USA > New Jersey > Biographical, genealogical and descriptive history of the first congressional district of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 24
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
"I went with General Sullivan in the fall of 1779 west of the Alleghany mountains. I never got back or heard from home during the war, but was in the neighborhood of Pittsburg most of the time. We made an expedition down the Ohio river. That was the hardest campaign of all. It was not very much work to go down with the current, as we were in a flat-boat of some kind, with oars to row it. It was reported that a settlement of white people was along the river on the Ohio side at one place, perhaps Marietta; but we did not know certainly. We were in two divisions and I was in the first; and our officers ordered every one to be ready with his finger on the trigger, and so we drifted by, never seeing any one. The other party, carelessly thinking the advance had stopped, rowed up to the shore and the Indians sprang out and killed and took every man! We heard the reason the Indians did not attack us: they thought we were only a small advance party and they felt able for the main body and expected our general was in the rear; and as he had a red head they wanted his scalp particularly ; but they were deceived in that: and if they had attacked us they would have met with a warm recep- tion.
219
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY.
"We went as far as Louisville, then called the Great Falls, but were not there but a short time before we were ordered back to Pittsburg, just at the setting in of winter, and the river low and full of ripples. We would have to jump out and push our boats over and then get in and row, sitting with wet clothing on and almost freezing. As we went down one of our number died, and we had no shovels to bury him. We placed him in a hollow in the ground made by the blowing down of a tree, and put what dirt we could on him; but as we came back we saw that the wolves had dug him out and picked his bones!
"We would stay out in the middle of the river all day pulling up till, to- ward night, we would work in shore and land a party to scour the woods for Indians and post our sentinels around, and camp for the night. The wolves would come up around the sentinels and howl and appear as if not farther off than the length of our guns; but we dared not shoot them: it would be giv- ing a false alarm. We also had another thing to contend with, worse than any I have mentioned,-hunger: we came very near starving. There was a settlement at Wheeling, West Virginia, and a temporary mill that would grind corn, which was run by man power. So we made great calculations when we reached there; but pretty soon after we got to work the soldiers got hold of some whisky and got so drunk that they could not work, got nothing done and we came nearer starving than before!
"Pittsburg was a hundred miles yet before us. We were working up the Ohio. In one canoe was a sick Irishman and the current catched and upset it. We lamented his fate, supposing he was drowned, of course; but when we came to turn up the canoe there he was in it, not any the worse,-only wet! Some one asked him if he could take a little whisky. He said, 'By the Lord! try me.'
"During the winter of 1777-8, at Valley Forge, we were so badly off for clothing one could track the soldiers over the frozen ground by the blood from their bare feet! and no blankets! would lie down around our camp fire to sleep and our hair would freeze fast to the ground!
"We finally arrived at Pittsburg, a poor place then,-not even a frame house in it. There was a line of soldiers' barracks, or frame-work. There were several log houses, with a quarter of an acre of ground attached, which formed the city at that time. There was no road across the mountains, and from Gettysburg to Pittsburg everything was carried by pack-mules. Not much there but whisky, and it would take a month's wages to buy a gill with the money we were paid with! About eighty dollars good money would buy a quarter of an acre of ground with a log house on it then, but I would not
220
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE FIRST
have had one even for a gift if I had to stay there: it was such a poor place. and I thought always would be."
Mr. Harris was discharged at that place, on the 30th of September, 1783. William Irving, brigadier general, in command. His discharge is still in the family. His pay for the last two or three years was the continental money that was issued by congress. He was in seven general battles, including that at Flatbush, Long Island, August 27, 1776, besides many skirmishes, but was never wounded: was once, however, knocked down by a spent ball. He came home poor and for a year or two was in very poor health, his con- stitution much impaired by exposure while in the army, being afflicted with chills and fever. In after life his company was much sought, and he, having a retentive memory, would interest his friends by relating incidents and occurrences he had experienced while in the army.
In 1785 he married Lydia, a daughter of Captain William Smith, of the militia in the battle of Quinton's Bridge, who had some of his hair shot away from the back part of his head! a bullet grazed his loins, and his horse re- ceived two bullets in him; yet he carried his rider safely over the bridge and then fell dead under him! Mr. Harris's wife Lydia was more than ten years younger than himself. He bought Round island, in 1796, of Joshua Eaton. The island contained thirty acres of upland, likewise a considerable quantity of salt marsh, and was about two miles south of Alloway's Creek Neck. He lived there nine years. In 1804 he purchased Ragged island, of Elijah Fogg. it being a short distance from Round island. He moved to the former and remained there till his death, which event took place March 29, 1814, with the typhus fever.
The following is a list of his children: Stretch Harris, born February 26. 1785, died October 2, 1786. Matilda Harris, born January 22, 1787. died February II, 1787. Stretch Harris, born January 25, 1788, died August 10. 1848. Sarah Harris, born December 31, 1790, died February 2, 1791. Ben- jamin Harris, born August 27, 1793, died April 14, 1872. Peter Harris, born June 4, 1796, died January 20, 1815. Lydia Harris, born October 24. 1798. died December 18, 1842. Elizabeth Harris, born November 20, 1800, died July 5, 1884. Margaret Harris, born June 1, 1803, died about 1825 or '6. Clarissa Harris, born September 16, 1805, died September 18, 1886. Beulah Harris, born June 21, 1809, died May 21, 1813.
Peter Harris, in the spring of 1814, had a severe attack of typhus fever and did not entirely recover from it, and in the fall went to camp three months in the militia at Billingsport, below Red Bank, where, sleeping in tents on the ground, and being exposed to a heavy rain on the march from there down to Salem, he contracted a heavy cold, which again brought on
22I
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY.
the typhus fever, of which he soon died. Lydia Harris never married. Eliza- beth Harris married Nathaniel Stretch, his second wife, some time after she was forty years old and had no children. Margaret Harris married Thomas B. Sayre and died young, leaving a daughter which soon followed her.
Clarissa Harris was born September 16, 1805. She was next to the youngest of John and Lydia (Smith) Harris's children. In her twenty-second year she married David S. Ellett, March 1, 1827. He lacked nearly two months of being twenty-one years old. He was born April 28, 1806, of an Irish father, James E. Elliott (or Ellott), from Tipperary, Ireland, and of a German mother, Catherine Sickler (Zigler). For seven years they lived near Salem, New Jersey, and to them were born four children. They moved to Ohio in 1834, setting out in a two-horse wagon on March 31, and making the journey in two weeks. William Kelty and John Mink, and their families, in wagons, also traveled with them. David Ellett bought his farm at Bunker Hill, Goshen township, May 5, 1834. The place is now in Mahoning county. It was then included in Columbiana county. On the old farm which he called the Capitol, David and Clarissa Ellett remained until their death. Both died within the same year, 1886, David on the 3d of February and Clarissa on the 13th of September. They lie buried in the Bunker Hill cemetery, on the southeast corner of the farm.
David and Clarissa Ellett raised twelve children, four of whom were born in New Jersey. James, born November 28, 1827, married and lives at Rip- pey, Boone county, Iowa. Margaret H., born April 21, 1829, married Silas Card. Their children-Lizzie and Rinda-both married and have issue. Emily Jenkins, born September 15, 1830, married Charles Jenkins. Their children were Walter and Harriet. Walter married and had issue, and Harriet is now dead. Emily died May 2, 1891, and was buried at Quaker Hill, Beloit. Ohio. John H., born July 7, 1833, married Elmira Card and their children- Emil, Rosa, Elmer and Zoe-are all married and have issue. John and his wife live near Beloit, Ohio. Catherine, born February 16, 1825, and married William Blackburn Santee on the 26th of April, 1855. Their children are: Louella B., born November 17, 1857, and married Albert Phillips, October 19, 1882: their children are Homer, Wilmer, Edna, Jessie and Wendell Phil- lips. Clarissa Harris Santee was born November 24, 1859, and was married to Albert F. Ellett October 19, 1882, and their children are Lucius, Glen and Olive Ellett. Mary E. Santee was born August 5, 1862, married Wilmer Stanley October 24, 1884, and their children are Elsie, Guy and Hazel. Harris Ellett Santee was born October 15, 1864, three months after his uncle's death. Harris Ellett, for whom he was named. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania and is now a resident physician of Chicago, Illinois, a rising
222
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE FIRST
young man. He was married the 28th of August, 1895. to Grace Brown. the daughter of Judge Richard Brown, who came from England to Canfield. Ohio, and married Thalia Newton. Harris and Grace Santee have one daughter, Martha Boyle. She was born August 16, 1897. Loyd Ernest was born February 15, 1872, is a fine musician. Catherine Santee died Janu- ary 9, 1877, and was buried at North Benton, Ohio. Sarah Ellett was born March 18, 1837, and married William King, and their children are Judson. Wendel, Catherine, Rosa, Howard and Lizzie. Sarah (Ellett) King died in June, 1880, and was buried beside her parents, at Bunker Hill. David, Jr., was born April 13, 1839, married and had issue, and lives at Rippey, Iowa.
Stretch (Harris) Ellett was born October 30, 1840, and followed his brothers James and David into the army. He was a lieutenant in Company C, Sixth Ohio Cavalry, was wounded at St. Mary's Church, Virginia, June 24, 1864, and died on the 15th of the following month, at Alexandria, Vir- ginia, from a wound received in the army. Josiah was born April 10, 1842, married and has issue and lives in Boone county, Iowa. Calvin was born March 14, 1844, married and has issue, and lives at Rippey, Iowa. Charles Elmer, born December 12, 1845, married Celestia Cook, and their children are Clarissa Harris and Homer: the latter is married and lives in Alliance, Ohio. Lydia Letitia, the youngest child of David S. and Clarissa H. Ellett. born May 16, 1840, and married John Trotter. Their children are Clarissa H., Lydia and James Earle Trotter, and they live in Salem, Ohio.
Stretch Harris, a son of John and Lydia Harris, was born the 25th day of January, 1788, married Rebecca Pagett, March 2, 1812, and resided on Round island, which he inherited from his father. They had four children, all born on the island. About the year 1826 he purchased a farm on Allo- way's Creek Neck, which was formerly known as the James Chambless farm. He (James Chambless) was the grandfather of James Smith, of Salem. Stretch Harris moved there in 1827 and commenced to improve the land by applying wood ashes, which made it produce admirably; and in a few years he applied lime, to a great advantage. Some years later he purchased the Daniel Stretch farm, which was also much reduced. It was one of the first settled farms in Alloway's Creek township, being part of the Christopher White allotment of one thousand acres. Soon after Stretch purchased the farm he removed the old mansion, built by Christopher White in 1690. Stretch Harris was a frugal and industrious man. Notwithstanding his love of gain he had a sympathetic nature and was often found by the bedside of his afflicted neighbors to assist and aid them as much as possible. At the time of his death he had property valued at fifteen thousand dollars. The landed estate was directed by will to be equally divided between his two
.
223
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY.
sons, Hiram and Amos Harris: his two grandchildren, Hannah and John Fogg, to have one thousand each. Stretch Harris commenced life in a small way on Round island. He made most of his clear money by keeping a fishery in the spring of the year on the river shore near where he resided, afterward buying old and worn-out lands at a low price and improving them.
His children were: Ann, born June 17, 1813; John, born August 10, 1815, died July 2, 1832; Hiram, born April 5, 1818, died March 13, 1891, and Amos was born March 29, 1821. Ann Harris married Luke S. Fogg, a son of Joseph and Hannah Hover Fogg. Luke died September 25, 1886. He was engaged in the grain business at Hancock's Bridge for several years. In earlier life he was an active politician and at one time was an acknowledged leader of the Republican party in that township. Luke Fogg had two chil- dren,-Hannah H. Fogg and John H. Fogg. Hannah married Ephraim C. Smith, a son of Peter and Elizabeth Ellett Smith, and have four children living. Luke F. Smith, born September 19, 1856, is engaged in the canning business at Elmer and Alloway. Annie Rebecca, born February 17, 1859, married Joseph S. Buzby, a farmer in Mannington, and they have two chil- dren,-Luke and Hannah. J. Warren Smith, born April 5, 1862, married Margaret Austin, a daughter of William and Mary Ann Austin: they have two children,-Frank and Ephraim. Frank P. Smith was born March 19, 1868; Phoebe F. Smith, June 14, 1871, and John F. Smith, December 4, 1873. Frank and Phoebe died young.
John H. Fogg enlisted as a private under Captain Howard Bassett, in Company A, Twenty-fourth Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers, the 30th of August, 1862, to serve nine months, and was discharged from service at Beverly, New Jersey, the 29th of June, 1863, by reason of expiration of service. He died February 2, 1884.
Hiram Harris married Hannah Smith, a daughter of Andrew and Han- nah Stretch Smith, and had two children,-David Harris and Catherine C. Harris. David married Susan Patrick, a daughter of Ephraim and Margaret Patrick, and had the following children: Andrew S., Hiram, Elsie, Frank, Sallie, George, Linda, Hannah, E. Chester and Viola Harris. Catherine C. Harris married D. W. C. Taylor and had one daughter, Hannah, and one son that died in infancy. Hannah married Henry, a son of Robert and Julia John- son. Amos Harris married Catherine Smith, a daughter of Andrew and Han- nah Stretch Smith, May 4, 1842, by whom he had four children: Rebecca, born April 17, 1846; Hannah J., born March 20, 1848, and died September 25, 1863; Stretch, born August 10, 1852, and one that died in infancy. Re- becca married Charles E. Baker and had three children: A. Harris, who died in March, 1887, in his twenty-second year; Charles E., Jr., and Walter Baker.
224
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE FIRST
Stretch Harris married Elizabeth Baker, a daughter of Powell and Ann Baker, and has three children,-Margaret, Catherine and Amos. Amos Har- ris and Sarah Bradway, a daughter of William and Mary Bradway, were mar- ried March 19, 1856. They have had five children: Catherine S., born June 4, 1857; Sarah Marion, June 22, 1859; Margaret C., born August 23, 1863, died September 6, 1865; A. Howard Harris, born January 5, 1867, and Mary L. Harris, born August 22, 1868. Sarah Marion married William Johnson, of Penn's Neck, son of James S. and Sarah Lindsey Johnson, March 25. 1879, and have three children living: James R. Johnson, born May 21, 1880; Josephine, June 28, 1881; Marguerite H., February 8, 1890, and died July 16 following, and Howard H. Johnson, born April 26, 1892. A. Howard Harris married Bertha Vaughan, a daughter of John and Eliza Vaughan, of Philadelphia. November 8, 1893, and have two children: Ellen B., born August 14, 1894, and John V., January 4, 1896. Mary L. Harris and Robert N. Vanneman, a son of Edwin and Josephine Newell Vanneman, were mar- ried at Philadelphia, by Mayor Filter, January 18, 1888, and have three chil- dren: Marion J., born December 11, 1891; Margaret H., March 27, 1893, and William B., May 2, 1896. Robert N. Vanneman was elected sheriff of Salem county November 7, 1899.
Stretch Harris died August 10, 1848. His wife survived him eight years. "In the decease of Stretch Harris the section of the county in which he re- sided has lost an exemplary citizen. Truly an honest, true-hearted man has gone down to the tomb full of years and full of honors. May the green sod rest lightly upon his breast and the recollection of his sterling worth survive the mausoleums of kings."-Charles P. Smith, editor of the Salem Standard.
Benjamin Harris was born August 27, 1793, about two miles south of Quinton, near Cooper's branch. When three years of age his parents moved to Round island, where they continued to reside until 1827; then moved to Philadelphia for two and one-half years, and returning bought a farm in Allo- way's Creek Neck, where he lived until 1848. He then bought a farm at Harmersville and lived on it until 1855, when he retired from active business to a house in the village, where he lived until his death, April 13, 1872. He married Martha English, who was born in November, 1793, and died in 1868, in her seventy-fifth year. Their two children, Peter and Letitia, were born on Ragged island: and the third son, Quinton Parker, was born on Alloway's Creek Neck, December 28, 1830. His farm contained one hundred and fifty acres of land, one hundred cultivated and the balance woodland and meadow. In politics he was a Whig, later a Republican, and always kept abreast of the times on all important topics. He also held many town offices and was uni- versally liked and respected.
225
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY.
Peter was born January 24, 1823, and married Mary Carll. Their children were Lydia, who married James Butcher, ex-senator of Salem county; Han- nah Ann, who married Winfield Patrick, a farmer of Lower Alloway's Creek township, by whom she had two children,-William S. and Mary; and Ann Elizabeth, who married James W. Carll, a farmer of the same township: their children were Frank, Ralph and Harris, who died in infancy. Benjamin E. Harris married Rose Carll, and their children were Louella, Carll and Chris- tine. He is a prominent merchant of Canton. Letitia was born January 15, 1825, and was married to Thomas A. Maskell, a miller in her native township, by whom she had three children: Adelaide, now Mrs. Reeve Stretch, who has three children,-Florence, Thomas and Joseph; Annabel Maskell, who died at the age of four years; and Mary, who also died in childhood.
Quinton P. Harris was born in Lower Alloway's Creek, attended the district school and later went to boarding school in Wilmington, Delaware, where he remained until he was twenty years of age. The following three years he worked for his father. At the expiration of that time he engaged in farming for himself on his father's farm, and at his death hired the prop- erty where he resided for more than forty years. The improvements on the place were modern and convenient, and here he lived until 1896, when he moved to Salem and purchased his present residence, which has been re- modeled and improved, making it one of the most desirable properties in the city. He was married to Elizabeth T. Powell, a daughter of John and Rebecca Powell, who was born in November, 1834, and died December 18, 1858, leaving one daughter, Elizabeth, born October 23, 1858, and was a teacher; she married Richard M. Acton, a farmer now resid- ing in Salem. On January 25, 1862, he married Mary, a daughter of William and Mary Shourds Bradway, a farmer in the same township. They had five children: Lucy, born in December, 1862, graduated at Millersville Normal School and taught for some time prior to marrying I. Clinton Arnold, an at- torney of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Martha, born August 4, 1864, died in childhood; Ellen, born January 26, 1866, married Dr. W. Scott Smith, a physician of Salem: she is a graduate of the Woman's College of Philadelphia and a practicing physician of Salem, rendering her husband valuable aid in his work; she is a member of the Daughters of the Revolution; and Quinton P .. Jr., was born July 1, 1873, received his education in the same school, and is at present at the Stanford University, near San Francisco, California. Margaret. born December 16, 1870, also graduated at Millersville.
Mr. Harris is a strong supporter of education and has given his children a liberal start in that direction. While serving as school director he always worked for the improvement of the schools, and his efforts in this direction
226
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE FIRST
resulted in good. He enjoys the full confidence and respect of the people, and has been elected to various town offices, serving as county treasurer from 1885 to 1888. He has been prominently identified with the Republicans of this county and gives excellent reasons for his views. He has been a di- rector of the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Salem County for a period of twenty years; and when the City National Bank was organized in 1888 he was elected a director of that institution also.
Permenas, the youngest of the six boys, married Margaret Bryant, and they had six children. He died in 1798, of yellow fever, about the time it was so bad in Philadelphia. His children's names were Josiah, Lydia, Smith, Mary, Ann and Permenas. Josiah, the oldest, died about the age of eighteen; Lydia married James Sayre and died soon, leaving one son, Abbot Sayre, who married and had one son, Nebraska Sayre; Smith is still living, but never married; Mary married John Finlaw, a man much older than herself, and he lived but a few years: she was then a widow for twenty-five years; Ann mar- ried David S. English in early life and had a son, Enos P. English, and died soon after: his second wife was Sarah Ann Nelson, the only child of Anthony Nelson: their children were Mary, Anthony, Joseph, Southard, Timothy, Jael. Jael married a man from Delaware by the name of Van Gezel. Mary married George Stretch, and her second husband was Samuel W. Miller, ex- sheriff. Anthony married Mary Smith, a daughter of William and Rebecca Finlaw Smith. Another daughter married James Robinson, from Lower Creek. David S. English was once elected sheriff of Salem county. Par- menas died about eighteen, near the time of his sister Lydia's death.
Sophia married a man named William Paulin, by whom she had several children, whose names were Joel, Nicholas, Amy, Mary and Rachel. Joel, it is thought, lived in Philadelphia, a tailor by trade. Nicholas died
about 1850. Mary never married. Amy married Mark Ballenger in early life and had one or two children. He went to sea and died in Havana. Rachel married Jacob Woodruff in early life and became the mother of a large family. They moved to Ohio about 1835. Their son James learned the blacksmith's trade and later became interested in an iron foundry and ac- quired a fortune. No account of Rachel's other children is at hand.
Nicholas Harris, a son of Abraham and Esther Langley, born April 26. 1760, was a Baptist by religious profession. He married Sarah Sheppard, a sister of Captain Charlton Sheppard, first lieutenant in Captain Henry Sparks's company of the Second Battalion of Salem. Captain Dito, wounded at Hancock's Bridge, New Jersey, March 21, 1778. They had eight sons and one daughter, Hannah, who married and died young. Sheppard was named after his mother's family. He was married young, to Mary Warner, by whom
227
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY.
he had two sons, Silas and Sheppard, and died at the age of twenty-five. Abraham, the second son. married Mary Ann Steel, who soon died, leaving but one son. He afterwards married a girl named Callahan, by whom he had two or three children. Bilby remained single. Parmenas married Rebecca Ayers, by whom he had three sons,-Josiah, Thomas and David, the latter still living. Josiah married Mary Finlaw, of Elsinboro, and their children are Rebecca, William, Louisa, Blanche and Harry, Blanche and Harry still living. Harry is in the Philippines, Thomas had two wives,-three children by his first wife,-Theodore, William and David, of whom two are living: David is dead. David married Sarah Sayre, had eight children,-Anna, Joseph, Aaron, .Carrie, Frederic, U. S. Grant, Mary and Harriet. Anna, Joseph and Mary living. Parmenas's second wife was Harriet Nicholson, and his third wife Annie S. Free, from Philadelphia, by whom he had three children,-George, Harriet and Chauncy. George married Mary Peterson and had six children,-George, Carrie, Aaron, Thomas, Clark Thompson and Edward. Their son Clark T. is in the Philippines, in the United States Army. Harriet married John Wal- len, of Penn's Neck, and had three children,-Samuel, Harriet P. and Eliza- beth, who married and died leaving two children,-Edward and Anna. Chauncy married Annie Black, of Pennsylvania, and had two sons and three daughters,-Walter, Helen, Jerrion, Sylvia and Auther: the last named is deceased, who left a widow and one child, Auther Chauncy Harris.
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.