Elijah Lyman, from Pomfret, Vt., came here in 1818, and located in the northern part of the town, where he married Lydia Chamberlin and reared eight children, three of whom are living, as follows: Harriet, wife of Enos Cady, of Iowa , George W., residing in Cambridge, and Erastus P., of this town. Mrs. Lyman […]
Calvin Holton, a native of Chester, Vt., born March 3, 1809, came to Wolcott in November, 1831, and located upon the farm now owned by John Wells, near road 16. Here Mr. Holton erected a log house on his 100 acre farm, for which he had paid $200.00, there being then no wagon road within
In the abundance of able men that adorned the first twenty-five years of the history of the town, there is no more brilliant name than that of Abel Curtis. He was a son of Simeon Curtis and came with his father from Lebanon, Conn., where he was born June 13, 1755. The son graduated from
The Congregational Church of Norwich is among the oldest of the Congregational churches of Vermont, only four others having preceded it in the date of their organization, viz.: those of Bennington, Newbury, Westminster, and Windsor. It was the earliest and for many years the only ecclesiastical organization in town. Some of the first settlers had
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The contest with New York in regard to land titles was the first of a series of political commotions that arose to disquiet and vex the settlers on the New Hampshire Grants, to turn their thoughts and energies away from the improvement of their little properties, and check their growing prosperity. In this contest the
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The Baxters of this town came here from Norwich, Connecticut, a town which their ancestors with others from Norwich, England, assisted in founding about the year 1632. Elihu Baxter, with his young wife, Tryphena Taylor, to whom he was married October 24, 1777, arrived in Norwich the same year, and here fifteen children (six daughters
Hon. Paul Brigham, son of Paul and Catharine (Turner) Brigham, born in Coventry, Connecticut, January 17, 1746; married, October 3, 1767, Lydia Sawyer, of Hebron, Connecticut; came to Norwich from Coventry, in the spring of 1782, bringing his family with him, all of his children having been born in Connecticut. In 1788, he built the
General Lewis S. Partridge, son of Abel and Alpa (Lewis) Partridge, was born in Norwich, Vt., in 1818, a year prolific in the birth of sons in town. In early life he served in clerkships in mercantile business in Norwich, and in Hanover and Claremont, New Hampshire. He became a cadet at Norwich University in
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Compiled by Harold F. Wilson, while in Bethel, Vermont, in August, 1948, and completed in his home in Pitman, New Jersey, November, 1948. Material from: (1) James J. Wilson family Bible, notes taken by H. F. W. while convalescing at the M. L. Wilson Homestead in Bethel; (2) conversations with H. F. W.’s Aunt, Miss Susan E. Wilson, and with his Uncle, John J. Wilson; (3) data from two scrapbooks of James J. Wilson at the home on North Main Street, Bethel, just north of Christ Church; (4) letter from Mrs, Jennie Wilson Dustin, of Randolph, Vt., Nov., 1948; (5) material from H. F. W.’s father’s Scrapbook (Guy Wilson’s); (6) data from Charles Knowles Bolton, Scotch-Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America (Boston, 1910); information from Charles A. Hanna, The Scotch-Irish, Vol. II (New York, 1902); also from Osgood, American Colonies in the 18th Century, Vol. III for the Scotch-Irish background, and from Robt. P. Tristram Coffin, The Kennebec, Cradle of Americans (New York, 1938), and from John Fiske, New France and New England (Boston, 1902) for the Merrymeeting Bay episode.
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The founding of Dartmouth College at Hanover in 1769 was an event of great interest and importance to the early settlers of Norwich. Besides the advantages it promised for the convenient higher education of their children, advantages to which they were fully alive, as shown by their liberal subscriptions in land and money to its
Daniel Azro Ashley Buck, the eldest son of Honorable Daniel and Content (Ashley) Buck, was born at Norwich, Vt, April 19, 1789. He received a collegiate education, graduating at Middlebury in 1807, in the same class with William Slade and Stephen Royce, a class which is said to have contained more eminent men in proportion
John P. Rounsevel, formerly a well-known wool buyer of Claremont, was born in Unity, N.H., January 2, 1815, son of Royal and Betsey (Sweat) Rounsevel. Rounseville, the original spelling of the name, was changed to the present form by Joseph Rounsevel about the year 1768. In 1749 Thomas Rounseville wrote from Ottery St. Mary to
The present meeting house at Norwich Plain was built in 1817, and dedicated November 20th of the same year. On the following day, Reverend R. W. Bailey was ordained pastor and continued as such till November, 1823, when he was dismissed. The ordination sermon was preached by Nathan Perkins, Jr., A. M., pastor of the
Hon. Edward Alexander Enright. Distinguished as a statesman as well as for his achievements at the bar, Edward Alexander Enright is an honored, valued and admired citizen of Kansas City. For almost a quarter of a century he has been a prominent factor in the law and in public affairs, and his name stands foremost
Prior to the year 1800, Methodism had scarcely gained a foothold in Vermont. The first Methodist society in the State is said to have been formed at Vershire by Nicholas Suethen in 1796. Two years later, only one hundred church members were returned as residents in the Vershire Circuit, then including the whole of eastern
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The larger part of the names of the grantees of Norwich are names of Connecticut men then resident in Mansfield and neighboring towns. Captain Hezekiah Johnson, Samuel Slafter, Joseph Storrs, and William Johnson 3rd, are known to have lived in Mansfield; Amos Fellows, James West, Adoniram Grant, and Samuel Cobb were of Tolland; Ebenezar Heath,
Rev. N. R. Nichols was pastor of the Congregational church at Norwich village from February, 1880, to May, 1904, after completing a seven years’ pastorate at Barnet, Vermont, which was preceded by brief pastorates at Westfield, Massachusetts, and Acworth, New Hampshire. During his term of nearly a quarter of a century here in Norwich, Mr.
Mrs. Mary Slayton Luce, wife of Chester Luce, was born in Woodstock, Vt., April 18, 1787. Her father, Samuel Slayton, was a farmer in good circumstances, though possessing but a limited education, an honest, frugal, and kindly man. Her mother, Hannah, whose maiden name was Stowe, was in every respect a superior woman. Mrs. Luce,
Abial H. Slayton, from Woodstock, Vt., came to Stowe about the year 1821, and located on road 48, where his son, Abial H., now lives. He died here in 1831, aged thirty-five years. Three of his sons, Jerome B., Azro C., and Abial H., are residents of the town.
Simeon Curtis came to Norwich from Lebanon, Connecticut, as early as the year 1773, in which year he was elected one of the town assessors, and located near the south line of the town, on the farm where Henry S. Goddard now lives. Mr. Curtis died in 1779 at the age of fifty-eight years, and
