Hezekiah Stowel, to whom reference has been made, was a Vermont sufferer, and came in from Guilford in that State in 1786, and settled at Bettsburgh, on 220 acres on lot 63, on the east side of the river, and was the pioneer settler on the site of that village. He subsequently removed to the west side of the river, where he is buried, probably at the time he made the exchange with Elnathan Bush. He lived and died in the locality. It is not known that he lived on the place exchanged with Bush in Bainbridge. His children were:–Asa, who settled at Bettsburgh, on the place now owned and occupied by Enos M. Johnston, where, in 1788, he kept the first inn, in a log building(+) which stood on the river bank, opposite the residence of Mr. Johnston and who married Hannah, daughter of Samuel Bixby, of Guilford, Vt. and died there November 3, 1826, aged 66, and his wife September 18, 1850, aged 88; Elijah, who settled on the west side of the river, on the farm now occupied by (???) Chamberlain, and who died childless, in advanced years, while on a visit to a relative in Pennsylvania, and whose wife, Rebecca, died here February 25, 1837, aged 70; Betsey, who married Daniel Dickinson, who settled in Guilford and afterwards at Seneca Falls; Isabel, who married Elisha Stowel, who settled at the ferry about two miles below Bettsburgh; Polly, who married Calvin Stowel, who settled on a farm adjoining Asa Stowel’s on the south; Levi, who settled on the homestead on the west side of the river, and afterwards, in advanced life, moved to the east side, to the farm now occupied by James Pool, and died at Seneca Falls while visiting relatives there; and Sally, who married Charles Grinnells, and settled on the homestead farm on the west side of the river, where she died. His only grandchild living in the county is Gratia Ann, wife of Gustavus Greene, in Afton, daughter of Levi. Four great-grandchildren are living in the county, Abel, Nathan and Jenette, wife of Henry Jones, in Afton, and Hannah, wife of Charles Bixby, in Bainbridge.
The log building afterwards gave place to a frame one, which stood a little nearer the highway; and this in turn to a third, also a frame building, which stood on the site of Johnston’s residence, for which it gave way in the summer of 1876, when it was moved just across the road, and a little lower down, and has since been converted by Mr. Johnston into a cheese factory, for which purpose it is now used by him. Stowel kept tavern in each of these, and till his death. There has not been a tavern kept there since. Lepha, daughter of Asa Stowel, who married Dr. Boynton, was, it was said, the prettiest woman who has lived in Afton.