USA > Ohio > Ohio early state and local history > Part 17
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We are loth to close this sketch without mentioning a bit of the career of the grand-daughter of Squire Perkins, as she stands for a type of the womanhood of the Revolution, no less courageous than its manhood.
"Eunice Forsythe, the only child of Squire Perkins' only daughter, was left an orphan while still a baby and was brought up in her grand-father's home. Eunice was trained very care- fully and tenderly for those days. She was never allowed to do any work, not even spinning, which was done by servant girls, aside from the seven house-slaves. When she was four years old, her grand-father gave her Molly, an eight year old Spanish slave, who always slept upon a trundle-bed beside her mistress; upon her marriage, went with her to her new home, was her house-keeper and the beloved nurse of her children. At her death, her body was placed at the foot of her mistress' grave."
Eunice Forsythe's husband was Captain Wm. Latham, who with their ten year old son, went to the fort so early on the fateful day September 6, 1781. All day long little William worked, carrying powder-horns from the magazine until the men called him the "powder monkey." When at the end of that awful day Mrs. Latham came searching among the dead
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for her dear ones, it was not until morning that she found her wounded husband at the Avery House, and he told her their son had been taken prisoner by Benedict Arnold.
Mrs. Latham had met Arnold many times on social occa- sions. She now hastened across the river and haughtily enter- ing the tent of the British Commander-"Benedict Arnold," she said, "I have come for my son, not to ask for him, but to demand him."
"Take him" said Arnold, "but do not bring him up to be a d- rebel."
"I shall take him," Mrs. Latham replied, "and teach him to despise the name of a traitor."
We glory today in the spirit of the noble woman who so fearlessly answered the treacherous Arnold.
Another on our Honor Roll who took part in the defense of Fort Griswold, was Nicholas Starr, who left his wife and family of small children, to go into the Fort that fated morning. When night came, his body was brought home, mutilated with six bayonet wounds. He was born in 1741, being forty years old at the time of his death.
In recent years, there has been erected a beautiful gateway which marks the site of the Fort, and upon the pillars which rise at either side are inscribed the names of all who were in the Fort on that day.
The emigrant of the Starr family was Dr. Comfort Starr, who was born in England and died in Boston in 1659 or 1660. He is buried with his wife Elizabeth in old King's Chapel Burying Ground. A few years ago the Starrs erected a mem- orial stone to the founder of the family in America, and it stands near the monument of John Harvard, as well it may, for Dr. Comfort Starr was one of the first five fellows of Harvard College. He built his first home in Cambridge, upon the site of which now stands one of the college buildings.
Samuel, the son of Dr. Starr, married Hannah Brewster, grand-daughter of Elder William Brewster, who came to the 'stern and rock-bound coast" in the Mayflower, and whose home in England-Scrooby Manor-had been a popular gather-
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ing place of the Puritans. James Starr, the son of Nicholas who lost his life at Fort Griswold, moved to Ohio about 1806 or 1807.
The members of our Chapter who descend from Nicholas Starr, have another interesting line of ancestry, being lineal descendants of Governor William Bradford.
Ephriam Terry, who was born in 1701 and died in Enfield, Conn., in 1783, married for his wife, Ann, the daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Collins, the first minister in Enfield, Conn., and the great grand-daughter of Governor William Bradford.
Ephriam Terry was a Major of Militia and was appointed to collect funds for the Continental Army, or to open sub- scriptions to the Continental Loan Office.
Another supplemental line of these members is that of David Shaw, who joined the recruits from East Windsor, Conn., at the time of the Lexington Alarm and was in the Battle of Bunker Hill, from which he escaped without injury, though spattered with the blood of his comrades. Upon the surprise of Ticonderoga, he served in Colonel Hinman's Regiment, in the Northern Department. His grand-father, James Harper, went to Long Island and procured his discharge as his wife was critically ill. David Shaw's term of service lacked just four days of enabling him to procure a pension. He later was sheriff of Hartford County.
David Chandler, of Enfield, Conn., is another who responded to the Lexington Alarm, being Corporal in Captain Simms' Company. He enlisted July 6, 1775, and served until the ex- piration of his term, December 18, 1775. He was also in Captain Charles Ellsworth's Company, Colonel Huntington's Fifth Regiment. In 1779 he was one of a committee to pur- chase clothes for the soldiers and to care for their families.
David Chandler's great grand-father came from England and settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1637. His grandson, Henry, married Lydia Abbott, and moved to Enfield, Conn., where he owned seventeen hundred acres of land to the north of that place. Henry was the grand-father of David, who served in the War for Independence.
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F. M. Chandler, of Cleveland, Ohio, in writing to Mr. Morgan Ink of Republic, says:
"It may be of interest to Mrs. Ink to know that her great grand- father's sister, Chloe, married Israel Smith, of Bainbridge, New York, and their daughter, Chloe Smith, married Rutherford Hayes of Brattleboro, Vermont; their son, Rutherford, Jr., married Lucy Burchard, and they were the parents of Rutherford Burchard Hayes, President of the United States from 1877 to 1881.
Jeremiah Case, Jr., who was born in Simsbury, Conn., March 18, 1767, and died at Cooperstown, New York, in 1805, served in Captain Edward Eels' Company of the Second, also designated First Connecticut Regiment, commanded suc- cessively by Colonel John Durkee, Lt. Colonel Thomas Gros- venor, and Colonel Zebulon Butler. He enlisted January 4, 1781, to serve three years in the Revolutionary War. His name last appears on a muster-roll dated March 29, 1783.
This First Connecticut Regiment was composed of the Third and Fourth Regiments of previous formations and served at Yorktown, Peekskill, and around New York City.
The Case family was among the early settlers of Connecti- cut, the Revolutionary man being of the fifth generation from John Case who about 1657 married Sarah, daughter of William Spencer, of Hartford. In 1669 they moved to Massacoe, now Simsbury, where more than a hundred years later, Jeremiah Jr., enlisted. Isaac Phelps, son of Jeremiah, Jr., moved with his family in 1808 to Ohio, first stopping at a place near Cin- cinnati, then in 1811 coming to Maumee, near Toledo. They lived here until the surrender of General Hull at Detroit, when being without protection, they were forced to take the road to Urbana. A statement written by his daughter says, that after their arrival at the latter place, her father returned to Maumee and with his team enlisted to serve his country. Finally, in 1815, after untold hardships and suffering from dis- ease, Isaac Case located in New London, Huron county, Ohio, being the third family to settle there.
A valuable treasure is left to the descendants of this brave pioneer in an account written by his daughter, Philothea Case Clark, and now in the possession of her grand-daughter, Mrs. Oliver S. Watson, of our Chapter.
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This account was written by Mrs. Clark for the benefit of her grand-children, that they might know something of those early days, and the experiences of the pioneers. She tells the story in a quaint, but clear and lucid way, and it is only after the perusal of such a description that we can appreciate what the frontiersmen and their families endured to establish homes in this now grand State. Of their final journey, she writes thus:
"We were three weeks on the road, camping out every night. Such pioneering is full of interest; there is toil and also amusement. I was then fifteen and enjoyed it well. Had some amusing times with the young squaws and Indians we frequently fell in with, as they were constantly passing and repassing."
Again she writes of an earlier journey:
"In April 1811, father went to Wapakoneta, then a small Indian town at the headwaters of the Auglaize River. He dug out two flat-bottomed boats; they were made out of four large bass-wood logs. Father was a natural mechanic. In company with several other families, they rowed and floated down the stream, going in shore at night. It was then a wild and uninhabited wilderness, excepting now and then an Indian settle- ment; no white man's voice cheered our hearts. It was to me a fine journey, for child as I was, I loved nature and her wildest scenery."
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Connecticut Honor Roll and Descendant Chapter Members.
ALLEN, DR. SILAS:
Hopple, Ida Remmele (Mrs. William H.).
CASE, JEREMIAH, JR .;
Abbott, Calena Titus (Mrs. Lorenzo);
Crum, Elvira Abbott (Mrs. Rolland);
Fry, Augusta Titus (Mrs. Frank J.);
Glenn, Inez Watson (Mrs. Howard A.);
Watson, Lettie L. (Mrs. Robert H. );
Watson, Flora Titus (Mrs. Oliver S.);
Watson, Helen S. (Miss); Watson, Delene Fry (Mrs. James D.).
CHANDLER, DAVID: Ink, Sibyl (Miss).
DAIUS, ASA:
Slutz, Esther Peterson (Mrs. Worthington B.).
HARRIS, CAPTAIN NATHANIEL: Brewer, Harriet Ensign Niles (Mrs. Albert L.).
PARSONS, LIEUT. JABEZ: Bacon, Lida Sexton (Mrs. Frank W.); Sexton, Cora Turner (Mrs. Henry).
PERKINS, ELNATHAN:
PERKINS, LIEUT. OBADIAH:
Harmon, Clara Hubbard (Mrs. Arthur D.);
Watson, Helen Clemence Hubbard (Mrs. Paul T.). SHAW, DAVID:
Chamberlin, Livonia Buell (Mrs. John W.); Robbins, Ellen Buell (Mrs. Theodore H.).
STARR, NICHOLAS:
Chamberlin, Livonia Buell (Mrs. John W.); Robbins, Ellen Buell (Mrs. Theodore H.). TERRY, EPHRIAM:
Chamberlin, Livonia Buell (Mrs. John W.); Robbins, Ellen Buell (Mrs. Theodore H.).
WARREN, CAPTAIN MOSES, SR .: Brewer, Harriet Ensign Niles (Mrs. Albert L.).
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RHODE ISLAND.
Rhode Island, in the days of the Revolution, seemed only a part of Connecticut, and on our Honor Roll we have but two names as having enlisted in the service from this Colony, both of them enlisting early in the War.
Silas Wheeler enlisted in April, 1775, in Field's Company, Hitchcock's Regiment of Rhode Island troops, and went to Cambridge in Green's Brigade, where he served until September 1775, when he volunteered to go with the expedition under Benedict Arnold, into Canada. He served as corporal in Captain Simeon Thayer's Regiment and was captured Decem- ber 31, 1775, in the assault on Quebec made by Arnold and Montgomery. He was confined as a prisoner until April, 1776, when he was exchanged. The sufferings he endured in the march through the Maine wilderness and the hardships of a prison did not prevent him again entering the service in the Regiment of Colonel John Topham.
Later, he served on a Man-of-War and was again taken prisoner, being confined in the jail at Kinsale, Ireland.
The Irish orator and patriot, Henry Grattan, aided him to escape to France, from where he returned to America.
Silas Wheeler had an only son, to whom he gave the name of the Irish patriot, and the name of Grattan has ever since been used as a family name by his descendants.
Aaron Davis, born in Westerly, Rhode Island, March 6, 1759, served in Colonel Joseph Noyes' Regiment; also in Cap- tain Benjamin Hopkins' Company, Colonel John Topham's Regiment. It is a well founded family tradition that he was in the Battle of Bunker Hill, though but sixteen years of age.
Peter Davis, who was born in England, came to America while very young. He married Mary Shorey, in Boston, in 1703, and soon afterward moved to Rhode Island. A history of Westerly says of him, "that he was educated by a Presby- terian and was a member of that church until his thirty-eighth year when he accepted the faith of the Friends and became a notable leader."
Hannah, the daughter of Aaron Davis, married William Avery Waterhouse. There is much of interest in the history
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of the Waterhouse family in America, though space permits us to give only a few facts in the careers of its members.
The first to arrive was Jacob, who was among the very earliest settlers of Weathersfield and New London, Connecticut. Dr. Waterhouse was a removed preacher of the Quakers, being what they called a Rogerine, or follower of Roger Williams.
The meeting-house near New London where he preached, still stands as does also the old farm house in which he lived. It does not occur often that one family in the Twentieth cen- tury can point to three buildings in which their ancestors dwelt and labored at so early a date. We have mentioned two, the third being "Hemstead House," built by Sir Richard Hempstead in 1643, and now standing in a splendid state of preservation at New London.
Mary Hempstead was the first white child born in New London Colony. She married Robert Douglas, and their daughter became the wife of Jacob Waterhouse, Jr., from whom descends William Avery, who married Hannah Davis.
It is of more than usual interest, this Centennial year of the victory of Oliver Hazard Perry, to know that he was a first cousin of Hannah Davis Waterhouse, and that they grew up together and attended the same school in Providence, Rhode Island.
Hannah Davis had two great uncles who were in the Ameri- can Navy during the Revolution-Oliver and Hazard. It was for these men that Commodore Perry was named, one of whom had the distinction of having his life saved by the captain of the vessel on which he was serving.
During a battle the young man was severely wounded and would have died except for the kindness and thoughtfulness of his superior officer, who tore the ruffles from his shirt to bind the young sailor's wounds.
Rhode Island Honor Roll and Descendant Chapter Members.
DAVIS, AARON:
Abbott, Maude Waterhouse (Mrs. Rush).
WHEELER, SILAS:
Baker, Eliza Ogden (Miss);
Sheldon, Florence Baker (Mrs. Henry E.).
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Some one has said of the Battle of Bennington, that "small as it was, it was in truth one of the decisive battles of the world," for this battle signed the doom of Burgoyne and culminated in his surrender at Saratoga, thus assuring the priceless French Alliance; and finally, the downfall of Cornwallis and the suc- cessful termination of the War.
Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, John Stark-these are familiar names in the roll of Revolutionary heroes. With their "Green Mountain Boys and Rangers," they performed some of the most daring and intrepid work of the War.
As we recall some of the details of the famous battle, we can still chuckle after a hundred and thirty-six years, at the way in which the immortal Stark, with his "Bennington Mob," as some people derisively called them, fooled the brilliant Ger- man leader of the British forces. Colonel Baum had been told that when he reached the Vermont and New Hampshire hills, that he would find hundreds of loyaltists ready to follow the British Standard; consequently when squads of a dozen or half a dozen of these picturesque yeomen were seen to march toward his rear, he took them to be loyalists who wished to join his army. By the time he discovered his mistake, Stark had him completely surrounded. In the attack that followed, these heroic yeomen, who wore no grand military attire, but only a sprig of ever-green or a corn husk in their hats, startled the world with the audacity and splendor of their deeds, and brought rejoicing to every American Patriot.
One of the men identified with that band of heroes, known as the Green Mountain Rangers, was Elisha Mack, of Gilsum, New Hampshire, who was Captain in Colonel Moses Nichols' Regiment of New Hampshire Militia, in General Stark's Brigade. Captain Mack is said to have been the second man to scale the Hessian Works at this renowned battle. A history of the Mack family says of him: "After the Revolution he was no less distinguished in civil life. It was chiefly to his talents as a civil engineer that the people of New England are indebted for those colossal granite dams that span the Connecticut River at Turner's Falls and Miller's Falls." He died suddenly
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in 1830, in Washington, where he had gone on business con- nected with Letters Patent for an improvement on the mod- ern canal lock.
Daniel, the son of Captain Elisha Mack, moved to Ohio and in 1816 settled in the village of Castalia, Erie County, Ohio, where he built the first grist mill erected on Cold Creek, and to which subsequently the farmers of Seneca county hauled their wheat and corn for grinding.
Daniel Mack died at Castalia in 1826, in the forty-second year of his life.
Josiah Avery, was also a Ranger, serving in Captain John Warner's Company, Lieutenant Colonel Henick's Regiment. It has always been a tradition in the family, that he served under Ethan Allen.
Jonathan, the son of Josiah, was in the War of 1812, in Captain Edmund B. Hill's Company of Volunteers, and was at the Battle of Plattsburg, September 11th, 1814.
Jonathan Avery had married Dorothy, daughter of True- worthy Dudley, who was born and lived in Exeter, New Hampshire. He served in the Revolution, enlisting in 1777, from Exeter, under Captain Norris in the Fourth Militia Regiment, for a term of three years. In August of the same year, he marched to Rhode Island with Colonel Moses Kelly's Regiment to join the Continental Army. While in active service in 1778, he died of consumption.
The Dudleys were among the first New England families- the first in America being Thomas Dudley, who was sent out in 1630 as Deputy Governor of Massachusetts Colony. He was later Governor from 1645 to 1650. His father, Roger Dudley, had been a Captain in Queen Elizabeth's army, and was slain while in battle in France.
The Rev. Samuel Dudley, son of the Governor, accepted a call to become the second Pastor of the Congregational church at Exeter, New Hampshire, and always afterward lived in Exeter. His son, born in 1700, was named Trueworthy, and the name was used for three generations. The first of the name was a Captain in the French and Indian war, who took part in the siege of Louisburg. His home in Exeter, was called the "Watch House," being used as a refuge from the Indians.
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We have given the record of the second of the name in the War of the Revolution.
Trueworthy Dudley III, the son of the II, and brother of Dorothy, wife of Josiah Avery, enlisted in the Revolution at the age of nineteen and served throughout the war, and was a pensioner.
Each of the Trueworthys married a Gilman. It has been stated that the Gilmans did more than any other one family to mould the opinions of the early colonists in New Hampshire.
The first Gilman came to America in 1638, in his own ves- sel, with his family and servants. The Hon. John Gilman was among the earliest to settle at Exeter, when in 1680 New Hamp- shire was separated from Massachusetts. He was appointed by the King as one of the Royal Councillors of the Province.
The house which he built is still standing in good repair. The Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at Exeter have placed a tablet on it, marked:
"Garrison house built by John Gilman about 1650."
We have still another name that is or should be, on our Honor Roll, who was also a brave soldier of the Revolution.
Benjamin Chandler gave his life at the battle of Bennington, being the only man killed from Tinmouth, New Hampshire, while his wife, Elizabeth Delano, melted her pewter platters to make bullets for the patriots.
This Chandler family descends in direct line from John and Priscilla Alden, and also from Captain Myles Standish. A magnificent monument has been erected at Bennington to commemorate this battle, in which three of our Honor Roll participated; and two of the cannon which were captured from the Germans and immediately turned upon the foe, now repose in the portico of the State Capitol at Montpelier.
Joseph Chandler, son of Benjamin, was from the very first a Minute Man in the Revolution, having marched to the relief of Boston in the Lexington Alarm. He enlisted in Captain Woodbridge's Company, Colonel Elmore's Regiment, April 16, 1776, and served until December of the same year, when he was granted a furlough by Colonel Elmore. On April 16, 1777, he re-enlisted for a period of three years in the Second Regi-
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ment, under Captain David Parsons, Colonel Charles Webb. He was discharged April 16, 1780. Before his re-enlistment he had served as Sergeant in the Eleventh Regiment of Militia at New York in 1776, and marched with Captain Caleb Clark to West Chester. He was captured by the British and con- fined in one of their terrible prison ships for some time. These prison ships were the most horrible feature of the Revolution.
Joseph Chandler received a pension from the Government, and spent the later years of his life with his son Hiram, at Otter Creek, Illinois, where he died October 4, 1844, at the age of ninety-three years.
William Moore, who was born in Londonderry, New Hamp- shire, in 1733, served two enlistments. He enlisted as private in 1775, in Captain (afterward Colonel) Leo Reid's Company, Colonel Stark's Regiment, and served in the siege of Boston, including Bunker Hill, until near the close of the War. He again enlisted, October 1777, in Captain Joseph Findlay's Company, and marched to Saratoga, joining the Northern Army. He died at Londonderry, February 13, 1812.
New Hampshire Honor Roll and Descendant Chapter Members.
AVERY, JOSIAH:
Runkle, Nellie May Smith (Mrs. Oliver O.);
Weaver, Etta Maude Smith (Mrs. J. K.).
CHANDLER, BENJAMIN:
CHANDLER, JOSEPH: Chandler, Mary Edna (Miss); Tillotson, Mabel Claire Chandler (Mrs. George S.).
DUDLEY, TRUEWORTHY:
Runkle, Nellie May Smith (Mrs. Oliver O.); Weaver, Etta Maude Smith (Mrs. J. K.).
MACK, CAPTAIN ELISHA:
Harmon, Margaret Snowden (Mrs. William); Jackson, Ethel Snowden (Mrs. George Cleo).
MOORE, WILLIAM: Clark, Ida E. Moore (Mrs. Charles S.); Clark, Florence (Miss).
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NEW YORK.
New York City was the seat of the English Government during the Revolution, and naturally there were gathered there those who were loyal to the Crown; and while there were many Patriots, there were probably more Tories in New York, than in any other of the Thirteen States.
However, though this Colony had not a Bunker Hill, a Lexington, or Concord, there were on her soil forty engagements and twenty-two battles. There are upon our Honor Roll, the names of at least ten who fought for Independence.
Ephriam Bennett served one year and seven months as a private in the war under Captain McCamley, Colonel Haw- thorne, for which services he made application for a pension in 1833. The wife of Ephriam Bennett was Hannah Bentley, and it is stated (sworn to) that her father, Green Bentley, was a Major in the Revolution.
To have served throughout the War, is a record of which one may well be proud. Such is the record of James Denton, Sr., who was born in Jamaica, Long Island, in 1718, and died in Newburgh, in 1799.
On October 11th, 1775, he was appointed Second Lieuten- ant of Captain Samuel Clark's Company, belonging to the Fourth Ulster county Regiment, New York State Militia, under Colonel Jonathan Hasbrouck. On March 9th, 1778, he was promoted to First Lieutenant of that Company, and again in June, 1780, he was made Captain of the same Company, vice Samuel Clark, promoted. The Regiment was then under the command of Colonel Johannes Jansen.
James Mott was appointed June 25th, 1778, as Ensign in the Company commanded by Captain Jonathan Weller, Sixth Dutchess County Regiment of New York State Militia, under Colonel Roswell Hopkins. This Regiment was in active ser- vice throughout the War.
James Mott was born at Hempstead, Long Island, January 13th, 1750, and died at Tucket's Hill, New York, in 1808.
Daniel House (Howse) served as a private in Captain God- frey's Company, Major Winslow's Regiment, New York State Militia.
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Daniel House was of Holland descent, but born in Orange county, New York, in 1762. He was drafted soon after the Battle of Bunker Hill. Not being able to go at once, a sub- stitute was hired in his place for three bushels of rye. The man was killed in an engagement the same day he entered the serv- ice; then Daniel reported for duty and remained throughout the War, serving under General Washington.
He was one of the party taking Burgoyne and Cornwallis, and was present at the hanging of Major Andre, the spy. At the close of the War he was given a land warrant, which he sold for twelve dollars, coming home bare-footed. This land for which the warrant was given, is the ground upon which a part of the City of Boston is built.
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