USA > New York > Suffolk County > Southold > Griffin's journal : first settlers of Southold, the names of the heads of those families, being only thirteen at the time of their landing; first proprietors of Orient, biographical sketches > Part 11
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greatly lamented. He died in 1851, in his eighty-sixth year. Mr. John O. Terry is a strong and eloquent writer-no one can read any emanation from his pen, without being reminded of his power and original sen- timent. We have seen no production of his, and we know it is saying much, which dying he "might wish to blot." Of his verse, whether song, satire, moral, sentimental, descriptive, characteristic, or miscellane- ous, it may be truly said, " it is poetry but no fiction." Had Burns, Dryden, or Byron, have written much that he has written, we should have heard it cited from a thousand tongues ; seen it quoted through the length and breadth of the land, and canonized "immortal song." So much, alas ! has the accident of birth or position in society to do with the creation of worldly fame. It would be a pleasing work to insert here pages from his pen, but it might be considered out of place, since all who have not, may have the pleasure of reading for themselves from the text-and when they shall have done so, we fear not that they will pronounce these lines overwrought-"The Death of a favorite Mare ;" "An elegy on my Dog Toby ;" would do honor to any poet. Where is keener satire than we find in the "Hypocrite's selfishness," backbiter, and office seeker? The "cultivated mind and virtuous old age," may be considered an oasis in the cold, desert, down hill of life. And who lives and loves his native language, or muse that fails to recognize the masterly purity of mind, depth of thought, and beauty unadorned por- trayed in " My Childhood's Heaven ;" "This World is not a wilderness;" "Reply to William ;" "And Elegy on the Death of Mr. Rogers ;" Born, bred, now living
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in healthy single blessedness, and we presume hoping to expire in his dear delightful Orient,-self educated, indebted to no school or university for his accomplished acquirements in knowledge or superior intellectual faculties, we witness in this humble, unknown Philoso- pher and Poet, a striking and melancholy illustration of the saying that the world knows nothing of its greatest minds. "There are forms of greatness and of excel- lence, which live and die and make no sign." There are Martyrs that miss the palm but not the stake- "Heroes without the laurel, and conquerors without the triumph."
Ithuel Hill, of Sag Harbor, died at Tarpaulin Cove in 1821. Mr. Hill, being in poor health, had taken passage in a vessel bound to the East. While stopping for a night at the Cove, he was taken more ill, and died suddenly. He was, at all times, and on every occasion, an obliging man. He was a stone-cutter and engraver, and in that art, few went before him. He was archi- tect and builder of the monuments. over the remains of Ezra Lhommedieu, Thomas S. Lester, and John Gardi- ner, of Gardner's Island. Under his superintendence, the bones of Brindly Sylvester, Esq., and his wife ; Tho- mas Dering, Esq., and his wife, all of Shelter Island, were taken up, and removed to the cemetery at the meeting house. The two former of these had lain in their graves more than seventy-five years. They were carefully re-interred, and the tables of stone neatly placed over them as before. Mr. Hill put up the first gravestone in Orient graveyard, near the meeting house, in 1790.
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Daniel Griffin, second son of Samuel Griffin, had nine children, whose names were :--
1. Lydia, born August 9, 1759.
2. Sarah, born December 25, 1760.
3. David, born December 23, 1763.
4. Daniel, born February 5, 1766.
5. Martha, born July 8, 1768.
6. Micah, born January 1, 1771.
7. Robert, born August 20, 1773.
8. Parnol, born November 6, 1776.
9. Samuel, born September, 1779.
David, the third child, was a soldier of the Revolu- tion. After peace took place, he commanded several merchant vessels in the foreign trade. Some years af- ter he had quit the seas, in about 1830, he joined the Methodists, and became a respectable member of that church. On November 16, 1844, he died in sound faith of a glorious immortality, aged eighty-one years.
Peter Griffin, fourth son of Samuel Griffin, was born September 2, 1742, and died in 1781 or '82, on board of the British prison ship at Wallabout, Brooklyn. His wife was Patience, the daughter of Amon and Mary Taber, of Oysterponds. Their children were :-
1. Betsy, born 1764; died 1843.
2. Polly, born 1766; died about 1814.
3. * Peter, born 1768 ; died at sea.
4. Samuel, born 1770 ; and died 1775.
5. Joshua, born 1772 ; died 1842.
6. Patience, born 1774.
7. Amon Taber, born 1776 ; died 1819.
* Was captain of a fino vessel ; a man much and justly respected. He died at sea, in 1800.
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Patience, the wife of Peter Griffin, survived him some years. In 1789, or near that date, she was mar- ried to a Mr. Wells, of Rhode Island, an elderly man, and a Sabbatarian Baptist. She died about 1802.
Betsey, his first child, was married to a Mr. Amos Wells, of Rhode Island, a Baptist clergyman, of good common English education. He died some years be- fore the death of his wife. She died not far from 1844, about eighty or more years of age.
Moses, Samuel Griffin's ninth child, at the age of about twenty-four, married a woman of or near Egg Harbor, New Jersey. His children were :-
1. Experience, born about 1770.
2. Betsey, 1772.
3. Roxanna, 1774.
4. Moses, 1776.
5. Carson, 1778.
6. Samuel, 1780.
7. Angelina, 1781.
This last lady has now a married daughter residing at Jamaica, Long Island.
Moses, fourth child, commanded several fine ships from Philadelphia. As a captain, he was greatly re- spected. In a voyage to Calcutta, some time before his death, the passengers and company in the ship were so pleased with his attention that they presented him, in the politest feeling, a service of silver. He died somewhere near 1838.
David R. Arnol, M. D., of Orange county, New 15
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York, was born May 18, 1775, and died September 2, 1826.
Our first acquaintance, in 1792, was interesting and pleasant. The impressions of that early interview will only cease in the dampning shades of death. He was then seventeen years of age, a promising youth, and was studying physic with Dr. Jonathan Sweezy, of Goshen.
At the age of about twenty, our friend commenced the practice of his profession at Deer Park, a town ten or twelve miles north of Goshen. His mild and pleas- ing address, with industrious habits, soon procured him the good-will and consideration of the entire inhabi- tants of the town. His talents, skill, and judgment, soon procured him a sterling reputation.
Died, in February, 1843, at Riverhead, Suffolk county, Joseph Griffin, aged eighty-eight years. He was the fifth son and eleventh child of John Griffin, Jr. At the age of twenty-four years, he married a Miss Ruth Hart, an amiable woman, with whom he lived fifty years. Near the close of the Revolution, he, with his family-a wife and one child-moved into the village of Southold, where his stay was but for a year or two. In 1784, he removed to Old Guilford, in Connecticut, where he soon took charge of a coasting vessel. He was an active, trustworthy man ; unbound- ed confidence was accorded him by all with whom he was called to have intercourse. At the age of seventy, he quit doing business on the water, and was soon ap- pointed to take charge of the lighthouse on Faulken's Island, situated in the Sound, about five miles from Guilford.
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Captain Griffin had the charge of this trust some ten years. In all this time he was much known by numer- ous persons of both sexes, who, in summer, visited the island as a curiosity, and for a sail, and to enjoy the luxury of fishing, and partaking of the fish when caught. At the age of about eighty-three years, he lost his wife. All his children, except a daughter, were now dead. This daughter was now married, and settled in New Jersey. The generation with which he had been associated had nearly passed away. He resolved on returning to the home of his fathers and his youth. On the 23d of April, 1839, he took his final farewell of Guilford, and, in the evening of that day, arrived at Orient, where he spent the night with the writer. On the 24th, he re- paired to Riverhead, from which he had been absent as a resident for more than fifty years. He was a man of graceful manner, of the old school ; of agreeable, social habits, and an unshaken faith in Gospel truths. He had been one of the most active, powerful and supplest of men. He stood more than six feet; was well pro- portioned, and had the strength of two stout men. We have seen him leap over a rope six feet two inches high.
On Saturday, 23d July, 1853, while on a short visit to Acquebogue, I called on Judge John Woodhull, and was received with much kindness and satisfaction. He observed that it was many years since he had been at Oysterponds and at my house, and added, with a mel- ancholy dignity, that, although deep in the vale of life, his appetite was good, and he rested and slept well. ' I was," said he, " born on the 7th day of January, in
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the year 1755, and was ninety-eight years old on the 7th of last January " (1853). He had been a Judge of the County Court, and several times Supervisor of the town of Riverhead. Judge Woodhull died March 21, 1855, aged one hundred years two months and fourteen days.
Departed this life, on the morning of the 23d April, 1844, Rufus Tuthill, aged sixty-seven years. A more dutiful, obedient son or child is seldom known. His unwearied attentions to promote the comfort of his aged parents, was almost without a parallel. It merits the fairest page in the records of affectionate, devoted sons.
When his venerable father was over ninety-five years of age, this son's comfort appeared to be to find means and methods to console, solace and mitigate the pains and unpleasant sensations allied to old age.
He held the commission, at one time, of captain of the militia. As a farmer and member of the commu- nity, he was " greatly beloved." He was the sixth ge- neration from the first John Tuthill who landed at Southold.
His wife, who survived him about five years, was the sister of this writer. She died as she lived, in the faith of a blessed immortality, on the 7th December, 1849.
In speaking of excellent sons, we are forcibly re- minded of that pattern of divine sons in Holy Writ, Joseph, the son of Jacob.
What an interesting spectacle ! How sublime in all its bearings, is that of Joseph with his venerable fa- ther in the magnificent palace of the King of Egypt. Joseph was Prime Minister and Governor of the Em-
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pire-clothed with all the honors of Pharaoh's court ; but we see his happiness, his glory, in introducing a care-worn, aged father to his monarch. In imagina- tion, we now see the old father of one hundred and thirty years feebly walking into the King's court, lean- ing on the arm, and resting on the bosom of an affec- tionate and dutiful son. The lustre of the golden pre- cious chain which then encircled his manly neck was dim in comparison to that virtuous deed ! The gilded chariot of state in which he rode in imperial pomp, was low, compared with the eminence he gained when standing before royal Pharaoh with the good old patri- arch, his father, by his side.
What an example to modern sons and daughters. Yet, where are those endearing, Heavenly qualities which marked the worth and truly Divine reverence, love, and disinterested respect of those children of for- mer days, those whose blessings will be to rise up and call their parents blessed. Parental love! Is it not a spark from the celestial fire of Paradise ? a taper of light, peace, and joy, which is enshrined here, and will improve and grow brighter through eternity ?
In March, 1821, I received the melancholy news of the death of my valued friend, Silas Vail. With this dear man, I had held an interesting correspondence for more than thirty years. A large package of his letters to me are now in the hands of his son, the Rev. Frank_ lin Y. Vail. They are well conceived, and show a mind of moral rectitude, noble endowments, and sound know-
15*
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ledge of human nature. In them is pictured the sweets of morality, and warm desires for that holiness of heart which constitutes the faithful believer in the sublime truths of the everlasting Gospel. For the last thirty years, he had been a constant reader of theologi- cal works ; the Bible was to him the book of books. He often observed that his daily prayer was that its precepts and beauties might be more plain to his un- derstanding. Truth was his anxious pursuit.
For many years previous to his marriage, his busi ness was that of a teacher. The duties of that profes- sion he fulfilled with credit to himself and satisfaction to his employers.
In the War of the Revolution, when about fifteen. years of age, he was taken prisoner, and confined some time in the Old Jail, in New York, kept on short allow- ance, and otherwise hardly dealt with. That calamity, with a severe attack of illness, gave his constitution a shock from which it never fully recovered. About the year 1794, he married Betsey, the fourth daughter of Judge Thomas Youngs, of Southold .* By this lady, he had two children, a daughter and son. Some time after his marriage, he removed his family to Palmer Town, near Saratoga. In this place he opened a store, in connection with Dr. Gamaliel Vail. His spirits were buoyant with hopes now of doing a profitable and pleasant business. But the bubbles soon broke. They were not agreed : a divided house will fall.
From this misfortune, Mr. Vail never recovered. Do- mestic disquiet came next, which, with a shattered con-
* Rev. Zachariah Green, now living at Hempstead, N. Y., in his ninety- oventh year, was the minister to tie the sacred knot
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stitution, rendered his remaining days far from tran- quil. Yet, in the midst of all these complicated diffi- culties, he ever strictly made the subject of undefiled religion his constant and choicest study, and the basis of his support.
He died in February, 1821 ; born in 1757. Was the second son of Peter Vail, who was the son of Jeremiah Vail, 3d, who, we believe, was the son of Jeremiah Vail, 2d, whose father, Jeremiah Vail, 1st, came to Oysterponds about 1650.
Jeremiah Vail, 3d, sons were, viz :- Stephen, Peter, Jeremiah, Thomas, Abraham, Joshua and David ; daughters were-Mehitable and Mary. Mehitable married Joseph Brown, by whom she had nineteen children. Mary married Thomas Moore, of this town, grandfather of Charles B. Moore, Esq., of New York city ; a gentleman of deserved respectability, and an able jurist.
From motives of friendship, I here insert a sketch of the family of Frederick Chase, Esq., of Shelter Island. With this gentleman, I have been intimate, and on the most friendly terms, for the last forty years-an un- broken interchange of civilities and good-will since 1811. God grant that it may be like Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe's friendships, which, she said, is began in time, solely for a progress round eternity !
Frederick Chase was born at Westerly, State of Rhode Island, February 5, 1784. His father, Frederick Chase, Sr., was born February 2, 1758, and died on March 7, 1808; and his wife, who was Ruth Fry, died
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May 29, 1839. Oliver Chase, grandfather of Frede- rick Chase, Esq., was born September 21, 1709, and died November 14, 1784 ; and his wife, Elizabeth, died March 10, 1793, aged eighty-four years.
Benjamin Chase, great-grandfather of our friend, F. Chase, Esq., was born in Bristol county, Massachusetts, July 15, 1682, and died about 1767, aged eighty-five years.
William Chase, great-great-grandfather of Mr. Chase, was born in England, and came to this country in 1629. Settled at Yarmouth just nine years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Yarmouth is in Massa- chusetts, in the county of Barnstable.
Frederick Chase married Rebecca C. Cartwright, of Rhode Island, February 5, 1807. He removed to Shel- ter Island in April, 1811. While a resident of Rhode Island, he filled the ranks, by commission, of ensign, lieutenant and captain. Since an inhabitant of Suffolk county, he has held the offices of Justice of the Peace, Supervisor, Town Clerk, Commissioner of Schools, and Overseer of the Poor-all without a stain.
The following acrostic I received from Mr. Chase. It is accepted as a token of respect :-
As all thy days, I trust, have been Useful and just, to truth and men- Go on in the same path, dear friend, Until thy life shall have an end ; So when thy sands shall all have run, Thou shalt have every work well done- Upon that all-important day, Salvation shall thy work repay.
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Great, then, indeed, is the reward
Received by those who serve the Lord ;
It them assures that they shall stand, From sin set free, at His right hand ! Far from all sorrow, pain, and woe- In which they lived while here below- Nor shall a tear be seen that day ! God's own right hand wipes them away ! April, 1856.
FREDERICK CHASE.
To the Rev. Francis C. Hill, we are indebted for the melancholy detail of a mortal sickness which pre- vailed at Orient in the autumn of 1849. Mr. Hill was, at the time, residing in Orient, with his interesting fa- mily of a wife and two daughters, of four and six years old. The youngest, Anna Landon, fell a victim to the dire calamity.
This calamity occurred during the latter part of Au- gust, all September, and much of October, in the year that the cholera visited these shores the second time, carrying its ravages over the almost entire extent of our country. Such were its influences, especially in all our large cities bordering upon the sea coast, as to deter intercourse between this place and New York and other cities. From early in July until as late as the middle of September, our almost entire fleet of vessels, say from sixteen to twenty, was laid up. It was hoped by all that our healthy village, at such a remote dis- tance from any city, would escape. In this, we were disappointed. However, the disease that visited our village was not the cholera. It was dysentery of a very malignant type, combining many of the alarming symptoms of the former disease. Our physicians call-
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ed it the cholera dysentery. For some time previous, an extensive drought had been experienced ; for a num- ber of weeks we had no cooling showers, no thunder or lightning. The earth became excessively dry and parched. About the middle of August, a number of cases occurred, but so mild as not to give alarm. It commenced amongst the children, varying in age from six months to thirteen years, and such was its progress (for it was not confined to the young, but seized upon the middle-aged and the aged) that, in the short space of two weeks, perhaps not less than sixty cases were reported in a distance of but little over a half mile. In the street leading from the main road to the wharf, seldom a house escaped, and, in some families, one half were prostrated ; in others, four out of five were seized. There was not enough well persons to care for and nurse the sick; while many that did escape were afraid, and kept themselves aloof. Its effects were in what is called the Lane, which, as aforesaid, leads from the main road to the wharf, about twelve rods. Some- times two of the dead were interred at the same time. Within one hundred rods of our dwelling, there were twelve deaths; and there was scarcely a house in the whole street but one or more of its inmates were re- moved by death. It seemed as if the once beautiful village of Orient had become a complete Golgotha. A little incident occurred at the time, which may illus- trate the aspect here at that time. An excursion party, on board of the steamboat Statesman, from Sag Har- bor, touched at the wharf ; a large company of men, women and children landed, and commenced to stroll up through the village. Not meeting with scarce an
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individual (for it had the stillness of a continual Sab- bath), they had proceeded quite a distance from the boat, when meeting some individual who informed them of the state of the mortality existing among us, they seemed panic-struck, and they immediately left the place, with alarm depicted on every face. At that time, many in the street were sick, numbers dying ; while, in one house, were two dead bodies. Those that fell victims were from three or four to near eighty years of age. In a district of our village, about one- fourth of a mile square, thirty died in the short space of two months.
We find that a recurrence to these scenes stir up feel- ings that time has partially obliterated ; yet, those days of mourning are deeply engraven on the hearts of the sensitive, bereaved father, mother, and friend.
My friend, the Rev. Mr. Hill, in an acceptable com- munication to me, of October, 1855, says that his own immediate connection with, and sufferings from the disease that prevailed in that eventual day, makes it, to himself, a sorrowful subject of retrospection ; and he cannot look upon it, even at this late day, without sen- sations of the keenest sorrow.
On the 22d September, 1819, my grandson, Augustus Griffin Wells, died, aged fourteen months. He was a promising child. His disease, the dysentery, mocked the efforts of physicians, medicine, and fond parents.
The following lines were written by his dear, weep- ing mother, after his death, in her Bible :-
Forbear the unavailing sigh ! My babe is surely bless'd ; Angels have borne him hence away, In Jesus' arms to rest. H. L W.
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Died, on Saturday, 22d September, 1849, at 4 o'clock, P. M., Harriet Matilda, wife of Walter O. Hubbard, of New York, aged twenty-one years. She was the affec- tionate and accomplished daughter of the late James and (my daughter) Deziah Preston.
The number of schooners, sloops, and smacks, sailing from Orient, in 1850 and '51, cost, altogether, when first off the stocks, $50,000. Now we have, of differ- ent tonnage, sail, whose cost, altogether, must be in the neighborhood of $100,000.
There have been three or four justly respected and meritorious women who devoted inany years of their lives in attending the sick of their sex in this town since 1740. Of these, the first was Elizabeth King. As far back as 1770, we knew her ; then an old woman. She was mother to Benjamin King's wife. This woman was assuredly valuable to her generation, and successful in her attendance. An encouraging, careful, cheering nurse, and, at all times, ready to administer proper re- storatives to the many who knew the value of her coun- sels and visits. About thirty odd years of strict atten- tion to the duties allotted her by Providence, this ve- nerable mother closed a useful life to the generation who knew how to appreciate her worth. At her death, not far from 1780, she was aged eighty-one years. She attended at the birth of one thousand or more children.
A Mrs. Peck was also known as an excellent mid- wife from 1760 to 1775. She lived in Southold village. Was mother to Augustus and Joseph Peck, of that place.
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Mrs. Lucretia Lester succeeded Mrs. King. She was the daughter of the late Samuel Beebe, of Plumb Is- land, who was the grandson of Joseph Beebe, the se- cond owner of Plumb Island. Mrs. Lester became the widow of Thomas Lester not far from 1775. At, or be- fore that time, she began to be justly respected as a nurse and doctress to the pains and infirmities incident to her fellow mortals, especially her own sex. She was, for thirty years of her life, conspicuous as such. Her mild and well-timed answers of tenderness, and manner of administering relief, showed she possessed a mind and judgment fitting for the station she occupied.
To the sick and afflicted she was, at all times, in season and out of season, an angel of mercy ; a wo- man whose price was above rubies ; a Dorcas of Scrip- ture; and a mother, may we not safely say, in Israel. It is said that she attended, with success, at the birth of about one thousand three hundred children, and of that number, lost but two. Mrs. Lester died on the even- ing of the 12th of November, 1799, after an illness of about twelve hours.
Susannah Brown, the daughter of the late Richard Youngs, who was the fourth generation from, and a lineal descendant of Rev. John Youngs, the first minis- ter of Southold, from 1800 to 1840, at all times, and in all seasons, attended at call to the necessities and dis- tresses incident to those to whom her assistance and knowledge could benefit. An enlivening cheerfulness, united with mildness, encouragement, and words fitly spoken, gave a zest to the patient and a solace to the household.
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She was married in 1787 to Richard Brown, the fourth generation from Richard Brown. the first, who came to Oysterponds in 1665, and died in 1686. Mrs. Brown* attended at the births of about one thousand four hundred children.
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