2d., born Dec. 1764.1

Sarah. (Mrs. Joseph Rogers.)

Esther, born Apr. 1766. (Married Dec. 19, 1784, Wm. Knapp of Greenwich.) William.

Elizabeth, born Oct. 12, 1770. (Mrs. Amos Belden.) (See page 96.)

Ralph, the namesake and youngest son of Ralph Isaacs, Sr., left Norwalk at an early age and established himself at Branford, on the Sound. He married, Sept. 8, 1761, Mary Perit, of Huguenot descent (see note page 297) and his farm estate was known by the name of Cherry Hill. His daughter Grace, named for his Norwalk sister, the youngest child of Ralph Isaacs. Sr., married Jonathan Ingersoll, son of Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll of Ridge- field, and had a son, afterward Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll,2 United States Minister to Russia, who married a daughter of John Cornelius Vanden Huevel, formerly Governor of the Dutch province of Demarara, but now a resident of New York. Old Mr. Vanden Huevel's city residence, is in 1896, covered by the business houses on the northwest corner of Barclay Street and Broadway, but his country home stood on the Bloomingdale Road, at about the present 72nd Street. Besides Mrs. Ingersoll, he had a daughter Maria Eliza, who married John C. Hamilton (son of Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of State under Washington's administration) and a daughter Susan Augusta, who married Thomas Gibbs, the father of Mrs. John Jacob Astor. His son-in-law, John C. Hamilton, purchased the Barclay Street property, the title of which property still remains with Mr. Hamilton's descendants. Mr. Hamilton's father, Secretary Alexander Hamilton, was from the Baha- mas. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Gen. Phillip Schuyler. His home was "The Grange ", about 145th Street and 9th Avenue, New York. He spent the night previous to his duel with Aaron Burr at his friend Gouverneur Morris' mansion, on Harlem Kills. His wife, at The Grange, was unaware of the duel. After the duel he was carried to his State Street house, near the Battery. His children were : Philip, Alexander 2d., James A., and John C., the last of whom, (John C.) a lawyer and historian, was the father of Alex-

'Benjamin2d., son of Benj. and Sarah Isaacs, born Dec. 1764, removed to Bedford, N. Y. He married Sarah Hawley, and had no issue. His sister Sarah married Joseph Rogers of Patterson, N. J., and had : George, Uriah, Sarah (Mrs. Jesse Olmstead), William, Maria, James and Charles. His brother William lived also in Bedford, and having married Mrs. Mary

Riley, had : George, Emily, William H. and Charles. His sister Elizabeth married Amos, son of John and Rebecca (Bartlett) Belden of Norwalk. (See note at foot of page 96.)

2The sister of Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll was the " Grace Ingersoll " referred to in note at foot of page 297.

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NORWALK.

ander 3d., who, marrying Elizabeth Smith Nicoll of L. I., were the parents of Rev. Alexan- der Hamilton of Norwalk.

A great-grandson of Ralph Isaacs, Jr., and grandson of John C. Vanden Huevel, Ex-Gov. Charles R. Ingersoll, married Virginia, daughter of Admiral Francis H. Gregory and grand-daughter of Capt. Moses Gregory of Norwalk.

Grace, the youngest child of Ralph'st. and Mary (Rumsey) Isaacs, married Rev. Luke Babcock. She was a distinguished woman, and lived very handsomely in the center of what is now Yonkers, N. Y. She lost her husband, and was afterward greatly admired by an army officer. (See note page 298.)

Passing away is written on everything sublunary. Before Ralph Isaacs came to Norwalk, the cradle of his remarkable family had sheltered strangers, and after his day others possessed it. The last to inhabit it was the family of William'st., son of Colonel Stephen St. John (see note page 297), and the last child therein born was the son of Wil- liamIst. and Mary Esther (Belden) St. John, viz. : William St. John 2d., who married Esther,' born Apr. 27, 1783, daughter of James and Rebecca (Gould) Cannon, and had :

Mary Esther. (Mrs. Munson Hoyt.)

Susan Virginia. (Mrs. Charles Sherry.)

Sarah Louisa. (Mrs. Francis Skiddy.)

William 3d. (Married Joanna Louisa Van Zandt.)

Frederick. (Married Ann Terrill (Isaacs) Rosseau.) Julia Belden. (Mrs. Jacob A. Van Zandt.)

Isaac Scudder, son of Benj. and Sarah (Scudder) Isaacs, married June 6, 1777, Susannah, daughter of Col. Stephen and Ann (Fitch) St. John, and had :

'Esther, wife of Wm. St. John2d., was a "gentle. woman " of the olden school. She lived to a ripe age and, as was true of her older sister Sarah, ( Mrs. Jonathan Fitch ) was blest to the last by tender min- istrations. She was of the fifth generation (James, John3rd., John2d., Johnist. ) from John and Maria ( Le Grand ) Cannon of " Van Staten Eyland", 1748. Her Cannon grandfather, John3rd., was the original Cannon of Norwalk. He lived on the present East Avenue ( F. St. John Lockwood front lawn ), and her father's home was the residence in 1896 of her niece, Mrs. Jonathon Camp of Cannon St. Her own ( St. John ) home beautifully fronted the harbor at the south crest of " Mullen Hill". It stands to-day (High Street ) having been slightly removed from its first site. The house in the days of Wm. St. Johnzd. was a fine structure. It was painted pure white including even the chimneys, and rising from a generous acre- age-bed of carefully cut grass, with densely green bordered paths, and the sun lighting up its elevated south-facing front, it was one of the most striking Norwalk habitations of its day. Mrs. St. John was

only sixteen when her grandfather ( " Commodore" Cannon ) died. A letter which, albeit, written by that grandfather a quarter-century before she was born, has been preserved and is somewhat of a curi- osity in its way : ( It is addressed to a Norwalk sail- ing-master).

Norwalk, Dec. 3, 1755.

CAPT. JOHNSON,

SIR : I have been talking with Mr. Isaacs (Ralph) and we both say you are in the right to sell to them that will give you the most and pay you the best. So you may act as you think will be most to your ad- vantage and best for the whole. Here * two lads * will ship cheap for eighteen shillings, York money, a month, and I have got them to stay one or two hours for to hear from you. They did belong to the man of war at York.

. From your friend, JOHN CANNON.

P. S. I have sent the money by the bearer, my negro witch. £5, 10s, 8d old tenor.

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NORWALK.

Benjamin, born July 17, 1778.

William, born Nov. 5, 1788.

Charles, born June 7, 1795. John, born Sept. 21, 1799.

Benjamin, named for his grandfather Isaacs, which grandfather bore the first name of his Rumsey grandparent, was born on the site of the still-remembered sunny cottage, occupied later by Eben Whitney, on the Earle hill of 1896. The infant had just entered upon existence when its Belden aunt (Mrs. William St. John), herself a young mother, had the horse saddled and galloping from her home (Morgan Avenue, 1896) saluted her little nephew, who had by six days passed the first anniversary of his birth, when Tryon burned and devastated her own and the Norwalk property generally. The infant matured into the "Judge Isaacs" of sixty years ago, of gravity of manner, and yet, like his brother Charles, not entirely destitute of a touch of humor, possibly, and who had his "office" close by "Isaacs Hill", a little west of the present Wall Street station of the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad. He married Nov. 18, 1798, Frances, daughter of Dr. Richard and Ann (Terrill) Bryan.' formerly of Patterson, N. J., but later of Norwalk, and had :

Isaac, born Sept. 14, 1799; (went West.) Susan, born Nov. 16, 1801. Richard, born Nov. 14, 1803 ; (unmarried.) Elizabeth Hoyt,2 born Oct. 21, 1805.

IDr. Richard Bryan was a foster son of Nor- walk. His wife, Ann Terrill was born ( Barbadoes ) Dec. 22, 1753. Their children were John Terrill, Mehitable Clark, Joseph, Ann, Frances ( Mrs. Benj. Isaacs ), Maria, William, Richard S. and Sophia. The Bryan home still stands facing the harbor in the rear of the 1896 Beatty Manufactory, of Norwalk. It was an hospitable hearthstone, of which the three sisters, Ann, Maria and Sophia, were the last occupants. Joseph, brother of these sisters, married a Spanish lady; William, married Jane Cook, and Richard S., was forty years ago, the distinguished " Dr. Bryan" of Troy, N. Y.

2Elizabeth H. Isaacs married Samuel Lynes, born Feb. 16. 1798, son of Benj. and Sarah ( Coley ) Lynes, and had : Benj., Joseph, ( married Edith, daughter of Geo. and Mary ( Russell ) Platt of New York, and had Benj., died young); Joseph Isaac; and Sophia A. ( Mrs. E. P. Weed ). Mrs. E. P. Weed was the daugh- ter-in-law of John A. Weed of Norwalk. The two Norwalk brothers, John A. and Rev. William B. Weed were sons of Daniel and Martha ( Weed) Bene- dict of New Canaan. The boys were brought up on the edge of the "Bouton Hoyt Pond", a basin of water at the upper end of Five Mile River and fed from said river as it flowed through the valley between Haynes and Brushy Ridges. Daniel Weed's property adjoined that of " Miller Hoyt's" and was the seat of a " quiet habitation " His thoughtful son, John A.,

was for some time an inmate of the Nehemiah Bene- dict home which stood the first house below the hand- some 1896 Dr. Thompson grounds on the west slope of Brushy Ridge. The lad grew to prove a promis- ing young man. He was public school instructor for a time and afterward through acquaintance with Dr. J. A. McLean of Norwalk, became familiar with drugs, and started, prosperously, in that business. He was for many years a reliable and highly honored citizen of the town, in which he married Emeline daughter of Henry Chichester, and had one son, the late Ed- ward P. Weed who married Dec. 19, 1865, Sophia A. daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Hoyt (Isaacs) Lynes and grand-daughter of Benj. Isaacs2d., The children of Edward P. and Sophia A. Weed are : Samuel Lynes and Edward Payson. The older of these brothers, Samuel L., married Feb. 24, 1892, Edith, daughter of Edward Street, and had Ralph Lynes, born Oct. 13, 1895, died Apr. 11, 1897.

Rev. William B., born 1811, brother of John A. Weed, took early and naturally to books, and became a clergyman of brilliant mind and fervent zeal, and one whose sermons bore evidence of extensive inves- tigation as well as extraordinary industry. He was for several years pastor of the First Congregational Church, Norwalk, and was held in lofty and loving regard by his people. He married, July 7, 1840, Har- riet A. Miller of North Stamford, and had a daugh- ter, who died young, and one son, William.

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NORWALK.

Joseph Bryan, born Aug. 13, 1807; (died young.)

Benjamin, born June 6, 1809; (went West.) Ann Terrill,' born March 5, 1811. Isaac Scudder, born Jan. 7, 1813; (went West.) Sophia Bryan,2 born June 3, 1815. William Bryan,3 born April 10, 1818; (went to Richmond, Va.)

William, born Nov. 5, 1788, son of Isaac Scudder and Susannah Isaacs, married Ann, daughter of Capt. Robert and Sarah Wasson, and had : Alfred, Charles, Susan and Benjamin.

Charles, born June 7, 1795, son of Isaac Scudder and Susannah Isaacs, married Nov. 20, 1815, Rebecca, daughter of Henry and Rebecca (Fitch) Betts, and had: Susan, born May 28, 1819, an only child, who married Dr. Asa Hill.4

John, youngest son of Isaac Scudder and Susannah Isaacs, married Elizabeth Ann, daughter of Joseph and Betsey St. John, and had : George Edwin of California, John Milton of Iowa and Marietta (Mrs. David Stow).

Matthias St. John 3d., (Matthias 2d., Matthias'st.) who was about ten years old at the time of the public child-registration in 1672, married Rachel, born Dec. 16, 1667, daugh- ter of John and Abigail (Marvin) Bouton. He had : Matthew, John, Benjamin, Rachel and Matthias4th., born 1695. This son, Matthias4th., had three children : Catharine, Eliza- beth and Hannah. He died in 1732. His children, with the exception of Catharine, (Mrs. Joseph Marvin) were just coming to age when their father's property was apportioned on Dec. 21, 1749. Elizabeth, immediately afterward, married John Abbott, and Hannah married Lemuel, brother of Nehemiah and son of James Rogers3d .. (See page 162.)

Benjamin, the brother of Matthias4th., and son of Matthias3d., was designated by said Matthias3d., "my loving son Benjamin St. John of Norwalk." The spring of 1728 was about to open and sixty-six winters of the life of Matthias 3d. were closing, when said Matthias gave " the house I now live in " (Earle's hill 1896) to his son Benjamin. This son removed, in 1744, to the vicinity of Comstock's Park, in the north-eastern part of "Canaan Parish.' (See page 258.) He had four sons : Matthias, David, Caleb and Ben-

Benjamin, oldest child of Samuel and Elizabeth H. Lynes, married Annette 1). Wilkins of Mobile, Ala., and had several children, only one of whom, Elizabeth Marion (Mrs. James W. Sloss) survives. She has three children.

Married first Dr. Benj. Rosseau of Troy, N. Y., (no issue). Married, second, Frederick, son of Wil- liam2d. and Esther (Cannon) St. John, and had : Fan- nie I., who married Dr. William A., son of William S. and Catharine (Hawley) Lockwood, and had chil- dren as per note page 293.

2Sophia B. Isaacs married George Lockwood of New Rochelle, N. Y., and had Elizabeth (died young) ; Mary (Mrs. Rufus Zogbaum) and Sophia (Mrs. Henry B. Stokes).

3William Bryan Isaacs married Julia, daughter of Dr. Dove of Richmond, Va., and had John D., Wm. B., Frank B. and Annie ( Mrs. Dr. Moore of Parkers- burgh, West Virginia).

4Dr. Asa Hill, a native of Norwalk, in which place he was born Nov. 20, 1815, was a Dr. of Dental Science and a successful practitioner in his profession.

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NORWALK.

jamin 2d., His son Matthias' married Naomi Weed, and possessed the upper part of "Canoe Hill" district, and his home was on what has since been known as " Ferris Hill". His old moss-draped orchard trees are seen to-day and remind of their proprietor, the great-grand- father of one (Mrs. L. D. Alexander2 of New York City and New Canaan, Conn.) who is nobly and effectively engaged in a work which has hitherto been only fitfully and fragment- arily performed, that of collecting St. John data, and assorting facts and comparing figures, with the intention of presenting an accurate history of the important family.

David, son of Benj. St. John'st., was the father of New Canaan's honored Samuel St. John of "Church Hill". Samuel St. John married the only daughter of Isaac and Hannah (Benedict) Richards of lower Smith's Ridge, (see page 122) and these were the parents of the benevolent Dr. Samuel St. John and his three brothers and one sister : Wil- liam, Isaac, David and Hannah. The Samuel St. John home was a typical hearthstone. Hannah, the only daughter, was the wife of Rev. Theophilus Smith, and several of the sons were successful Southern business men. (See note page 123.)

Caleb, son of Benj. St. John'st., had only one son, Eliphalet, the proprietor of the boys' school, on the south slope of Canoe Hill. Benj. St. John d., brother of Caleb, and son of Benj. St. John'st., lived and died in New Canaan.

James (son of Matthias 2d. and grandson of MatthiasIst.) St. John, had a son Daniel, who had Nathan, who was the father of David'st., born 1763, who married Mary, born Dec. 17, 1764, daughter of Jonathan 2d. and Mary (Burwell) Camp. DavidIst. and Mary (Camp) St. John lived on Seer Hill, in the home, which was occupied later, by their son William

He was one of Norwalk's beneficent citizens, and was appreciated and esteemed by his fellow townsmen. He had one daughter, Rebecca, who married Ira Cole, who has three children, viz. : Lena, Anna and Alice.

'This Matthias St. John (son of Benj. St. JohnIst.) married, June 28, 1758, Naomi, daughter of Abraham Weed, and had Abraham; Sarah (Mrs. Isaac Keeler, baptized June 15, 1760); Matthias; Esther; Enoch* (Col.); Benjamin ;+ Samuel ; Anna, born Nov. 13, 1770 (Mrs. Matthew Benedict) ; John Trowbridge; Nathan ; Esther (Mrs. Benj. Bates). Samuel, the sixth child of Matthias and Naomi St. John amassed a large pro- perty in the south. He was a bachelor, and his es- tate was divided between his brothers and sisters and their heirs. His brother, John Trowbridge St. John, died in Walton, N. Y., in 1850. leaving, among other

children, Maria, who married Joseph E. Sheffield of New Haven, the munificent founder of the Scientific School of Yale University.

2Mrs. Lawrence D. Alexander is a daughter of Newton and Jane ( Pope ) St. John of Mobile Ala., and a sister of the late Hon. William P. St. John of political prominence during the last presidential cam- paign. She is a southern lady, but herself and hus- band have selected a rare site in the elevated town of New Canaan as a summer seat. Her father, New- ton St. John, was son of Nathan, who was son of Mat- thias and Naomi (Weed) St. John, referred to in the text. In her great work upon the St. John family she has the valuable assistance of Rev. Horace E. Hay- den, an able genealogist and historian of Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania.

*Col. Enoch St. John, born Oct. 14, 1765, lived at the head of Haynes Ridge, later " Elm Corners", now " Owenoke Avenue ". The Colonel was a man of presence and bearing, who married first, Sybil Seymour, who lived only a few months. He married second, a Downes; third, a Chapman, and found his fourth part- ner in Bridgeport. His brother Samuel, the southern cotton broker, who is note referred to on this page, left an annual an- nuity to his brothers and sisters, decreeing that the principal should be kept intact until the last child of the third following generation should attain the age of twenty-one. Col. Enoch St. John's son Samuel, was engaged in business with his uncle in

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Norwalk, history from 1896, Part 47

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