USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Pittsford > History of the town of Pittsford, Vt., with biographical sketches and family records > Part 26
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On application to the Town to advance money to repair the bridge over Otter Creek near Tilly Walker's; It was voted that the Selectmen be, and they are hereby authorized on a view and examination of the premises, to use their discretion as it respects advancing money for the repairs thereof."
At Freemen's meeting Sept. 7, 1802, " the following per- sons were duly admitted and sworn as Freemen, viz .: Nathan Jenner, Nathan D. Wright, Asa Blackmer, Richard Bristol, Thomas Winslow and John Kimball, all Inhabitants of Pittsford.
Attest, CALEB HENDEE, T. Clerk."
" September 7, 1802.
Voted to raise a Town Tax of one Cent on a Dollar, to be assessed on the present year's list and made payable in Grain, on the first day of January next."
" March 8, 1803.
Voted to Build a Bridge over Otter Creek, near Mr. Matt- son's Land within a year from this time."
"Sept. 6, 1803.
List of Freemen sworn at the foregoing Meeting-to wit; William Allen, Abel Wright, Jr., Daniel Pierce, Lot Hudson, Oliver C. Bogue, Elijah Brown, 3d, Simeon Parmelee, Jr., Ebenezer Titus, Jr., Robert Hoore, Union Keith and Samuel Buel.
Sworn by CALEB HENDEE, T. Clerk."
" September 6, 1803.
Voted to raise one Cent 2 Mill on the Dollar of the Grand List of the year 1803, payable in Money the 5th day of December next. Voted that the Selectmen have leave to set
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
up the Inoculation of the small-pox, to continue until the first of May next under the proper restrictions of the Law, in such cases provided."
" September 8, 1804.
Voted that the Selectmen be and they are hereby authorized to appropriate Seven Dollars of the Town's Money towards repairing the Bridge over Otter Creek, near Tilly Walker's, Providing that Neighborhood or others complete the remainder of sd repairs."
" Tuesday, September 3, 1805.
List of persons admitted to take the Freeman's oath, to wit: Abraham Bresee, Chauncy Fenn, Ezra Mead, Ira Ladd, John Gillett, Elias Plumb, Elisha Drury, Elias S. Mead and Jesse Wheeler.
Sworn before me, CALEB HENDEE, JR., T. Clerk." "March 26, 1806.
List of Freemen admitted and sworn at the above Free- men's Meeting, viz: Israel Elsworth, Thomas Spencer, Solomon Hendee, Bradley Squire, Allen Cobb and Isaac Rowley. September 2, 1806.
List of persons admitted and qualified as freemen as the Law directs, to wit: Reuben Wicker, William Ripley, Ozias Osborn, Nathan Wadsworth, Dan Dike, Elisha Woodruff, Jr., John Parsons, Elisha Hall, Samuel Fairfield, Jr., Chester Leonard, Allen Penfield, David Manley, Sardius Manley, The- ophilus L. Rowe, Justine Darling, John Munson, Orin Polley, Isaac Gillett, Elisha Cox, Ashbel Parmelee, Ebenezer A. Walker, Timothy Taft, Jr., Eli Gitchell and Thomas Wylbys. Sworn,
Before me,
CALEB HENDEE, JR., Justice Peace."
Wolves committed such ravages among the sheep at this
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EXTRACT FROM RECORDS.
period, that a public meeting, composed of men from this and the adjoining towns, was held at Kendall's hotel in Pittsford, the 16th of January, 1807, " for entering into measures for the destruction of wolves. The following is copied from the record of the "Proceedings of this General Conference :"
1st. Made choice of Gen. Amos Kellogg, Chairman.
2d. Chose Caleb Hendee, Jr., Clerk.
3d. Voted to recommend to the Inhabitants of the Towns of Rutland, Pittsford, Brandon, Philadelphia, Chittenden and Medway, to raise a bounty of twenty dollars in addition to the State bounty* for each grown Wolf that shall within the period hereafter named, be killed within the limits of either of the aforesaid Towns, or upon a fresh pursuit from within the same, to any other place and there killed, shall be entitled to the same Bounty, the person killing any Wolf in either of the cases aforesaid to give sufficient Evidence to the satisfaction of the Majority of the Selectmen of the Town in which the Wolf shall be killed, or pursued from, upon examination upon oath or otherwise.
4th. Voted that each Town shall pay their equal proportion of the aforesaid Bounty, according to the Grand List of the Respective Towns for the year A. D. 1806.
5th. Voted that the Period in which the wolves shall be killed to entitle the person killing to the aforesaid Bounty, shall be from the 16th day of January instant, until the first day of May next both days included.
6th. That from the first day of May until the first day of January next, the Bounty shall be ten Dollars in addition to the State Bounty, for each grown Wolf taken within the limits of either of the aforesaid Towns, the evidence given and money apportioned in the manner aforesaid.
7th. Voted that the several Towns make a return of the
* By a statute law of 1779, twenty dollars was to be paid by the State for every full grown wolf killed, and ten dollars for every wolf's whelp killed.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
proceedings of the same to the Chairman and Clerk of this meeting at this place on the 5th day of February next.
8th. Voted to adjourn this meeting without day.
Done at Pittsford this 16th day of January, 1807.
Attest, AMOS KELLOGG, Chairman. CALEB HENDEE, JR., Clerk."
Immediately after the adjournment of the aforesaid meet- ing, the selectmen of Pittsford issued a warrant for a town meeting to be held on the 30th day of the same month, at three o'clock in the afternoon, to see if the inhabitants would raise money by the Grand List or otherwise, to encourage the destruction of wolves, and to transact any other busi- ness thought necessary and proper when met. At the time appointed the meeting was organized by the choice of Adget Lathrop, Moderator; and the town then voted to accept the recommendation of the General Conference for destroying wolves. Also, "voted that the Selectmen be and they are hereby authorized to pay out of the Treasury such a sum as will be our proportion of the aforesaid additional bounty, with those towns that may adopt the recommendations, under the same regulations as therein specified, after deducting the share of sd bounty that would fall to those towns that do not accept the recommendations." " March 3, 1807.
Voted that the Selectmen purchase at the expense of the town a Spade, Pick Ax and Pall Cloth. Voted to allow Mr. Tottingham four dollars for sweeping the Meeting House the year past."
" At the Freemen's meeting September 1st, 1807, the follow- ing were admitted and qualified as freemen, viz: Danforth Wales, Joseph Durfy, Josiah Hopkins, Isiah Noyes, Samuel Warner, Eli Stevens, Bela Rogers, Stephen Stark, John Lilly, Daniel Keith, Phineas Woodruff, Edward Gibbs, Abraham Thomas and Michael Fairfield."
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EXTRACT FROM RECORDS.
At Freemen's meeting, held on the first Tuesday of Sep- tember, 1808, the following persons were admitted as freemen and sworn, viz: Nathan Gibbs, Abijah Tucker, Israel Brewster, Lewis Phillips, Simeon Gilbert, William Barlow, Benjamin Bachelder, John Miller, Daniel Sherman, Benjamin Salisbury, Luke Osgood, Josiah Wicker, Nathan Gibbs, Jr., Isaac Leonard, Stephen Jenner, Jr., Charles Lamb, Joseph Tottingham, Sam- uel Riggs, Ephraim Farrar, Abner Jackson, Thomas Walker, Otis Clapp; Ezekiel Bebee, Beriah Grundy, Jr., Mace Lincoln, Solomon Thayer, Samuel Gould, Samuel Merriam, Peter Thomas, William Beals, Lyman B. Walker, Ephraim Dunlap, Jacob Thayer, James Lamb, Cornelius Bresee, Lewis Barlow, Homer Potter, Scotland Keith, Cornelius Gibbs, Samuel Row- ley, Jonathan Dike, Jeremiah F. Wood, Peter Morgan, David Hendee and John Foster."
In February, 1809, occurred one of those exciting wolf hunts which occasionally took place in the early history of the town. One bright moon-light night, Adget Lothrop heard an unusual noise in his sheepfold. Hurrying out to ascertain the cause of such disturbance, he discovered among his sheep two wolves, which had already killed some eight or nine of the flock. After frightening away the wolves, he called up his boys and sent them to almost every house in the town to notify the people to assemble early in the morning for a general wolf hunt. The call was promptly responded to, and by day-light in the morning, people from all directions began to assemble at Mr. Lothrop's.
After the wolves had been driven from the sheepfold, they went directly to the Creek which they followed northward upon the ice. The snow was deep, and as the wind had blown it off from the ice, the Creek afforded a much easier path than the banks did. When they had reached a point opposite Elder Harrington's, they were discovered by William Harrington, the Elder's eldest son, who had risen at a very early hour, and was
23
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
at a barn on the bank of the Creek, feeding some cattle. With pitchfork in hand he turned them and drove them back, south- ward. When they were a little above the Mead road, finding their retreat in that direction cut off, they left the Creek and went into the swamp on the west side, then mostly owned by Peter Rice. This was soon surrounded by the hunters, but as they began to close in upon the beasts, both escaped through the ring and fled to the highland, southward, near the residence of Tilly Walker. The hunters were not long in encircling this highland, but again the wolves escaped, crossed the Creek and went into the swamp near the foot of Sutherland Falls. By this time the number of hunters had so increased that this swamp was enclosed by a very strong force. As the encircling ring closed in, the wolves were driven upon the ice just at the foot of the Falls, and there they were shot, one by Ezra Spencer, and the other by a marksman standing in Sutherland's saw- mill, but whose name is not now remembered.
After the wolves had been killed, the retreat was sounded and the hunters re-assembled in the road, not far from the pres- ent residence of Mr. Patch, where Gen. Caleb Hendee, who was one of their number, took a list of their names, in order to make a just distribution of the bounty money. This list of names as taken by Gen. Hendee may be seen in the Appendix of this book. After their names had been taken, the most of them, some in sleighs and others on foot, went to Merriam's store in the Village, where liquor was served out to their satis- faction. It was a time of general hilarity with them; and it would not be strange if some of them made crooked tracks as they departed for their homes.
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JOHN HALL-SAMUEL WARNER.
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CHAPTER IX.
Immigrants and their Locations continued ; Extracts from the Records ; The Great Flood. 1810-1820.
John Hall was of English descent. His father, whose name was also John, married and located in Canaan, Conn., where he resided till a short time before the Revolutionary war, when he removed to Castleton, Vt., and located a short distance east of the village, where the Hubbardton road inter- sects the road leading from Rutland to Castleton. He was mortally wounded in a fight with a detachment of Burgoyne's army near his own house, on Sunday, immmediately after the battle of Hubbardton ; and during the few days he survived he was brutally treated by the Tories. His children-Elias, John, Royal, Ira, Samuel, Harvey, Mercy, Mary and Olive- with one or two exceptions, were born in Canaan. Elias located in Castleton. He was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary war, and served with distinction. John, born July 3, 1747, married Mary Stevens, of Canaan, and resided a short time in his native town. While the Revolutionary war was in pro- gress he entered the army and served a short time as orderly sergeant. After its close he returned to Canaan. About the year 1810, he removed to Pittsford and resided a short time on a part of the Matson farm, now owned by I. C. Wheaton, though he never owned real estate here. From this town he removed to Chittenden, and from thence to Luzerne, Warren County, N. Y., where he died about the year 1842. His wife died at the same place.
Samuel Warner, son of Eleazer, born May 24, 1785, mar- ried Mercy, daughter of Nathan Smith, of Granby, March 15,
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
1810, and located on the farm now owned by the heirs of Douglas Bates. This farm was first improved by John Titus, who resided some years in a log house which stood a little north of the present house. Mr. Titus sold this farm to Eleazer Warner, who deeded it to his son Samuel. The latter resided on it till 1835, when he sold it, and has since resided with his children. From his youth he was blessed with a good constitution, and he is still quite vigorous. Mrs. Warner died May 31, 1864.
Allen Penfield, son of John, was born in New Fairfield- now Sherman-Conn., July, 3, 1785. He married Anna, daughter of Thomas Hammond, December 27, 1810, and took his father's place in the hotel-now the residence of William B. Shaw. The following year his father built the house now owned by John Stevens, and in that he resided till his death. Allen continued to manage the hotel till 1828, when he sold it to German Hammond and removed to Crown Point. He has been an active, energetic man, prompt and reliable in his busi- ness transactions. He has now retired with an ample fortune, and resides with a daughter, Mrs. Dr. Nichols, at Burlington. Mrs. Penfield, died at Crown Point, N. Y., in 1859.
Eli Mead, son of John, married Sally, daughter of Walter Houghton, September 16, 1810. He and his younger brother assumed the care of the home farm where they spent a few years and then moved to the West.
We know but little of Josiah Parsons. He purchased of Walter Houghton* the farm now owned by Warren Chafee, and he and his son Arza resided there till about the year 1830, when Abel Penfield bought the farm, and they removed from the town.
Eli Stevens, son of Daniel, married Philecta Wheeler in 1810, and located on the small place next east of the farm of
*Mr. Houghton made the first improvements on that farm.
Benfield.
Allan
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NATHAN HAWLEY-OLIVER WOLCOTT-SAMUEL HENDEE.
Abel Morgan and resided there four years. In 1821, he bought the farm which was once the property of Roger Stevens, Jr., and confiscated in consequence of his treasonable conduct. He removed to Cornwall in 1839, and died there in 1859.
Nathan Hawley bought of Elisha Woodruff two and one- half acres of land including the north saw-mill, June 29, 1807. He was then living in Philadelphia, Vt. On the 24th of Octo- ber, 1809, he bought of John Merriam* the Dr. Abiathar Millard place, and the following winter removed his family to this town. He died in the house now owned by Miss Achsah Leach, June 7, 1849, aged eighty years. Mrs. Hawley died in Brandon, April 23, 1851, aged eighty-six years.
Oliver Wolcott, son of Oliver, was born in Massachusetts, Jan. 16, 1761. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, married Lydia Haynes, of Natick, Mass., Feb. 24, 1792, and resided in that State till 1810, when he leased, of the Select- men of Pittsford, fifty acres of the school right which had been pitched on the hill west of the present residence of Rufus Thomas. He resided some time in a log house, some one hun- dred rods southwest of the house now owned by Mr. Thomas. He afterwards resided on the Benjamin Stevens farm, and from thence he removed to the Owens farm, now owned by Orlin Smith, where he died, August 10, 1845. Mrs. Lydia Wolcott died November 6, 1844.
Samuel Hendee, born April 23, 1791, son of Caleb Hendee, Sen., married Abigail Paine, of Leicester, Dec. 2, 1810, and located on the home farm with his parents. He is an industri- ous, quiet, faithful man, and is one of the deacons in the Baptist church, as was also his father. He has never left the farm which he inherited from his father, and this is one of the few instances in which a farm is still owned and occupied by the posterity of an original settler.
* Merriam bought this place of Dr. Millard in the spring of 1808.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
Reuben Mead, the youngest son of John, married Sophia Howe, December 22, 1811, and located on the home farm with his parents. On the 30th of November, 1813, his father deeded him thirty-seven acres of the homestead. He and his brother Eli resided on the farm till after the death of their parents and then left the town.
Elisha Adams, Jr., son of Elisha, married Stella, daughter of Oliver Bogue, in 1811, and after residing a few months with his father-in-law, moved to Malone, N. Y., where he remained four years ; thence he removed to Norfolk, where Mrs. Adams died in 1826. Mr. Adams died in Canada about the year 1850.
Solomon Hendee, son of Deacon Caleb, was born October 30, 1784, and resided with his parents till he married Lois Paine, of Leicester, January 21, 1811. His father as early as the 23d of March, 1806, gave him one hundred and sixty acres of land which included the farm now owned by his son-in-law, Roswell Woodcock. He commenced improvements on it soon after, and built a log house where the small cottage now stands, a few rods back of the stone house. After his marriage he occupied that house till he built the stone house in 1828. Mr. Hendee died July 16, 1863. Mrs. Hendee died in 1870.
Elijah Brown, 3d, son of Elijah, Jr., was born in Rut- land, April 15, 1782, about two years before his parents removed to Pittsford. He became a tanner and currier, and on the 3d of September, 1805, bought of Andrew Prindle one-half of the Nelson tannery, and November 11, 1808, he bought of Elias Plumb the other half of it. On the 9th of December, 1811, he married Mary Williams who was born in Rutland, July 22, 1792. He and his brother, Samuel A., carried on business together till 1827, when Elijah sold his interest in the tannery to his brother and bought the Webster tavern. He kept a public house till 1839, when he sold his location to Michael Sanders and afterwards was enaged in man-
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EZRA SPENCER-CONSIDER BOWEN-JACOB SHELDON.
ganese operations in Chittenden. He was accidentally killed on the railroad in Providence, R. I., Jan. 20, 1860. Mrs. Brown died in Chittenden, Feb. 18, 1847.
Ezra Spencer, son of William, born in 1790, married Nancy Snell in January, 1811, and after residing two years on the Cox farm, moved to Pennsylvania. His wife died in the spring of 1813. He returned to Pittsford and was one of the Plattsburgh volunteers in 1814. He married Mary Whitney in January, 1815, and again moved to Pennsylvania. He returned to Pittsford in 1819, and purchased of William Allen the Simeon Clifford farm, upon which he located and resided till 1843, when he purchased of Edward Lowth the Purdy farm-now D. J. Griffith's. He purchased the Gibbs place in Hitchcockville, in 1865, and this has since been his residence.
Consider Bowen located in this town in 1811. He was born in Rehoboth, Mass., in 1753, and in early life he went to Providence, R. I., where he served an apprenticeship with a carriage-maker. He was in the American army during the Revolutionary war, was in the battles of Trenton and Prince- ton, and was with the army in most of its operations on the Hudson. After the close of the war he worked at his trade in Hartford, Conn., where he married, about the year 1788, Sabra Hosmer, who was born in 1760. After residing in Hartford some fifteen years he removed to that part of Chittenden, Vt., known as New Boston. On the 14th of October, 1811, he bought of Allen Bowen, the easterly part of the Woodward farm. Allen Bowen had purchased this of his father, Simeon Bowen, who had purchased it of John, son of Joshua Wood- ward, March 2, 1807. Mr. Consider Bowen died on this farm in 1834, Mrs. Bowen died in 1854.
Jacob Sheldon was a descendant of William, who with three brothers, Abraham, Ephraim and Nathaniel, settled in Reading, Mass., in the early period of its history. William
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
had two sons, Samuel and William; the latter was killed in the French war by the Indians. Samuel married and resided a few years in Reading, and then removed to Wilton, N. H. His wife's maiden name was Wellman. They had five sons and three daughters. Their sons were Jacob, Samuel, William, Michael and Uzziel; their daughters, Sarah, Tamar and Ziba. Jacob, born December 8, 1763, married Dorothy Lovejoy, in 1792, and located in Nelson, N. II. There he resided a few years and then removed to Andover, Vt. They had four sons, Jacob, John, Joel and Joseph ; and two daughters, Sarah and Dorothy. Jacob, the eldest, born at Nelson, May 19, 1794, married Joanna, daughter of Nathan Hawley of Pittsford, and located in the house now owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Bogue. He was a blacksmith by trade, and worked in the shop which, at that time, stood on ground now forming C. A. Hitchcock's garden, west of his house. Mr. Sheldon's wife Joanna died, and he married Louisa Tinkham, a native of Greenwich, Mass., October 20, 1822. After the death of Mr. Hawley, about the year 1848, he purchased of his heirs the place now owned by C. A. Hitchcock and resided there till his death, August 5, 1851. Mrs. Louisa Sheldon died August 7, 1859.
John Hawkins married Persis Hitchcock, March 1, 1812, and located in the old house which has been mentioned as once the residence of Joshua Woodward. This he had purchased of Joshua Brooks of Salisbury, March 5, 1811. He changed his residence several times, but died in this town.
Thomas Burditt, son of Thomas, of Lynn, Mass., was born at that place in February, 1781, and in January, 1812, married Susan, daughter of Reuben and Elizabeth Weston of Malden. He located in Pittsford, and bought one hundred acres of land lying south, or a little southwest, of the farm now owned by Marshall Thomas. There he built a frame house in which he resided eleven years. He then bought the farm upon which he
345
PETER MC COLLUM-E. MERRIAM-JONA. TILSON.
afterwards lived and died. He cleared the most of the culti- vated land on that farm and built the house and barn that are on it. He died February 16, 1860.
Peter McCollum married Nancy Parkman, December 2, 1813. Just before his marriage he had built a house on land then owned by Israel Lake. This house stood a few rods east of the present residence of D. J. Griffith, and McCollum resided there some years before he became a landholder; but on the 9th of November, 1826, he purchased of Israel Lake a piece of land bounded south by land of Elijah Adams; west by the road leading from said Adams' to the school house ; and north by the Johnson farm-now Alexander Parmelee's. The same deed included the house in which he then resided. That house has been twice moved, and is now the first house north of Nathaniel Willis', on the west side of the road. McCollum left the town about the year 1843.
Ebenezer Merriam married Polly, daughter of Ozem Strong, Aug. 2, 1813, and resided for a time in what was known as the "gambrel-roof house," which stood where Mr. Randall's brick house now stands. He was employed as clerk for his brother John, in the store, for about four years, and then moved to the State of Virginia.
Jonathan Tilson, a cabinet-maker by occupation, was born in New Braintree, Mass., May 17, 1786. He came to Pitts- ford in the winter of 1812, and bought of Chester Leonard the place where he afterwards lived and died. The deed of this purchase was dated February 25th. February 8, 1813, he married Charlotte Wood, who died March, 5, 1814. Mr. Tilson married Almira Simmons, of Easton, Mass., Nov. 10, 1815. He died March 13, 1858. Mrs. Tilson resides on the homestead and is an invalid.
Stephen Powers, born September 4, 1791, son of Peter, married Diadama, daughter of Zebulon Pond, Sen., January 27, 1814, and located with his parents on the farm now owned
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HISTORY OF PITTSFORD.
by George N. Eayres. He changed locations several times during his life, residing at one time in the first house* east of the present residence of Mrs. Mary G. Hendee, the one recently repaired and now owned by Chester Granger. His wife Diadama died in 1843, and he afterwards married again, but eventually went to reside with his son-in-law, Joel Thomas, and died there Sept. 3, 1862.
John Barnes, son of John, born September 10, 1787, mar- ried September 14, 1814, Electa Dimick; who was born August 25, 1793. He resided for a time in the Ewings tavern which his father had purchased. The next spring, March 30, 1815, his father deeded one undivided half of the same to him and his brother Jeffrey. John, Jr., bought of Jirah Barlow the Tupper farm February 28, 1825, and at once removed there with his family. Mr. Barnes was a soldier in the war of 1812-14, and for a time held the rank of orderly sergeant. He died December 1, 1850, and his son, John Randolph, now owns and occupies the paternal homestead.
Asher Burditt was a native of Gilsum, N. H. His father, Ebenezer, born in Lancaster, Mass., in 1761, spent his early life on a farm. At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, he and another brother enlisted in the service of their country, and were attached to a privateer which put to sea and soon captured a British ship that had been preying upon American commerce. The trophy of their victory, however, was lost, for as they were about to board the vessel her magazine exploded and she soon disappeared forever, with all but twelve of her crew. After the close of the war the two brothers returned to Lancaster. Asher married Ruth Loveland of Gilsum, N. H., in 1785, and settled in that town. Their children were Ebe- nezer, Asher, Abel, Israel, Amasa, David, Gilman, Ruth, Mary
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