USA > Vermont > Windham County > Londonderry > The history with genealogical sketches of Londonderry > Part 16
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Nahum, who bought out his brother David's interests in town, married Mary Britnall, of Wendell, Mass. and they came to the newly purchased, partly cleared farm and, completing the clearing and improvement of the tract, made the same their home through the remainder of their long lives. They had two children: Henry W. and Lovina, and their wedded life extended over a period of almost fifty-five years. His wife died Mar. 20, 1872 and he survived her but nine days.
Henry W. was married three times. His first wife was Lucina Babbitt and the children of this union were two sons: Martin H., Feb. 26, 1844, and Ira, Aug. 8, 1848. His second wife, Charlotte Woodward, bore him one son, William H., Sept. 5, 1858; and by his third wife, Roxana Tufts, he had Nelson W., Jan. 15, 1866, and Clarence N., July 3, 1872. The father died Mar. 3, 1904.
Martin H. was a lawyer who lived in Ludlow and practiced his profession for many years and died there. He was twice married. His first wife, Emma A. Wilder, had one son, Henry M .; and his second wife, Alida Henderson, had three children; Emma, Agnes and Silas. Silas married -, and has a son and a daughter.
Ira married Sarah A. Farnum and had sons Percy N. and Harry. Percy is unmarried. Harry married - and has one son and two daughters.
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William H. married Amelia E. Campbell by whom he had Bertha B., Oel D. and Emma L. Oel D. was brought up in the family of A. J. Parker and, while not formally adopted, took the name Parker by which he was known until his death, in Londonderry. He married Alice Johnson and left a daughter, Isabel.
Nelson W. married Louise A. McQuaide and died May 2, 1920 leaving a daughter, Irene, surviving.
Clarence N. married Alice (Clayton) Pease and lives in South Londonderry. They have no children.
Lovina married Winfield Wright, whom she survived; and died, childless, at South Londonderry.
One Elisha Goddard, not of either branch of the family already traced in this sketch, appears to have been a resident of this town for a brief period. He took title to a small plot of land in the South village in a deed dated in Feb., 1822, and disposed of the same by deed in Dec. 1825, being named therein as resident of Londonderry. These dates seem to limit the term of his residence here.
In a genealogy of the Goddard family, published in 1833, it is said that Joseph Bacheldor Goddard was a Congregational clergyman in London- derry, Vt. While it is possible that he was once a resident here, it is, from all available evidence, very improbable. In 1832, he took deed of the same plot of land described in the deeds to and from Elisha named above, and gave mortgage of same, being described in each as "of Winhall." Some years later the same plot was conveyed by his widow, Lucy (Lincoln), then of Petersham, Mass., her former home. No other reference to him appears in the records.
This Joseph B. was a son of Joel and Anna and great-grandson of Edward and Hepzibah (Hapgood), of Shrewsbury, and he had a cousin Elisha, son of Nathaniel, his father's brother; and that he was the Elisha referred to as resident from 1822 to 1825, seems probable under all the known circum- stances.
Hasey
JOHN HASEY came to Londonderry about 1790. In October of that year he, with Hugh Montgomery, took deed from Daniel Miller conveying land which is now a part of George N. Tuttle's homestead farm. Later Mont- gomery conveyed his interest to Hasey who resided on the premises until his death.
In the first of these conveyances Hasey is described as of Kingsbury, Washington County, New York, and of his antecedents we have not further knowledge. The best available information as to his family is to the effect that he had three daughters (possibly a fourth) and one son who
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survived childhood, and a son who died young. These were Betsey, Sophia, Polly (Mary), and John, the order of birth being uncertain.
Betsey married Clark Aldrich (2nd) and moved "out west." (See ALDRICH FAMILY SKETCH.)
Sophia married Solon Hoskins, once a resident of Londonderry, and is said to have moved to Gennesse County, New York.
Polly (Mary) married Nathan Gibson and remained in town. (See GIBSON FAMILY SKETCH.)
John (2nd) married Rhoda Emmons and lived in town until shortly after the death of his father, when he took his family to "the west," as the upper Mohawk Valley was then termed, and made his home in Genesee Co., N. Y. He had four sons; John (3d), Alfred, Samuel and Austin.
John (3d) married Albina Farnum, but had no children.
Alfred married Adaline - - and had one son, Charles, who had a daugh-
ter, Hattie, and a son, Guy. Hattie married Will Briese.
Samuel married Mary Anderson and had two sons and a daughter; James, George E. and Rhoda. Of these James had Ray, Fred, Mabel and George; George E. has no child; and Rhoda married Frank Austin and had a daugher, Josephine.
Austin married Caroline Whipple and had three children; Emma, Frank and John. Emma married Curtis Shepard and had two children; Edna and Rodney; Frank married Theodora Genung and had Ralph and Lottie; John married - and had several children. He made his home in Oklahoma.
Austin, with his brother Samuel, crossed the plains to California in the rush to the gold-fields in 1849. They were successful in their ventures and came back "across the isthmus" and settled in Wisconsin, where they in- vested in lands and established their homes.
Hooker
JOHN HOOKER, born in Londonderry, Vt., May 19, 1803; died at Chilli- cothe, Missouri, June 21, 1851; married in Londonderry, Sarah Eastman Warner, daughter of Jeremiah and Phebe (How) Warner of that town. Sarah was born in Londonderry, Vt. July 16, 1808, and on the death of her husband, she married secondly, in Sardinia, N. Y., Edmund B. Huntley, who later went to Minnesota and died there.
Sarah used to tell about when she was a little girl living with her parents at Whitehall, N. Y. at the South end of Lake Champlain, that she and her school mates would paddle around that end of the Lake in a little canoe, not at all afraid of the deep water, and that they often went out and played on board the British ships which lay there at anchor, some seven of them, being
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the British ships captured by the American forces in the naval battle off Plattsburgh, N. Y. in the 1812 War.
Children were:
Josephine R., born Londonderry, Vt., Dec. 21, 1829; died Nov. 7, 1847 in Sardinia, N. Y., unmarried.
Adeline Elizabeth, born Londonderry, Vt., April 25, 1836; married Barney Starks in Sardinia, N. Y. Their children were:
Charles, who died young.
Eugene, born Feb. 14, 1863; died at Ashford, N. Y., July 8, 1913.
Sarah Belle, born April 6, 1866; married George M. Mohr, Dec. 26,
1888 at East Ashford, N. Y. He was born Oct. 14, 1860. They had Mabel A .; Gladys B .; Gordon S .; Howard J.
Charles f., born Londonderry, Vt., Jan. 4, 1839; married Mary E. Wilkes July 4, 1865. Served in Civil War, died Springville, N. Y. Children :
John W., born Jan. 28, 1867; married Mary M. Mansfield, Aug. 28, 1889; lived at Sinclairville, N. Y. and had Charles J .; Florence M. Frederick H., born Nov. 13, 1868; married Carrie E. Kimbel, June 26, 1895; lived at Charlotte, N. Y. and had Mary Ellen, born Sept. 30, 1912.
Arabella F., born Chillicothe, Mo., Jan. 26, 1847; married James Vanslyke in Sardinia, N. Y. and had several children. She lived in Holland, N. Y.
Hopkins
JAMES HOPKINS came here from Londonderry, N. H., in 1777. In 1778, he was elected Town Clerk of Kent, being the second to hold that office in town, and was re-elected the following year. In 1782, he removed to Man- chester, Vt., but was back in this town in the spring of 1784 and then again elected Town Clerk, which office he held for that and the three succeeding years. The date of his final removal from town is uncertain. He and his wife went to live in the family of their youngest son, Robert, and both died at his home in Sardinia, N. Y.
The farm which he purchased on coming here in 1777 was at the extreme north part of the town, adjoining that of Captain Edward Aiken at the "Great Pond." He is said to have been the best educated of any of the men in town at the time of his settlement in Kent; was a soldier of the Revolu- tion, and said to have been a Lieutenant, for one winter in charge of a de- tachment stationed at Peekskill, N. Y.
His wife was Mary Ann McGregor, a sister of Margaret, the wife of Col. James Rogers. Their children were; Thomas N., May 4, 1776; Mary, Mar. 8, 1778; David MacGregore, Feb. 16, 1780; James, June 26, 1782; Mar- garet, Aug. 19. 1784, and Robert, Nov. 10, 1787. Of these the first was born
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in Londonderry, N. H .; the fourth in Manchester, Vt., and the others in this town.
Thomas N. was a soldier in the War of 1812. He married Sarah (Sally), daughter of Nehemiah and Sarah (Glenne) Howe. (See HOWE FAMILY SKETCH.) They had seven children born in this town and, later, one in Fort Edward, N. Y. and one in Sardinia, N. Y. From the place of birth of the two youngest children, it would appear that he left Londonderry prior to 1819, going to Fort Edward, and then, in 1823, with others of the family, to Sardinia. His children were; Thomas, 1802; Eliza, 1803; Dudley, 1806; James M., 1807; Nehemiah, 1810; Robert N., 1812; Mary A., 1814; Nelson, 1819, and Clarissa, 1824.
Mary married Robert Larkin, of Londonderry.
David MacGregore is believed to have died unmarried, but no definite data, beyond the fact and date of his birth, has been found.
James. There is, in our Town Clerk's office, the record of the marriage of James Hopkins and Mrs. Clancey Daggett, April 13, 1820, and it is more than probable that the groom was this son of James and Mary Ann.
His age at the date mentioned leads to the question whether he had not, as well as his bride, contracted a former marriage. Positive knowledge regarding this is wanting, as is that of his children, if any there were.
Margaret married John Larkin and died, childless, at Dansville, N. Y.
Robert married Submit Howe and they had six children, of whom the youngest was born in Sardinia, N. Y. and the others in Londonderry; David, 1812; Daniel, 1814; James, 1816; Clarissa, 1818; Nancy, 1820, and William, 1824.
Robert moved to Sardinia in 1823 and then, or shortly thereafter, his parents became members of his family and so remained until they died.
He died, May 24, 1846, on the farm which he had opened up on settling in Sardinia, and which had been his home from that date.
Of the children of Thomas N. and Sally (Howe) little is known, save as to Thomas and Robert, his oldest and youngest sons.
Thomas moved to Sardinia with his father's family in 1823 and, three years later, there married Sarah (Sally) Hall by whom he had five children; Mary Ann, 1827, married Ist Zelotus Long, 2nd Joseph Garfield; Eliza Maria, 1834, married James Parks; Harriet C., 1837, married Edward H. Farrington; Nelson, 1842, died, unmarried, in 1912, and Charles D. who married Gertrude Holmes and resides (1924) at Chaffee, N. Y., the only survivor of his father's family.
Eliza married Samuel Crocker and had two sons and a daughter.
Dudley married Maria Wilson, but had no children.
James M. married Charilla Ballard and had six children; Daniel, Emery, Eliza, Millard, Sarah and Emma.
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Nehemiah married Maria Butler and their children were; Byron, Lucy, Julia and Cornelia.
Robert N. married Sarah Carnaham and had Thomas, William S., Eliza and Jessie.
Mary A. No information as to this daughter is obtainable, and it is assumed that she died young.
Nelson married Mary Couch and their children were; Russell, Frederick and Florence. He was a lawyer in Buffalo, N. Y. and died there.
Clarissa married Amos Vredenburg and had daughter Sally and son George.
Of the children of Robert and Submit (Howe) our knowledge is even more meagre than in case of those of his brother Thomas.
As to the two older sons and two daughters information is wanting. James remained with his father on the farm taken up at Sardinia and cleared by them, on which he lived after his father's death and for many years. He married Abigail Rider and had three children; Horace, who died in boyhood, Robert and Frank.
William married Susanna King and had five children, of whom we have the names of but three; Nancy, Clara and Ida. He died Sept. Io, 1873, at Sardinia.
How- Howe
NEHEMIAH How came to Londonderry from Westmoreland, N. H. The exact date of his coming is not known, but a deed of date 1784 describes him as "of Londonderry." Late in 1787 he exchanged farms with David Coch- ran, conveying the place now (1923) owned by Edson E. Rowley and ac- quiring the farm later known as "the Faulkner Place," now forming part of "Mount Lake Farm." He was a grandson, as well as namesake, of that Nehemiah How who was captured by the Indians at the fort on the "Great Meadows" (Putney, Vt.), Oct. 11, 1745, and taken to Canada where he died, a prisoner, May 25, 1747. He was, also, a nephew of Caleb How who settled in Vernon, Vt. and was killed by Indians, June 27, 1755, and whose wife and seven children were at the same time carried as captives to Canada. The line of his ancestry runs back, through Samuel, Nehemiah and Samuel, to John How who resided in Sudbury, Mass. in 1639 and is said to have been a resident of Watertown, Mass. prior to that date. He was the second son, third of eight children, born to Samuel and Abigail (Dudley) How, his father being one of the most wealthy men in Westmoreland, of which town he was one of the grantees under the New Hampshire grant of 1752. Family tradition states that each of the children, save Nehemiah, re- ceived from their father a farm and that to Nehemiah he gave money with which to establish himself in Londonderry.
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This younger Nehemiah married Sarah Glenne, of Westford, Mass., at Westmoreland, June 27, 1775. He was a Revolutionary soldier, serving in Captain Hastings' Co. of Colonel Asa Whitcomb's Massachusetts Regi- ment in 1775, and also in a Westmoreland Company of a New Hampshire Regiment in 1777. He had a family of nine children. The first son, Dudley, was killed by a falling tree and when the second son was born the same name, Dudley, was given him.
This second Dudley and all his sisters grew to maturity and all, save one, married. This generation adopted the present form of the family name, Howe. The children of Nehemiah and Sarah (Glenne) were: Dudley, born 1776 and died 1792, Abigail, Sarah, Clarissa, Phebe, Mary, Submit, Huldah and Dudley; the five youngest having been born in Londonderry, and per- haps Clarissa also.
Abigail married Jonathan Warner, of Londonderry, but no relationship can be traced between him and the husbands of her sisters, Phebe and Huldah.
Sarah married Thomas N. Hopkins and removed to Sardina, N. Y., where descendants of hers still reside. (See Hopkins Family Sketch.)
Clarissa died in Londonderry, unmarried, Feb. 15, 1874.
Phebe married Jeremiah Warner. (See Warner Family Sketch.)
Mary married Jonathan Emerson.
Submit married Robert Hopkins. (See Hopkins Family Sketch.)
Huldah married Daniel Warner, brother of Jeremiah, her sister Phebe's husband. (See Warner Family Sketch.)
Dudley married Polly Jennison and lived in town until his death, May 31, 1870. His children were: Mary, Alden, Albert N., Daniel, Emerson, Lorenzo Bradley, and William.
Mary married Alonzo S. Stevens and spent her life in Londonderry. She had two sons and three daughters: Martha, Albert, Ella M., Frank S., all of whom lived to maturity, and Addie who died in childhood. None of these children now survive.
Alden married Mary Stevens and had six daughters: Nancy, Adelaide, Angie, Ida, Emma and Caddie.
Albert N. married Emeline E. Melendy, daughter of Emery Melendy by his first wife, and lived for many years in town, removing about 1876 to New Hampshire and died there.
He had three children; Albert Webster, Ella Emeline and Fred Albert.
Albert Webster married and moved to Utica, N. Y. and died leaving a son surviving.
Ella Emeline married Leonard Boyce and had her home in, or near Swanzey, N. H. for many years. She has one daughter, Florence.
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Fred Albert married Richards and died leaving a surviving son. Daniel died unmarried.
Emerson married Elnora Dodge, but further information about him and his family is not available.
Lorenzo Bradley married Lorinda Abbott and had one daughter, Helen
M. who was twice married, surviving both husbands. She has no child. William married and lived in, or near, Worcester, Mass. No information as to name of his wife or children has been found, but it is said that he had two children, possibly more.
McMurphy
Tradition, apparently well founded, asserts that George McMurphy was one of the two men who first "pitched" their lots and began clearing land in town for a permanent settlement, and that the tract he selected and worked upon was the farm on the hill between the two villages long known as "the Brooks place," later owned by John F. Johnson.
It seems well settled that he and his companion, Robert Montgomery, the latter accompanied by his brother Hugh, came here a little in advance of Colonel Rogers with his party of so-called original settlers.
How long he remained on the premises where he began his clearing is un- certain, but not any considerable time, for the place soon passed in to other hands, and he is later found at Thompsonburg, as now termed, where he had a saw mill on the brook at the site later occupied by the first tannery in town, built by Nathan Buxton.
His mill, with some of its product, was swept away by a freshet and still later he was the proprietor of the mill at the outlet of the "Great Pond." He removed to the easterly part of the town and had, at different periods, mills on different streams there. All these mills were rather primitive struc- tures, as were most of the other buildings of that day in town, and would cut but sorry figure in comparison with those of the present in equipment or capacity.
Upon the dismemberment of ancient Londonderry and the incorporation of Windham these later mills, known as "McMurphy's" were within the latter town and it is not known that he ever after had interests in London- derry.
Definite knowledge of his antecedents or ancestry is lacking, but he came from Londonderry, N. H. and is supposed to have been a descendant of that John McMurphy who emigrated from Ireland and joined the settlement in Londonderry, N. H. a very short time after its commencement and whose name appears on its earliest records, being one of the selectmen in 1722; the first representative of that town; representing the town, as member of the
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General Court, eleven years and dying, at Portsmouth, Sept. 21, 1755 while a member of that body.
No records as to the wife or children, if any, of George are to be found.
Montgomery
No representative of this family has had residence in town for more than a century past, and the following sketch, as to the antecedents of those once residents and the family of Hugh Montgomery, is based on information and data furnished by F. W. Montgomery, Esq., of Madison, Wis.
The family is said to be of Norman-French ancestry, descended, as as- serted by some of its members who have delved into its history, from a mem- ber of the force which accompanied William the Conqueror in his expedi- tion for the conquest of Britain in 1066. On the same authority, it is said that some of his descendants emigrated to Scotland in the early years of the 14th century, and thence to the North of Ireland in the reign of James I.
Hugh, one of his descendants, with his wife, Jean (McGregor), came over to Londonderry, N. H. in 1719 among the earliest settlers of that town. He had a son Hugh who married Elizabeth Martin, and three of their eight children became residents of ancient Kent; Robert, Hugh (3d) and Henry.
Robert and Hugh are said to have come here together and at the same time as George McMurphy, with whom they share the honor of beginning the first clearings in town with purpose of opening homes and tillable farms. They were here a year or two, at least, before Henry came.
Local tradition has long placed the site of the first Montgomery pitch and clearing on the Collins farm, so-called, marked on the town plot or map as "Gibson Pitch." Careful investigation has indicated that this is an error, and that the place must have been on the farm north of the alleged location. The first deed of the tract marked "Gibson Pitch" was from the "Com- mittee," authorized by the State to dispose of Colonel Rogers' lands, to Henry Montgomery and bears date Jan. 27, 1782. On the same day this "Committee" conveyed to Hugh Montgomery the land next north of that described in the deed to Henry; and Hugh conveyed the same to Stephen Chaffee in 1794, his wife joining in execution of the deed.
Robert's name does not appear on the Land Records either as grantee or grantor but, on Oct. 29, 1782, the "Committee" conveyed to Hugh a tract on the westerly side of West River, in part described therein as "where he now lives," and begins the boundaries of the tract at "a rock on the east bank of West River, being Robert Montgomery's southeast corner."
Nothing more definite as to location of Robert's home, or farm, is to be found, and no knowledge as to his family is available, though it is said, and believed, that he was married prior to his coming to Kent.
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Henry only held title to his land until Dec. 1782, when he sold to Abiel Eddy the "Gibson Pitch" which, however, was not so named until the ownership had passed from Eddy, through Royal P. Wheeler, to Arrington Gibson.
It is understood that Robert and Henry left town shortly after the latter sold his farm. Of Henry's family nothing is known.
Hugh (3d) was unmarried when he came to Kent and, in 1777, married Hannah Mack of that town, and resided here until 1796 or the early part of the following year. He was quite an extensive land owner during his resi- dence in town; and held various town offices, holding some of the various offices each year from the organization of the town until his removal, since which time none of the Montgomery family have had residence in town. He had eight children, one of whom, Hugh (4th), married Irene South- worth and one of their children was Mack who married Jane Warren, and F. Warren Montgomery, who furnished much of the data from which this sketch was framed. The last named married Alice Brooks (Norris) and has sons and grandsons living in Wisconsin.
On leaving Londonderry, Hugh (3d) went to Manchester, Vt. where he purchased a farm at "Roberts Corners," so-called, and, in connection with his farming, kept a public house, or "tavern," for several years.
Later he went to Ontario County, N. Y. and took up land there. He was accidently killed in 1819, while felling trees, being struck by a falling limb.
Oughterson
JOSEPH OUGHTERSON came to Kent with Deacon Edward Aiken when the latter came to prepare his new home in the spring of 1772, making the journey on foot from Londonderry, N. H. He was then in the employ of the Deacon as his "hired man" and so continued for a time in the new home.
Later he married and established a home for himself on a pitched farm near, or adjoining, that of his former employer. All that we know of his wife is that her name was Martha.
His first homestead was in that part of Kent which is now Windham and so remained until the late fall of 1793 when he purchased the farm on the hill between the two villages in Londonderry, later known as the Brooks place, and still later as the John F. Johnson farm. This was his home from that time until 1798 or 1799. In Sept., 1798, he conveyed it to "Capt." Peter Aiken, who reconveyed to him in the following May. In the fall of 1799 he sold this farm to Ebenezer Smith and, probably, removed from town as his name is not thereafter connected with any lands in town, nor does it appear in any later records. During his residence here he held various town offices both in Kent and, after the change of name, in Londonderry and was a man of influence in the early days of the town.
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He was also one of the ten grantees named in the Act of the Legislature in 1782 granting "Anderson's Gore," a tract lying between Londonderry, as then existing, and Thomlinson (Grafton), being described in the grant as "bounding east of Londonderry, containing about one thousand two hundred acres." Where he went upon his removal from Londonderry is not known; and all our knowledge as to his family is contained in a brief record in the early "Town Book," which gives "A list of the ages of the children of Joseph Oughterson and Martha, his wife" as follows: "Hannah, born Oct. 6, 1779; Jean, born Nov. 28, 1781; John, born May 12, 1784; Robert, born Aug. 25, 1788; James, born Feb. 15, 1793; Joseph, born Feb. 15, 1793; Samuel B., born May 8, 1795."
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