Joseph Easton
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\ l DESCENDANTS OF JOSEPH EASTON, HARTFORD, CONN., COMPILED BY WILLIAM STARR EASTON. '' He ouly deserves to be remembered by posterity who treasures up alld preser11es tlze ltistor31 of lzis aucestors.'' -BURKE. ST. PA'CL, MIN'.:\. 1899. PREFACE. The result of our labors for the past two years is included in this volume and ready for your inspection. It is not the design of this work to carry out the female branches of the family further than the second or third generation. Unwearied pains have been taken to be correct in all state ments and details. If we have erred it has not been for want of industry or an endeavor to give statements which we believed to be correct. Such as it is, it is now before you, and we ask our readers to judge leniently, and bear in mind that it has been a labor of love rather than one of profit. We expect to acquire neither fame nor fortune by it, but instead to incur many criticisms, whether deserved or not. The work of compiling this genealogy has been no easy task, which will be readily understood by those who are familiar with genealogical work and know what the obstacles are which one has to encounter in tracing the various lines of descent, where family records are non-existent and· the infor mation desired must be obtained as best we can from Church, Town, Probate and Land records, many of them very incomplete, and in many cases imperfectly kept; in others they have been destroyed by fire, rendering the research both tedious and expensive. It also becomes necessary to make search in hundreds of volumes of historical works and other genealogies, finding here a little and there a little, until we are able to make connecting links and fill out the record. If the records of the First Church at Hartford, which was organized in 1636, were not missing prior to 1682, we might have been able to give a more complete record of our ancestor, iii !V PREFACE. Joseph Easton and his family, who were prominent members of that Church. After two or three generations the descend ants begin to scatter, and succeeding generations grow up knowing little or nothing of their kindred, who are scattered in other parts of the country until they are entirely lost sight of to each other, resulting in the fact that they have no records of their ancestry further back than their grandfather. Such has been the case in our own family, till different branches have been lost to view more than a century and have been discovered and their identity traced only by laborious research. Some descendants of several families of our ancestor are ~upposed to still exist, the parents of whom left their old homes more than a century ago, leaving no trace behind. Among the obstacles to be encountered by the genealogist are the indifference and suspicions of some of his own kindred. He obtains the address of some kinsman who he believes may feel some interest in his family history and addresses to him a letter of inquiry, enclosing postage stamps for a return answer. Scores of such letters never meet with the least attention and are never heard from, although known to have been received, as the return card would insure their return were it otherwise. Others remain weeks and months without attention, holding the genealogist in suspense, not knowing whether he may expect to receive the record or not; in the meantime holding pages and numbers open at a great inconvenience and delay, for every individual must have a proper number in rotation, and in the generation where he belongs. In other cases respondents to letters indicate a suspicion of some speculation at their expense, although not asked to contribute one cent, and scores of letters are returned unclaimed. The foregoing remarks should not be construed as applying to correspondents in general, only to give a general idea of the trials and tribulations of a genealogist. The greater number have responded quickly to our letters, furnishing and obtaining family records for us, expressing an interest in the work and an PREFACE. V anxiety to assist in rendering efficient aid, for which they have our thanks. To enumerate them all would require a long list. We are under special obligations to James Easton, of Otisville, N. Y.; Jason C. Easton, of La Crosse, Wis.; Frederick S. Easton, of Lowville, N. Y.; William S. Easton, of Kansas City, Mo.; Robert E. Easton, Berkeley, Cal.; Carroll F. Easton, Aberdeen, South Dakota; Augustus B. Easton, Stillwater, Minn.; Gilbert R. Easton, Lowville, N. Y.; Prof. M. W. Easton, Philadelphia, Pa.; and Miss Ettie Cleland, Cassadaga, N . Y. Some may ask, '' What good does it do to rake up these old records?'' We respond: '' What good does it do to erect a monument to the name of your relatives or friends?'' To die and be forgotten by all your friends is a thought repugnant to the heart of every one possessed of human instincts. A history of the family is to the family what a history of the State is to its inhabitants, and if properly written should prove a piece of valuable literature. It is a source of regret that the work of the writer could not have fallen into more able and younger hands, but if we have succeeded in rescuing from oblivion the history of our family, or have contributed to awaken an interest in the subject, our object has been accomplished. WM. S. EASTON. St. Pazil, Minn., March 30, 1899. HISTORICAL.. The New England pilgrims were Puritans and Non-Con formists, who came to this country for the purpose of seeking religious liberty and freedom. They had endured hardships and per~ecution, owing to the severity of Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his hatred of heretics. The Colony of which our ancestor was a member came to this country as an organized body and was known as the Hooker colony, settling first at Newtown, (now Cambridge,) Mass., arriving there during the years 1632-3. It was composed of persons who had become attached to the religious principles as taught by the Rev. Thomas Hooker in England, who arrived in this country to become their pastor, Sept. 4, 1633, on the ship "Griffin," with some 200 other passengers, the names of these not obtainable; our ancestor may have been one of them. The first official record we find of him is in the Colonial Records of Massachusetts, which stated that March 4, 1634, he took the oath as a freeman. On May 3 1, 1636, the colonists, after due consideration, started on their exodus to Connecticut, where the previous year a delegation had gone to procure a location and purchase land from the Indians. Our ancestor, as one of the original proprietors, owned shares in what might be called in this day a syndicate. The journey was an arduous and perilous one of about one hundred miles through the wilderness, and about two week's duration from Cambridge to Hartford. Trumbull, in his history, says that it was a picturesque pilgrimage. Men and women of refinement and delicate breeding turned explorers of primitive forests in search of a wilderness home. The lowing of 160 head of cattle sounded through the forests; the bleating vi HISTORICAL. Vll of sheep and the squealing of swine summoned them to each morning's advance. They came under the guidance of men of pure and fervent piety, of elevated social position and learning in their own country, of large estates and large hearts. They were all men of religious principles at a period when to hold religious opinions cost something, even banishment from home and imprisonment. Once here, each seemed to find his appropriate sphere of usefulness, and all conspired together with one mind and one heart to convert the wilderness into the happy home of civilized man, and as the crowning glory of such homes there were among them women of education, prudence and piety, fit to be the wives of such men and mothers of a noble race. We find in the records of Hartford, that Deacon Joseph Easton was chosen chimney viewer in 1649, surveyor of high ways 1652 and 1656, and constable in 1658. THE CEMETERY. In the old cemetery in Hartford, Conn., located in the rear of the First Congregational Church, on Main street, repose together most of the first settlers of Hartford. Our ancestor must have been buried there; but although careful search has been made, we have been unable to find any single stone to his memory ~lthough it was the only burial place at the 7 time of his death, thereby depriving us of obtaining any information from that quarter. The tombstones of that time were many of them of a poor quality of stone, and owing to dampness in the cemetery have disintegrated and fallen to pieces. In the center of the cemetery is a venerable granite monument, erected about sixty-three years ago to the memory Vlll THE CEMETERY. of the "Founders of Hartford," and bearing the following names: John Haynes, William Andrews, Joseph Easton, Thomas Hooker, Samuel Wakeman, Richard Olmsted, George Wyllys, Jeremy Adams, Richard Risley, Edward Hopkins, Richard Lyman, Robert Bartlett, Matthew Allyn, VVilliam Butler, Thomas Root, Thomas Welles, Thomas Lord. John Wilcox, John Webster, Matthew Marvin, Richard Seymour, William Whiting, Gregory Wolterton, Benjamin Burr, John Talcott, Andrew Bacon, John Bidwell, Andrew Warner, John Barnard, Nathaniel Ely, William Pantrey, Richard Goodman, Thomas Judd, ·william Westwood, Nathaniel Richards, Richard Lord, James Olmsted, John Pratt, William Kelsey, Thomas Hosmer, Thomas Birchwood, Richard Butler, Nathaniel ·ward, George Graves, Robert Day, William Wadsworth, William Gibbons, Seth Grant, John White, Edward Stebbing, Thomas Spencer, John Steele, George