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 4
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Thus stood the evangelical affairs of the society in Orient in 1803. Now there is a convenient church edi- fice, well furnished, and a respectable number compris- ing the society. Surely, the small cloud which ap- peared just above the horizon, not larger than a man's hand, has overspread this region, and showers of Divine grace have descended to enliven the drooping plants in this vineyard. And all this wonderful revolution of solid good, with no division in the Congregational church or its order, has ever arose from Mr. Finnegan's sojourn here. No. I believe he was sent to comfort the hearts of many who are now rejoicing with him where God is all in all, " and Love unbounded reigns."
From 1803, ministers of this denomination very sel- dom came to us for several years. Not far from 1820, Rev. Cyrus Foss came. He was a warm, well-in- formed, sound, good preacher; his discourses carried conviction and love with them ; his manners and con- versation were peace, and prepossessing. The meeting house was open for him when our stated preacher was not using it.
The 3rd in succession was Rev. Oliver Amerman, a
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pleasant, agreeable man, and an acknowledged ex- pounder of the Word of Truth.
4th-Was Rev. John Lucky, a mild, kind-hearted man. To be acquainted with him, was to feel to es- teem his society.
5th-Was Rev. Theron Osborne, faithful and per- severing.
6th-Rev. James Rawson, industrious ard zealous in his sacred vocation.
7th-Rev. Samuel W. King, particularly noticed be- fore.
8th-The Rev. Joseph Henson, who was solemnly devoted and attentive to his honorable and holy call- ing.
9th-Rev. Charles B. Sing, who served or studied some time at the Military School, at West Point. Af- ter graduating at that institution, he joined the Ameri- can army in Texas, as a commissioned officer ; I be- lieve, a lieutenant. He was in one or two battles. From religious doubts about using the sword, as Peter did, he put it in its sheath, and set about securing the sword of the Spirit of the everlasting Gospel, to go forth into its spacious field, and fight manfully under the banner of the Cross. May he greatly succeed. If faithfulness marks his course, a crown of righteousness assuredly awaits him.
10th-Rev. George Hollis, a man full of the milk of human kinkness, benevolence, united with grace, which is greater than faith, and hope, viz: charity.
11th-Rev. Bazalel How ; venerable for age, and sound Christian experience. There was at all times, when in conversation with his friends, an interesting,
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complacent smile enlivening his pleasing countenance. I have known the solid force of his invaluable disin- terestedness, kindness and marked civilities, in my in- terviews with him in New York.
12th-Was Rev. James Bouton, a man of talents, and, we trust, of sound heart and religion-of sterling decision and much suavative address.
13th-Was Rev. Francis C. Hill. May we not say he possessed virtues of the purest cast, with a noble- ness of heart, which, at all times, revolted at every semblance of duplicity ; a prudent, industrious laborer in the Gospel vineyard.
14th-Was Rev. Levi S. Weed, of prepossessing ad- dress, flow of spirits, and quite gifted in the powers of public declamation and well turned periods. Mr. Weed, although young, was of much promise.
15th-Rev. Nathan Tibbals. He was a man of handsome literary acquirements, honest, faithful and persevering in the good and Divine cause.
Died, in April, 1801, Dr. Jonathan Havens, of Hog- neck, near Sag Harbor, in his sixty-eighth year. In all that endears the name of father, husband, neighbor and friend, he, at all times, shone in the fairest light-ge- nerous and charitable, invaluable, assuredly, as a citizen and physician. He left a handsome property to his eight surviving children, viz :- Barret, John T., Ga- briel, Philetus, Jenet, Harriet, Abigail and Henrietta.
Died, in New York, very suddenly, in April, 1839, Gabriel Havens, son of the above, aged seventy years. He had led a very industrious and active life; was for
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some years a respectable captain of a fine ship. In one of his voyages he was at St. Petersburg, in Russia. Was some years Harbor Master in New York. In the several relations of life, he was altogether a good, noble-hearted man.
John Tuthill, who with his household made one of the thirteen families, before mentioned, is supposed by some of his descendants to have been the father of a number of children at the time. Two of his sons set- tled in the upper part of Cutchogue, where there are now a number of families, his descendants. How long he stopped at Southold before going to Orient, we know not. Mr. Thompson, in his history of Long Island, thinks that John Tuthill, the Browns, Youngs and John King were the first purchasers of land in this place, and that as early as 1644 or 1645. If so, John Tuthill must have remained in the neighborhood of Southold three or four years. I believe that he, with his associates, made their settlement at Orient, as soon as 1642 or 1643. The Browns and Kings made their chief pur- chase on the west part of Orient ; Tuthill and Youngs east of them, as before particularly described.
By examining old documents of the seventeenth cen- tury, we find that John Tuthill, Sr. was concerned in quite a number of pieces and parcels of lands, and was a man of much consideration in this town. He, with his son John, Jr., appears to be concerned in three or four farms, on which they erected tenements, but in which of them was his, John Tuthill's, Sr., permanent abiding place, I could never learn, or when and in
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which of them he died, no one can tell us ; nor his age, although we believe him to have been far advanced in years at the time of his death. He was living in 1686, forty-six years after he came to Southold. John Tut- hill, Jr., son to the above, was born July 16th, 1635. He was five years old at the time he, with his father, landed at Southold. Whether he was the oldest son, as it appears there were several sons, we are unable to say, but it is said, and no doubt it is correct, that two of the elder John Tuthill's sons settled at Cutchogue, as early as 1655 or 1666. Their descendants at that place now say the names of these two brothers were James and Joshua. James had a son named Freegift, who about the years 1708 or 1710, went into Orange county, New Windsor. Here he took command of a sloop in which he sailed to and from New York, with freight and passengers once a week. This Free- gift left a son, who was living a respectable farmer, with a likely family of children, in 1794, near the village of Goshen. His name was Nathaniel Tuthill. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren are now living in and around that country. John Tuthill, Jr., came with his father to Oysterponds, and when his age would admit was concerned with his father generally in his tracts and parcels of land in this place, with the houses erected thereon. We have noticed these build- ings already, when they were built and how long they stood.
John Tuthill, Jr. was twice married. His first wife was Deliverance King, to whom he was married Feb- ruary 17th, 1657.
Their children were-1st. John, born February 14th,
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1658, died 26th November, 1754, aged ninety-six years, nine months and twelve days. 2d. Elizabeth, born January 19th, 1661. 3d. Henry, born May 1st, 1665. 4th. Hannah, born Nov. 7th, 1667. 5th. Abigail, born October 17th, 1670; died June 6th, 1705. 6th. Dorothy, born October 6th, 1674; died 24th February, 1688. 7th. Deliverance, born August 2d, 1677; died 17th February, 1683. 8th. Daniel, born January 25th, 1679; died December 7th, 1762, aged eighty-three years, ten months and sixteen days. 9th. Nathaniel, born November 10th, 1683 and died Decem- ber 18th, 1705, aged twenty-two years, one month and eight days.
His second wife was Sarah Youngs, to whom he was married May 28th, 1690. By her he had one child, a daughter. She lived about eight years. It appears from the old deeds and his purchases of those days, that he was a prominent business man, and was held in re- spectable consideration by the community at large; and the same may be said of his father, who with his household, was one of the thirteen families already mentioned.
John Tuthill, Jr., died October 12th, 1717, aged eighty-two years and three months. His first wife, Deliverance, died January 25th, 1688. She was daugh- ter to the first John King, before mentioned.
John Tuthill, 3rd, grandson of the elder John Tut- hill, as referred to, by information handed down, was a wise and very useful man in his day. From 1690 to 1740, he was in public life, as to what was of interest to this place and the town. He was chosen as a mem- ber of the Assembly of this State, then a colony of
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Great Britain, in the years 1693, 1694, 1695 and 1698. It is said his school education was small, but his judg- ment, as an adviser and calculator, was large and much thought of. His skill, or genius, in solving the most intricate questions in arithmetic was assuredly, as we are informed, very extraordinary. Although not a man of letters, he was held in high esteem for his prudence and sterling sagacity. A piece of chalk was generally his pen and pencil; the most difficult questions in figures he would answer readily with a piece of chalk; his slate or paper was a piece of board or on the rail fence. For this mode of his doing business in this line of accounts, he was proverbially known for the last fifty years of his useful life, and after his death for fifty years more, his name was respectfully mentioned as "Chalker John." It is now one hundred years since his death, at which time he was ninety-six years, nine months and twelve days old. In many old deeds and conveyances may now be seen the signature of John Tuthill, the man who made so good a use of chalk. It is probable he held the office of Justice of the Peace, since the title of " Esquire " was often given him. Of his family, we know but little-who was his wife, or of what family. Only two of his children, a son and daughter, we know anything of, viz :- John, who was John Tuthill, the fourth in succession, and daughter Dorothy. Dorothy was married to Joseph Brown, Esq. Two of Joseph's sons names were, first, Joseph Brown, Jr., who married Mehitable, the daughter of Jeremiah Vail, Jr., by whom he had eighteen children. Himself and his wife have set down to the table to eat
6
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with sixteen of their children with them at the time. George Miller, Esq., of Riverhead, a lawyer, is a grand- child of the said Joseph and Mehitable. Benjamin, the other son, married his mother's niece, John Tuthill 4th's daughter, by whom he had seven children. Benjamin was a Justice of the Peace and a Deacon of a church. He died in 1774, an excellent, good man. Benjamin Brown, by his wife, Mary, had seven child- ren, viz :- Gershom, Israel, George, Elizabeth, Jemima, Mary and Bethia.
John Tuthill, 4th, died in 1743, aged sixty years, near eleven years before his father. He left four sons, viz :- Jeremiah, John, Samuel and James. Jeremiah married Dorothy, the daughter of Jonathan Youngs, Sr., and settled down on one of his father's farms in this place, where he lived respected until past his seven- tieth year. At this late day in life, his circumstances, as to property, were such as to oblige him to part with the dear home of his youth in his old age. He re- moved to Ashamomac, about seven miles west, where he lived with his second son, Jeremiah. He had, pre- vious to leaving his old home, become a widower. His last days were solitary and very lonely. At the age of about eighty-five years, and in 1808, he died, and not a stone tells where his body lies.
John, the second son, settled on the old homestead of his late father. The house at this time is owned and oc- cupied by John B. Youngs. As it stands in a valley, or hollow, Mr. Tuthill was called Hollow John, whether to designate him from some other John, I know not ; but by that appellation he was known for more than sixty years. He was an upright, honest man. He had
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one son, John, the sixth, and a daughter, who was mar- ried to Thomas Youngs, son of the Judge. John Tut- hill, who was John the 5th, died in 1795, eighty-six years of age.
Samuel, third son of John Tuthill, 4th, was educated as a Doctor of Physic. When he supposed himself competent to practice, he removed into the State of New Jersey, where prosperity attended him in his pro- fession, and respectability crowned all his business movements. He became a Judge of the court, and was held in honorable repute until age rendered him unable to continue in those public stations, which he had filled with honor to himself and satisfaction to his numerous friends. We know not the time of his death, which was at an advanced age.
James, the fourth son of John Tuthill, 4th. settled in Orange County, State of New York, about the year 1750. He has now many of his descendants of that name in and around that region. We well remember one of his sons, who was much known and respected, as a purchaser of beef cattle for the Philadelphia mar- ket. He was greatly esteemed by the drovers from that city, in the years 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1794. His name was Jonathan, but known more particularly through his town, by all grades and colors, as "Captain Tuthill." His death took place February, 1802, aged seventy-two years ; born, 1727. One of his sons, John, born March, 1760, became a colonel of militia. Some years previous to his death, he sold the old homestead of his fathers, and removed, with his family, to Che- mung County, near Elmira, where he died February 27, 1845, aged eighty-five years. His very talented
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and amiable son, Green Miller Tuthill, was clerk of that county in 1849.
The first fifteen or twenty families who came to this place, were, we are informed, strictly religious and punctual in observing all the ordinances of Gospel worship, as far as their limited means and isolated situ- ation would permit. Their confession of faith was con- gregational, and Calvinistical to the letter. Many of them, viz :- the Brown's, Youngs', Tuthill's, King's and Vail's families, with others, all appeared to fear God and eschew evil.
Deacon Daniel Tuthill, as before observed, was the eighth child of John Tuthill 2d. He married Mehita- ble, the widow of Peter Bradley. She, when a girl, was Mehitable Horton, grand-daughter to Barnabus Horton, who was with Daniel Tuthill's grandfather in the first boat which landed at Southold.
His children by his wife Mehitable, to whom he was married about 1705, were viz. :
Nathaniel, born about 1708, died 1731 ; Daniel, born near 1710, died 1768; Noah, born about 1712, died 1766.
Patience married John Havens of Moriches.
Mehitable married Thomas Terry, brother to my grandfather, Jonathan Terry, whose wife as noticed, was Lydia. These brothers married sisters. Lydia died 1780.
Abigail married Henry Havens, of Moriches. Her husband's temper was such as to render her life with him very miserable. She was a woman of great pa- tience and sound piety.
Mary married Nathan Tuthill, of Acquebogue. We believe Mehitable must have been the oldest, as she
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was the late Col. Thomas Terry's mother, and he was born near 1730. These amiable daughters, and, it is said, very beautiful women, all died betwixt the years 1770 and 1783.
Nathaniel Tuthill, Sr., the first son of Deacon Daniel Tuthill, was married to the daughter of Samuel King about 1730. He, while crossing Plumgut, in March, 1731, was drowned. He left an infant son who was named Nathaniel. His widow married Jonathan Racket, of Rockypoint, by whom she had six children, whose names were-Jonathan, born 1740, died 1825 ; Daniel, born about 1744, died 1801; Absalom, born 1746, died 1786; Samuel, born 1751, died 1826 ; John, born 1752, died 1793; Hannah was married to Sylva- nus Brown, of Acquebogue.
These sons all lived to have families, and were re- spectable men. Samuel was conspicuous as a farmer, and his many civilities to travelers, especially those from Long Island to his part of the country which was near Goshen, in Orange county. To this part of the State he had gone when a young man and married a daughter of Silas Youngs, who was one of the four broth- ers who left Long Island for Goshen in 1733. They were the sons of Gideon Youngs, Jr.
Nathaniel, son of Nathaniel Tuthill, who was drowned, March 1731, was brought up by his grand- parents on his father's side, and was promised his part of the paternal estate which was designed for his father as the oldest son. But the two remaining sons had chil- dren. Their father grew deep in years; their mother heard their counsel, and this grandson, the orphan boy,
6*
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was assigned a farm amidst the bogs and swamps of Ash- amomac, where, in laboring, he took a cold, which ter- minated his life, April, 1768, aged thirty-seven years. He was a man of sound sense and a good companion; industrious, pious, and benevolent ; a better husband, kinder father, and accommodating neighbor was not known. Such was Nathaniel Tuthill, Jr., whose re- mains now repose in the cemetery at Ashamomac; a stone marks his grave. He was twice married. His first wife was Michel, daughter of Gideon and Rachel Youngs. By her he had one child, a daughter, named Michel, who married George Brown. She died in Orange county, New York, near eighty years of age.
The first wife of Mr. Tuthill died about 1756. In 1760 he was married to his second wife, Mary, the daughter of Constant and Abigail Havens, of Hogneck. Constant Havens died 1761 ; his wife in 1748. By this second marriage his children were-Mary, born Janu- ary, 1761, died in her 85th year ; Hannah, born May, 1762, died January 8th, 1855; Betsy, born August, 1764; Abigail, born October, 1766; Lucretia, born July 14th, 1768, died May 18th, 1849.
Mary, the excellent and very justly beloved mother of these children, was a woman of great piety and faith in the Gospel. Her walk, conversation, manner, and humble submission to the methods of divine Providence, amidst the many and severe trials incident to the for- lorn state of lonely widowhood, truly testified to an ungrateful world the goodness of her heart and the force of that confidence and trust which she put in the widow's God and orphan's friend. She died in Novem- ber, 1822, aged eighty-seven years. She was born in
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1735; I think in August. She, as before said, was the daughter of Constant Havens, of what is called Hog- neck, adjoining Sagharbor. He was the son of George Havens, who was son to the first of the family to this then new country. Constant by the will of his father came in possession of the whole neck, which contained eight hundred acres of land, of excellent quality.
The word of truth says "let another praise thee and not thine own lips." It truly requires wisdom and prudence to tell our own history in pleasing colors to all, yet a brief notice of my morning and noon of life will be of some interest to my children and descendants. I was the second child of James and Deziah Griffin : their second son ; born in the second month of the year ; on the second day of the month ; the second day of the week, and who knows but the second day or week of the moon !
My earliest recollections are of living with my grand- parents, Jonathan and Lydia Terry, a week or two oc- casionally, when about three or four years old. One among the many, of this first of grandmother's wise precepts to her children and grandchildren, given in pure, old fashioned parental love, was while eating their piece of cake, or bread and butter, between meals. to sit still and not move around and play with victuals in their hands. To play with cake and bread she said was a waste and sin. This prudent and holy advice was worthy of the mothers whose virtues brightened in " gathering up the fragments, that nothing be lost." In those happy days stoves for cooking and warming
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rooms, were not known. The commodious and spa- cious fire places, would, without difficulty, take in a four foot back-log, with small wood suitable for filling. Then wives and daughters had rosy cheeks, buoyant spirits and blessed health! Home-spun dresses, early rising, industry, prudence, honesty, with the spinning wheel, was the order of those humble seasons. Now, alas, the change! These useful and invaluable neces- saries are exchanged for the novel, the piano, the waltz, and polka, with every vanity and vexation of spirit, that a wicked, witty genius could invent or conceive of to make humanity burdensome.
In the summer of 1775 my father put me to live with Jonathan Tuthill, whose wife was Mehitable, my mother's sister. They had been married about two years, and were the joyful parents of a fine little girl over a year old. General Wooster at this time with his regiment, was stationed at Oysterponds Point. Some of his soldiers were quartered in my uncle Tuthill's barn, and sick with dysentery. My aunt's daughter caught the disease and died. The mother was truly a mourner. I am an evidence that this afflicting dispen- sation of divine Providence, was not effaced from this mother's affectionate heart for many, many years.
" None but a mother can tell a mother's love."
The child's name was Abigail.
We well remember seeing General Wooster, on par- ade, and at other times when riding out with his staff. To me and my playmates, he was quite a curiosity. His age being near seventy years, with a venerable, dignified appearance, and curled, powdered wig, gave lively sensations to our juvenile sensibilities. These
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trainings and reviews were almost daily, and the rendez- vous in a plain lot south of the road, before Mr. John King's door, now David A. Tuthill's. Some few years af- ter this, General Wooster was wounded at Danbury, and died soon of said wound. In 1854, seventy-nine years af- ter this, a handsome monument was raised to his memory.
In the summer of 1784, I lived at Stonington, with Deacon Nathan Fellows. He was an honest man, and an ornament to his profession as a Christian. I stayed with him about two months, when, becoming home- sick, my father unwillingly permitted me to return home. In the winter of 1785, I was inoculated for the small pox, with my friend, Noah Tuthill. Both of us had it very hard. April, 1786, I went to live with a Mr. Jehiel Wheton, at what was then called Ster- ling-now in the suburbs of Greenport. Mr. Wheton's family consisted of himself, wife and two daughters. Mrs. Wheton was greatly possessed of those graces which render the wife and mother the glory and happiness of her household. Mr. Wheton was a peaceable, industrious man. They had lost a son with the small pox a short time before. I was with this pleasant family one year.
May, 1787, I, with my father, visited my grandfather, Samuel Griffin, at Brandford, Connecticut. While on this visit, we stopped at Guilford, where I saw, for the first and only time in my life, Jasper Griffin, son of Robert, my grandfather's brother. My two youngest aunts, Betsy and Polly, were now married and living at Guilford, each having a child-the first a son, Bela ; the last a daughter, Sally.
In August, 1775, a most distressing sickness pre-
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vailed. It commenced while Wooster's soldiers were stationed here. Such mortality by dysentery had never before been known. One entire family of eight per- sons all died with the disorder, excepting one. Two were buried in one grave .* It was assuredly a mourn- ful time, as almost every house felt the effects of the raging pestilence. The same season there was scarce the semblance of rain from the first of June to the middle or last of August-say nine or ten weeks. That drouth is still fresh in my memory, although it is seventy-five years ago. Those calamities, death, sick- ness and the want of rain, have left on my memory an impression not to be effaced.
On the 28th of March, 1788, I set off with Samuel Brown, one of my juvenile companions, a neighbor of my age, to seek a livelihood in the North River coun- try. We took passage on board of a sloop for New York ; after a pleasant sail of two days, we arrived safe. While in the city, we put up with my friend, Doctor Thomas Vail. From Mr. Vail and his pleasant wife I received much kindness. President Washington was then living in New York, in the Franklin House, cor- ner of Pearl and Cherry streets, which was but a few doors from Mr. Vail's, in Pearl street. At that time, a short walk would carry you out of town.
After stopping with Mr. Vail about two days, I went on board of a half-rigged sloop, bound for New Marl- borough, which lies on the North River, about ten miles above Newburgh. We reached Tarrytown that afternoon. At this place, about eight years before, the
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