My paternal grandparents were master craftspeople, running the premier woodworking shop in Hartford, Connecticut during the 17th and 18th centuries. Their handiwork produced exquisite furniture that stands as a testament to their artistry. Below I’ve included brief biographies of these gifted ancestors along with links to view some of the beautiful chairs attributed to their Spencer and Spencer-King workshops. Take a moment to admire the elegant lines and intricate details of their designs, passed down through generations of dedicated artisans. Their legacy of fine craftsmanship lives on in these striking pieces. The first chair noted, sold by Sotheby’s at auction, carried an estimate of $10-15,000!
Thomas Spencer (1607-1687) – My 9th great-grandfather
Thomas Spencer was one of four brothers who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England arriving in 1633, first living in Cambridge, Massachusetts and then moving to Hartford, Connecticut in 1636. Thomas served in the Pequot War alongside Nicholas Disbrowe and later both of them had a long association as fellow woodworkers.
Nicholas Disbrowe (1612-1683) – My 9th great-grandfather
Nicholas Disbrowe (Disborough/Desborough) was a carpenter/joiner/cabinetmaker from Essex, England and was an original founder of Hartford, Connecticut. Nicholas was one of the earliest known American furniture makers and is famous for the Hartford Chest. “Disbrowe was no ordinary carver and his designs are distinguished by undulating bands of carved tulips flowing from stiles to rails without breaking, Disbrowe’s designs were carefully worked out to fit the individual piece and no two pieces were identical.”
Obadiah Spencer Jr. (1666-1741) – My 7th great-grandfather
Obadiah, a joiner and a turner, was the grandson of Thomas Spencer. It is believed that Obadiah may have been trained as a turner by his paternal grandfather, Thomas, and as a joiner by his maternal grandfather, Nicholas Disbrowe. His uncle, Gerard Spencer (1650-1712), was also a skilled carpenter.
Obadiah’s father was Obadiah Spencer Sr. (1638-1712) and mother Mary Disbrowe (1641-1709), the daughter of Nicholas.
“Obadiah’s shop produced fashionable turned chairs with shaped and carved crest rail and other decorative options in imitation of the sophisticated banister-back and cane-back seating furniture made in Boston.” (source: Sotheby’s). These chairs are products of the Deerfield, Connecticut turning tradition related to the Spencer-King workshops. of Hartford, Connecticut, was the grandson of Thomas Spencer (1607-1687), Hartford’s leading turner during the seventeenth century, and the principal leading joiner.”
“Important William and Mary Black-Painted Carved and Turned Maple Bannister-Back Armchair, Attributed to the Spencer Family Shop, Hartford area, Connecticut.”
Description: It is a rare example of William and Mary seating furniture from the Connecticut River Valley with a fan and rosette carved crest rail and spool shaped finials. The armchair is attributed to the Spencer family workshop of Hartford since it displays distinctive characteristics associated with that shop. These include the placement of the banisters with the rounded side against the sitter’s back, the shaped rail below that terminates in carved volutes, and the turned rails between the arm supports and the seat rails.
Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium
Description: One of a pair of slat-back side chairs supported by turned posts surmounted with the spool finial characteristic of Deerfield area craftsmanship, and fit with the original, woven split ash seat.
Description: Bannister-back side chair, painted black, attributed to the Spencer family workshop of Hartford, Connecticut. The chair has a solid arched crest rail; four turned banisters with the round side facing forward; flattened arch-shaped bottom rail; ball finials over similarly turned back stiles; trapezoidal rush seat; block-and-vase turned front posts ending in small modified Spanish feet; high front stretcher with vase-and-ring turnings in the center and three similarly-turned side and back stretchers; and plain back legs that are slightly flared near the floor.
Description: Attributed to the Spencer family workshop. Bannister-back armchair with rush seat, covered overall with black and gold paint. The armchair has a solid arched crest rail; four turned banisters with the round side facing forward; shaped bottom rail; gilded ball finials on a vase shape over the two turned side rails; two plain arms ending in scrolled handhold; rush seat; turned front posts ending in small peg feet; high front stretcher with two turned ball in the center; and three turned side and back stretchers. The chair was originally painted red and later repainted black and gold, which was possibly added to compete with the fancy chairs being manufactured in the nineteenth century by Hitchcock and others.
Note: The Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium is an amazing database of objects from the collections of seven museums in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts: the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Hampshire College Art Gallery, Historic Deerfield, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Joseph Allen Skinner Museum of Mount Holyoke College, the Smith College Museum of Art, and the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Below is an excerpt from a story told by Josiah Bowers (J.B.) French (my 3rd great grand uncle) from a collection of stories about the history of Lowell, Massachusetts in a book titled, “Contributions of the Old Residents Historical Association – Lowell, MA 1877. The Association was formed in December of 1868 by prominent (male only) members of the local community who were residents at the time of the city’s incorporation in 1836 and who had continuously lived in Lowell since that time and were at least 45 years of age. His recollections on early transportation in Lowell/Billerica/Boston includes a reference to his father, my 4th great grandfather, Luther French ( 1767-1846) and mentions the use of a pillion that was used when courting on horseback. That was a new term for me and sounds both romantic and perhaps uncomfortable! ( I added the illustration, it was not part of J.B.’s story).
I previously posted a story about the interesting and successful life led by Josiah in “The Brothers French.”
Questions, Comments and Corrections are Appreciated
A Mormon in the Ranks
The grandson of my 5th great-grandparents Samuel Eggleston (I Swear, I Did Fight in the Revolution) and Dorcas Loomis was Myron Spencer Higley. Myron was born in December 1801 to Dorcas Eggleston and Job Higley. In March 1826, Myron married Priscilla Ebberson in Leeds Village, Quebec, together they had 14 children (11 who survived childhood), 71 grandchildren, and, 56 great-grandchildren.
Myron is the first follower of the Mormon faith (to date) that I have identified in my entire family tree. He was baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1839 (only 9 years after the founding of the Church) and served as president of the branch at Boonville, NY in 1842. According to his obituary, he returned to Connecticut in an attempt to convert his family (who were members of the Congregational Church) and when discovered the community they “sent for the smartest preachers in the country round, but their doctrines were not sufficiently substantial to stand before the gospel as expounded by the Elder (Higley).” By 1844, Myron had Priscilla moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, and later migrated to Salt Lake Valley, Utah by 1852.
In the early 1840s, Nauvoo, Ill., was a thriving city of 10,000 people. Most were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon Church. Mormon President Joseph Smith was Nauvoo’s mayor and chief judge, and commander-in-chief of the town’s militia. But by the end of the decade, angry mobs suspicious of the new religion and its theocratic city drove most of the Mormons out, sending them on a long westward trek to Utah.
Seventy Quorum Membership(1835-1846) – Myron Spencer Higley
General Authority Seventies—sometimes known simply as Seventies—are Church leaders who assist the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Like the Quorum of the Twelve, they travel widely to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They also support and train Church leaders and assist in directing missionary work, humanitarian aid, temple building, family history, and other Church efforts. (LDS)
Questions, Comments and Corrections are Appreciated
U.S. Grant – It is all Relative
In the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Ulysses S. Grant writes of his being a descendant of Mathew Grant (below). Mathew resided in Windsor, Connecticut in the 17th century and is my paternal 10th great-grandfather (one of my 4,096 10th great-grandparents). No matter how very distant, I share a genealogical relationship with the 18th President of the United States and General-in-Chief of the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Ulysses S. Grant – Personal Memoirs 1885–86
Mathew (Matthew) Grant, the founder of the branch in America, of which I am a descendant, reached Dorchester, Massachusetts [now part of Boston], in May 1630. In 1635 he moved to what is now Windsor, Connecticut, and was the surveyor for that colony for more than forty years. He was also, for many years of the time, town clerk. He was a married man when he arrived at Dorchester, but his children were all born in this country. His eldest son, Samuel, took lands on the east side of the Connecticut River, opposite Windsor, which have been held and occupied by descendants of his to this day. I am of the eighth generation from Mathew Grant, and seventh from Samuel. Mathew Grant’s first wife died a few years after their settlement in Windsor, and he soon after married the widow Rockwell, who, with her first husband, had been fellow-passengers with him and his first wife, on the ship Mary and John, from Dorchester, England, in 1630. Mrs. Rockwell had several children by her first marriage and others by her second. By intermarriage, two or three generations later, I am descended from both the wives of Mathew Grant.
In the fifth descending generation my great grandfather, Noah Grant, and his younger brother, Solomon, held commissions in the English army, in 1756, in the war against the French and Indians. Both were killed that year.
My grandfather, also named Noah, was then but nine years old. At the breaking out of the war of the Revolution, after the battles of Concord and Lexington, he went with a Connecticut company to join the Continental army, and was present at the battle of Bunker Hill. He served until the fall of Yorktown, or through the entire Revolutionary war. – –
My Notes:
Noah Grant was killed on 20 September 1756 while participating in a 40-day scouting mission with British soldiers and Mohawk warriors out of Ft. William Henry in upstate NY during the French-Indian War).
Ulysses S. Grant Papers – The papers of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), army officer and eighteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 50,000 items dating from 1819-1974, with the bulk falling in the period 1843-1885. (Library of Congress)
Questions, Comments and Corrections are Appreciated
I Swear, I Did Fight in the Revolution
My 5th great grandfather, Samuel Eggleston (1747-1837), served in the Continental Light Dragoons during the American Revolutionary War. In the pension application transcribed below, Samuel details his service, including having seen General George Washington at Newark, New Jersey. Submitted when Samuel was 88 years old, the pension was rejected on the grounds that he was unable to prove six months of service. The Second Continental Light Dragoons are recognized as having conducted the first cavalry charge on American soil and served as couriers relaying messages along a string of express stations between Washington’s headquarters and the northern colonies.
The act provided that every officer or enlisted man who had served at least two years in the Continental Line or State troops, volunteers or militia, was eligible for a pension of full pay for life. Naval and marine officers and enlisted men were also included. Veterans who had served less than two years, but not less than six months, were eligible for pensions of less than full pay.
Pension Act of 1832
Transcribed Below
STATE OF CONNECTICUT
County of Hartford
On this 7th day of May 1835 before the probate court for the District of Hartford in the County of Hartford and the State of Connecticut being a Court of Record, having a Clerk and Seal personally appeared Samuel Eggleston a resident of Windsor in the County of Hartford in the State of Connecticut aged eighty-eight years, who being first duly sworn, according to law, doth on this oath make the following declaration, in order to obtain benefit, of the Act of Congress, passed June 7, 1832.
That he entered the service of the United States as a private in a company of dragoons commanded by Captain Thomas Seymour, Lt. Rueben Ellsworth and Colonel Edward Griswold at Windsor in the County of Hartford in the State of Connecticut. On or about the 10th day of May 1776; that said company belonged to a regiment commanded by Colonel don’t know Lt. Colonel don’t know and Major don’t know. That the company was ordered out to go to New York and the aforementioned deponent served in the said corps until on or about the 10th of July 1776 (as near as he can remember) when the company returned from New York to Hartford and was dismissed.
That when he entered service, he resided in Windsor in the County of Hartford, in the State of Connecticut and was marched from Hartford to New York and there performed military service in the line of his duty until the company returned and he was dismissed having been absent on this tour of service (at least) one month and perhaps longer. That the deponent knows of no person now alive who served with him.
I marched from Hartford Connecticut to the Peekskill in State of New York and in a few days crossed the Hudson River and proceeded to Hackensack and afterward Newark, then to Elizabethtown, then to New Brunswick and when in New York he went with the company many places that the names of which he has entirely forgotten, – and returned in a different route to the Hudson River above Peekskill where they crossed the river where deponent was discharged in a place near Peekskill in the State of New York by General Charles Lee and returned home sometime (he is pretty certain) the later part of December 1776. Having faithfully served on this tour a little more (as he believes) than five months – the deponent says that he received a written discharge (on account of a weakening and ____?____ of his heart, so that he could not ride for many years – he presumes that is has been destroyed or lost a long-time ago.
That while at New York on his first tour, he saw several field officers, he saw General Putnam and he saw other Generals on his second tour of service. He saw General Washington at Newark and the deponent with his company, attended the General in an excursion around ___?__ hills westerly of town – and that the deponent also saw many other generals and field officers, whose names he then knew but due to the imperfection of his memory he is not able at this time to state them, that his services on both tours amount in the whole to at least six months and he thinks seven months.
And in reply to certain interrogatories prescribed by the War Department and propounded by the Court, the deponent further declares,
1st. That he was born at Windsor in the County of Hartford and the State of Connecticut on the 16th day of December 1747.
2nd. That the day of his birth was recorded in his father’s family bible and transcribed in the family bible of the deponent.
3rd and 4th. That when he was called to service, he resided at the place and town as herein before stated; and served in a manner set forth in the preceding declaration.
5th. That the general circumstances of his service are detailed in the preceding declaration, and also the names of such officers are as he distinctly recollects.
6th That he received a written discharge from the service but has lost it many years ago.
7th. That he is personally know by Asabel Clark, Mrs. Mabel Skinner and Enoch ____?__ who are respectable persons in the neighborhood where he now resides, and can testify as to his character for veracity, and also their belief of his services as a soldier of the Revolution.
And the said Samuel Eggleston hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present, and declares that his name is not on the Pension Roll of any Agency of any State.
Sworn to and subscribed, the day and year aforesaid. Samuel Eggleston (Signature)
And the said Court do herby declare in their opinion after investigation of the matter, and putting the interrogatories prescribed by the War Department, that the above named applicant was a Revolutionary Soldier, and served as he states. And the Court further certifies that it appears to them that Asabel Clark, Mrs. Mable Skinner and Enoch ___?____whose affidavits are hereto affixed are credible persons and that their statements are entitled to credit.
I, Jonathan Edwards, Judge of the Probate Court for the District of Hartford do herby certify that the foregoing contains the original proceeding of the said Court in the matter of the application of Samuel Eggleston for a pension.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal of office the 7th day of May 1835.
This post is about Michael Daley (Daly), my 2nd great-grandfather, who was born in County Clare, Ireland in 1835. Little did his wife Hannah know that in 1861, Michael would leave their home in Waterbury, Connecticut and be gone for four years to fight in a war for his adopted country. Michael was previously noted in a story, Time for a Little Grace, which gave an overview of my maternal family line.
Michael enlisted into the Ninth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry (Ninth) on 18 October 1861 and mustered out on 3 August 1865 (after reenlisting in October 1864). The following provides a sketch of the movements of the Ninth Regiment through Mississippi, Louisiana and, at the close of the war, Virginia. The information is drawn from the regimental history of the Ninth and news accounts. (Select sections, with minor edits, from the History of the Ninth regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry in the war of the rebellion, 1861-65. Thomas Hamilton Murray, 1903)
Service Record: Michael Daley
(An enlistment poster promised) “Then followed information as to the pay of privates, the matter of bounty, etc., as follows: United States pay per month, $13; Bounty from State of Connecticut, per year, $30; Bounty to soldiers wife, per month, $6; Bounty to wife and child per month, $8; Bounty to wife and two children, per month, $10, "making the pay of privates who enlist in Connecticut companies range from fifteen dollars and fifty cents to twenty-five dollars and fifty cents, according to size of family. In addition, $100 of bounty from the United States when honorably discharged."
Recruiting for the Ninth proceeded slowly, and was somewhat retarded by lack of proper clothing and equipment. From the inception of the organization the regiment had been destined to form a part of General Butler's expedition for the capture of New Orleans, and on 4 November, with indifferent uniforms and without arms, the Ninth left New Haven by rail for Lowell, Mass where the Ninth joined the Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts Infantry, and on 21 November was ordered to Boston.
Ninth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry (Reformed as the 9th Battalion)
On 26 November 1861, the Ninth Connecticut and the Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts departed Boston on the steamship Constitution for Ship Island, Mississippi. “As the Constitution left the wharf, she was given hearty cheers by the large crowd that had assembled to see her off. The deck was a mass of soldiers who waved farewells to the people on shore. The band of the Ninth struck up a lively air and continued to play until well down Boston harbor.”
(Early during their time on Ship Island MS.) "The men were still wretchedly clad, and it was midwinter. Nearly half of them were without shoes and as many more without shirts; several had no coats or blankets. Some drilled in primitive attire of blouse and cotton drawers. The tents were hardly capacious enough to cover them. There was no straw to sleep on. They were without transportation, and were obliged to bring the wood for their fires four miles. This was made into rafts, and men almost naked, in water up to their arms, floated it down to camp. The Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts was equipped with warm blankets, ample tents, and two uniform suits of clothing per man; and to them the members of the Ninth furnished a contrast which would have been amusing if it were not humiliating.”
(PHOTO) Corporal Michael P. Coen, of Company F, of the Ninth, writing home to Waterbury, from Camp Parapet (130 miles south of Baton Rouge), 24 May 1862, informs his relatives that “We have got a full suit of new clothes here now, of a style similar to those of Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher’s Irish Brigade, — sky blue overcoats, dark blue or black dress coats, blue trousers with a green stripe, high black dress hats with a pair of green tassels, a green scarf of silk around the waist, besides our belts,” etc.
[1862] In June 1862, this regiment (Ninth Connecticut) was part of the expeditionary force led by Gen. Thomas Williams up the Mississippi River in the first Union campaign to capture Vicksburg. Lacking sufficient numbers for an assault or siege, the troops were put to work excavating Williams' Canal in an attempt to bypass the Vicksburg batteries. The regiment arrived at De Soto Point, opposite Vicksburg, on 25 June 1862, and began work on the canal, but was soon hampered by supply problems, lack of drinking water, and temperatures that reached above 100 degrees. Malaria, dysentery, and heatstroke spread throughout the command, incapacitating the troops. Coupling this with the drop in the river level, the canal project was abandoned on 24 July, far short of completion. Some 153 men of the 9th died within a four-month period following their arrival at the canal.
"We could not give a funeral escort to the dead; the few who were able to do guard and picket duty could not attend to any extra duty. Gen. Williams was not in sympathy with his men. He exacted the most rigid discipline. Notwithstanding the great amount of sickness prevailing, he ordered the brigade to parade every day, in marching order, with knapsacks packed. (Letter: Capt. O'Brien)
The Ninth was engaged was the battle of Baton Rouge, on 5 August. At 3 o'clock that morning the Ninth moved out and took position on the extreme left of the line of defense. At 4 A. M. the action commenced, and the Ninth was soon moved to the support of the center of the line, and later to a cemetery on the left. Thirty-five men of the Ninth were detailed as artillerists to Nims's and Everett's Batteries. The casualties of the Ninth in this action were one killed, nine wounded, and four missing.
General Orders No. 57, Department of the Gulf, the Ninth "Connecticut, represented by the sons of the ever green shamrock, fought as their brothers did at Boyne Waters." (The Battle of the Boyne was a battle in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland versus those of King William III.) This is an interesting quote since most of the Ninth's Irish were Catholic and King James was a Protestant.
(Diary – John Curtis – Ninth Regiment CT) “It was truly awful at night or sundown, (when) the hammering of nails would be heard making boxes out of rough planks for the dead,” Curtis wrote. “Some of them were buried stitched up in a blanket. Cannonading and the firing of mortars were kept up continually. … If our men died in an engagement with the enemy we could be more satisfied, but to lay down and die like a dog with nobody to care for you is barbarous.”
[1862] 21 August, the troops began evacuating Baton Rouge, and embarking on the steamers. The troops were all aboard about 12:45 pm and the start down the river was made soon after. At daybreak, Aug. 22, the transport fleet reached Camp Parapet. While the Ninth regiment was again located at Camp Parapet, it rendered important out-post duty, and picketed the shores both up and down the river.
31 August 1862 – Military Records for Michael Daley indicate that he was sent to a hospital in New Orleans.
[Sept-Oct 1862] Duty in the defenses of New Orleans, Department of the Gulf. At New Orleans, Algiers, Mexican Gulf R. R. and mouth of the Mississippi and at Pass Manchac, Bonnet Carte, St. John Baptist District.
Nov/Dec 1862 – Michael Daley, by order of a court martial, was ordered to forfeit $5 pay for nine months. At this time, the regiment was in New Orleans. A court martial, with a forfeiture of pay, may be due a soldier caught fighting, drinking, leaving the post without a pass or a combination as achieved by another soldier in his regiment!
(General Butler) “When I occupied New Orleans I wanted to encamp a regiment in Lafayette Square a small park in the centre of the city. The best families inhabited the streets around it. I chose the Ninth Connecticut.”
[1863] Defense of important routes to and from New Orleans was among the principal Civil War assignments of the Ninth Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers. The regiment manned a fort at Manchac, which guarded the land route from the Florida parishes, a path by which black civilian refugees attempted to reach the safety of Union-held Crescent City. “Refugees come in daily — sometimes as many as a dozen at a time — men, women, and children; ragged, half-starved, and worn down with fatigue. What some of the mothers, with babes in their arms, suffer, is beyond imagination. Think of a mother and child alone two days and nights in a swamp knee-deep, with nothing to eat; where snakes, among them the deadly moccasin, abound: where in the daytime the heat is insufferable, and at night chilly; losing her way; struggling through; and, amid all, more afraid of falling again into the enemy’s hands than of the surrounding dangers.” (Diary of Major Frederick Frye)
[1864] In April 1864, the Ninth started for New Haven on its veteran furlough, arriving and receiving an enthusiastic reception on the 15th. On 18 July it left New Haven via New York and City Point for Bermuda Hundred, where it arrived on the 24th, and re-embarked on the 29 July for Deep Bottom, VA. It sailed again on July 30th for Washington, where it arrived on 1 August, and on the next day marched through Georgetown to Tenleytown. (The Ninth remained in Tenleytown) until 14 August, when, crossing the Potomac by Chain Bridge, it marched via Leesburg and Snicker's Gap to Berryville, and thence on through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
[Letter – Major Healy to wife Margaret) “One afternoon I, with six others, while near Harris(on)burg, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley, drove about nine miles, looking for food, to a deserted farm with plenty of goats, pigs, potatoes and apples. I got a pot of apple butter, a bag of apples and potatoes and half a hog and had them tied to the pomel of my saddle when Mosby's guerrillas were seen in the distance on a run for us. It was certain death from the enemy to any one caught foraging. I started my horse on a run towards camp, but they were firing at me and were gaining. I cut loose all my bags and that wounded horse fairly flew and saved me.”
On 19 September 1864, the Ninth participated in the battle of Winchester, and then at Fisher's Hill. The Ninth's term of service as a regiment being about to expire, measures were taken to organize those who had reenlisted, into a battalion. Cpl. Michael Daley and 294 members of the Ninth chose to re-enlist. Under command of Captain Healy, the Ninth Battalion bore a very conspicuous part in the battle of Cedar Creek, 19 October 1864, its flag being the first planted on the recaptured works of the enemy. In this desperate action the Ninth lost thirty men in killed and wounded.
[1865] Col. Healy received sealed orders and, upon opening them at sea, found that the Ninth was to go to Savannah. GA. A very interesting event took place in Savannah while the Ninth battalion was quartered there. The command decided to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, 1865, by a parade. In the city was a local military organization — Irish — known as the Jasper Greens. The Greens, in 1865, were, of course, Georgians and had sympathized with the Confederacy. The Ninth having decided to parade, began to look about for an Irish flag to carry beside the stars and stripes. The Jasper Greens had a fine one and courteously loaned it to Healy’s command for the occasion. This friendly act was much appreciated.
On 24 May 1865, the Ninth was ordered to Hilton Head, S. C, where there was a large gathering of organizations homeward bound. It (the Ninth) was mustered out during the first week in August 1865, and thereupon returned to New Haven.
Comments, corrections and suggestions appreciated.
My 6th great grandfather Elijah Atwood was born in 1725 in Barnstable, Massachusetts, the son of Isaac, and Mehitable (Grey). In 1754, he married Anna Goodspeed in Haddam, Connecticut. They had one child during their marriage, John Atwood (1755-1829). Elijah died in 1806, having lived for 81 years.
Anna Goodspeed was born in 1734, in Barnstable, Massachusetts, the daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Smith). Anna died in April 1774. Elijah married Mary Kelly in November 1774.
Elijah served in the 1st Regiment of the Connecticut Continental Line in Captain Judson’s 8th Company. His son John served in the 1st Regiment in Captain Holmes’ 2nd Company.
What prompted this post was not simply Elijah’s service during the Revolutionary War, but the house he lived in during his final years. It was a former schoolhouse that in the winter session of 1773-1774 had a teacher by the name of Nathan Hale, the Connecticut patriot and hero of the Revolutionary War! The building is a historic site and can be visited today, alas, it is known not as the Atwood House, but as the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse.
This building was used as a school until 1799 (originally built in 1750), when another larger one was purchased, at which time Captain Elijah Atwood purchased the original schoolhouse and removed it to the north some one hundred yards, to a place just south of the old burying ground, and, by adding a little to it, converted it Into a dwelling house. He lived in it until his death in 1816; from that time until 1899 his descendants had always occupied it. In 1899, one hundred years after it came into the Atwood family, Judge Julius Atwood presented the building to the Connecticut Society Sons of the Revolution. Connecticut (CT) (Source (edited): CT Sons of the American Revolution)
Nathan Hale was an intelligent, engaging, athletic, ambitious and dutiful schoolmaster in New London, Connecticut, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. When news of the battles of Lexington and Concord reached New London on April 22, 1775, Hale reportedly declared: “Let us march immediately and never lay down our arms until we obtain our Independence.” He joined the Seventh Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army as a lieutenant. Hale left camp on September 12 posing as a schoolmaster looking for work. He took a circuitous path to British-held Long Island, where he gathered information on the enemy’s numbers and positions. On the night of September 21, he was discovered on his way back to the American lines and captured. Before his execution he delivered a stirring address including the words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” (Source: The American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati) Left: Statue – Nathan Hale (back) Frederick W. MacMonnies (1863-1937)
Comments, corrections and suggestions appreciated.
One of my many 6th paternal grandparents were Abraham and Hannah Jaquith. Abraham was born in December 1701, in Woburn, Massachusetts and died in January 1790 in Billerica, Massachusetts having lived 88 years. Abraham married Hannah Farley on January 1736 and together they had five children.
The Jaquith’s (originally Jacques) were French Huguenots who first fled France sometime before 1628, stayed in Cornwall, England, and are believed to have returned temporarily to France before departing for British America in 1643.
The house that Abraham and Hannah Jaquith lived in, also known as the Farley Garrison house, in Billerica, Massachusetts was originally built in about 1724 and is one of the oldest surviving colonial era houses America. The home remained in the Farley/Jaquith family’s possession for 12 generations!
In 2000, the house was dismantled piece by piece, stored, and moved to Gilmanton, N.H. where it was masterfully rebuilt. While it is often noted (+ often repeated) that the home was built in 1665, architectural analysis determined it was constructed about 1724. However, it is likely that the home contains elements of the original Farley home that served as a “garrison house” during King Philip’s War of 1676. (Note: in 2013, the house and other buildings on the 12 acre property were listed for sale at $ 14.95 million.)
Below are several stories and videos about the relocation of the home to New Hampshire, where it is still standing after over 297 years! Remarkable!
After almost two decades, I was unable to uncover the identity of the parents of my 3rd great paternal grandfather, Abiram Spencer (1812-1871). I’ve wrote stories about where he lived, how he made a living, his strong support for the Union during the Civil War, his election to the Hartford city council, and even had a copy of his wedding photograph with his beautiful wife Annie (Bottom of page: Posts and photograph).
I looked for any trace of Abiram across the Northeast states, every corner of Connecticut, Ohio (CT Western Reserve), and (heck) even the islands of Caribbean! Births, deaths, marriages, wills, land grants and found absolutely nothing.
Until a 5th cousin – 1x removed popped up, on Ancestry.com, as being a DNA match to me. His 5th great grandfather Daniel Spencer Jr. (1738-1818) of Hartford, Connecticut had two sons, Daniel and William. The DNA match descended from Daniel.
Daniel Jr.’s son William had a son named Abiram! I confirmed that William was the father of (my) Abiram through William’s will (above) where he notes his “beloved son Abiram.”Note: William’s full name is Joseph William Spencer, the name Joseph comes from a sibling that died in infancy. He used the name William in all of the documents associated with him.
I now have eight new generations of Spencer’s (below) to research and hopefully many stories to tell!
William Spencer (1780-1851) – Lois Hoskins (1780-1860)
Daniel Spencer Jr. (1738-1818) – Sarah Lord ((1743-1819)
Daniel Spencer Sr. (1705-1780) – Elizabeth Stiles (1705-1803)
Obadiah Spencer Jr. (1666-1741) – Ruth Kelsey (1669-1767)
Obadiah Spencer Sr. (1638-1712) – Mary Desborough (1641-1709)
Thomas Spencer (1607 – 1687) – Sarah Bearding (1623-1685)
Thomas Spencer (my 9th gg), was one of four brothers who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633, first living in Cambridge and moving to Hartford, CT in 1660 where — 152 years later, his 5th great grandson Abiram was born!
Gerald Spencer (1576-1645) – Alice Whitebread (1571-1628)
This is a story about Elisabeth (Holbrook) French (1847-1914) who was the wife of my 2nd great uncle, Charles Abram French (1832 – before 1914). According to a newspaper account, Charles was a family friend who first meet Elisabeth when she was only four years old. In the 1860 census, Charles (27) is listed as living in the home of Mahala (34-widow) and Lizzie (14) Holbrook. Thirteen years later, Charles and Elisabeth were married in Boston, Massachusetts. They had no children.
The interesting twist to this story is that upon her death in 1914, Elisabeth left $85,000 (the total estate was estimated to be $100,000) to homes for “aged” men and women, the Animal Rescue League, a couple of close friends and two of her doctors. Funds were also provided to the Red Acre Farm in Stow, Massachusetts, which was one of the first animal rescue organizations specifically for horses.
What is $85k in 1914 worth in today’s money? The answer is $2,214,029!
Elisabeth’s will provided no money for extended family members such as cousins, nieces or nephews. This really fried her cousin, Florence Bacon, who contested the will claiming that her aunt was not of “sound and disposing mind” when she made her will. The jury did not buy Florence’s argument, it took them only 10 minutes to decide that the will was valid. (below: news articles)
Charles was an agent for the Merchants Despatch Transportation (MDT) Company in Boston. MDT was established by the American Express Company and the company manufactured refrigerated rail cars. (Source: Norwich University, 1819-1911)
Note: One of the witnesses called in the case was my paternal great-grandmother, Mary McEachern French whose husband, Walter, was Charles cousin. There is no record of whether she was a witness for Elisabeth or Florence, however, if I could hazard a guess…..she may have cut a deal with Florence. Mary would be involved in a sensational court case a year later – Into the Breach-Promises, Promises.
Comments, corrections and suggestions appreciated.
