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 not only because it is one of the oldest buildings in the area and a good example of Greek Revival architecture, but also because when Gideon died in 1838 his probate left us a copy of his will and a complete inventory of his personal property, from the family cow down to the last pair of velvet trousers.^[3] With this information the house could be restored as a typical homestead from the beginning of the 19th century. Also, in its historical context, we have a record of the optimistic dispersal of Gideon’s family, leaving an empty house at his death, which mirrored the vigorous westward expansion of his era.^[4]

Gideon's Father, Mother and Stepmother

Gideon Hubbell (1761-April 11, 1838) probably was born in Danbury, Connecticut.^[5] When British troops burned Danbury in April, 1777, Gideon’s father Parruck Hubbell (January 22, 1731–1819)^[6] may have withdrawn his family to adjacent New Fairfield^[7] because a few weeks later Parruck, age 46, enlisted there as an ensign in the revolutionary forces.^[8][9] Gideon and his older brother Ezra also served not long after as militia men.^[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] Gideon’s mother was Parruck Hubbell’s first wife, Sarah Barnum (c.1736–c.1780).^[15][16][17] She was the daughter of Samuel Barnum Sr. (1697–1764) and Rebeckah Cornell (c.1697–bef.1757), and a great-granddaughter^[18][19][20] 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.^[21] 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.^[22] After Sarah’s death sometime between 1764 and 1787(!), Parruck married Lydia Beardsley (c.1740–c.1794), who became Gideon Hubbell’s stepmother. (Parruck Hubbell and Lydia Beardsley had no known children.)^[23] She was the daughter of John Beardsley Jr. (1704–1772) and Martha Odell (1708–1797).^[24] 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.^[25] After Lydia’s death, Parruck remarried again; his third wife Abigail was admitted to the New Fairfield Congregational church on January 3, 1796.^[26] Both Parruck and Gideon were active in the Congregational church, serving on various committees over the years.

Gideon's Sister and Brothers

Gideon Hubbell had three brothers and a sister. His brother Ezra Hubbell (c.1756-1828) married Love Dibble, lived first in Danbury, Connecticut and then settled in North Egremont, Massachusetts. His brother Noah Hubbell (1767–1824) married Anna Hoyt Barnum (1764–1847) and they spent their life in Danbury, Connecticut except for a farming period around 1800 at Middlefield, New York.^[27] 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.^[28] They had fourteen children and in their later years they were reportedly innkeepers on the historic National Road at Springfield, Ohio.^[29][30] 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.^[31]

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.^[32][33] Anne apparently died when Anna was still very young. Gideon’s second marriage, at age 37, on January 27, 1799, to Cloe Diantha Barnum age 34, lasted until her death in 1834.^[34] He was buried beside her four years later in the Town Center Cemetery.^[35] 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.^[36]

Gideon's Children and Grandchildren

Gilead Hubbell (or Hubble), Gideon’s oldest child, was born about 1779. 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 married Sarah P. Boatright (1778-c.1855) on Feb 10, 1802.^[37][38] The couple lived in nearby Wilkes County until about 1812,^[39] 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.^[40] 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.^[41][42][43] He left a widow, five sons and a daughter.^[44][45] 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.^[46] 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.^[47] For some reason, early Hubbells migrating south of the Mason-Dixon Line tended to change the spelling of their name to Hubble. Gilead did so also. (His sons eventually reverted to the original spelling.)

Gideon’s younger son, Billy B(ishop?) Hubbell was born in 1786 in New Fairfield^[48] and married Sarah Bearss/Beers there around 1806.^[49] 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 a son.^[50] 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.^[51] 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.^[52]

Gideon’s daughter, Anna Hubbell was born about September 24, 1792.^[53] She married Joseph Thomas Bearss, who was born about March 24, 1790.^[54][55] 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.^[56] 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.^[57] (Reasoned support for a kernel of truth in parts of the story still exists, however.)^[58] Anna and Joseph T. Bearss had four sons and eight daughters, all born in Connecticut between 1809 and 1832.^[59] Joseph T. Bearss served in the War of 1812 under Lieutenant Bellamy.^[60]

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. 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.^[61]

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 1830 as a shoemaker in Putnam County, New York, followed them in 1844 to Catawba Island where he also became a prosperous land owner.^{[62][63][64][65]}

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.^[66]

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!^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

1. ^ http://www.cultureandtourism.org, accessed February 7, 2008.
2. ^ Office of the State Historian, Univ. of Connecticut, 1800 Asylum Ave• 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 & 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 should be rechecked against original images for possible errors.]
5. ^ One anonymous source at the FamilySearch website (accessed February 19, 2008) has a specific date of June 26, 1761 for Gideon Hubbell’s birth in Danbury, but this seems unreliable without further documentation.^{[verification needed]}
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. ^ Parruck was too young to have participated in the original influx to New Fairfield between 1737 and 1741, but he and his wife Sarah had inherited land in Danbury in 1757 and Parruck inherited part of his father's estate in Stratford in the autumn of 1777, which provided the means for him to purchase land in New Fairfield anytime afterward. Parruck's grandfather James Hubbell also died in the autumn of 1777 (at the age of 104) at his farm in New Milford, Connecticut (just north of New Fairfield) and Parruck undoubtedly inherited part of his estate too. Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.6, 12.
8. ^ DAR Patriot Lookup, Parrach Hubbell, 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. ^ Agnes Trimpert & Linda Decker, www.preservenewfairfield.org Last modified: July 9, 2007.
11. ^ Gideon Hubbell was paid for service expenses (with Sgt. Joseph Bearse) in Captain Penfield's Company from New Fairfield, in Colonel Nehemiah Beardsley's 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 G. 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 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.)
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 is also called Parnach Hubbell by Walter Hubbell, History of the Hubbell Family, 1881, Google Books, p.68, 69.
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, 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. ^ 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.
18. ^ 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.
19. ^ 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).^{[citation needed]}
20. ^ 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.]
21. ^ Barnum, Patrick, Barnum Family Genealogy, http://www.barnum.org, accessed February 17, 2008.
22. ^ 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.
23. ^ There appears to be no contemporaneous public record of Lydia Beardsley before 1788, when she was mentioned in Parruck Hubbell's will. Parruck Hubbell's children were first 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.^{[citation needed]} 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, 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 appears most likely that Lydia Beardsley was the stepmother of all of Parruck Hubbell's children.
24. ^ Lydia Beardsley (c.1740-c.1794) had five brothers and two sisters; they were Col. Nehemiah Beardsley (1731-1811), Serajah Beardsley (1733-1758), Mary Beardsley Comstock (c.1738-1772/3), 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.
25. ^ 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.)
26. ^ LDS Church, Salt Lake City, Utah, FHL microfilm 0005351
27. ^ 1800 census for Danbury, Connecticut and Middlefield, New York; 1810 census for Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
28. ^ 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.
29. ^ Ohio History, Journal of the Ohio Historical Society, 1998, Vol. 37, p. 92.
30. ^ http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/OHROOTS/2003-08/1059789955 accessed May 8, 2008.
31. ^ 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.
32. ^ Gideon Hubbell's first wife was undoubtedly Anne Bishop (February 6, 1759 - c.1795), daughter of Billy Bishop 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 Anne, was probably Lydia Beardsley's sister (per Isaac Haight Beardsley, 1902, p.234). She died giving birth to their daughter, according to New Fairfield Congregational Church records. The 1790 census for Bethlehem, Connecticut lists a Billy Bishop household located among Bishop relatives
33. ^ 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".
34. ^ 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,
35. ^ 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.
36. ^ Barnum, Patrick, Barnum Family Genealogy, http://www.barnum.org/fam03802.htm, accessed February 17, 2008.
37. ^ 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.
38. ^ We may also speculate that the Gilead youth might have been a runaway from an excessively harsh apprenticeship as a wheelwright or millwright in Connecticut. If that were the case, it would be in his interest to leave the state to avoid being apprehended and forcibly returned to his master in accord with the laws of the time.
39. ^ 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.)
40. ^ The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1887, Rutherford County, Part I, pages 810-825, transcribed by Fred Smoot; accessed February 8, 2008 at http://www.tngenweb.org/records/rutherford/history/goodspeed/index.html
41. ^ 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
42. ^ 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.
43. ^ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.848.
44. ^ 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.
45. ^ Census 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.
46. ^ 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.
47. ^ 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.
48. ^ 1850 and 1880 census of Cortland County, NY.
49. ^ Harold B. Hubbell & Roscoe L. Hubble, Additions & Revisions to History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family, Publ. The Hubbell Family Historical Society, 1995, p.159
50. ^ (Billy B. Hubbell had daughters Almira and Lucy Hubbell; his son was Bishop Beebe Hubbell)
51. ^ The 1880 Virgil, NY census listed Lucy and Billy B. Hubbell living with his granddaughter Mary [Campbell?] Hutchings and her husband J. B. Hutchings. Mary Hutchings was probably the daughter of Almira Hubbell and Enoch Campbell, who were in the 1850 Virgil, NY census.
52. ^ Joseph T. Bearss signed for Billy Hubbell in the Probate settlement document.
53. ^ 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.
54. ^ 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).
55. ^ Joseph T. Bearss was listed as age 16-25 in the 1810 New Fairfield, Connecticut census. He was also listed as age 50-59 in the 1840 New Fairfield census. The earlier census indicates he was born after 1785 and the later census indicates he was born before 1791. An unreliable birth date of March 24, 1790 was given 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, their mother was Jemima Beebe (1761-1833), wife of Sgt. Joseph Bearss 2nd. She was reportedly born in New London, Connecticut. (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.)
56. ^ 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.
57. ^ “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
58. ^ Lee Murrah at http://www.murrah.com/gen/bearse.htm accessed February 17, 2008
59. ^ 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.
60. ^ War of 1812 Service Records, [database on-line], Provo, Utah, copied from national archives.
61. ^ Agnes Trimpert & Linda Decker, www.preservenewfairfield.org Last modified: July 9, 2007^{[citation needed]} 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.
62. ^ 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.
63. ^ 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.
64. ^ “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.
65. ^ 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."
66. ^ http://www.hubbell.org , accessed February 18, 2008.

Coordinates: 41°28′05″N 73°29′24″W / 41.4681°N 73.4901°W / 41.4681; -73.4901