USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Pittsford > History of the town of Pittsford, Vt., with biographical sketches and family records > Part 15
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
born February 12, 1762. In 1778, Capt. Benjamin Cooley went to Greenwich to see his family, (who, it will be recol- lected, had gone there for safety the year before,) and as he was about to return to Pittsford, he urged his youngest brother to accompany him. Their father, as a special inducement to go, offered to give him one hundred acres of the wild lands in Pittsford. He consented to go, for a few months, and the two brothers resided together, cooking their own provisions and living mostly on wild meat and corn bread. The corn used had either to be pulverized in a mortar, or carried to Charles- town or Bennington to be ground, as neither of the grist-mills in this town was then in a condition to do work.
Although Caleb spent considerable time here, he did not make Pittsford his home till 1780, when he became a member of his brother's family, and from that time till the close of the war, he served under Benjamin in most of the latter's move- ments as an officer. From his youth he had shown himself strictly honest and faithful in the discharge of every known duty, and when called into military service these traits of char- acter were duly appreciated by his commander. He was conse- quently assigned to places of great responsibility. After the close of the war he devoted himself to improvements upon a lot of land of which he had obtained possession, and which was located directly west of the lot which had been surveyed to, and was then occupied by Nehemiah Hopkins, and now (1871) , owned by H. F. Lothrop. He made the first clearing on the high ground near the intervale and about one hundred rods west of the residence of Nehemiah Hopkins. In the spring of 1784, he commenced the construction of a plank house upon the small clearing he had made, and on the 6th day of May married Elizabeth Sanford of Weybridge, and at once com- menced to occupy the unfinished house. Miss Sanford, the bride, was a lady of rare excellence of character, and had passed through scenes of suffering and affliction such as have
187
CAPTURE OF THOMAS SANFORD.
seldom fallen to the lot of women, even in the settlement of new countries. She was born April 26, 1762, and was a daughter of Thomas Sanford, who was among the first settlers of Weybridge, (in 1775,) and was among those who shared the disasters attending the settlement of that township. One Sabbath morning in the month of November, while Elizabeth, the subject of this notice, was milking a cow near her father's house, she was suddenly startled by the hideous noise of a party of Indians and tories who were rushing directly towards her. She rose, and, at the sight of her fiendish assailants, was so amazed that she stood motionless for a few moments and then, fainting, fell upon the ground. The Indians took the pail and drank the milk. They then went into the house, made her father and younger brother prisoners, and having split the cradle into small pieces they piled them up in the middle of the room and set the pile on fire. They then told the women they might leave the premises, if they would not inform their neighbors. The destroyers carried the feather beds out of the house, and having ripped open the ticks, scattered the feathers in every direction. Mrs. Sanford had what was very uncommon at that early day-two silk dresses. The Indians seized them, tore them into shreds, which they tied upon the ends of long poles, and raising these in the air, they ran with them about the premises, exulting to see the fragments of silk fluttering in the breeze. One fierce-looking Indian took Mrs. Sanford's infant child and was about to dash its head against a stone, but the earnest pleadings of its mother touched his heart, and he restored it unharmed to her arms. The other families in the township shared a similar fate. The Indians killed all the cattle in the neighborhood or drove them to the British army, made all the men prisoners and took them to Quebec, and left the women and children to take care of themselves. These lingered in the vicinity a few days, not knowing which way to turn ; but as their stock of provisions had been destroyed or
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
carried off by the enemy, they were soon reduced to great distress. In a solitary wilderness, far away from friends and human habitations, with no means of support and at such an inclement season of the year, their condition was truly deplor- able, and no wonder they were upon the verge of despair. One afternoon while upon the bank of the Creek, they descried in the distance two canoes descending the stream. Not knowing whether those canoes contained friends or foes they watched them with breathless anxiety, but as they drew near their fears were dissipated as they received a friendly greeting. The boat- men proved to be a scouting party from Pittsford fort sent out to watch the movements of the enemy. The boats were small, but all were taken into them, except Elizabeth, Miriam and Robert Sanford; the latter, a lad of thirteen years of age, was first taken away by the Indians, but not being able to endure the journey, he was sent back. Those in the boats reached Pittsford fort the following night, and before morning one of the women was delivered of a child. The three others, accom- panied by two soldiers, set out on foot for the same place, but they only reached Sudbury the first night where they encamped, and the next day they arrived at the fort. Elizabeth Sanford had been noted for her industry from her youth, and she was now more than ever anxious to do something to support herself and other members of the family. Mr. Arnold of Clarendon was at the fort a few days after the Sanford family arrived there, and Elizabeth made known to him her desire to obtain employment. He told her he would hire her if she could ride to his home, some seventeen miles, on a man's saddle, he being on horseback. She replied that she had helped her father break many a colt, and was ready to mount the saddle. She did so and rode to Clarendon, Mr. Arnold walking by her side. She spent one year in Mr. Arnold's family and then went to live in Mr. Asa Hale's family in Rutland, so that she could be nearer her mother. The Hale family, at that time, fearful of
189
ELIZABETH SANFORD.
an Indian attack, did not sleep in the house through the night, but retired to an out cellar; and Miss Sanford, in after life, related many an anecdote connected with that secluded noctur- nal abode. After spending a few months there she went to Mr. Kent's, in Benson, in whose family she remained one year, and then returned to Rutland to visit her mother. While there her father, from whom nothing had been heard during his cap- tivity, returned from Quebec, and was on his way to Weybridge in pursuit of his family. Calling at Mr. Rawson's, then living near where J. M. Goodnough now resides, he there received the first intelligence concerning his family. They soon met face to face, and we can easily imagine that it was a joyful greeting. After this meeting Elizabeth went to work in the family of Capt. Cooley of Pittsford, on the expressed condi- tions that her compensation should be in provisions, and paid to her father to assist him in the support of his family which he was about to collect and then return to Weybridge. Elizabeth did not return with the rest of the family, but remained at Capt. Cooley's till she was married to his brother Caleb, as already mentioned.
As she had labored to support herself and other members of her father's family, she had little furniture, but in that age of simplicity a little supplied all their wants-they were con- tented and happy. The house in which the earlier part of their wedded life was spent, was nearly square in form, and contained only one room on the first floor, with a small chamber above. At one end was a stone fire-place and chimney. On one side of the chimney was a pantry, and on the other a flight of stairs leading to the attic or chamber. As but little land had been brought into a state of cultivation, the hay crop the first year was small and this was stacked near the house. Their stock the first season consisted of one cow, a pair of oxen and six sheep, which were protected to some extent from the cold of winter by a rude temporary shelter, which in 1787, gave
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
place to a barn of sufficient capacity to contain both hay and stock. The first spring following their marriage, their stock of provisions running low, Mr. Cooley went to Middlebury to labor a short time, in order to obtain funds to renew their sup- ply. In his absence Mrs. Cooley had the care of their stock, and on one occasion she ascended the hay-stack to obtain a sup- ply for the animals, and while there a fierce wolf came howling about the stack, and endeavored to reach Mrs. Cooley. She kept him at bay with her pitchfork till assistance arrived. They continued to reside there till November, 1794, when they removed to the farm now owned and occupied by their two daughters, Ruth and Ann. The land forming this farm was pitched by Mr. Cooley March 30, 1783, and lay directly east and adjoining the lot owned by Stephen Jenner. It was sur- veyed as a "part of the original rights of Benajah Huntly and Nathan Jewett, being fifty-five acres of the third division of each of said rights." This was surveyed by Samuel Beach, County Surveyor, assisted by Nehemiah Hopkins and Stephen Jenner.
The house was commenced in the summer of 1794, and was occupied the following winter, though only partially completed. The next season it was clapboarded and otherwise improved, so that it was one of the best residences at that time in the town. Mr. Cooley fell a victim to the malignant fever which prevailed in 1813, and died Feb. 13th, in the triumphs of the Christian faith. Few men have left a better record or been more generally respected ; he was a kind husband and father, a highly esteemed neighbor and townsman, a man of large sympathies embracing the poor and lowly, faithful and con- scientious in the discharge of every duty, and as the result of this, he was frequently promoted to offices of trust and respon- sibility.
Jonathan Dike, Peter Rice and Phineas Ripley located in this town in 1781.
191
JONATHAN DIKE-PETER RICE.
Jonathan Dike was from Coventry, Conn., and had married, December 28, 1775, Esther, daughter of Dan Barnard, Sen., of that town. He purchased of Joseph Lyman one hundred and ten acres of land in the southeasterly part of the township of Pittsford, which land bordered upon and lay south of what is now called Burr Pond. The deed of this purchase was dated March 6, 1780. It is not certain that he made any improvements upon this land, but a few months later he came in possession of what is now the farm owned by Hawkins Hart. How he obtained this we are not informed, as no record of the deed or pitch is to be found upon the Proprietors' books; but that he owned it is evident from the fact that he afterwards sold it with the improvements to David Stark. Having built a small house Mr. Dike came here with his family in 1781, but three years later he removed to Chittenden and spent the remainder of his days on the farm now owned by Aretas Ranney.
Peter Rice was, undoubtedly, a descendant of Edmund who was born in Barkhamstead, South Britain, in 1596, came to Massachusetts, took the freeman's oath May 13, 1640, and was one of the first Proprietors of Sudbury. He had eight sons, and from these have sprung most of the Rice families in New England. We have not been able to trace the genealogy of Peter Rice, but in his first deed of land in Pittsford in 1780, embracing fifty-five acres-a part of the farm now owned by Royal Hall -he is said to be "of Guilford, Cumberland County, Vt.," and if so, quite likely he was a son of Micah Rice who was the first settler of that township in 1760. Peter was born July 14, 1745, married Margaret, born November 13, 1757, widow of Job Winslow, and daughter of Benjamin Cooley, Sen., of Greenwich, Mass. He made the first improvements on the farm now owned by Mr. Hall, commenced to reside there in 1781, and remained there till 1789, when he bought of Nathan- iel Pinney one hundred acres of land south of Stephen Mead's.
192
HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
To secure payment Pinney took a mortgage deed of the land to the amount of £74. 8s., and this is the first mortgage found on the town records. Pinney never resided here, but was of Dutchess Co., N. Y., and bought this land on speculation of Stephen Mead, in 1773. This lot included the farm now owned by Ransom Burditt. Mr. Rice built a small house about where the brick house now stands, and into this he removed his family a few months after he had made the purchase.
Phineas Ripley was born in Windham, Conn., where his early life was spent. He came to Bennington, Vt., sometime during the Revolutionary war and enlisted in the army. He was soon appointed Sergeant Major, and served as such in the battle of Bennington. How long he continued in the army we are not informed, but he married Experience, daughter of Samuel Montague, and located in Pittsford, on the farm now owned by S. T. Fenton. If the deed of this land was ever recorded the record has been lost, and consequently we have no means of knowing who was the original Proprietor, or the number and division of the lot. His first clearing was on the east side of the brook* and he resided there in a log house till 1802, when he built the house now owned and occupied by Mr. Fenton.
Eleazer Warner, Amasa Ladd, John Tupper and sons, Simon and Ebenezer, and Amos Kellogg located here in 1782.
Eleazer Warner was the son of Eleazer and Esther (Smith) Warner and was born in Granby, Mass., Sept. 13, 1755. He had for brothers, Elisha and Seth, and for sisters, Mary and Esther. Eleazer came to Pittsford in 1782, and the following year married Hannah, daughter of William Cox. He resided two or three years on the farm of his father-in-law and then purchased a lot of land in the south part of Sugar Hollow- now known as the Lampson place. He built the first house north of the bridge and resided there till 1792, when he bought
*This house stood about forty rods east of the house now owned by Mr. Fenton.
193
AMASA LADD-JOHN TUPPER.
of Gideon Cooley the lot now known as the Bishop Booth place. He made the first improvements and built the house on that farm, and resided there till his death in 1835.
Amasa Ladd came here from Chittenden where he had resided sometime with his brother, Nathaniel Ladd, who was one of the early settlers of that township. He married Elizabeth, daughter of William Cox, from whom he received as a gift, one hundred and ten acres of land on the right of Joshua Johnson, the deed being dated Nov. 16, 1782. Two days later this land was pitched (surveyed) in the southeasterly part of the town- ship near what is known as Ladd Hollow. Mr. Ladd never occupied this land, but on the 3d day of Nov. 1784, he bought of Gideon Cooley one hundred acres which included the farm now owned by Abner T. Reynolds. He made the first clearing about sixty rods southeast of the site of the house now on that farm, and there he built a log house which he occupied till he built the present house, about 1790. This is now one of the oldest houses in the town. In the year 1800, he sold this farm to Simeon Gilbert and removed with his family to Malone, N. Y., or near there, where he died. His widow afterwards married Aaron Miller of Rutland, and she died in that town.
We know little of the Tupper family. That they were in this town in 1782, the records conclusively show, though we are unable to fix their exact place of residence. John and his son Simeon purchased of Ebenezer Lyman fifty acres of land here as early as 1776, and it was surveyed by Thomas Baldwin on the 14th of October, as a part of the third division of the right of Aaron Deniho. This included a part of what is now the farm owned by John R. Barnes. In the spring of 1782, they commenced a clearing and built a house about twenty rods from the site of Mr. Barnes' house, and on the east side of the present highway. The family came here some time the follow- ing summer, and we are informed that they were from Worcester County, Mass. On the 10th of October, 1785, they purchased
14
194
HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
of Jonathan Fassett one hundred acres, a second-division lot of the right of Samuel Whittlesey. It appears that this land was adjoining the fifty acres they had before purchased.
December 15, 1786, John Tupper conveyed his interest in the rights of Deniho and Whittlesey to his son Simeon, with whom he resided till his death which took place a few years later. Before he came here he had been a soldier in the French and Revolutionary wars, and had performed important labor in the service of his country. He was one of the early members of the Congregational Church in Pittsford, and being skilled in vocal music, he was chosen by the choir as their chorister, a position which he held several years. Simeon was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and we are informed that he was under Warner in the battle of Hubbardton. His connection with the army was mostly in the capacity of a fifer. Ebenezer made the first improvements on the farm now owned by Eliza Connell. He built the house about the year 1794, married Lois Bisby, and resided several years on that farm. John, the father, died in Pittsford, but the two sons moved to New York.
The Kellogg family is of English descent. Joseph Kellogg, the father of Amos, was born in the year 1731, in the vicinity of Lebanon, Connecticut, and married Mary Cushman who was born in that vicinity in 1732. The date of their marriage is not now known, but their eldest child Amos, the subject of this notice, was born in what was then called Lebanon Goshen, July 7, 1760. He had five brothers, viz. : Joseph, Isaac, Edward, Elijah and Frederick; and one sister, Lucy, who mar- ried Thomas Sanford of Weybridge-she who was the mother of Mrs. Caleb Cooley, of whom some account has been given. Joseph Kellogg, the father, moved to Bennington, Vt., with his family before the Revolutionary war, and after its close he located in Castleton, and subsequently in Weybridge where he lived with his son Joseph, who had married and settled in that
195
KELLOGG FAMILY.
township. About the year 1805, he and his wife came to Pittsford to reside with their son Amos, and lived here five or six years, then moved to the town of Henderson, Jefferson County, N. Y., where they again resided with their son Joseph who had removed there from Weybridge. They died in that town, very near together, in 1824 or 1825, having lived together in their married state over seventy years. Isaac, their son, married and settled in Weybridge, where he was killed by being blown from a building about the year 1800. Edward died in Hubbardton, March 7, 1830, aged fifty-nine years, and during the latter part of his life he was a cripple from the effects of disease brought on by exposure in building the Castleton turnpike. Joseph died in Henderson about the year 1827. Frederick married and settled in Canada East, where he died about the year 1828, leaving several children.
Elijah Kellogg, at the age of about fifteen years, was hired out to work and pay an old debt of his father's, which did not exactly please him, and he made up his mind to abscond; so he and a cousin, son of his uncle Preserved Kellogg, of Castleton, took French leave, and neither of them were heard of for nearly thirty years. About the year 1820, his brother Joseph, by some means, heard of a man living in Kingston, Canada, across Lake Ontario from Henderson, by the name of Elijah Kellogg. He went to that place to ascertain whether this man was his lost brother, and to his great satisfaction found he was. He returned home and informed his parents that he had found the long-lost son and brother, which information caused them great joy, and they insisted that the son, who then had a wife and several small children, should be invited and entreated to remove to Henderson. Elijah complied with their request and removed to Henderson where he resided till after the death of his parents, and then he returned to Canada. His cousin, who . left this section of country with him, afterwards became a
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
merchant in the city of New York, where he now lives and has a family.
Amos Kellogg, on the 19th of March, 1777, then in the seventeenth year of his age, enlisted as a waiter for Capt. Brownson, in Col. Warner's regiment of Continental troops, in the Revolutionary war, and served as waiter, soldier and sergeant in that regiment until 1781, when he was offered a Lieutenant's commission by the Vermont Board of War. On application for a discharge Col. Warner consented to give him a furlough, but not a discharge from the regiment. He was never recalled nor discharged. But he served as a commis- sioned officer of some grade under appointment of the Vermont Board of War until the close of the revolutionary contest, being connected with the army about six years. He was sick with the measles in Fort Ticonderoga, at the time that fortress was evacuated by St. Clair, and consequently he did not par- ticipate in the battle of Hubbardton; but he ran the risk of exposure in traveling to Bennington rather than be taken by the British. He soon recovered, joined his company and took an active part in the battle of Bennington.
He married Lucretia, daughter of Eleazer Harwood, Decem- ber 7, 1780, he being at that time twenty years and seven months old, and she being sixteen years and nine months. Mrs. Kellogg remained with her parents and with her husband in camp until December, 1782, when they came to Pittsford, and located on the farm where they lived till they died.
That farm, now the home of his son, Hon. Samuel H. Kellogg, was then in a state of nature, not a tree cut nor a house built. It was a second-division lot of the ministerial right, and fell to his father-in-law, Rev. Eleazer Harwood, of whom he afterwards bought it, the deed being dated April 24, 1789.
They came to Pittsford on horseback, with two horses,
197
AMOS KELLOGG-ELISHA RICH.
bringing their bed, all they had of household goods, also a sister of Mrs. Kellogg, a young girl, on the horses' backs. For several years, while clearing up the land, they fared very hardly, but "stuck and hung, having the pluck of revolutionists." Having been an officer in the army, Mr. Kellogg was appointed to the office of Major, and soon rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Vermont Militia. His training bills were no small draft upon his income, and to meet these he sat up nights, boiled and made salts which he carried to Bennington and exchanged for money. He always made it a rule to lose no time from his farm work, but time spent in training was made up on the farm, either before or after the day of training, and in that way he was able to keep along in the military line without embarrassment. At that time the officers were expected to treat the soldiers with liquor, and at one general muster he had to furnish a barrel of rum for them on parade. Mrs. Kellogg, too, cheerfully did what she could to assist her husband, she being of a military turn, as might be expected, from the fact of her having married a soldier in the army, when only sixteeen years of age.
The following persons are known to have purchased land and located here in 1783, viz .: Elisha Rich, Benjamin Stevens, Jr., Ebenezer Hopkins, Jr., Joshua Morse, Adonijah and Rufus Montague, Justus Brewster, Elijah Brown and David Starks.
Elisha Rich was a native of Massachusetts, but removed to Clarendon in 1777, and in March, 1783, he located in Pittsford, and made the first improvements on what is now called Furnace Flat. In the fall he built a grist mill on the brook a few rods below where the bridge now stands. He obtained the land of Jonathan Fassett, and this was in three pieces; the first being a third-division lot of the right of John Jenks; the second being the first and second-division lots of the right of Samuel Mansfield ; the third being a part of the right of Elihu Hall. The whole consisted of four hundred and forty acres, and
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
included Furnace Flat and the land eastward to Chittenden line. He built a small house near where the brick house now stands. On the 8th of October, the same year, he bought the farm owned and occupied by Aaron Parsons, but continued to reside near his mill till the 21st of May, 1784, when he sold the mill and one hundred acres of land to Thomas and Samuel Adams, and then moved to the Parsons farm, and planted the whole of the large orchard, the vestiges of which may still be seen. He was a great lover of bees and usually kept from thirty to forty swarms .* A more particular account of him will be given hereafter.
Benjamin Stevens, (son of Benjamin, the early settler,) soon after his return from captivity in Canada, married Lydia, daughter of Elisha Field,t and located on the farm which was first occupied by Roger Stevens, Jr., and afterwards confiscated and sold to Benjamin Stevens, Sen., who sold it to his son Benjamin, June 13th, 1783. The latter built a log house on the west side of the road, and about thirty rods north of the present residence of Benjamin Stevens. Here he resided till 1793, when he sold his farm to his brother Daniel and moved to Cornwall.
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