New Fairfield Historical District

The New Fairfield Historical District is in New Fairfield, Connecticut. In 2005, the newly created state-funded Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism awarded its first Endangered Properties Grant to the Town of New Fairfield. The $50,000 grant was used to relocate and preserve the Parsonage and the Gideon Hubbell House, two historically significant State Register properties threatened with demolition. Both properties were to be adapted for reuse as part of New Fairfield’s new community center, the first step in the creation of a living history village and town center.[1] The houses were moved to their new location on March 4, 2007.[2]

Gideon Hubbell House

The Gideon Hubbell house is of interest because it is one of the oldest buildings in the area and a good example of Greek Revival architecture, and because when Gideon died in 1838 the probate of his will left a complete inventory of his personal property, from the family cow to the last pair of velvet trousers.[3][4] This information enables the possible restoration of the house as a typical homestead of the beginning of the 19th century. Also, in its historical context, we have a record of the optimistic dispersal of Gideon’s family, which mirrored the vigorous westward expansion of his era.[5]

Gideon's father, mother and stepmother

Gideon Hubbell (June 26, 1761 – April 11, 1838) was born in Danbury, Connecticut. Gideon’s father, Parruck Hubbell (January 22, 1731 – January 1819),[6] moved with his family from Danbury to New Fairfield in 1771.[7] After British troops burned Danbury in April, 1777, Parruck, age 46, was listed a few weeks later as an ensign in the 16th Regiment of the Connecticut Militia.[8][9] After they reached age 16, Gideon and his older brother Ezra also served as militia men, mainly in the 16th Regiment.[10][11][12] Parruck was the son of Andrew Hubbell (1706–1777) and Sarah Parruck (1709–1736) and a great-grandson of Richard Hubbell (1625–1699), who immigrated to Connecticut around 1640 from Worcestershire, England.[13][14]

Sarah Barnum (c. 1736 – c. 1780), the first wife of Parruck Hubbell, was Gideon’s mother.[15][16] She was the daughter of Samuel Barnum Sr. (1697–1764) and Rebeckah Cornell (c. 1697 – before 1757), and a great-granddaughter[17][18][19] of Thomas Barnum (1625–1695), one of the original eight settlers of Danbury (in 1684) on land they purchased from the local Indians, which now includes all of Danbury, Bethel, New Fairfield, Redding, Ridgefield, and a portion of Derby.[20] She was also a distant relative of the circus showman P.T. Barnum (1810–1891), who at age 71 eloquently described historical details of life around 1820 in the Danbury area of his childhood.[21] Sarah Barnum Hubbell apparently died sometime between 1770 and 1780.[22] [23]

Sometime after 1772, Parruck married Lydia Beardsley (c. 1740 – c. 1794), who became stepmother to all his children. (Parruck Hubbell and Lydia Beardsley had no known children.)[24] She was the daughter of John Beardsley Jr. (1704–1772) and Martha Odell (1708–1797).[25] Parruck and Lydia were second cousins; their great-grandfather was Samuel Beardsley (c. 1636 – 1706), son of William Beardsley (1605–1661) of Derbyshire, England who was a founder of Stratford, Connecticut.[26] After Lydia’s death, Parruck remarried again at about age 64; his third wife Abigail was admitted to the New Fairfield Congregational church on January 3, 1796.[27] Both Parruck and Gideon were active in the Congregational church, serving on various committees over the years. Parruck Hubbell died in January, 1819; his widow Abigail Hubbell apparently died two or three years later.[28][29]

Gideon's militia service in the American Revolutionary War

Shortly after his 16th birthday in 1777, Gideon Hubbell served in the Connecticut Militia, on loan for a month to the Horseneck garrison in Greenwich, as a Private in the Company commanded by Captain Turrell in Colonel Canfield's Regiment. From September to November, 1777, Gideon marched with his home Regiment along the Hudson River to oppose General Burgoyne's assault from Canada; this was in Captain Peter Penfield's Company of the 16th Regiment, which was commanded by Colonel Cook. (General Burgoyne surrendered his army at Saratoga, New York, before Gideon's Regiment could reach the scene.) In July, 1778, Gideon marched with the same Company and Regiment under the same command to the huge Fishkill Military Supply Depot in New York, a tour that lasted three weeks. In July, 1779, Gideon served two weeks with his home Regiment (by then under the command of Colonel Nehemiah Beardsley) in the defense of Fairfield and Norwalk, which were under attack by British General Tryon; Gideon was still in Captain Penfield's Company for this. In 1780 or 1781, Gideon served two months again on loan to the Horseneck garrison under the command of Colonel Mead and Captain Dean.[30]

Gideon's sister and brothers

Gideon Hubbell had three brothers and a sister, all born in Danbury, Conecticut and moving as a family to New Fairfield in 1771. His oldest brother Ezra Hubbell (1756–1828) married Love Dibble (1764–1835); they first lived in Danbury, Connecticut and then settled in North Egremont, Massachusetts.[31] His sister Sarah Hubbell (1763–1823) married Pvt. Elijah Beardsley (1760–1826) after which they lived in New Fairfield until about February, 1796, then moved to Delhi, New York, farming there until autumn 1811, when they moved to Ohio.[32] They had fourteen children and in their later years they were reportedly innkeepers on the historic National Road at Springfield, Ohio.[33][34] Gideon's brother Noah Hubbell (1767–1824) married Anna Hoyt Barnum (1764–1847) and they apparently spent their life in Danbury, Connecticut except for a farming period around 1800 at Middlefield, New York.[35] Gideon's youngest brother Elijah Hubbell (1770–1847) married Hannah Fields (1764–1837) in 1792 and moved to Middlefield, New York where they spent the rest of their life farming.[36]

Gideon's first and second wife

Gideon Hubbell married during the American Revolutionary War and settled with his wife Anne Bishop (1759 – c. 1795) in New Fairfield, where they had three children; Gilead, Billy, and Anna.[37][38][39] Anne apparently died when her daughter Anna was still very young. Gideon’s second marriage, at age 37, on January 27, 1799, to Diantha Barnum age 34, lasted until her death in 1834.[40] He was buried beside her four years later in the Town Center Cemetery.[41] They had no known children. Diantha was the daughter of David Barnum (1733–1822) and Amie Towner (1734/35–1767), and a great-great-granddaughter of Danbury co-founder Thomas Barnum.[42]

Gideon's children and grandchildren

Gilead Hubbell (also spelled Hubbel or Hubble), Gideon’s oldest child, was born about 1780.[43] Apparently while still young and perhaps seeking adventure, he left the family, became a millwright’s apprentice, presumably found his way to Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, joined the pioneer traffic on the Great Wagon Road through the Shenandoah Valley, and continued south on the Carolina Wagon Road from present-day Roanoke, Virginia to Stokes County, North Carolina, where he met Sarah P. Boatright (1778 – c. 1855). They were married there on Feb 10, 1802.[44] The couple lived in nearby Wilkes County until about 1812,[45] when they traveled over the mountains to Rutherford County, Tennessee, near Nashville. Gilead was reported to be a captain in the militia there in 1818.[46] The 1820 Rutherford County census listed him as engaged in manufacturing. Family tradition states that he was a millwright specializing in water wheels and that he died of pneumonia around 1822 while constructing a mill near Cape Girardeau, Missouri in bad weather.[47][48][49] He left a widow, five sons and a daughter.[50][51] His widow, Sarah Hubble, returned with her children from Missouri to Giles County in middle Tennessee where she settled with her mother Sally Boatright (c. 1750 – c. 1825) and her brother James G. Boatright Sr. (1769–1839) who had a large family there.[52] Coincidentally, living nearby in 1850 was another widow back from Missouri named Sarah L. Hubble, a distant relative, who was a great-grandmother of the astronomer Edwin Hubble, namesake of the space telescope.[53] For some reason, early Hubbells migrating south of the Mason–Dixon line tended to change the spelling of their name to Hubble. Gilead's children did so also, but his sons eventually reverted to the original spelling.

Gideon’s younger son, Billy B(ishop?) Hubbell (May 6, 1786 – January 20, 1885) was born in New Fairfield[54][55] and married Sarah Bearss/Beers there around 1806.[56] They lived near his father Gideon and grandfather Parruck until about 1810 when they moved to New York, where they had at least two daughters and sons.[57] Billy became a farmer at Virgil, New York, in the Finger Lakes region, and lived there for the rest of his life. He was still listed in the Virgil census of 1880 at age 94.[58] He had been named as a co-executor in Gideon’s will of 1830, but it is not known whether he was able to return from western New York to Connecticut to participate in the 1838 estate settlement.[59]

Gideon’s daughter, Anna Hubbell (September 24, 1792 – May 1, 1883)[60][61] married Joseph Thomas Bearss (February 23, 1790 – November 8, 1845),[62][63] He was probably the son of Sgt. Joseph Bearss 2nd of New Fairfield, who served in the Revolutionary War and who lived next door to the young married couple in 1810.[64] The two Josephs were descendants of Josiah Bearse Sr. who moved from Barnstable, Massachusetts to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1734 and then to New Fairfield in 1738, two years before the town was incorporated. He changed the spelling of his name to Bearss when he arrived in Connecticut. Josiah was a grandson of Augustine Bearse, who immigrated in 1638 at age 20 from Southampton, England to Plymouth aboard the “Confidence” and came to Barnstable with the first group in 1639. A fanciful tale of the Bearss family ancestry involving Gypsies and Indian princesses was published in the 1930s, but was later discredited by a professional genealogist.[65] (Reasoned support for a kernel of truth in parts of the story still exists, however.)[66] Anna and Joseph T. Bearss had four sons and eight daughters, all born in Connecticut between 1809 and 1832.[67] Joseph T. Bearss served in the War of 1812 under Lieutenant Bellamy.[68]

Gideon Hubbell’s will stipulated that the bulk of his estate was to be shared equally by his wife Diantha, son Billy, and daughter Anna, with a small amount reserved for the children of his deceased son Gilead. This led to an inventory of all his real and personal property after his death. As executor, it fell to Joseph T. Bearss to dispose of the assets and divide the proceeds among Billy, Anna, and “Diantha’s heirs”. He reportedly sold the house to Alpheus Martin Couch in 1841.[69]

Anna and Joseph T. Bearss reportedly moved with eight of their children around 1841 to Catawba Island in Ottawa County, Ohio, on the edge of Lake Erie, where they planted extensive orchards. Joseph died there in 1845, but Anna lived on to the age of 90 in 1883. As a final note, their eldest son Gideon Hubbell Bearss (born 1815), who had apprenticed in 1831 as a shoemaker in Putnam County, New York, followed them in 1844 to Catawba Island, where he also became a prosperous land owner.[70][71][72][73][74]

Continuing in the tradition of Gideon Hubbell’s three children long ago, his descendants continued to multiply and migrate across America from that time onward, each leaving a personal legacy radiating out from the old house in New Fairfield.[75]

The Parsonage

Abel F. Beardsley took residence of The Parsonage as a manufacturer of lightning rods. Most of the town's records burned in a fire at the town clerk's home in 1867, so the exact date of the Beardsley house is unknown. Experts can place it somewhere around 1840 with parts of it being perhaps earlier. The property went through successive owners until Lavenia Jennings sold it to the Congregational Church of New Fairfield in 1903 for $1,000. It was then used as the pastor's home, The Parsonage, until the 1950s - half a century!

The Parsonage was also used as a meeting place for educational, charity and social events. According to the Danbury Evening News on September 9, 1908, "A number of ladies met at the Parsonage yesterday afternoon for the purpose of organizing a Ladies Aid Society." In the early 1900s, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) met in the parlor of The Parsonage. Years later, a woodworking club for boys was offered there with the pastor serving as instructor and shop steward. Girls in town would attend the Hobby Club. The building also served as an informal teen center in the 1940s and 1950s.

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.cultureandtourism.org, accessed February 7, 2008.
  2. ↑ Office of the State Historian, University of Connecticut, 1800 Asylum Avenue West Hartford, CT, http://web.mac.com/w_woodward/iWeb/Site/Blog/2C84ABA2-208E-4F6E-B766-B460C65AF346.html Report, March 22, 2007, accessed February 7, 2008.
  3. ↑ Transcript of will and copies of original images of will and inventory in the library at the Hubbell Center, Des Moines, Iowa. http://www.hubbell.org/hubcent.htm
  4. ↑ Unfortunately, a continuous history of the house is unavailable because a fire in 1867 destroyed all of the town records. (Early records from the New Fairfield Congregational Church have been preserved, but published transcripts of them do not agree entirely with photo images of the original pages.) http://www.ctgenweb.org/county/cofairfield/pages/newfairfield/newff_index.htm
  5. ↑ See Subheadings for detailed references.
  6. ↑ Some sources have Parruck Hubbell's birth incorrectly in 1730, but this would have him born only eight months after his sister Jerusha Hubbell (May 19, 1729 – 1809) who lived to a ripe old age. Clearly, 1731 must be correct; he was born 20 months after his sister Jerusha and 22 months before his sister Hannah Hubbell (born Nov 12, 1732).
  7. ↑ Gideon Hubbell Revolutionary War Pension Application #S31763, dated June 30, 1834, p.4: "He was born in said Danbury on the 26th day of June 1761 & at the age of ten removed to said New Fairfield where he has ever since resided. He has no record of his age other than a memorandum made in his Bible by himself from information received from his parents. [signed] Gideon Hubbel".
  8. ↑ DAR Patriot Lookup, Parrach Hubbell (sic), http://www.dar.org/natsociety/content.cfm?ID=146&hd=n&FO=Y
  9. ↑ New Fairfield South Congregational Church Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Meetings, 1742–1870 (records microfilmed 1954), LDS Church, Family Historical Library (FHL), Salt Lake City, Utah, Film 0005351, “Hubbel, Ens. Parroch his wife Abigail admitted Jan 3 1796”.
  10. ↑ Militia service was required for all men between the ages of 16 and 60, with some exceptions, per Todd L. Gerlander, Understanding the Connecticut militia during the American Revolution, http://connecticutsar.org/understanding-the-connecticut-militia/ Accessed November 15, 2015.
  11. ↑ Gideon Hubbell was paid for service expenses (with Sgt. Joseph Bearse) in Captain [Peter] Penfield's Company from New Fairfield, in Colonel Nehemiah Beardsley's 16th Regiment, for the July 1779 defense of Fairfield, Norwalk, etc. per 'Rolls & Lists of Connecticut Men in the Revolution (1775–1783)', Connecticut Historical Society, 1901, p.196. The same source reports that Ezra Hubbell served in Captain Shute's Company of the same Regiment in the same campaign, p. 198.
  12. ↑ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p. 37, cites Pvt. Gideon Hubbell listed as a member of Capt. William Gaylord Hubbell's Company in 'A Complete Roster of Col. David Waterbury Jr's Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers 1776' by A.S. Clark 1897, but this Gideon was implicitly identified as Capt. Hubbell's younger brother, both of them sons of Ephraim Hubbell (1711–1795), a Justice of the Peace. The 1790 New Fairfield census listed two Gideon Hubbell households, one near Parruck Hubbell and one a little farther away; the latter Gideon Hubbell (1726–1807) was probably Ephraim Hubbell's younger brother.
  13. ↑ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.2, 6, 12, 32.
  14. ↑ Parruck was mistakenly printed as "Parnach" Hubbell in Walter Hubbell, History of the Hubbell Family, 1881, Google Books, p.68, 69. This error has been copied and has persisted for over a hundred years.
  15. ↑ Both Parruck and Sarah attended the April 15, 1757 probate hearing for the estate of her grandfather, John Cornell Jr (c. 1663 – 1753). They and her siblings and her deceased mother's siblings all signed an agreement transferring various shares of his Danbury land to them. Sarah's father, Samuel Barnum Sr. signed for her sister Jemima, who was still a minor. LDS church FHL microfilm 0004024, Danbury Probate Records 1744–1782, Vol. 2, p. 66-67
  16. ↑ Sarah Barnum was listed in the last will and testament of Samuel Barnum dated September 21, 1764, and probated November 6, 1764. Danbury, Connecticut Probate Records, Book 1, pp. 272-273, [FHL film 4024], cited by Frank L. Calkins in 'The Children of Samuel Barnum & the Heirs of John Cornell', The Connecticut Nutmegger, Vol. 31, No. 4, March, 1999, pp. 563-565. This indicates that Sarah Barnum was definitely the mother of Ezra, Gideon, and Sarah Hubbell, who were all born before that date.
  17. ↑ Sarah Barnum was also the great-granddaughter of John Cornell Sr. (1634–1705) who came from Essex, England with his parents in 1635 to Boston. His parents, Thomas Cornell (1593–1655) and Rebecca Briggs (c. 1600 – 1673), then settled the family in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and what is now Westchester, New York where they were driven out by Indians with much bloodshed. After returning to Portsmouth, John Cornell married Mary Russell (1644 – c. 1701) in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where they settled until driven out by Indians in King Philip's War. They were rescued with their children and brought as refugees to Cow Neck (Sands Point), Long Island, New York where they were granted acreage and remained for the rest of their lives. Their son John Cornell Jr. married Mary Starr in Hempstead, New York and the couple moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, where Rebeckah was born, before settling in Danbury. Genealogy of the Cornell Family, Ezra Cornell Collection, Cornell University, p. 17-24. Also, A History of the County of Westchester, by Robert Bolton, 1848, Google Books, Appendix, p. 554,556.
  18. ↑ In addition, Sarah Barnum was the great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Fairchild Sr.(1610–1670) and Emma Seabrook (1621–1659), who were among the first settlers of Stratford, Connecticut. As an example of a woman's name passing down through the generations, note that Sarah Barnum reportedly had a sister named Emm Barnum (c. 1717 – 1764) (wife of Joshua Barnum), an aunt named Emm Barnum (c. 1707 – c. 1750) (sister of Samuel Barnum Sr. and wife of Joseph Boughton), a grandmother named Emm Fairchild (1672 – c. 1707) (wife of Francis Barnum and daughter of Thomas Fairchild Jr.), and a great-great-aunt named Emm Fairchild (1673–1732) (sister of Thomas Fairchild Jr, daughter of Emma Seabrook, and wife of Hachaliah Preston).
  19. ↑ Donald Lines Jacobus, The Families of Old Fairfield, Publ 1930–32, Vol. 1, p. 32, 33, Vol. 2, p. 485. Gives ancestry of Sarah and mentions husband Parruck, but does not mention children. [Book does not include sources.]
  20. ↑ Barnum, Patrick, Barnum Family Genealogy, http://www.barnum.org, accessed February 17, 2008.
  21. ↑ For complete text of P.T. Barnum’s speech at Bethel, Connecticut, fountain dedication, see: Barnum, Patrick, Barnum Family Genealogy, http://www.barnum.org/intro.html Accessed February 13, 2008.
  22. ↑ Her youngest child was born in 1770.
  23. ↑ As of April 4, 1781, the “John Cornell estate owed money to Parruck” [heir of Sarah Barnum, who was an heir of her mother Rebecca/Rebeckah Cornell, who was the wife of Samuel Barnum Sr. and daughter of John Cornell Jr.]. Notes by Ruth Ryan, in library of Hubbell Center, Des Moines, Iowa, cited LDS Church, Salt Lake City, Utah, FHL microfilm 0004025, Danbury Probate Records 1775–1790, Vol. 4, p. 197-98. However, the debt also could have been merely for some business transaction with Parruck.
  24. ↑ There appears to be no contemporaneous public record of Lydia Beardsley before 1772 when she was mentioned as an unmarried daughter in the will of her father, John Beardsley, Jr. [FHL film 4024, Vol. 3, pages 154:155] and again in 1788, when she was mentioned in Parruck Hubbell's will, and also in 1791 in a codicil to his will. Note that all of Parruck Hubbell's children were born before 1772. Parruck Hubbell's children were first mistakenly assigned to Lydia Beardsley in 1881 by Walter Hubbell in his 'History of the Hubbell Family' entry for "Parnach" Hubbell, p. 260. But he was unaware of Parruck's first wife, Sarah Barnum, and he provided no sources for his information. Isaac Haight Beardsley listed Lydia Beardsley married to Parruck Hubbel in his 'Genealogical History of the Beardsley/lee Family', 1902, p. 233-234, but listed no children and gave no sources. Nellie Beardsley Holt in her 'Beardsley Genealogy', publ. 1951, p. 32, mistakenly listed Lydia Beardsley married to "Parnack" Hubbell with the five children, but provided no sources for her information. The 'DAR Patriot Index' of 1966, p. 351, listed Ensign "Parrach" Hubbell married to Lydia Beardsley, but with no children included, no pension indication, and no source given. H.B. Hubbell's 'Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family', 1995, p. 32, 73, lists Ezra Hubbell born c. 1756, which definitely would make him the son of Sarah Barnum. The source is given as Ruth Ryan research. Note that the date of Sarah Barnum's death has not yet been discovered (as of February, 2009), but it is now confirmed that Sarah Barnum was the mother of all of Parruck Hubbell's children.
  25. ↑ Lydia Beardsley (c. 1740 – c. 1794) had five brothers and two sisters; they were Mary Beardsley Comstock (c. 1729 – 1772/3), Col. Nehemiah Beardsley (1731–1811), Serajah Beardsley (1733–1758), Anne Beardsley Bishop (1741–1759), Dr. Ebenezer Beardsley (1746–1791), Dr. Hezekiah Beardsley (1748–1790), and Dr. Gershom Beardsley (1752–1826). Hezekiah Beardsley and his wife Elizabeth Davis are subjects of paintings in the Yale University collection. They adopted their niece Sarah Davis, apparently the daughter of Elizabeth's brother Isaac Davis. Hezekiah bequeathed 30 pounds and a woman's saddle to Lydia in 1790 per Walter B. Steiner, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, vol. 6, no. 4, 1934, pp. 367-374.
  26. ↑ Nellie Beardsley Holt, Beardsley Genealogy, The Family of William Beardsley, privately published 1951, p. 32. (Digital copy). (Book does not include sources, but appears to reference original documents.)
  27. ↑ LDS Church, Salt Lake City, Utah, FHL microfilm 0005351
  28. ↑ Parruck and Abigail Hubbell were listed in the New Fairfield census in 1800 under the name of "Paruch Hubbell" and in 1810 under the name "Park Hubbell".
  29. ↑ Danbury Probate Court appointed Gideon Hubbell to be executor of Parruck's estate on February 11, 1819. Abigail Hubbell was awarded her widow's dower on March 6, 1819, which was then distributed to the other heirs on July 9, 1823, presumably after her death. FSL film 4029, Vol.13, p.332-336,350,460. FSL film 4030, Vol.14, p.404-405 (Danbury Probate Records, 1810–1828).
  30. ↑ Gideon Hubbell Revolutionary War Pension Application #S31763, dated June 30, 1834
  31. ↑ 1800 census for Danbury, Connecticut; 1810 census for Berkshire County, Massachusetts; Ezra Hubbel died March 5, 1828, age 72, per his gravestone; http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=71428201 accessed January 18, 2016.
  32. ↑ 1810 census of Delhi, New York; also, an interesting letter from their daughter Laura in 'Genealogical History of the Beardsley/lee Family' by Isaac Haight Beardsley, 1902, p.147.
  33. ↑ Ohio History, Journal of the Ohio Historical Society, 1998, Vol. 37, p. 92.
  34. ↑ http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/OHROOTS/2003-08/1059789955 accessed May 8, 2008.
  35. ↑ 1800 census for Danbury, Connecticut and Middlefield, New York.
  36. ↑ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.32,74.
  37. ↑ Gideon Hubbell's first wife was undoubtedly Anne Bishop (February 3, 1759 - c. 1795), daughter of Billy Bishop (1735–1789) of New Fairfield, as evidenced by the use of his first and last names for Gideon's son and grandsons. Billy Bishop's wife, whose name also was Anna, was probably Lydia Beardsley's sister (per the will of their father, John Beardsley, Jr. dated May 13, 1772, where he mentioned his deceased daughter Anna Beardsley as Anna Bishop). She died three days after giving birth to their daughter, according to New Fairfield Congregational Church records. Billy/Bille Bishop was born May 8, 1735, in Woodstock, Connecticut, according to Records of the First Congregational Church there. He was buried in Center Cemetery, Norfolk, Connecticut, where his headstone reads "Bille Bishop, Died June 17, 1789, Age 54, Revolutionary War". Bille's infant daughter Anne was probably nursed by her aunt Mary Beardsley Comstock (c. 1729 – c. 1772) who moved with her husband Samuel Comstock (1729–1764) and children from New Fairfield to Norfolk, Connecticut around 1760. On October 15,1761 Bille at age 26 married Mamre Gaylord (1735–1817), the 26-year-old widow of John Gillett (1729–1760), at Norfolk, Connecticut, where she may have been living with her parents.
  38. ↑ Billy Bishop was a great-grandson of Edward and Sarah Bishop, who were imprisoned as witches in 1692 at Salem, Massachusetts, but escaped to New York and then moved with their entire family to Roger Williams' original settlement, Rehoboth, which is now Rumford, a part of Rhode Island. The 1790 census for Bethlehem, Connecticut lists a Billy Bishop household located among Bishop relatives, but this was most likely William H. (Billy) Bishop, a loyalist who went to Canada in 1793.
  39. ↑ Notes by Ruth Ryan, in library of Hubbell Center, Des Moines, Iowa, “2511 Parrock of New Fairfield … February 11, 1819”, copied from Connecticut State Records (Folio 332 cited): “Parruck Hubbell's will dated March 28, 1788 provides to wife Lydia and daughter-in-law Ann, wife of Gideon.” Codicil dated Feb 2 or 12, 1791, names "my wife Lydia" and "dau-in-law Anne, wife to my son Gideon".
  40. ↑ New Fairfield South Congregational Church Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Meetings, 1742–1870 (records microfilmed 1954), LDS Church, Family Historical Library (FHL), Salt Lake City, Utah, Film 0005351,
  41. ↑ Epitaphs of New Fairfield Connecticut, Compiled by Joan L. Sudol, New Fairfield CT. “Tombstone missing, information filled in from other source … Ct. Library records, Hartford, Ct.” cited at http://www.newfairfieldlibrary.org/townctrao.html accessed February 10, 2008.
  42. ↑ Barnum, Patrick, Barnum Family Genealogy, http://www.barnum.org/fam03802.htm, accessed February 17, 2008.
  43. ↑ It is possible that he was named after another Gilead Hubbel, born before 1760, who served in Captain Benedict's Company of Colonel Bradley's Regiment, was taken prisoner in the defeat at Fort Washington on November 16, 1776 and presumably died a few months later with most of his comrades in a British Prisoner of War Camp in New York. Henry P. Johnston, 1889, Record of Connecticut Men in The Military and Naval Service during the War of the Revolution 1775-1783, p. 422. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924032736849#page/n445/mode/2up
  44. ↑ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.158, 159.
  45. ↑ 1810 census, Wilkes County, North Carolina. (The Hoodenpyle wagon road was completed in 1812 at the French Broad River gap, linking North Carolina and Tennessee.)
  46. ↑ The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1887, Rutherford County, Part I, pages 810-825, transcribed by Fred Smoot; accessed July 10, 2016, at http://www.tngenweb.org/rutherford/goodspeeds.htm
  47. ↑ Letter dated June 23, 1983, to Harold B. Hubbell from Jessie Hubbell Scaggs relating information her father Clarence Hubbell (1880–1973) gave her about his grandfather James B. Hubbell (who was a son of Gilead) and about the brothers of James, as well as their father Gilead himself. Copy in library at The Hubbell Center, Des Moines, Iowa. http://www.hubbell.org/hubcent.htm
  48. ↑ If Gilead Hubble was working on water mills in Cape Girardeau County in 1822, he almost certainly would have met Ithamar Hubble (1762–1840), a colorful distant relative who had a mill on Hubble Creek at present-day Gordonville, Missouri. Ithamar was born in Newtown, Connecticut and grew up in Albany County, New York, where he enlisted in 1779 as a private in the Revolutionary War. After the war, by 1787, he had moved to southwest Virginia. He then trekked to Cape Girardeau in 1797 when it was still Spanish territory, where he received a grant of 340 acres (1.4 km2), six years before the Louisiana Purchase. (He and his companions presumably drove a wagon train up the rough but newly widened Wilderness Road to Louisville, Kentucky and then rode on flatboats down the Ohio River to Missouri.) His mill was still operating a hundred years later.
  49. ↑ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.848.
  50. ↑ Gilead Hubbell’s children were: Parruck/Park Hubbell (April 30, 1805 – January 27, 1883) cabinet maker and carpenter, Daniel Jefferson Hubbell (December 30, 1807 – c. 1886) carpenter and wagon maker, William Bishop Hubbell (August 4, 1810 – October 13, 1896) soldier and farmer, Sarah Hubbell (c. December, 1813 – c. 1875) housewife, Napoleon Bonaparte Hubbell (July 22, 1815 – March 21, 1888) carpenter, and James Boatright Hubbell (May 22, 1822 – June 16, 1902) carpenter. Gilead’s daughter Sarah married Henry Gibson (1812–1893), a stonecutter from Kentucky, and was living next door to her mother in 1840. Park, Daniel, and William were born in North Carolina, Sarah and Napoleon in Tennessee, and James in Missouri. All died in Tennessee except Daniel, who moved around 1870 to Frankfort, Kentucky, where he operated a wagon making establishment.
  51. ↑ Census 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.
  52. ↑ The 1820 Giles County Census had "Sally Boatwright" and her son "James Boatwright" heading adjacent households. The 1830 census had "Sarah Hubble" and her nephew "Dan'l Boteright" [son of James] heading the same two households with the same neighbors, and her brother "J Boatright [Sr.]" living nearby. Another nephew "Jas. Boteright [Jr.]" also had his own household in the vicinity by then.
  53. ↑ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.137,265,422,576.
  54. ↑ 1850 and 1880 census of Cortland County, NY.
  55. ↑ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=99914335
  56. ↑ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.159
  57. ↑ Billy B. Hubbell had daughters Merilla Hubbell and Lucy Hubbell; he had an infant son named Bishop Hubbell (1821–1822), but his surviving sons were Bishop Beebe Hubbell (1823–1905) of Olean, New York and Gideon J. Hubbell, also known as J.G. Hubbell (1826–1888) of Groton, New York. In addition to father Billy and son Bishop identifying themselves as B.B. Hubbell, there was a third B.B. Hubbell living nearby. This was a distant relative, Burton B. Hubbell (1816–1906), the postmaster of East River at Cortland, New York, who was probably the grandson of Matthew Hubbell (1745–1812) and Abigail Burton (1758–1812) of Easton, Connecticut and son of Andrew Read Hubbell (1771–1854) of Otsego County, New York.
  58. ↑ The 1880 Virgil, NY census listed Lucy and Billy B. Hubbell living with his grandson J. B. Hutchings and wife Mary [Booth]. John B. Hutchings (1840–1909) was the son of Andrew Hutchings (1816–1889) and Merilla Hubbell (1813–1890).
  59. ↑ Joseph T. Bearss signed for Billy Hubbell in the Probate settlement document.
  60. ↑ Birth & death dates listed in Shook Cemetery, Ottawa County, Ohio, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=43427&GRid=17480031
  61. ↑ Anna “Barse” age 58, listed on September 24, 1850, as head of household in Ottawa County, Ohio census; son David and daughter Lucinda living with her. Anna Bearss age 87, listed on June 4, 1880, in Ottawa County, Ohio census, indicating she was born in 1792 between June 4 and September 24. Also, an unreliable birth date of September 29, 1790, was given in edwardjh2000 Bearss Family Tree at ancestry.com, accessed January 25, 2009, but with no source cited.
  62. ↑ New Fairfield Congregational Church Marriages: 1700–1800, transcribed by Barbara Andersen, 1999, from an earlier source gives a marriage date of October 6, 1807, at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ctfairfi/pages/newfairfield/ffchurch_mg.htm , accessed February 8, 2008. But this does not appear in the 1954 microfilm FHL 0005351 (LDS Church).
  63. ↑ Photo of Joseph T. Bearss gravestone in Shook Cemetery of Ottawa County, Ohio can be seen at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=17480030. An unreliable birth date of March 24, 1790, was given for him in edwardjh2000 Bearss Family Tree at ancestry.com, accessed January 25, 2009, but with no source cited. This tree also shows Billy B. Hubbell's wife Sarah as the sister of Joseph T. Bearss, but with no source provided. In this case, the mother of Joseph T. Bearss and Sarah Bearss was Jemima Beebe (1759–1833), born in New Fairfield. Jemima Beebe was the wife of Sgt. Joseph Bearss 2nd (1756–1834) and the daughter of deacon Joseph Beebe (1724–1803); she was also a great-granddaughter of Captain James Beebe (1641–1728), a co-founder of Danbury, Connecticut.
  64. ↑ Also living next door to Joseph Bearss 2nd [age 54] in the 1810 census was Joseph Bearss 3rd [age 22], a cousin or possibly a brother of Joseph T. Bearss [age 20]. Also living nearby was Thomas Bearss [age 72], who was the son of Josiah Bearse and the father of Joseph Bearss 2nd. Farther away was Joseph Bearss 1st [age 76], another son of Josiah. (Joseph Bearss 3rd became Joseph Bearss Jr. in the 1820 census and he is listed with his second wife Caroline at Crawford County, Pennsylvania in the 1850 census.) Joseph T. Bearss was listed as "Thomas Bearss" in the 1820 and 1830 census of New Fairfield. (Note that the ancestry.com digital database for the 1810 census has the town names scrambled for northern Fairfield County, Connecticut; but their original images are correct, of course, with the town names given at the END of each list.)
  65. ↑ “Austin Bearse and His Alleged Indian Connections, By Donald Lines Jacobus, M.A., of New Haven, Conn, The American Genealogist, Vol. XV (1938–39)”, accessed February 16, 2008, at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bearse/Jacobus.doc
  66. ↑ Lee Murrah at http://www.murrah.com/gen/bearse.htm accessed February 17, 2008
  67. ↑ The sons of Anna and Joseph T. Bearss were Gideon H, Joseph T, David L, and Orson L. Bearss. Their daughters were Laura H, Lydia A, Mary E, Louisa D, Marilla E, Sarah C, Lucinda E, and Flora H. Bearss. See “Barse” listings, 1850 census, Ottawa County, Ohio. Also, in edwardjh2000 Bearss Family Tree at ancestry.com, accessed January 25, 2009, but which has no source cited.
  68. ↑ War of 1812 Service Records, [database on-line], Provo, Utah, copied from national archives.
  69. ↑ Agnes Trimpert & Linda Decker, www.preservenewfairfield.org Last modified: July 9, 2007 LDS Church, FHS film 1435647, page 6 has a sale on April 4, 1836, of 8 acres (32,000 m2) from Gideon Hubbell to John H. Sturges for $131, page 37 has a sale on November 10, 1838, of 19 acres (77,000 m2) from Billy B. Hubbell and Joseph T.Bearss to Uriah Tarrell for $526.50, and page 117 has a sale on September 3, 1841, of 3 acres (12,000 m2) from Joseph T. Bearss to Alpheus M. Couch for $250.
  70. ↑ Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens (Google eBook) J.H. Beers & Company, 1896 - 854 pages (Pgs 675-677)
  71. ↑ Web posted note on January 2, 2009, by Don Wonnell relating information from his mother Marie Brackney Wonnell, a former Ottawa County historian, at http://boards.ancestry.myfamily.com/surnames.bearss/25.2/mb.ashx accessed January 18, 2009.
  72. ↑ Although they were fruit growers, the Joseph T. Bearss family had nothing to do with producing the Bearss Persian lime, the commercial green lime now found in supermarkets everywhere. John T. Bearss (1847 – c. 1920), whose relationship (if any) to them is unknown, developed this lime tree in his nursery at Porterville, California, per 'Culture of the Citrus in California', by B. M. Lelong, 1902, page 236. He later worked at the University of California Agricultural Experiment Station at Tulare. He was born near Battle Creek, Michigan and was a horticulturist in Wisconsin before moving to California. His father Daniel Bearss (1804–1878) was born in Livingston County, New York, per census records and 'History of Northern Wisconsin', 1881, page 648. Note that H.J. Webber in 'The Citrus Industry', 1943, page 624, transposed John's initials from J.T. Bearss to "T.J. Bearss", an error that has been copied to a number of web sites dealing with limes.
  73. ↑ “During the War of 1812 General Harrison had men stationed on Catawba Island to prevent a possible English invasion, and some of these may have settled down as permanent residents. Most of the American settlers, however, came from Connecticut to take up land given them as compensation for houses and barns burned by the English during the Revolution. In 1792 the State of Connecticut granted about 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) of land at the western end of Connecticut Western Reserve to these people, and the area came to be known as the "Fire Lands”. The “Fire Lands” could not be settled immediately: the claimants or their heirs had to be found, the amount of damage they suffered verified, the land had to be surveyed, purchased from the Indians (1805), and was finally granted to individuals in 1807 by means of a complicated lottery.” http://www.catawbaislandtownship.com/CatI2-Historical.htm accessed February 15, 2009.
  74. ↑ From "Lake Erie Islands", editor Michael Gora, Trafford Publ. 2004, page 356: Google Books. "Catawba Island -- Additional biographies, 1881: ... -- "George W. Bailey was born in CT Feb 11, 1811, came to this county [Ottawa] 1844, died Mar 19, 1848. His father was William W. Bailey, who died in CT. His mother, Anna Boughton died Jan 1, 1875. His wife Mary E. Bearss, -- whose father, Joseph T. Bearss, died in 1845, and whose mother, Anna Hubbell, is still living here [in 1881], at the age of eighty-eight years, -- was born in CT May 16, 1813 in which state they married on Jan 12, 1835."
  75. ↑ http://www.hubbell.org , accessed February 18, 2008.

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