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 23
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 23
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 23
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
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time offered by both the township and county for each wolf's head, they realized twenty dollars from the mistake they had made.
WILLIAM WILLIAMS (Y Bala), son of Evan Williams (Bryn Gola), settled west of his father's farm not far from French Road. His children were Jane, who married David Thomas; Ellen, who married a Mr. Fry, of Philadelphia, Pa .; Gwen, who never married; Mary, who married Valentine Hagen; Evan; John; and William.
GRIFFITH G. JONES (Careg Fawr) came to this country in 1801, settling in Steuben near French Road. He had five children, Hugh G., John G., Robert G., William G., and Jane, who married Robert Jones (Y Bryn). John G. married Mary, daughter of Morris and Anne Jones, and their children were Laura, who married John Jones; Winifred, Joshua G., Mary G., and Jane G. The children of John and Laura Jones were Richard J., Joshua G., Mary A., and Henry, who died in infancy.
HUGH JONES (Bod Isaf) located on the farm first settled by Cap. Simeon Woodruff, near the Fuller place. He came from Wales in 1801. He had two sons, Richard H., and John H., and a daughter, Cath- erine, who married Griffith Maurice. His son Richard H. succeeded him on the farm, and the latter's widow, Mary H., continued to live there for many years. She married, second, Griffith O. Griffiths.
JOHN T. HUGHES, from Wales, also settled early in this locality. His children were John, Thomas, Humph- rey, Catherine, first wife of James Owen, and Simeon.
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JOHN JONES, an early Welsh tailor, settled in this locality also. His children were Thomas, Griffith and two daughters, one of whom married Humphrey Hughes, and the other, Eleanor, married Simeon Hughes.
MORRIS ELLIS, born in the parish of Llanllychid, Carnarvonshire, North Wales, came to this country in 1801, and died in Steuben, March 31, 1845, aged eighty-nine years. His wife, Mary, born in Cilfodan, Llanllychid, died March 6, 1844, aged eighty-four years. They had one child, Catherine, who mar- ried Robert Thomas (Pen-morva). Mr. Ellis bought a small farm and built a framed house, directly oppo- site the Welsh Baptist church (Capel Isaf) in Steuben, where both he and his wife died.
ROBERT THOMAS was born in the parish of Pen-morva, Carnarvonshire, January 1, 1781, and died in Steuben September 25, 1851. His wife was Catherine, daughter of Morris Ellis, mentioned above. He was among the early settlers in Steuben, and built the stone house at the foot of Ty' Coch hill, subse- quently owned for many years by Hugh Evans (Pen Castell), and later by Mr. Evans' son William. Mr. Thomas' house was for many years a temporary home or stopping-place for the newly arrived Welsh people who had no kindred or friends that had preceded them to these parts-his home being their own until they could determine on a location to suit them. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas had no children, but adopted and reared a boy and a girl belonging to different families, and to whom they left as co-heirs an estate amounting to about twenty-five thousand dollars, a large fortune for those days in this locality. Mr. Thomas' widow erected a monument over his grave bearing a suitable
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inscription, whereon also was left a space for an in- scription to herself. After her death, however, the legatees-the foster children, by their guardians- became involved in litigation over a division of the personal estate, and the monument stands to-day bearing no inscription to this most estimable woman She died August 2, 1854.
JOHN LEWIS (Ty Careg), from Wales, took up a farm on the turnpike a little over two miles south of Remsen village in 1801, and in 1804 built the stone house on that place. Before there were churches or even school-houses in this section, Welsh religious services were held therein, and as it was the first house in these parts to be built of stone, it was called "Ty- careg" (Stone House), a name that clung long after other houses were constructed here of the same ma- terial. The outer walls alone were of masonry, the interior partitions being entirely of boards, an inch or inch and a quarter in thickness, planed but without tongue or groove. His son, William I., was a success- ful farmer and man of prominence, especially in re- ligious work. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Cuffin, of Steuben, and their children were Elizabeth, wife of Robert H. Hughes, who died De- cember 4, 1836, aged twenty-two years; Cuffin, who married a daughter of Owen Lewis; Lumla; Mary, wife of David Prichard; Ruth, wife of Rev. David Prichard, who removed to one of the western states; and William I., Jr., who married first a daughter of William Thomas, and second, Jane, daughter of Thomas P. Jones.
HENRY WHITEMAN was born January 16, 1777, and as early as 1804 was living in Steuben, later lo-
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cating at Ninety Six. In 1819 he removed to Jasper, Steuben county. His wife was Martha Van Vleet, by whom he had eight children. One of their daugh- ters married John Worden, of Remsen township.
TIMOTHY GRIFFITHS, born in Carnarvonshire in 1780, came to this country in 1801, and to Steuben in 1805, where in 1808 he married Catherine, daughter of John W. and Ann Roberts (Creugieu). He became a member of the Welsh Congregational Church of Steuben in 1807, and continued an active and zeal- ous member during the remainder of his life. He was stricken with paralysis while engaged in prayer at Capel Ucha', never regained consciousness, and died within a few days. Their children were Catherine, wife of Griffith G. Jones; John R .; Griffith; Ann, who married first William Roberts (Tre-fach), and second, John Roberts (Felin); Mary, who married a Mr. Jones; Caroline; and Laura.
REV. MORGAN WILLIAMS, an early Baptist minister, came to Steuben from Wales in 1801, and preached occasionally, to a limited number of his countrymen, before the organization of any church there. He is buried at Capel Isaf.
JOHN JONES, SR. (Farm), and his wife Elizabeth, came from Wales before the year 1800. Some time prior to this the Holland Land Company had cleared a large section of land south of Trenton village, from which the resident agent of the company got his table supplies and farm products to provide for the large retinue of servants he employed. This tract was designated "The Farm." For many years Mr. Jones
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lived on this place, acting as manager or superintend- ent, and so the appellation "Farm," has clung to one line of his descendants-that of his eldest son-for at least five generations. The children of John and Elizabeth Jones were Griffith; John F .; William J .; Hugh J .; Samuel; Ellen, who died young; Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Oliver; and one other whose name is not remembered. Griffith, though only nineteen, was married and was the father of one child, Grif- fith, J .:. , when he came to this country with the family. He married for his second wife the widow of Thomas Abrams, whose husband died in New York city. Her children by her first marriage were the late Thomas Abrams, of Remsen, and Elizabeth, wife of John Hughes; and by this second marriage, William, John F., and Mary, who died in childhood. John F. Jones married Mary, sister of the late Daniel Thomas, of Steuben. Their children were Charles, who removed to Fulton, N. Y .; Jonathan, a farmer and prominent citizen of northern Trenton for many years; Richard; Ann, who married Thomas Thomas; Elizabeth, who died young; and Maria, wife of Rev. Erasmus Jones, of Utica. William married Miriam, daughter of William Griffiths, of Steuben, by whom he had chil- dren as follows: Nancy, Lydia, Elizabeth, Jane, Evan, and James, the last of whom removed to one of the southern states. John, son of Griffith and Mary Jones, married Elizabeth Jones, and their children were Mary A., Eliza, who married George Eggert; Amelia; Ellen, who married Judson Witherell, Jr .; and Jennie. Mary A. married Richard R. Jones. Children: Lida, wife of William T. Murty; Robert M., deceased; and Nellie F.
After having managed the Holland Company's farm for a period of twenty years or more, John Jones,
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Sr., moved to a small place about two and a half miles south of Remsen, at the junction of the turnpike and the road leading to Store Felen, in Steuben. Some distance north of this location, his son Griffith bought the farm settled in 1799 by William Frazier, a Scotch- man, and it still remains in the family, and is desig- nated "The Farm."
DANIEL THOMAS, originally from Wales, came from Philadelphia to Steuben in 1806. Mr. Thomas was a stone-cutter by trade, and did work on bridges crossing the Schuykill river at Philadelphia. His children were Mary, who married William Griffiths (Llanllawen); Ann, who married William G. Jones; Catherine, who married William H. Thomas; Thomas D., who married Elizabeth, daughter of Owen Perry; and Deborah. All except the eldest, Mary, were born in Steuben.
WILLIAM WILKINSON came from Connecticut in 1807, locating on the east side of the Pen-y-caerau road, a little south of the farm later owned by Griffith Anthony, which was settled the same year by Jacob, son of William Wilkinson, born in 1775, who came here with his father. Jacob married Margaret Cady, born in Preston, Conn., in 1789, a sister of Andrew Cady, Sr. Their children were William; James; John, who went to Canada when a young man; Lydia, who mar- ried Lewis Dodge; Susan, wife of Andrew G. Cady; and Mary, who married Charles Popple. Some mem- bers of this family were expert weavers, people coming long distances bringing their flax and wool, to have this work done by them. Much of the product of their looms was very artistic, both in color and design.
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HARVEY PHELPS, son of Nathan and Elizabeth Phelps, was born it is said in Steuben township, though his parents owned and lived on Lot No. 16, Service's Patent, in Remsen, as early as 1803. Harvey married Sally, daughter of Ezra Green, and was prominent in business and active in church work, being one of the first class-leaders in the Methodist society here. As early as 1820, he built a saw-mill on Cincinnati creek, just north of Remsen village, which he operated until his death, in March, 1824. Their children were Amy Church, born in December, 1816, married Hiram S. Morgan, and died in September, 1892; James Harvey, born February 26, 1818, married Annett Saunders; Chandley Lambert, born February 13, 1820, married Catherine Churchill; Nathan Charles, born May 28, 1821, married Adaline Waterbury; and Elizabeth Booth (Mrs. Wheeler), born December 3, 1823. Har- vey Phelps seemed to be followed by misfortunes at a period just prior to his death. One Sunday morning he went out, and found their cow dead, the following Sunday their horse also was found dead; and the loss of these animals in those days was a serious one. Mr. Phelps seemed to be depressed after this, and to have a presentiment of his coming death, for he spoke of it in class-meeting. The next Sunday morning as he arose, he remarked to his wife that he had dreamed that their barn had taken fire and burned to the ground; and going to the barn to attend the stock soon after, he threw hay down to the animals, then struck the tines of his fork into the mow and attempted to use it as an aid in vaulting to a lower part of the mow, but as he started to spring his hands slipped and the handle of the fork penetrated his body. He managed to walk to the house, and said as he met his wife at the door: "Sally, my dream portended more ill-fortune for
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us. My end is near at hand." In spite of medical skill, he died within two or three days.
GILBERT COLE, from Connecticut, married Bar- bara, daughter of Agur Fairchild, and shortly after marriage settled in that section of Remsen township known as Fairchild, the date of their coming here being at least as early as 1800. They subsequently resided in several different parts of the township, but in 1806 were located on Lot 95, of the Remsenburg Patent. Their children were Maria, who married Joseph Worden, and removed to Oswego; William; Joseph; Anna, who married Smith Crosby, of Pros- pect; Susan, who married David Claus, of Houseville, N. Y .; Electa, first wife of Robert W. Roberts of Rem- sen; Benjamin, who married Sabra Ann Ingersoll; and Sally, who married David Davis, and removed to Oswego.
JUDER CROSBY came from Norway, Herkimer county, in 1800, and settled north of Pen-y-caerau church, where he built a log inn which he conducted for some years. His wife was Olive Cady, sister of Andrew Cady, Sr. Their children were Smith; Joseph; Henry; Angeline, who married Simeon La Sure (or La Seur); and Harriet. Mr. Crosby later moved to what is now Prospect village, where he built a log house in the Basin near the falls; and still later removed to a location near the James Owen place, now the farm of John L. Jones, northwest of Prospect, where he built another log house, and also built one in the lower part of what is now Prospect village, below the hill on the road leading to Trenton Falls. Wolves were so troublesome at his first location, that he was compelled to frighten them away from the hog-pens
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and sheep-pens at night with fire-brands. Smith Crosby married Anna, daughter of Gilbert Cole, of Remsen. Children: Juder, who died at the age of twelve years; Maurice, who died at the age of three; Romayne B., of Boonville; and Eliza Anna, wife of Martin Bimpelle, of Whitesboro.
ROBERT G. POTTER was born April 16, 1775, and married Bernice Throop December 8, 1801, who was born July 14, 1780. Not much is known of the family prior to their coming to Remsen, not even whence they came. Mr. Potter kept a public house on the south corner of Main and Steuben streets, which was continued by his widow. He died here November 21, 1816. Their children were Mary T., born December 19, 1802, married Sylick Halstead and moved to Troy, N. Y .; John T., born March 18, 1805; William Clark, born May 20, 1808; Sarah R. Ann, born February 14, 1813; and Joseph C., born April 16, 1815. The latter was an artist of more than ordinary talent, his work being largely in pen-draw- . ings. He went to California and died there. John T., for some years did an extensive business hauling merchandise by teams between Utica and Watertown. Mrs. Potter married for her second husband, Joseph Halstead, August 20, 1818.
THOMAS THOMAS in his youth led a seafaring life, and at the age of twenty-one, having previously become an American citizen by the act of his father who came from Carnarvonshire to Philadelphia in 1795, suffered the indignity of seizure by a British man-of-war, while en route from New York to Liver- pool in the merchant service, a species of barbarism then in vogue on the part of England, not fully aban-
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doned until the treaty of Ghent at the conclusion of the war of 1812. Directly following his enforced serv- ice under the British flag against the first Napoleon, the vessel to which he had been forcibly transferred engaged a French frigate of superior armament, and during the bloody carnage which ensued Mr. Thomas suffered the loss of his right lower limb, by a thirty- six pound cannon ball. The engagement was not decisive in consequence of a dense fog, which separated the combatants. His limb was amputated by the ship's surgeon, and he was soon transferred to a hos- pital at Halifax, thence to London, where he remained until his cure was effected, when he returned to his native home in Wales. He married Mary Hughes, and soon thereafter embarked for America, arriving in Philadelphia in 1800, where he remained four years and then removed to Steuben. He lived to the age of eighty-six years and had used an artificial limb for a period of sixty-five years. Thus for nearly the space allotted to human life, did he endure this great deprivation, the result of British tyranny. But in justice to England it is proper to state that, although the subject of another government, he was, up to the time of his death, a British pensioner, an anomalous case, and exceptional throughout the records of En- glish admiralty.
DIDYMUS THOMAS, son of Thomas and Mary Thomas, was long a prominent citizen of Remsen. He was twice married, his first wife being Lydia, the daughter of Rev. William G. Pierce, by whom he had one daughter, Mary Ann, who married Wallace Fran- cis. His second wife was a daughter of John R. Grif- fiths, of Philadelphia, Pa.
William H. Thomas, son of Thomas Thomas, mar-
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ried Catherine, daughter of Daniel Thomas of Steuben. Children: Daniel, who died young; Edwin, who mar- ried Mary A. Wilkins, of Deerfield; Mary, who died in infancy; Mary, 2d., who married Thomas Prichard (Enlli); Annie, who married William W. Evans; Amelia, who married G. Bowen Griffiths, and removed to California; Maria, who married Ellis P. Lewis, and also removed to California; and Lydia.
ANDREW CADY, SR., was born in Preston, Conn., January 17, 1768, and died at the Cady homestead in Remsen township, March 21, 1863. He married Martha Gallup, of Voluntown, Conn., where they lived for a time and thence removed to Norway, Herkimer county, about 1805 or 1807, where they remained for two years and then came to Remsen. They settled first where Pen-y-caerau church now stands, where there was a fine spring of water. Mr. Cady built a log house here, and for two years it had only a bed blanket for a door, they not being able to get sawed lumber from which to make a door. One evening Mrs. Cady went out to milk their cow, and noticing the animal's strange actions and also the disquiet of the dog that accompanied her to the yard, was led to investigate, and found a wolf within the enclosure. Fearing to turn back, she tore off a mantle she wore upon her shoulders and shook it at the wolf, when he disappeared into the forest. After about two years they removed to the Andrew Cady farm, where Mr. Cady built the large framed house on that place. During the war of 1812, the family heard it rumored that a body of troops would pass this way on their march to Sacket Harbor; and being imbued with the patriotic "spirit of '76," and knowing that the soldiers must be furnished with provisions, for two
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weeks they saved from the dairy all the sour milk, and when they definitely learned that the troops were on their way, baked large quantities of bread, beans, and other food. After the troops had passed there was left nothing of bread, beans, bonny-clabber or other edibles, while the fruit of the orchard also had vanished.
Mr. Cady brought with him into the town a box of old scrap-iron, articles he thought might be useful and perhaps difficult to obtain in a newly settled community, such as nails, bolts, butts, etc. In this box also was twelve hundred dollars in gold and silver coin. During all their journey the box was left in the wagon, wherever it might be-in a stable, inn- yard or under a shed with none to guard it, and its contents were not disturbed.
The children of Andrew and Martha Cady were Benjamin, Annie (Mrs. Greenfield), Gilson (who died September 19, 1831, aged twenty-two years), Eunice, and Andrew G. Mrs. Cady died January 3, 1870, aged ninety-two years. Benjamin married Hannah, daughter of Jesse Smith, and their children were George W., who died young; B. Smith, T. Randall and H. Melissa. Andrew G. Cady married Susan, daughter of Jacob Wilkinson. Their children were Darius A., Charles G., Anna, Martha, and Elizabeth.
REV. RICHARD JONES (Ty-rhedyn), a Baptist clergyman of the City of Cardigan, South Wales, was born in the parish of Trewyddel, Pembrokeshire, in 1760. He was the son of David and Hannah Jones, one of a family of five children, David, Thomas, Rich- ard, John, and Hannah. The father was a farmer, and the family enjoyed only the meager comforts and advantages that fell to the lot of people of slender
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means in the Principality of Wales at that time. The family appellation was Ty-rhedyn, from Ty-yn-y- rhedyn-house among the ferns-the name of the homestead that nestled among the ferns that abound on the sea-coast hills of Wales. The father died when the family was young, and a thrifty, striving mother brought them up honorably. The sons soon got into trades in and about Cardigan, and with the exception of Richard continued to reside in Wales, highly re- spected. Comparatively little is known on this side of the Atlantic concerning the present representatives of those branches, though we are informed that some of them attained to eminent positions of trust and usefulness. Hannah, the sister, married
Evans. One of her sons, Rev. Shem Evans, was for forty-six years a Baptist pastor, six years at Milford Haven, Wales, and forty years at Bath, and Ashby- de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, England. Another son, Asa J. Evans, was for many years an eminent solici- tor at Cardigan, and mayor of the city in 1877-1878. John J. Jones, son of the venerable Thomas Jones- brother of Rev. Richard Jones-held the office of regis- trar, and was mayor of Cardigan about 1870. A grandson of Thomas Jones, Rev. R. Roberts, B. A., a man distinguished alike for piety and talent, was for many years pastor of a Baptist church at Notting- hill, London.
Rev. Richard Jones began his ministerial work in Wales, in company with his devout and talented friend, Rev. Titus Lewis, afterward of Carmarthen. They were licensed to preach about the same time, and wrought in unison in their chosen work for some years. He married Mary George, also a native of Pembroke- shire, born in 1758. Of their children born in the City of Cardigan, was Jane, born July 31, 1785, mar-
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ried Robert M. Jones in 1807, and died in Trenton township, May 3, 1850; David R., born 1787, mar- ried Susan Thomas, of Remsen, and removed with his family to Granville, Ohio, in 1839, where he died in 1852; Elizabeth, who died in Philadelphia, about 1802, aged twelve years; Ann, born in April, 1792, married Richard Jones, of Trenton Falls, N. Y., and died at Prospect, October 27, 1889; Hannah, born 1797, married Jenks Jenkins, of Prospect, and died there November 17, 1874; Mary, born in 1798, married Rev. David Morris, a Baptist minister, and died at Prospect in 1829; and Rev. Thomas Z. R. Jones, born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1803.
On the fourth of June, 1800, Rev. Richard Jones with his family sailed from Liverpool, in a vessel that had once been a man-of-war, called "Orono," com- manded by Captain Jackson, of New Castle, whose first mate was a Mr. Durham. After a long and tedious voyage, in which for many weeks their rations were cut down to one ounce of flour and half a sea- biscuit a day for each on board, they landed at the Arch street wharf, Philadelphia, October 3, 1800, having been fourteen weeks on the voyage. Forit trans- pired that the captain of the Orono was a man of dissolute habits who, before he left Liverpool, had lost at the gaming table all of the passage money that he had collected, and fearing arrest by the owners of the vessel after arrival here, he delayed arrival it was found, by changing the vessel's course each night. Being steeped in rum, his naturally violent temper became fired to a degree unbearable, his brutality to the ship's crew, insolence toward his passengers, and his insulting and malevolent bearing toward Mr. Jones after he had learned the latter's profession knew no bounds. He threatened to scuttle the ship, de-
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claring that but for the cries of the little children on board ringing in his ears, he would send them all to the bottom of the sea. Fearing violent death from the fury of this inhuman monster, or from the slower process of starvation, the crew was instigated by some of the passengers to seize him in one of his outbreaks of rage and place him in irons. Thus the ship was brought into port under command of the first mate, Durham. After their arrival, Mr. Jones was urged to lodge complaint against the captain, but he re- plied that he was only too thankful to have his family safe on land once more, and would leave for others to put into action measures to bring him to punish- ment, if they chose to appear against him. Captain Jackson was never allowed a command at sea again, and members of Mr. Jones' family frequently saw him in Philadelphia, a vagabond upon the streets; while the Orono, under a new commander set sail again but was lost at sea with every soul on board.
Shortly after his arrival in this country Mr. Jones was installed pastor of a Baptist church at Great Valley (Dyffryn Mawr), near Philadelphia, and con- tinued there for nearly six years. In 1805 he made a journey to this section, where he found a number of Baptist families-some of whom had been members of his church at Great Valley-and a church of that faith in Steuben, which had been organized about three years previously. Urged to locate here and to become their pastor, he bought a small farm about half a mile south of Remsen village, on which a clearing had been made and a log house built by David Wil- liams, a former parishioner at Great Valley, and father of the late David H. Williams of Steuben, and later of Rome, N. Y. Returning to Philadelphia, Mr. Jones resigned his pastorate at Great Valley, and
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