USA > New York > Oneida County > Steuben > A narrative history of Remsen, New York, including parts of the adjoining townships of Steuben and Trenton, 1789-1898 > Part 20
USA > New York > Oneida County > Remsen > A narrative history of Remsen, New York, including parts of the adjoining townships of Steuben and Trenton, 1789-1898 > Part 20
USA > New York > Oneida County > Trenton > A narrative history of Remsen, New York, including parts of the adjoining townships of Steuben and Trenton, 1789-1898 > Part 20
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Four children by his second wife were born to him: Simeon, Jr., Russel, John and Catherine. Capt. Simeon Fuller died December 7, 1852, and his wife Wealthy died February 2, 1845. Mrs. Fuller went twice from Steuben into Vermont on horseback to visit relatives in that state. In her early childhood her father, who lived near New London, Conn, de- cided to emigrate to Nova Scotia. He found food very scarce there and came back to secure a supply. Winter set in and he could not return. The family -all small children-were left in a destitute condi- tion. Indians that could not speak a word of English would bring in moose meat and salmon and hang it up in the chimney to smoke. In a day or two they would come back, take it down and divide it among the children. An Indian came in one day with a dressed moose skin, and made and gave to each of them a pair of moccasins. She never forgot their kindness and was always a friend to the Indians. After moving into Steuben, large numbers of Oneida
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Indians would pass her house on their way to the Adirondacks to hunt moose and deer, and would stop for food and lodging which was never refused them. She was a friend to everyone, and when she died left none but friends behind.
Simeon Fuller, Jr., was born in 1791. He married Minerva Sprague, in 1820, and removed to Willoughby, Lake county, Ohio. Two sons and one daughter were born to them, Russel, George and Louisa. He died in 1862, aged seventy years. Russel Fuller was born in 1795, married Lydia Potter, and had one son and one daughter, Simeon Russel, born in 1821, and Mary, born in 1823.
Simeon R. Fuller married Martha White. The children born to him are Clara Cornelia, and Frank Russel. Mary Fuller married Henry Stanton in 1853. No children. Russel Fuller died in 1856, aged sixty years, and his wife in 1879, aged eighty years. John Woodward Fuller, third son of Captain Fuller, was born in 1797, married Maria Barnes in 1825, and re- moved to Alexandria Bay, on the St. Lawrence river. His wife died the same year. He afterward married Mariette Shurtliff. Six daughters and one son (John) were born to him. Catherine, daughter of Captain Fuller was born in 1800, and married John Pierce in 1821. Ten children were born to them-John, Lydia A., William, Isaac, Simeon, De Witt, Charles, Wealthy, Russel and George. Mary, daughter of Cap- tain Fuller by his first wife, married Daniel Douglas in 1807, and by whom he had two sons, Alanson and George. Alanson died childless. George married Lu- cina Ward, and had two sons and a daughter.
EZRA GREEN was born in Bethlehem, Conn., January 30, 1754. In the spring of 1775 he enlisted,
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as a private in Capt. David Hinman's company, Col. Benjamin Hinman's regiment, and served until November. In 1776 he enlisted in Col. Philip Brad- ley's regiment, and served six months. In the sum- mer of 1777 he served at Peekskill, N. Y., under Capt. Enos Hawley, in Colonel Moseley's regiment, for five weeks. Also, about April 25, 1777, he went to Dan- bury, Conn., under Captain Hawley, where he re- mained for a short time.
In the spring of 1791 he came to Steuben and bought a farm of Baron Steuben, located on the eastern bor- der of the Baron's patent, where he built a log house about one hundred rods west of the point where the turnpike crosses the Cincinnati creek north of Rem- sen village. He returned to Bethlehem, and in Octo- ber the same year brought on his family. After the construction of the Black River Turnpike, in 1812, he sold his first purchase and bought another farm of forty acres, and built a house on the west bank of Cincinnati creek north of the Phelps place. About 1823-1824 his son, Eleazer, built a large two-story framed house about one hundred rods west of Mr. Green's last location, on the west side of the turnpike, and here Ezra and his wife subsequently made their home. He was for many years a justice of the peace for the township of Remsen. He married Amy Church, who was one of the earliest members of the Metho- dist denomination in this section, and her house was always the home of the Methodist circuit riders and itinerant preachers who visited here. She was born in Connecticut, July 21, 1759. Their children were Clarinda, born November 6, 1777, married Rev. James Miller; Lucy, born September 24, 1779, mar- ried Amos Wooster; Theron, born August 25, 1782; Betsey, born May 21, 1784, married Bohan Smith;
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Urana, born January 23, 1787, married Nathaniel Canfield; Selleck, born September 13, 1789, married Fanny Fowler; Sally, born July 17, 1791, married Harvey Phelps; Charles, born April 27, 1794, mar- ried Electa Perrin; Ezra, Jr., born October 2, 1797; and Eleazer, born May 16, 1800, married Sylvina Kent. The three last named were born in Steuben township contiguous to Remsen village, while all of the others were born in Connecticut.
EPHRAIM HOLLISTER, the first supervisor of the township of Remsen, was a descendant of John Hollister, the emigrant to America, an Englishman. The Hollisters, if indeed they were not of Anglo-Saxon stock, were long settled in England; especially in Gloucestershire, Somersetshire and Wiltshire, where the name is more common than in other parts. The earliest mention of the name is found in the sixth year of Queen Elizabeth, when Henry, Lord Berkeley, sold the fourth part of his manor in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, to "John Hollister and others." John Hollister, ancestor of the American family, is said to have been born in England in 1612, and to have emigrated to America in 1642. It is supposed that he sailed from Bristol. Being of good family and educated, he immediately became one of the most influential men of Wethersfield and the Connecticut colony. In 1658-1659, he was known as "Lieuten- ant" Hollister. Nearly all the authorities who speak of Lieut. John Hollister of Wethersfield, Conn., say that he was at Weymouth, Mass., in 1643, and represented that town in the Massachusetts legislature in 1644.
The wife of John Hollister, the emigrant, was Jo- anna Treat. Their children were Elizabeth, who , married Samuel, son of Thomas Welles, governor of
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the Connecticut colony, in 1659. John, born about 1644, married Sarah Goodrich, November 20, 1667. Their son Ephraim, born March 15, 1684, married Elizabeth, daughter of Tobias Green, April 1, 1707, and died in Glastonbury, Conn., in 1733. Ephraim, the third child of Ephraim and Elizabeth (Green) Hollister, was born in July, 1724. He afterward went to Farmington, Conn., and married first Rachel Porter, May 3, 1746, and second, Anna
He died in 1804. His second son, Ephraim, who located in Remsen, was born October 23, 1748. He married first Mrs. Laurana (Canfield) Debell, Decem- ber 15, 1785. The children by this marriage were Rachel, who married Jedediah Foster, and Candice, who married Abraham Sage. His children by a sec- ond wife were Ephraim, who in an early day removed to Ashtabula, Ohio, and was living there as late as 1840; and Sally, who married Judge John Storrs, of Trenton, June 16, 1795. The children of John and Sally (Hollister) Storrs, were George W., and Wil- liam. Samuel, a brother of Ephraim Hollister, the Remsen pioneer, was born in Dalton, Mass., and resided in Trenton, where he died of typhoid fever. A stranger sick of that disease came to Trenton, but as no one else would receive him, Mr. Hollister hired a room and took care of him until his recovery; but was taken with the same disease, and died. His widow died at Oriskany, N. Y.
MATTHEW HOYT, son of Ezra and Phoebe Hoyt, was born in New Canaan, Conn., May 6, 1741. He married first, Mary Lockwood, in January, 1761; and second, Mary Hayes, in April, 1817. Of his daugh- ters, Mary (Polly) married William Platt, and Phoebe married John Platt, Jr., brothers. His son Ephraim,
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born May 1, 1775, married Ann Langford, and came here at an early day, living in part of the house with his brother-in-law, William Platt, at the Platt home- stead just over the south line of this township in Tren- ton, at the edge of Remsen village. Mr. Hoyt was living here at the time the Rev. John Taylor made his visit as a missionary in 1802, who in his journal gives him the distinction of being the only professing Christian in the township of Remsen. His children were Matthew, born here September 18, 1803, mar- ried Eliza, daughter of Ephraim Wheeler, December 20, 1829; Louisa; Clark; Nathaniel; William H., born at Trenton Falls, December 18, 1812; Ephraim, born in Trenton township November 12, 1814, married Frances, daughter of Rev. William B. Brown, of Steu- ben, May 8, 1834, and removed to Peoria county, Ill., in 1836; and George Langford, born here in 1817. Ephraim Hoyt removed to Marshall, Henry county, Ill., where he died October 6, 1844.
STEPHEN HUTCHINSON was one of the earli- est and most prominent citizens of Remsen, though we have been able to gather but little information regarding him. In 1796 he settled on Lot 15 of the Service Patent, since known as the "Price Farm," about half a mile north of the village. At the first town meeting, in 1798, he was elected overseer of the poor, and in 1809 he was appointed the first post- master. He had three children, Betsy, Emily and Gurdon. The family removed from this locality as early as 1830, but we have been unable to learn where they located. - 1.
NATHANIEL ROCKWOOD was born in Keene, . N. H., in 1768. His father removed from New Hamp-
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shire to Vermont, and later to New York, locating at Champion, and young Rockwood came to Remsen about 1794, taking up a tract of land where he resided until his death. His farm was about a quarter of a mile north of Fairchild Corners, and after being in the Rockwood family for nearly sixty years, became the home of the late Hezekiah Owen. Mr. Rock- wood built a log house, and, it was said, brought the first load of household goods into the township. Among the necessary and arduous duties of the pio- neer settler, was the necessity of going to Whites- boro to mill, and to buy such store supplies as were - needed. Following blazed trees, the journey was made on foot, and from Mr. Rockwood's location it took three days to go and return. Later, after roads had been cut through, the journey was made with an ox-team and sled, there being no wheel-vehicles, for had the settler possessed such they would have been useless for travel over the forest roads of that day. On one of these journeys to Whitesboro, Mr. Rockwood chanced to meet a young woman who pleased his fancy; and thereafter we may believe his trips there were more frequent and less irksome, un- til he married the maiden, which he eventually did. She was Esther Roberts, sister of Seth Roberts, of Rome, one of the early lawyers of Oneida county. She died April 1, 1816, aged forty-eight years.
Their children were Jehiel, who served in the war of 1812, married Susan Tefft, and both died in Penn- sylvania; Sophia, married Henry Williams, both died in Michigan; John, married Hannah, daughter of Green White, both died in Michigan; Truman, mar- ried first Eliza Dayton, and second, Polly Dayton, and died in Illinois; William, married first, Mary, daughter of Tyler Mitchell, and second, Margaret
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Kelsey. He died in Trenton township August 28, 1851, aged forty-five years, his first wife having died August 5, 1847, aged thirty-four years. They are both buried at Fairchild. By his second wife he had one daughter, Mary Catherine Lucretia, who mar- ried a Mr. Meredith and removed to Alvardo, John- son county, Texas. Margaret (Kelsey) Rockwood also moved to Texas, with her daughter, and died there. Reuben married Marietta, daughter of Oli- ver Bill, brother of Dr. Earl Bill; Fenner, married Polly, daughter of Perez Farr, and both died in Boon- ville; and Nathaniel, Jr., married Eveline, daughter of Calvin Allen, of Remsen, and died at Union City, Pa., in 1869. After the death of his first wife Nath- aniel Rockwood, Sr., married Mrs. Sally Williams, a widow with three children-Henry and Jerry Wil- liams, and a daughter. Mrs. Rockwood died August 26, 1828, aged fifty-nine years. After the death of his second wife, he married Mrs. Sally Morgan, by whom he had one daughter, Mary Jane, who married Calvin Winthrop Allen, and removed to Union City, Pa. The last wife of Mr. Rockwood also moved to Pennsylvania with her daughter, and died there in 1866. Mr. Rockwood died April 26, 1844, aged seventy- six years, and is buried in Fairchild Cemetery. It is said that he dug the first grave in that cemetery, and was its sexton until his sons were grown, when they successively acted in that capacity until the youngest moved away, in 1854. Mr. Rockwood was reputed "a devout Christian, a kind father, a good neighbor- ever ready to help in time of need, and a highly re- spected citizen."
CAPT. JOHN KENT was among the very early set- tlers in Remsen, coming from Southwick, Mass. His
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wife, Grace, born in Southwick July 31, 1751, was a daughter of John and Anna (Loomis) Root. Mr. Kent was a soldier of the revolution, having enlisted three times; the last time to serve three years, but the war closed before the expiration of the time of his enlist- ment. Broughton W. Green is authority for the state- ment that the first marriage in Remsen was that of a daughter of Mr. Kent; and also that he kept the first hotel in the township. He died here in 1795 or '96.
JONAH DAYTON, one of the pioneers of Remsen, was a revolutionary soldier and served three years in the commissary department. He married Martha Smith, and one of their descendants owns and resides on a part of the farm settled by them. Mr. Dayton died April 30, 1837, and his wife March 22, 1838. Both are buried on the farm where they lived.
SILAS KENT, SR., born in Southwick, Mass., Feb- ruary 5, 1778, came to Remsen before 1800, and was married here March 25, 1801. His wife, Annis, was also a native of Connecticut, born in New Milford, Oc- tober 1, 1782. He died here February 17, 1813, aged thirty-five years, and his widow survived him until June 17, 1864, dying at the age of eighty-one years. Their children were Chester, born January 1, 1802; Grace G., born March 1, 1803, married Norman Brainard, re- moved to Oakland county, Mich .; John, born Novem- ber 7, 1804, removed to Chautauqua county, N. Y., died April 13, 1873; Sylvina, born July 27, 1806, mar- ried Eleazer Green and removed to Harmony, N. Y .; Silas, Jr., born July 7, 1808, a successful farmer, died August 27, 1896; and Annis (Mrs. Sage), born May 6, 1812, removed to Fauquier county, Va.
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JOHN STEBBINS, a revolutionary soldier and pen- sioner, was among the early settlers, living for many years at the north end of the village. Of his children, Lucy married Selden Johnson; Margaret married Henry Thompson, who was agent for the Remsen estate, and lived on the Lewis Francis farm upon the hill north of the village; and John married Susan Gay, of Ninety Six. When very old Mr. Stebbins sold his home in the village, and with his wife went to live with his son, who lived on the State road north of the Jerome Witherell place. Silas Fowler then moved into the Stebbins house, which later became the home of the late John R. Jones.
JUDSON WITHERELL, SR., came here a child about 1798, from Fort Ann, Washington county, with his mother and step-father, Consider Bardwell. He married Abbie, daughter of Thomas Nichols, and their children were Jerome, who married Sarah, daughter of Milo Mitchell; Abbie, who married Robert R. Roberts; and Judson, Jr., who married Ellen Jones.
JAMES SHELDON was born in Providence, R. I., and came to Oneida county in 1795, residing for a time at New Hartford and Whitesboro, where he was a justice of the peace. Prior to 1800 he removed with his family to Remsen township, where he built the stone house that stands about three miles northeast of the village, and which for a long time was used as a tavern. This place was owned for many years by William L. Williams, father of George Williams of Remsen. In December, 1798, John Brown, once governor of Rhode Island, a wealthy merchant of Providence, who also had business interests in Philadelphia, became the owner of 210,000 acres of land embraced in the eastern part of what is . now Lewis county and portions of the northern part of
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Herkimer and Hamilton counties; this tract being a part of 1,920,000 acres of land granted to Alexander Macomb, by letters patent dated January 10, 1702. Mr. Brown believed that there was a great fortune in his wilderness possession, and immediately began to make improvements there. Considerable land was cleared, three roads were laid out-one from Remsen, one from Boonville and another from Lyons Falls. His purchase was divided into eight townships. He built a furnace and a saw-mill at or near Old Forge, and prospected for iron ore.
Mr. Sheldon had charge of Mr. Brown's business in the wilderness, and under him much labor was expended in clearing land, opening roads, planting crops, and ar- ranging for buying tools and implements for the set- tlers, potash kettles for the manufacture of potash, and so forth. He was empowered to sell quarter-section plots of land, or one hundred and sixty acres, for two dollars and fifty cents an acre, to be paid in cash in seven annual payments, first two years without interest; or in wheat on the tract at one dollar a bushel, corn at three shillings, and good rye at fifty cents a bushel.
In 1812, Charles Hereshoff, a son-in-law of Governor Brown, formed the project of establishing a sheep farm on what he called the "Manor," made a clearing and put on a flock of sheep. Afterward he opened a mine and built a forge. But his enterprises proved failures, and discouraged over his losses, Mr. Hereshoff commit- ted suicide December 19, 1819. He was buried in the old village cemetery at Boonville, and upon the removal of the bodies from that cemetery to make room for the R., W. & O. depot when it was removed from the upper part of the village to its present location, about 1866, the remains of Mr. Hereshoff were exhumed and shipped to Providence.
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Abigail, daughter of James Sheldon, married Maj. Andrew Billings, for many years a merchant and prom- inent citizen of Remsen. Another daughter married Ela Merriam, of Lyons Falls, N. Y. Mr. Sheldon's son Henry lived on the homestead and was prominent in the affairs of the township. James Sheldon died June 18, 1819, aged sixty-two years; and his widow, Mary, died September 2, 1845, aged eighty-four years.
GERSHOM HINCKLEY, born in Stonington, Conn., August 28, 1763, was descended in the sixth generation from Samuel Hinckley, of Tenterden, Kent county, England, who emigrated with his family to America in the ship "Hercules," in the early spring of 1635. He settled at Scituate, in the Province of „Massachusetts Bay, where he remained until 1639, when he removed to Barnstable, being one of the first settlers there. He died in that part of Barnstable called Great Marshes, now West Barnstable, October 31, 1662. The line of descent from Samuel Hinckley -who is said to have been the progenitor in America of all bearing this surname-to Gershom Hinckley, a pioneer of Remsen township, is as follows: Thomas, John, Samuel, John and Gershom. The latter, a son of John and Elizabeth (Breed) Hinckley, was born September 4, 1730. He married Catherine Wightman, of Norwich, Conn., and removed to Pittstown, Renssalaer county, N. Y., in 1768, and thence to Rome, N. Y. Gershom, son of Gershom and Catherine (Wightman) Hinckley, came to Pittstown with his father's family, and, in 1789, married Prudence, daughter of Caleb Tennant, of Glas- tonbury, Conn., born August 8, 1770. He had served for a time in the revolutionary war.
Within a few years after their marriage, Mr. and · Mrs. Hinckley moved to Remsen, settling at what
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was later known as Fairchild Corners as early as 1793 or 1794. He was the resident agent here of Henry Remsen, of New York city, proprietor of the Remsen- burgh Patent, and being a land surveyor by profes- sion, laid out the township into lots, and opened many of the earlier highways in the township. He was elected supervisor in 1799, which office he filled for ten years, and also was a justice of the peace for many years. He was an active member of the Masonic fraternity, and at one time was master of Rising Sun Lodge, before its removal to this place, when its meet- ings were held in Trenton. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hinck- ley were members of the Baptist Society of East Rem- sen, which was organized in 1809, and are said to have been "earnest Christian workers in the church." Their children were Daniel W., born February 11, 1790, died in infancy; John, born January 17, 1791, married Rhoda Ball, and removed to Silver Creek, Mich .; Anna, born February 7, 1793, married first, French Fairchild, second, Zebina Ball, and third, Jacob Staf- ford; Caleb, born October 20, 1794, died in infancy; Catherine, born January 15, 1798, married Milo Mitchell, of Remsen, in 1819, and died January 11, 1829; Harriet, born May 19, 1801, married Evert Dyckman; Daniel, 2d., born November 30, 1803; Henry R., born July 20, 1805; Hiram, born June 10, 1807, married Sarah M. Smith; Tennant, born January 13, 1810, married Malonia Stiles; Stephen, born March 29, 1814, married Emily Sears, of Schroeppell, N. Y .; and Moses, born January 20, 1812, married Maria Van Alstyne.
In 1819 Mr. Hinckley removed to the township of Salina, Onondaga county, bought a farm on Seneca river, about three miles north of the village of Liver- pool, where he died February 20, 1848. His widow
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died there April 3, 1852. Both are buried in the Liv- erpool cemetery.
DR. EARL BILL was descended in the sixth gen- eration from John and Dorothy Bill, who came to this country some time prior to 1635, and settled at Boston, Mass. The family was English, and of an- cient origin, being traceable in one county-that of Shropshire-for five hundred years. The name is also found in Wiltshire, Kent, Herefordshire, York- shire and Staffordshire, and also in London, Birming- ham, Manchester and other towns.
Of those of the same name who attained eminence in the old country were Dr. Thomas Bill (1490-1551), a graduate of the University of Parma, in Italy, one of the physicians to Henry VIII and Edward VI; Wil- liam Bill, D. D., L.L. D. (1505-1561) Master of St. John's College, Vice Chancellor of the University, Master of Trinity College, one of the King's Chap- lains in ordinary, Fellow and Provost of Eton College, and first Dean of Westminster, in which Abbey, in the chapel of St. Benedict, his body is buried; and John Bill, Publisher, or "King's Printer" to James I.
Though originally settled in Boston, the family is properly a Connecticut one rather than Massachu- setts, for about 1669 Philip, the son of the original John the immigrant removed to Connecticut, to "Pe- quot, on the Little Fresh River," which was the name first given to the Thames; and in Connecticut, at Lebanon, the subject of this sketch was born, No- vember 5, 1770, the eldest son of Oliver, (James, John, Philip, John) and Martha (Skinner) Bill, the family having been resident in that state during all of the intervening time. And it is Connecticut that to-day may be said to be the American home of the .
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family, which still has numerous representatives clustered about the banks of the Thames and the country originally settled by Philip.
Dr. Bill was thrice married, first, in 1804, to Sarah Jackson, a daughter of a revolutionary officer, Lieu- tenant Jackson. She died February 14, 1819, aged thirty-eight years. In 1820 he married Olive Baker, a widow, who died November 4, 1822, aged thirty years. His third wife was Susan Johnson, whom he married in 1824, and who died in 1864. He was graduated from the Berkshire Medical School, in Massachusetts, and after finishing his course in that institution, pushed for what was known at that time as "The West," settling in the township of Steuben. The country was of course new, and for the young physician to have cast his lot in that then distant settlement, was at least evidence of enterprise and courage in commencing his professional life.
In 1814 he removed to the village of Remsen, situated about four miles from his former residence, now known as Starr's Hill. Here he remained for many years, practicing his profession, always enjoy- ing the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens of all classes. Not until he had reached the advanced age of eighty-six years did he relinquish the profes- sion which he had adorned for more than half a cen- tury, and in the discharge of the duties of which he had endeared himself to at least two generations by his kindness, self denial and medical skill. He died in the family of his son General Horace Bill, at Cleve- land, Ohio, on May 16, 1864, and was buried at Oak- land Cemetery, Sandusky, Ohio.
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