Windham County occupies the northeastern corner of the state of Connecticut, bordering Worcester county, Massachusetts, lying on the north, and Providence and Kent counties in Rhode Island on the east. New London county bounds it on the south and Tolland on the west. Its greatest length, from north to south, is twenty-seven miles, and its greatest width, from east to west, is twenty-three miles. Its north, east and south sides are nearly straight lines, while on the west side its territory interchanges offsets with Tolland. The greatest. variation in the line made by these offsets, however, does not exceed six miles. This occurs on the northwest corner, where the town of Union makes an advance of about the distance mentioned. We may explain that the longest north and south line would be drawn from the northwest corner of Thompson to the southwest corner of Plainfield, and the longest east and west line would be drawn from the northwest corner of Windham to the Rhode Island line, about the middle of Sterling. The county as now constituted contains the towns of Ashford, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Chaplin, Eastford, Hampton, Killingly, Plainfield, Pomfret, Putnam, Scotland, Sterling, Thompson, Windham and Woodstock, fifteen in all; and included in these towns are the incorporated boroughs of Danielsonville and Willimantic.
The grandparents of Mr. Hopkins were Timothy Hopkins, born in 1751, and Sarah Carver, daughter of Captain Joseph Carver. His father was Carver Hopkins, born October 26th, 1799, who married Abby K. Manchester. Their children, seven in number, were: Israel M., Florinda A., Sarah C., Abby E., Ann E., Timothy E. and Lillian P., of …
Hutchinson is an old and numerous family in Norwich, as well as in other parts of the country. They were among the early settlers of Massachusetts and were in Lynn and Salem in that colony as early as 1628, or 1629. A descendant of these early colonists, named Abijah, who was a tailor, removed from …
The subject of this sketch was born in the town of Hampton, in Windham county, Connecticut, on the 22d of May, A. D. 1825. He was the son of the Hon. Mason Cleveland, who was a man of much influence, and universally respected throughout the state, having been both a representative from his town and …
George M. Morse, the second son of Milton S. and Susanna Blake Morse, spent his youth in and about the city of Providence. His early years were devoted to study at the schools of Providence, where he remained until the age of eighteen, when on removing to Putnam he interested himself for a year in …
The progenitor of the Lyon family in Connecticut was William Lyon, born in 1675, who when fourteen years of age, came with an uncle to Woodstock and settled on the homestead farm now owned by Mrs. William Lyon and Mrs. Emma Lyon Frink. William Lyon, his eldest son, born in 1700, was the father of …
The Chaffee family have for several generations resided in the town of Mansfield, Tolland county, Conn. Frederick Chaffee, the grandfather of J. Dwight Chaffee, a prosperous farmer in that town, married Elizabeth Knowlton. Their son, Orwell S., was born in Ashford, Windham county, Conn., and for some years resided in Northampton, Mass., where he was …
Benjamin Paine, the grandfather of Judge Almond M. Paine, was a successful farmer in Glocester, R. I. By his marriage to Phebe Aldrich were born a numerous family of children. The birth of his son, Ransom Paine, occurred December 13th, 1787, and his death on the 15th of January, 1854, in Glocester, where he followed …
Jonah Lincoln, the great-grandfather of Edgar S. Lincoln, was in his day a man of prominence in his town. He was for a long time judge of probate for what are now the towns of Hampton, Windham and Chaplin, and held various other offices of trust. He was the father of Dan Lincoln, who in …
Elijah Greenslit, a farmer and the landlord of one of the early taverns of the town of Hampton, married Mary Burnham. His children were: David, Elijah, Henry, Ebenezer, and one daughter. His son David spent his life in Hampton, the town of his birth, where he was an industrious and prosperous farmer. He married Nancy, …
Oliver Morse, the father of Milton Stratton Morse, and a native of Sharon, Massachusetts, was first a carpenter, then a farmer. He married Waitstill Stratton, of Foxboro, where their son, Milton Stratton, was born, December 25th, 1799. When very young his father removed to Wrentham, Massachusetts, the scene of Milton’s earliest connection with cotton manufacturing. …
The name of Mathewson has for several generations occupied a prominent place in the annals of Windham county. Joseph Mathewson, the grandfather of the subject of this biographical sketch, married Mary Bowen. Their son Darius, whose wife was Mary Smith, became the father of seven sons and three daughters, of whom the eldest son, Rufus …
The first ancestor of the Jillson family is said to have come over from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066. The earliest member of the family to sail for New England was William Gilson, who came from Kent county, England, and settled in Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1631. The next on the list to emigrate …
John Grosvenor, the earliest representative of the family in New England and the progenitor of all who bear the name in America, was born in 1641, and died in 1691 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, where his burial occurred. His wife, Esther Clark Grosvenor, a woman of great strength of character and self-reliance, came with her family, …
Three brothers of the Babcock family came from England in colonial days-probably James, Jesse and Nathaniel-and settled in Newport, Rhode Island. Nathaniel afterward located in Stonington, Connecticut, and became the progenitor of the branch of the family represented by the subject of this biography. His descendant, Nathaniel, the grandfather of William Stuart Babcock, had two …
The earliest representative of the Manning family in America emigrated from England in 1634 and settled in the suburbs of Boston, Mass. Ephraim, representing the third generation in line of descent, located in Woodstock, Windham county, where he lived and died. His sop William was a patriot, held a commission as captain during the war …
Ezra Dean was born in Killingly, Connecticut, on the 31st of August, 1813, and when twelve years of age, on the death of his father, came to Woodstock to reside with an uncle, who was then engaged in the business of a tanner and currier. He attended the nearest school for one or more years …
Mr. Putnam is a lineal descendant of that brave general and distinguished patriot, Israel Putnam, whose son, Daniel Putnam, was the grandfather of the subject of this biography. William, one of his sons, married Mary Spalding, whose children were: Caroline M., Harriet W., William H., Elizabeth, Asa S., Jane, Anne, and three who died in …
Robert Carpenter, of Greenwich, R. I., the great-grandfather of John A. Carpenter, on the 26th of October, 1755, married Charity Roberts, of Warwick, in the same state. Their children were: Christopher, John, Phebe and Marcy. John of this number, who resided in West Greenwich, married Sarah Stone, and had children: Christopher, Phebe, Patience, Robert and …
Abel Greene, the grandfather of Albert C. Greene, resided in West Greenwich, Rhode Island. Jeremiah Greene, a son of the former, also a resident for years of West Greenwich, where he engaged in the milling business, and was also a skillful carpenter, married Freelove Hopkins, of the same town. Their children were five sons and …
The subject of this biography was the son of Elnathan Ross, who was born June 15th, 1772, and married Olive Storrs, whose birth occurred December 7th, 1774. The children of this marriage were eleven in number, as follows Roxana, born in 1796; Harriet, in 1797; Ebenezer Storrs, in 1798. Olive, in 1800; Schuyler, in 1801; …
