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 15
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Our friend, this Ira Tuthill, is the seventh generation, counting from the Pilgrim Father, and so is the present Ira B. Tuthill, son of the late Daniel Tuthill, of Cut- c hogue.
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William Solomon, of Southold, was the son, or grand- son, of William Solomon, who was, with his family, living in the town in 1698. William's household consisted of a number of sons and daughters, all young and pro- mising, about the years 1760 to 1775, viz: 1st. Jona- than ; 2d. Phineas ; 3d. Gideon; 4th. William; 5th. John; 6th. Joshua ; and daughters-Polly and Hannah.
Gideon kept a respectable tavern at New Windsor, in 1790 ; Jonathan settled in Blooming Grove, Orange county ; John lived at Newburgh; Phineas located somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Hannah married a Zacheus Case, near the village of Goshen ; Polly married a Mr. Reeve, at Southold.
William Solomon, the father of this family, died near 1800. John Solomon, who died in 1762, aged sixty-years, gave a house and lands to the parish of Southold. I believe he was never married.
The Southold and Huntington family of Vail's are descendents of John Vail, who came to this town from Wales, in the year 1700. He was born near 1670. He was a pious man, and died about the year 1760. His children were-1st. John; 2d. Benjamin ; 3rd. Peter; 4th. Obediah; 5th. Jonathan ; 6th. Jeremiah ; 7th. Hannah; 8th. Mary; 9th. Martha; 10th. Amitta.
It was John Vail, a soldier, the first son and child of the senior John Vail, that knocked down a British offi- cer-Col. Bradstreet-at the peril of his life. This bold daring was in the French War, previous to the Revolution. Although in humble life, he was prover- bial for his bravery and personal courage when honor
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and truth were at stake. He made this daring effort to vindicate his honor, although himself but a humble soldier. Col. Bradstreet called Vail " a Yankee liar." This John Vail lived to see his ninety-first year. He had commanded a vessel in his younger days, which, in after life, gave him the appellation of Captain J. Vail. His look was peculiar, being cross-eyed. As a votary of truth, I doubt whether he ever had his supe- rior.
Russel Vail, of Southold, is grandson to Peter Vail, who was the third son of John Vail, the 1st. Joseph H. Goldsmith, Esq., of the same place, is, on the ma- ternal side, great-grandson to John Vail, Jr., the man who, while in a humble station, would not take an in- sult from a British colonel.
His mother was Mary, the third child of Captain Elisha Vail, who was third child of the second John Vail.
Addison Goldsmith, the brother of Joseph H., was the second son of Zacheus and Mary Goldsmith. He was born in 1803, and died suddenly at Laporte, Indi- ana, August 5, 1838. He was a young man of pro- found erudition, amiable, and of great promise. He had but just completed his studies as a physician ; his prospects were fair, and a hope of future usefulness gave solid consolation to his humane and Howard-like heart.
James and John Prince were brothers. John settled in Southold, where he died in 1765, aged seventy-eight 20*
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years ; he was born in 1687. We do not know whether his brother James ever came to America. Joseph Prince, an inhabitant of Southold, was John's son, and was born in 1719; died in 1805, in his eighty-fifth year. His family consisted of four sons, viz: 1st. John; 2d. Joseph; 3rd. Benjamin; and 4th. Thomas.
John Prince, Joseph's first son, had three sons, viz : John, Ezra and Martin. Ezra died in 1824. His wife was Phœbe Horton, by whom he had two sons, viz : Albert and Orin ; daughters-Martha, Betsey, Lucre- tia, Phœbe and Ann. Orin was born November 14, 1816 ; was married to my grand-daughter, Maria L. Wells, January 17, 1839.
Nathaniel Tuthill, Sr., before noticed as the son of Freegift Tuthill, died September 16, 1803, in his seventy- third year. His wife, Martha, but called Patty, was the daughter of Joseph Wickham, of this town. She was sister to Daniel H. Wickham, Esq., also before no- ticed. The present Hector Craig Tuthill, now living at Kellogsville, in Cayuga county, is the son of said Na- thaniel.
Isaac Hubbard was the first, or the son of the first, of that family to this town. He was born 1694, and died in 1771, aged seventy-seven years. His wife was Bethia Goldsmith, we believe of the family of Zacheus Goldsmith, settled at Southold near 1690. They had sons, viz: 1st. Richard Stears; 2d. William; 3rd. Isaac ; 4th. John; 5th. Thomas. Richard S. died in
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1796, aged seventy-two years ; William, a merchant at Southold village, where he died in 1771, in his forty- fourth year ; Isaac, third son, died at Tarpaulian Cove, Massachusetts, where a stone marks his grave; Tho- mas, fourth son, died at Guilford, Connecticut, aged about twenty years ; John, fifth son, kept a tavern at Mattituck, where he died in 1775, in his thirty-sixth year. His eldest son, John Hubbard, Jr., succeeded his father, inheriting the homestead, where he kept an inn from the year 1776 to 1826. Jefferson and Madison were his guests for a day, about the year 1785 or '86.
Richard S. Hubbard, first son of Isaac and Bethia, was a most worthy member of the church. He had three sons, viz: Richard S., Daniel and Benjamin. Richard S. Hubbard, Jr., was a man of sound and marked piety. He was some years a Deacon of Rut- gers Church, in New York, which office he held at the time of his death, in 1821, aged seventy years. The second son was Daniel Hubbard, an honest, bold man. When a young man, he was taken while in an Ameri- can privateer, and confined on board of one of the prison-ships in New York. He survived as by a mira- cle that horrid confinement. Afterwards, he went as first mate of a ship to the East Indies, from which he returned in less than two years as captain of the same ship. Later in his life he married, and for some years was a respectable inspector of beef and pork. His sun of life set in a cloud-he died suddenly, a disappointed man.
Benjamin, the third son, died not much over twenty- two years of age.
William, second son of Isaac and Bethia, had four
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sons, viz : 1st. William; 2d. John; 3rd. Butler; and 4th. Nathaniel. The second, third and fourth followed the sea ; the second and fourth were drowned. The first, William, was a very respectable clerk in a count- ing-house in Philadelphia for many years. Some few years before his death, he was clerk in a large sugar house in New York. He died over seventy years of age, a respectable bachelor.
Nathaniel T. Hubbard, now of the city of New York, is the oldest son of the late Deacon Richard S. Hubbard, of Rutgers Church, of that city. Mr. Hub- bard is, and has been for some years past, doing a large business as a provision merchant-more so in that line than any other house in our country ; perhaps, in the world. To his parents, he manifested all the graces inherited by Joseph of old. To his brothers and sis- ters, he, at all times, has shown a heart susceptible of all that is good, kind and affectionate. His family con- sists of a wife of endearing virtue, three sons, viz : Samuel, William and Cyrus ; daughters-Susan, Mary, Louisa and Josephine.
Moses Case, of Cutchogue, died September 25th, 1814, aged ninety-one years. He was known as Lieut. Moses Case, a worthy member of the community. He left three sons, viz. : Gilbert, Luther, and Matthias-all deserving the esteem of those appreciating the value of integrity and humanity. Luther left sons, Ebenezer W. and Joseph Wickham, and several daughters. Ebe- nezer W. was a man of extensive information-served his town and county as a supervisor, town clerk, repre-
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sentative in the Assembly of the State, judge, and sur- rogate. He died on the first of March, 1844. Joseph Wickham is also a man of good attainments, and has filled several town and county offices. Matthias, the third son of Lieut. Case, died in October, 1831. He left a widow, who was, previous to her marriage, Julia, the second daughter of Dr. Micah Moore, both before noticed, and four children-1st, Hutchinson H .; 2d, Albert G .; 3d, Jerusha ; and 4th, Maria.
Lieut. Case was the son of Benjamin Case, who was the son of Theopholis Case, who was son to the first of that family and name to this town, about 1660.
Elisha Mulford settled at Oysterponds, with his fam- ily, in April, 1805. He was a descendent of John Mulford, who was one of the first settlers of Easthamp- ton, in this county, in 1648. Mr. Mulford was a valu- able member of society, and for many years previous to his death, a deacon in the church in this village. He died August 11th, 1828, in his seventy-ninth year, leaving a wife and six children, viz. : Phebe, Polly, Jerusha, and Fanny ; sons, Sylvanus and Elisha.
Sylvanus, the oldest son, about the year 1816 removed to and located himself at Montrose, in Pennsylvania. At that place he has resided forty years, has reared an interesting family, and been successful in life.
Elisha, the second son, owns and occupies the old homestead, and is, of respectable consideration, a wor- thy man. His wife is the grand-daughter of the late Col. Thomas Terry, who was formerly the owner of the same farm, as before noticed, then about two hundred
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and ten acres. His children are-1st, Fanny Lucella ; 2d; Betsey Ann; 3d, Benjamin King; 4th, Elisha Hampton.
Lewis A. Edwards, of this village, is the eighth gene- ration from William Edwards, who was one of the first settlers of Easthampton, in the year 1648.
The history of this gentleman is a happy illustration of our government and laws, when aided by talent, in- tegrity, and industry. From indigence, he has arisen to opulence under the benign influence of this fortunate combination of individual worth with civil immunities.
John Conkline, who, with his household, made one of the memorable families heretofore noticed, died April 6th, 1694, aged sixty-three years. Jonathan Conkline, late of the village of Southold, whose sons were Benja- min and Augustus, was the fifth generation from the above said John. The late Dr. David Conkline, of Ac- quebogue, was also a descendent of the said John.
About the year 1796, Captain Matthew Tuthill, a young man of sterling industry and trust, commenced running a handsome sloop, the Seaflower, weekly, from this place to New York, with freight and passengers. This he continued to do with success and satisfaction for more than twelve years.
Capt. Tuthill was one of twelve children, of Christo- pher and Phebe Tuthill. Their youngest, a daughter,
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died when over thirty years of age. He died in Janu- ary, 1812, leaving a widow and two children-a son, Howel, and a daughter, Phebe. Howel is now Presi- dent of a Bank in Elmira, Tioga county, and Phebe is respectably married, and residing in the same town.
Jonathan Terry, known as Captain Jonathan Terry, who died July 22d, 1820, aged fifty years, and his bro- ther, Jesse, who died February 3d, 1831, for many years sailed handsome coasting vessels from this village.
These Messrs. Terry were patterns of industry, pru- dence, and of business habits ; moral rectitude marked all their dealings. They were the sons of Jonathan Terry, Jr., who was the son of Thomas Terry, third, who was the son of Thomas Terry, second, who was the son of Thomas Terry, first.
Daniel Beebe sailed a handsome packet sloop, once a week, to New York, from this place, for fourteen years, viz. : from 1818 to 1832. In 1832 he sold his vessel, and purchased a farm on Southold Hogneck, where he now resides in domestic quiet.
Captain Beebe is the son of the late Nathan Beebe, Jr., who was the son of Nathan Beebe, Sen., who was the son of Samuel Beebe, Jr., who was the son of Sam- uel Beebe, Sen., who was the son of Joseph Beebe, who came from Plymouth, as before noticed.
About one hundred and fifty rods, in a north-easterly
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course, from the stately dwelling of Lewis A. Edwards, on the banks of the Sound, and within fifteen rods of what is called Little Munn Pond, in the year 1819, a vessel was built of about one hundred tons. Her owners were Rich- ard Jerome, Matthew Gardner, and Capt. Caleb Dyer. She was of beautiful draught, schooner-rigged, and called "Enterprise." Although the beach over which she was to glide into her destined element was very rocky, yet she was launched, and no accident happened. This was rather a novel spot to build a vessel, as all will see who visit the site.
About 1755 a Mr. Munn, a taylor by trade, owned and lived in a house which stood within twenty rods of where this vessel was built. It was removed or taken down some years before the war of the Revolution. Hence the name of the large and small pieces of water there.
Capt. Caleb Dyer commanded the above schooner for the first year, sailing to and from Boston. Captain Grant B. Racket took charge of her in 1821. Some years after this he commanded the schooner Lagrange, in which he followed, very successfully, the southern trade. Capt. Racket died suddenly, in Charleston, S. C., in 1832. In the spring of 1833, his body was brought to this place and buried.
Capt. Dyer died in November, 1852, in his seventy- fourth year. He had, for the most part of the last forty- five years of his life, commanded several fine coasting vessels to New York, Boston, Newport, and Nantucket. At one time, which was on the 12th of December, 1839, he took about four tons of pork, besides other articles, to Nantucket, from this village.
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In 1798 he came to Oysterponds, in his twentieth year, at the time owing his step-father, Mr. Asa Smith, twenty or more dollars for his time. About 1801 he married Mehitable, a daughter of Christopher and Han- nah Brown, by whom he had five children, viz. : Laura, Rosetta B., Elizabeth B., Henry, and Hubble. On the 20th of August, 1844, Mrs. Dyer, the mother, departed this life. On the 26th of June, 1845, Capt. Dyer mar- ried his second wife Julia, the daughter of Elias Terry. She is now his widow, with two interesting boys.
Capt. Dyer was the son of Caleb Dyer, Esq., of New London, Conn. In 1780 he was sailing-master of the American frigate Shelaila, of thirty-six guns. She sailed that year on a cruise, with a crew of four hun- dred or more men. After she left port, neither she nor any one of that number were ever heard of after.
In my previous notices of the ship-captains which this small village has raised, I omitted the name of Robert Brown, a native of this village, and who is now com. manding a regular fine packet to the South. Captain Brown is a noble, whole-souled gentleman of the old school.
Edmund P. Brown, of this village, is the son of Dea- con Peter Brown, who was the son of Christopher Brown, who was the son of Ensign Richard Brown, third, who was the son of Richard Brown, Jr., (who held a commission as militia captain under George II.,) who was son to Richard Brown, first, who died in 1806. He, too, has commanded several noble ships in the
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whaling and mercantile line, with profit to himself and owners. In one of his voyages, Captain Brown paid his owners forty per cent. on their capital advanced. Although but about forty years of age, he has circum- navigated the globe four times, and doubled Cape Horn ten times, as master.
The first packet sloop which made weekly trips from Southold to New York, after the war of 1812, was the Juno, commanded by Captain Benjamin Wells. This was in 1816. In 1818, he sailed the sloop Suffolk ; in 1822, he took charge of the sloop George ; in 1825, the sloop Regulator ; in 1828, the sloop Superior; and in 1844, the sloop Swallow, which, with success, he sailed until 1852, when he retired to his farm in the village of Southold. Captain Wells is the sixth generation from William Wells, of 1640.
William Booth, a lineal descendant of John Booth, who came to Southold in 1656, and one of the most ac_ commodating of men, sailed the sloop Prudence some fifteen years to New York, weekly, from Southold. .
Lion Gardner, late of Southold, N. Y., was born near 1740 ; died about 1810. He was born poor-lived and died poor ; and, but for the strength of his body, would not have been remembered beyond his generation. In 1773 and '74, he lived at Rocky Point, about thirty rods south-east of what is called the Dam Bridge. He
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was a blacksmith by trade ; a very honest man. Had a wife and four or five children ; stood more than six feet high ; athletic, but not fleshy-at all times careful not to show his strength, except when excited by li- quor, of which he was fond. On one of these occa- sions, he consented to have placed on his back ten bushels of good wheat, with which he walked off as easy as Sampson carried off the gates of the Philis- tines. On another occasion, assisting a neighbor to catch a horse, while attempting to seize the mane, the horse leaped a string-board fence, which, as he cleared, Gardner caught its tail, by which he brought the horse back, fence and all. On another time, a large ox cart, which must have weighed over a ton, with eight men on it, Gardner lifted clear of the ground ; another time while at work in his shop, and off his guard, three stout men seized him, two by each leg behind, and the third jumped on his back. In short order, with his two hands, he crushed to the ground the two on his legs, and then pulled the one off his back, placing him on the others.
John Seaman, one of the early settlers of Hempstead, Long Island, came from Essex, England, about 1650. He landed at Boston, at the time being an apprentice, and with his master, a house carpenter. At the age of twenty-one years he left Boston, and came to Hemp- stead, Long Island, which then contained but a very few white inhabitants. As soon as the inhabitants had increased in numbers sufficient to warrant it necessary, he was chosen a captain of militia, and soon after a jus-
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tice of the peace. The Indians were now and then jealous, and showed indications of doing mischief. Those difficulties were always settled by Capt. Seaman, whom the natives appeared to love and venerate.
He, Seaman, married and became the father of eight sons and eight daughters, all of whom lived to be mar- ried and have families except one. His posterity, now of about the seventh and eighth generations, are nu- merous, and among the most respectable of our State, and the counties of Suffolk and Queens.
Captain Seaman and six of his sons were patentees in the town of Hempstead, in the year 1660.
While he held the office of magistrate, the Society of Friends, in his vicinity, were much ill treated. In him they at all times found a confiding friend. Although not of their Society, he was a charitable and just magistrate.
Silas Carl, of Westbury, near Hempstead, a man of great wealth and consideration in the Society of Friends, married Elizabeth Seaman, a descendent of the seventh generation from John Seaman, the pilgrim father.
APPENDIX.
21*
APPENDIX.
A HEARTLESS FRIEND.
The friendship of some people (may I not say many?) is like our shadows-plain and close to us when the sun shines clear ; but the moment we get into the shade, it deserts us. So in the bright sun of prosperity, we are surrounded with friends, and inundated with civilities ; but let a cloud of misfortune and adversity overshadow us, and where are they !
OBITUARY.
Died, on the evening of the 21st inst., at the resi- dence of his son-in-law, in the city of New York, Benjamin F. Thompson, Esq., Counsellor at Law, of an illness of about three-fourths of an hour, supposed to have been a disease of the heart or stomach, aged sixty-four years. The remains were brought to his residence in Hempstead, and on Saturday, at one o'clock, P. M., followed by a numerous and wide- spread portion of the community to his grave, by the side of that of his deceased son, Henry, in his own
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burying-ground, adjoining the Presbyterian Church yard.
Perhaps there never lived in our county an individual whose death cast a more general gloom over the minds of its inhabitants. Not that he was less liable to our common destiny than every other of his race, but that he was so well beloved and so extensively known, and called, too, in apparent usual health, in the very act of professional employment-in the midst of his useful- ness-the vigor of his cultivated intellect unimpaired- the vast stores of his knowledge in constant accumula- tion-the eye yet undimmed, and his natural strength unabated. Society at home and abroad were indeed saddened; and well might we feel humbled, and take upon ourselves the insignia of grief, for no ordinary citizen, companion, or friend has been taken from us. It were no injustice to the living or the dead to assert that his rival for lasting, laudable fame, has not yet been born or bred upon our island. Comparisons we know are invidious; it is not now designed to institute such a judgment, nor does the occasion require it. The worth of such a man to the age and community in which he lived, is best appreciated when we realize the difficulty of filling as faithfully the space now vacant by his removal. Others no doubt there are who have held, or now hold, as ready a pen-and others too who have had, or now have, as great a degree of industry, love of research, and indifference to pecuniary profit ; but if these qualities were, or are, eminently possessed severally by different individuals, it can nevertheless in truth be said that they never existed collectively, and in greater perfection, in any one person, than in Benja-
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min F. Thompson. We knew him well. In an occular intercourse and intimacy for years, our opinion of his character, his genius, his learning, and his toils, has been formed ; no person living had a better opportunity of knowing the man; and it is esteemed as a bright period in our life that our lots were so long cast toge- ther. As a father and a husband, the best might imi- tate him; and nothing valuable would be lost to the domestic circle, and much saved that sadly mars its bliss. As a neighbor, peaceable and kind, to benefit his fellows it was only necessary to know that it was in his power to do so. His was not that sentimental be- nevolence which is satisfied by wishing well, but that practical kind which would do good.
As a man, he sought to the last to improve and ame- liorate, by information, the condition of his race. Pe- culiar in his views upon theology, yet that peculiarity was never allowed to interrupt a full and free inter- course with its professed teachers; and not a few of them, and the best informed too, but will bear us wit- ness that they were ever edified and instructed by such intercourse. To all he was ever ready and happy to impart from his great stock of varied literature; his was never a light "placed under a bushel, but on a can- dlestick, and it gave light to all in the house." We offer no minute and particular account upon these facts ; at this time they require none at our hands. The fu- ture biographer will detail them with interest and with pride.
A lover and a master of ancient and modern learn- ing-an admirer of genius and of talent-a devoted disciple within the temple of knowledge-a martyr to
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the cause of usefulness to the present and future gene- rations, he has been sacrificed before his time. "His sun," in the emphatic language of Scripture, "has gone down while it was yet day."
The village he aided so much to advance in wealth and notice-the place of his wearied, carking cares and labors-the fair Spring, with her carpet of green and perfume of flowers-the genial Summer, redolent of life-the mellow Autumn, rich in variegated increase -nor the chill Winter, fitting emblem of mortality- shall now know his presence, no more forever. 'Tis a withering thought; and but for the hope within, we should sink beneath its influence. Yet shall he live; not as frail humanity, but as destined from the begin- ning-immortal. Time and his brother, Death, shall work no farther change; they write no wrinkle upon the placid brow of the eternal spirit. Its smile is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. As the carol of birds, the zephyr's dirge-like music, or ocean's un- changing bass, it is still the same, though we grow old, and exchange insensibly the buoyancy of youth for the depression of age and the tomb. Such a mind should be, and is, perennial as eternity. His own History of his dear native island shall perpetuate and embalm his memory.
We loved Thompson for his amiable qualities, his ac- complished erudition, and his natural delight in impart- ing it to those around him. Faults he certainly had ; but they were the faults of a generous nature. To deny him these, were to deny him human. Malice he har- bored not. His mind he freely spoke, 'tis true ; and as
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freely did he extend his hand, in token of a reconciled and honorable feeling.
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