USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 52
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John Denison, second son of Captain George and Ann (Borradill) Denison, born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, June 14, 1646, married Phebe Lay, of Say- brook, Connecticut, and settled on his father's lands in Stonington.
George (2) Denison, son of John and Phebe (Lay) Denison, born at Ston- ington, Connecticut, March 28, 1671, graduated at Harvard, in 1693, and settled as an attorney at Stonington, where he married, in 1694, Mary, daughter of Daniel Wetherell, many years a justice of the county courts of New London county. He was born at Maidstone, county Kent, England, November 29, 1630, and came to Scituate, Massachusetts, with his father, William Wetherell, some time town clerk of that town. He married, August 4, 1659, Grace, daughter of Jonathan Brewster, and settled in Stonington, where he was successively, town clerk, justice, judge of the probate, and judge of the County Court. He was also a captain of Provincial forces in the Indian wars, and his tombstone rec- cords the fact that, "Here lyeth the body of Captn Daniel Wetherell, Esq. who died April ye 14th, 1719, in the 89th yeare of his age". His second child Mary, born October 7, 1668, married (first) Thomas Harris and (second) George Denison. George Denison was chosen clerk of the County Court it 1698, and held that office as well as that of recorder of the town of Stonington at his death, January 20, 1719-20. His brother, Robert Denison, was also prom- inent in public affairs, and was known as Captain Robert Denison. He died in 1737. Another Captain Robert Denison, son of Robert Denison, was com- missioned captain in the expedition against Cape Breton at the outbreak of the first French and Indian War, in 1744, and later rose to rank of major. He mar- ried Deborah Griswold, and in 1760 removed with his family to Nova Scotia. George and Mary (Wetherell) Denison had two sons, Daniel and Wetherell, and six daughters.
Daniel Denison, the father of Sarah (Denison) Latham, was one of the com- mittee appointed at a town meeting, in 1744, to memoralize the governor and
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assembly in reference to providing for the fortification of the harbor of New London against possible depredations of French war vessels.
William Latham, son of Captain William and Sarah (Denison) Latham, born in Groton, New London county, Connecticut, in 1765, died in Ledyard, in the same county, January 29, 1849. The English home of the Lathams is in Derby- shire. The word is a corruption of Laddum, which in the Danish language means Bainton. The family dates back to the Danish invasions. He was also a sol- dier in the Revolutionary War, but we have no definite record of his services. He married Sabra Ashby, born about 1762, died 1826, a descendant of Anthony Ashby, who settled in New London county in 1688, and died there in 1708. William and Sabra (Ashby) Latham had thirteen children, seven sons, Erastus, William, Henry, Daniel, Silas, James and John, and six daughters.
Erastus Latham, fourth child and eldest son, born January 9, 1793, married Hannah, daughter of Anthony and Hannah (Chipman) Fish, and they had three children, Eliza, the mother of Mrs. Edwin Lucius Walter, of whom pres- ently ; Mary Esther, married, in 1842, William Roper; Albert Latham, born in 1827, married Amanda Benjamin.
Eliza Latham, eldest child of Erastus and Hannah (Fish) Latham, born March 15, 1818, died October 15, 1891. She married (first) John Ustick, by whom she had two children, Thomas and John Ustick. She married (second) February 27, 1845, Wesley Reader, by whom she had four children, Ione Mary Reader, born October 27, 1845, now the wife of Edwin Lucius Walter; Theodore Reader, born September 2, 1847, married Mary Ketcham; Ira H. Reader, born September 25, 1856, married Clara Rounds ; and William E. Reader, born October 10, 1862, married Eva White, by whom he had one daughter, Irma Reader, born May 2, 1888, who has been adopted by Edwin Lucius and Ione Mary (Reader) Walter, who have no children of their own. Mrs. Walter is a Daughter of the Revolution in right of descent from William Latham, the first and second.
CHARLES RICHARDSON SMITH
The Colonial ancestor of Charles Richardson Smith, on the paternal side, was Sanford Smith, who was born at New London, Connecticut, April 13, 1779, died May 10, 1864. He was a son of Abner and Anna (Sanford) Smith, and was a blacksmith by trade. He married Fannie, daughter of James and Ursu- la (Brown) Moore, who was born December 6, 1786, died March 22, 1864. Sanford and Fannie ( Moore) Smith had seven children: Giles Sanford, John M., M. Freeman, Sidney M., Sarah Ann, H. Allen and James M. Smith.
GILES SANFORD SMITH, eldest son of Sanford and Fannie (Moore) Smith, was born at Warren, New York, February 17, 1810, and followed the occupa- tions of farmer, manufacturer and contractor. He married, May 22, 1840, An- nis Breed, who was born at Windsor, Vermont, May 28, 1816. Children : Fran- cis Marion, born February 16, 1841, married Frances E. Nettleton; Pomoreau D., born February 18, 1843; Edward J., born June 30, 1845; Charles Richard- son, see forward; Ella L., wife of L. S. Oakford; Frederic Eugene, born Oc- tober 22, 1857, died May 8, 1876.
The Breed family were among the first settlers of Pawkatuck, later Stoning- ton, Connecticut, and several generations of the family lie buried in the old graveyard on the banks of Wikesquak Creek, where the earliest pioneers of the settlement were interred.
The first American pioneer of the family was Alan Breed, born in England in 1601, died at Stonington, Connecticut, March 19, 1692.
ALLEN BREED, son of Alan Breed, born in England in 1626, died November 30, 1671. By his wife Mary, who survived him, he had a son.
JOHN BREED, son of Allen Breed, born January 18, 1663, died 1751 ; married as his second wife, January 8, 1690, Mercy Palmer, and had a son of the same name.
JOHN (2) BREED, son of John (1) Breed, born January 26, 1700, married, October II, 1728, Mary Prentiss, of another prominent New London and Ston- ington, Connecticut, family.
John (3) Breed, third of the name in successive generations, son of John (2) and Mercy (Prentiss) Breed, born at Stonington, Connecticut, September 5, 1729, married, May 19, 1750, Silence Grant.
OLIVER BREED, son of John (3) and Silence (Grant) Breed, was born at Stonington, Connecticut, February 6, 1757. He was a private in the company of Captain John Breed, probably his father, in 1775, and also in the company of Captain Oliver Smith, of New London, in the same year, serving in the Connecticut Militia. From May to November, 1776, he served as a private in Captain Abel Squire's company, and from January to April, 1777, in Colonel Ripley's regiment, Connecticut Militia, and from August 3, 1778, to September 2, 1778, was in the service of the United States as a private in Captain Samuel Wheeler's company, in the regiment commanded by Colonel Samuel Chapman. He served for two weeks in the Continental service on Long Island in October.
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1779, as shown by the records of the United States War Department, and from the same source we learn that he was lieutenant-sergeant of Captain A. Gallup's company, Connecticut Militia, October to December, 1782. From the records of the Pension Department, through which he was granted a pension on March 4, 1831, we learn that he was also corporal of Captain B. Leffingill's company in 1777. The war department also credits him with service as a private on board an armed sloop.
From these fragmentary records, supported by family tradition and records, it appears that he served as a private and non-commissioned officer from the beginning of the Revolutionary War to its close. The records giving only the period of service when the militia regiments were called in the National ser- vice, the intervening period when the militia was employed for home defense and state service, being omitted. After the close of the Revolutionary War, Oliver Breed removed with his family to Volney, New York. He died there July 13, 1834. He married Grace Green.
HENRY GREEN BREED, son of Oliver and Grace (Green) Breed, was born at Stonington, Connecticut, March 10, 1781. He removed with his parents to Volney, New York, and died there July 2, 1828. He married, at Halifax, Ver- mont, June 10, 1801, Eleanor Fish, who was born July 15, 1783, died at Vol- ney, New York, January 4, 1845. For a considerable period succeeding their marriage, Henry G. and Eleanor (Fish) Breed resided in Vermont, where their several children were born.
CHARLES RICHARDSON SMITH, son of Giles Sanford and Annis (Breed) Smith, was born at Volney Center, Orange county, New York, July 11, 1847, died June 28, 1909. He was educated at the public schools of that section. At the age of seventeen years, August 8, 1864, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Eighty- fourth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and went to the front in defense of the Union. He participated in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, his regiment being attached to the Sixth Corps, First Brigade, Third Division, com- manded by General H. G. Wright. This campaign terminated at the battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, October 19, 1864, when the Confederates under Gen- eral Early were completely routed and driven southward. In November, 1864, the One Hundred and Eighty-fourth New York Regiment was transferred to the Army of the James, with which it was connected until the close of the war. Mr. Smith was discharged with the disbandment of his regiment on June 29, 1865, and then took up his residence in Fulton, New York, where he engaged in the insurance business. In 1873 he removed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and established himself there in the same business, in which he has since been actively engaged.
Mr. Smith married, in 1887, Nellie, daughter of John D. and Emma (Lathrop) Fuller, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, both of Connecticut ancestry. She died June 4, 1910. Charles R. and Nellie (Fuller) Smith had five children: Kenneth Ful- ler, born September 12, 1888; Mildred Fuller, born May 24, 1890; Ruth Fuller, born November 1, 1891; Philip Lathrop, born February 23, 1895: Allen Breed, born August 7, 1896.
GEORGE SANDERSON
The Sandersons are among the old Massachusetts families, where the records show them as early as 1643. By marriage and intermarriage they relate to many of the old and prominent families of New England, the Kingsburys, Spald- ings, Brownes, Gardners and others. The Revolutionary ancestor of George Sanderson was Captain Simon Spalding, who enlisted from Pennsylvania and saw much active service. He attained the rank of captain in the Revolutionary army, and afterward was made a general of militia by which title he was more generally known.
EDWARD SANDERSON, the progenitor of the family in America, is mentioned in early records, found in Hampton, Massachusetts, from which place he removed to Watertown, Massachusetts, as early as 1643, where, October 15, 1645, he mar- ried Mary Eggleston. He was of English descent, but it is not known whether he was born in England or in Massachusetts. The best evidence is that he was born in England and was the first of the name to come to America.
DEACON JONATHAN SANDERSON, son of Edward Sanderson, was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, September 15, 1646. He married, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 24, 1669, Abiah, youngest daughter of Ensign Thomas and Hannah ( Bartlett) Bartolf, of Watertown. They had issue. He died Sep- tember 3, 1673.
SAMUEL SANDERSON, sixth child of Deacon Jonathan Sanderson, was born May 28, 1681. He married, April 13, 1708, Mercy Gale, and settled in Water- town. He was killed by a stroke of lightning, July 8, 1722.
ABRAHAM SANDERSON, son of Samuel Sanderson, was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, March 28, 1711. He married, December 6, 1733, Patience Smith, and they were the parents of thirteen children. They settled in Lunenburg, Mas- sachusetts.
JACOB SANDERSON, fourth child of Abraham Sanderson, was born in 1738. He married Elizabeth Child and had four children.
JACOB (2) SANDERSON, son of Jacob ( I) Sanderson, married Elizabeth Childs and had issue. They resided in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.
JACOB (3) SANDERSON, youngest child of Jacob (2) Sanderson, was born Oc- tober 17, 1780, in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and died December 14, 1853. He married, November 12, 1807, Jerusha, daughter of Captain Lemuel Gardner, of Boston, and settled in that city. Captain Gardner was the first commander of that famous military organization, The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- pany of Boston. Jerusha Sanderson died June 18, 1843.
HON. GEORGE SANDERSON, second son of Jacob (3) Sanderson, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, February 25, 1810, and died in Scranton, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1886. He was educated at the Boston Latin School. After leaving school he went to New York City for a time and was employed in the store of a relative. From there he went to Geneva, New York. He married a daugh- ter of Colonel Joseph Kingsbury, a large land owner of Sheshequin, Bradford
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county, Pennsylvania. This led Mr. Sanderson to Towanda, the county seat, where he entered upon the practice of law. He soon became known as one of the leading lawyers of the county. He was elected district attorney and served for six years, resigning to attend to his large private business. Entering active- ly into political life, he was elected state senator from Bradford county in 1853. Here in that year he made the acquaintance of Colonel George W. Scranton, with whom he co-operated in securing needed legislation, which was deemed necessary to insure the future of the then infant city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Mr. Sanderson visited that growing city in 1854 and in the following year pur- chased the Elisha Hitchcock farm, built a handsome residence, and soon after became a resident of Scranton. The site of his first residence is now covered by the magnificent building of the Scranton Young Men's Christian Association. His first business enterprise in Scranton was the organization of the banking house of George Sanderson & Company, the firm consisting of himself and brother-in-law, Burton Kingsbury. This was a private bank, that later was merged with the Lackawanna Valley Bank and still later into its present corporate torm, The Lackawanna Trust & Safe Deposit Company, one of the strong, con- servative, financial institutions of Scranton. He personally threw himself with all his energy into the development of Scranton, as a real estate proposition. He laid out and graded beautiful streets, through what was then farm property, and the result of his activity may now be seen on Washington, Adams and Wyoming avenues from Spruce to Vine streets, and in the handsome homes and beautiful grounds of the residential sections of Scranton. He donated the lots upon which the high school building is erected, and aided churches and public philanthropies. He was twice elected burgess of Scranton before it became a city. Having disposed of most of the Hitchcock farm, he decided to retire from active busi- ness and soon after removed to Germantown, Pennsylvania. He could not, however, get completely out of the harness, and soon afterward became presi- dent of a coal company with offices in Philadelphia. Selling out to the Read- ing Coal Company, he returned to Scranton and purchased a tract of land in the northern portion of the city, now called Green Ridge. By the construction of the Scranton & Providence street railroad, he drew to the new suburb a delightful community of taste and refinement ; he erected a mansion and continued to re- side there until his death.
George Sanderson married, at Sheshequin, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, Marion W. Kingsbury, born September 30, 1816, died at Scranton, Pennsyl- vania, June 23, 1886, soon following her husband, who died in April of the same year. She was daughter of Colonel Joseph Kingsbury, of Sheshequin, Brad- ford county, Pennsylvania. Four children survived Mr. and Mrs. George Sand- erson ; James Gardner, George, see forward, Anna K. and Marion ( Mrs. Edward B. Sturgess). Hon. George Sanderson died universally regretted. He was a sound, safe, public-spirited man. To him Scranton owes a debt of grati- tude for a wise and artistic development of her suburbs and residence streets. His sons have worthily maintained their father's reputation and are active business men of Scranton. James Gardner, the eldest son, was born in Towanda, Brad- ford county, Pennsylvania, and has lived the greater part of his life in Scranton ; he is a graduate of Van Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, and by pro- fession a civil engineer; he was interested in the Union Switch and Signal
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Company before it became a Westinghouse property, and in the early develop- ment of Portland Cement manufacture; the rotary kiln was first used by him; he is at present superintendent and secretary of the Forest Hill Cemetery Asso- ciation. He married Eliza McBrair, of New York.
COLONEL GEORGE (2) SANDERSON, second son of Hon. George (1) Sanderson, was born at Towanda, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, August 22, 1847, and for over half a century has been a resident of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was graduated from the Scranton high school and from the Pennsylvania Military Academy at Chester, Pennsylvania. He read law in Philadelphia under the preceptorship of Samuel Robb; entered Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated, class 1869, at the unusual age of twenty-two. He practiced his profession in Philadelphia for two years; in 1873 located permanently in Scran- ton, where he was soon recognized as a lawyer of high qualifications and one well versed in the law. He was the leading attorney in several important cases. notably : Sanderson versus the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad and the Delaware and Hudson railroad, in which he obtained establishment of the legal principle, that lease of coal lands in perpetuity was in effect a sale and that the lessee, as a consequence, was liable for the taxes. This was a far-reaching decision, affecting all perpetual coal land leases in the state, and was appealed to the Supreme Court, who affirmed the validity of the principle, for which Colonel Sanderson contended at every stage in the lower courts. While always actively engaged in his professional work, he has other and varied important interests. He has long been a director and vice-president of the Lackawanna Trust & Safe Deposit Company, the oldest in the city. He succeeded his father in the man- agement of his Green Ridge property, the beautiful suburb of Scranton. He has been since his father's death president of the Forest Hill Cemetery Associa- tion, and gave eight years of membership to the National Guard of Pennsylvania, from which he gains his title of colonel. He first served with the Scranton City Guards, afterward merged into the Thirteenth Regiment, as a private of Com- pany D. He was the warm advocate of rifle practice for the guard; served upon the governor's staff, as inspector of rifle practice, and in that position was instru- mental in developing that feature of the service to a degree that attracted to Pennsylvania the favorable criticism of National guardsmen, all over the coun- try. For eight years Colonel Sanderson served the Thirteenth ward in Scran- ton Select Council, a large part of the time as president of it, and until recently was president of the sinking fund commission. For the past decade he has given little attention to his profession, devoting his time to his business inter- ests and to recreation. Colonel Sanderson is an influential Republican, but not an office seeker, but beyond the demands of his city and her interests he has nev- er entertained any proposition that involves a personal office holding. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a Knight Templar. His social clubs are the Scranton, Country, Green Ridge Wheelmen, Germantown Cricket, University of Philadelphia, and the New England Society of North Eastern Pennsylvania, of which he is an ex-president.
Colonel George Sanderson married, November 28, 1871, Lucy Reed Jackson, born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 30, 1846, daughter of Charles and Maria Louisa (Reed) Jackson, of the ninth generation from the emigrant ancestor, Abraham Browne, of Swan Hall, England. Children of Colonel and Mrs.
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George Sanderson: 1. Edward Spalding, a graduate of Cornell University engaged in business at Waterbury, Connecticut; married Frederika Catlin and has a son Edward. 2. Charles Reed, a graduate of Cornell University, engaged in business in Elmira, New York; married Edith S. Brooks. 3. James Gardner, a graduate of Cornell University and of the Chicago Law School, a practicing lawyer of Scranton; married Beatrice D. Tyler and has a son, James Gardner Sanderson Jr. 4. Helen Louise. 5. Marion K. 6. George Jr., a junior in law department, Cornell University.
(The Kingsbury Line)
The Kingsbury family, with which Colonel George Sanderson is connected, through maternal descent, was founded in America by George Kingsbury, who came from England in 1630 and settled at Haverhill, Massachusetts. He was the father of eight children, of which Joseph, the seventh, was the head of the second generation.
Lieutenant Joseph Kingsbury, son of George Kingsbury, the emigrant, was born in the year 1656 at Haverhill, Massachusetts. He removed to Norwich, West Farms, now Franklin county, Connecticut. His title of lieutenant was gained in militia service against the Indians. He married, April 12, 1679, Love, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Ayer, of Haverhill. Lieutenant Joseph Kings- bury, died April 2, 1741, and his wife died April 24, 1735.
Captain Nathaniel Kingsbury, son of Lieutenant Joseph Kingsbury, was born at Norwich, Connecticut. He married, in 1709, Hannah Dennison, after which he settled in Andover, Connecticut, where he died September 18, 1763; his wife died April 14, 1772.
Deacon Joseph (2) Kingsbury, son of Captain Nathaniel Kingsbury, was born at Hampton, Massachusetts, May 27, 1721. He settled first in Tolland and next in Enfield, Connecticut. He was a rigid Calvinist in religion and a deacon for many years of the Presbyterian church. He married, March 5, 1745, Mary, daughter of Sergeant Thomas and Sarah Looms, of Bolton, Connecticut.
Lemuel Kingsbury, son of Deacon Joseph (2) Kingsbury, was born in Bolton, Connecticut, November 13, 1752. He married, December 23, 1773, Alice, daugh- ter of Samuel and Mary Terry, of Enfield.
Colonel Joseph (3) Kingsbury, son of Lemuel Kingsbury, was born in Enfield, Connecticut, May 19, 1774-75, and died June 22, 1849. In 1795 he removed west and settled at Sheshequin, then in Bradford county, Pennsylvania. He mar- ried, February 1, 1771, Anna, daughter of General Simon and Ruth (Shepherd ) Spalding, and among their ten children was Marion W., who became the wife of Hon. George Sanderson and the mother of Colonel George Sanderson (see Sanderson).
(The Spalding Line)
There are three branches of the Spalding family in America. The progenitor of one branch came from Scotland and settled in Georgia. The other two came from Lincolnshire, England. One of these settled in Maryland, and from him sprang Archbishop Martin John Spalding, of Baltimore. The ancestor of the Pennsylvania family was Edward Spalding Sr., who came from the town
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of Spalding, England, to America, between the years 1630-33. His name first appears on the records of the town of Braintree, Massachusetts. His first wife, Margaret, died there in the year 1640. Edward Spalding was made a freeman of Braintree, Massachusetts, May 16, 1640. As membership of the Established Church was a requisite condition to become a freeman, this establishes his church connection. On October 1, 1645, his name is included in a petition to the general court of Massachusetts, to have a new town set off from Braintree, for settlement. This petition mentions the names of Samuel and John Adams, showing Braintree to have been included in the town of Quincy. Edward Spald- ing's name next appears in connection with the settlement of Chelmsford. The second petition was granted by the General Court, May 18, 1665. The northern boundary of the town on petition of Edward Spalding and others was extended to the Merrimac river. The extension was called New Field, and the records show Edward Spalding was a proprietor. This New Field as well as a part of Chelmsford is now included in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. A small set- tlement on the Merrimac called Wamesett was annexed to Chelmsford in 1728, and among the forty-six proprietors was Edward Spalding Jr., Joseph Spalding, John Spalding Jr., Joseph Spalding, Benjamin Spalding and Andrew Spalding, the five sons and two grandsons of Edward Spalding Sr. Edward Spalding re- moved to Chelmsford about the time of the first settlement of that town in 1653, and at the first town meeting, November 22, 1654, was chosen selectman. He was re-elected in 1656-60-61. In 1663 he was surveyor of New Field. From the descendants of Edward Spalding, there went out from Chelmsford, Massa- chusetts, to Plainfield, Connecticut, an emigration of about seventeen hundred souls.
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