N FIRST S OW ETT T LE LE R D S D I D E M S C f E o N Y D T A E N I C e T S M O S id NEWSLETTER of hethe SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS CONNECTICUT, U.S.A. 1650-1700 Vol. 13, No. 2 www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ctsmfsd/Index.html Fall 2013 GENEALOGY…and GEOGRAPHY Connecticut Path project energizes researchers to get out of the library and explore fields & forests Descendants can explore the 17th-century route from Boston to Hartford By R.W. Bacon Editor, The Middler Over the past year, the fabulous Internet-based initiative that invites At left is a section of the original exploration of the “Old Connecticut Old Connecticut Path as it Path,” the 17th-century Boston-to- branches off the road across Hartford overland route, has private property in Woodstock, received extensive publicity in New Conn. Above is a bronze plaque England genealogy circles – and well- located where the path emerges from the woods about a mile away. deserved acclaim from those who Rev. Thomas Hooker & followers have consulted the web site online or may have traveled along this explored the route in person. Native American path in 1635. Jason Newton, a retired educator and psychologist with multiple family Tribulations of Middletown’s Joshua Stow roots in the “Nutmeg State,” began the project in earnest in 2009, shed light on change in early-19th-century pursuing his interest in discovering how his many central Connecticut By R.W. Bacon most of it to his activities beginning Editor, The Middler ancestors made the trek from the in 1796 as a pioneer, land surveyor, outskirts of Boston to Hartford, The spring 2008 issue of The founder, and investor of the Ohio Wethersfield, and Windsor. Today the Middler featured an article on the town that bears his name. comprehensive web site includes the westward migration of Middletown But there is so much more to the history and geography of the route story of Joshua Stow that will families to Stow, Ohio, in continued on page 6 Connecticut’s “Western Reserve.” enhance understanding of the The article included a profile of political and social atmosphere in In this issue . Middletown in the early 19th century Joshua Stow (1762-1842), devoting The Old Connecticut Path. 1 – a period when so many descendants Joshua Stow & 1820s Middletown . 1 ~ DUES are DUE! ~ of the early settler families were Member Notes & SMFSD News . 2 deciding to “get out of town.” Early Middletown Church Record Index Annual Membership dues ($20) are due Joshua Stow’s story is (1) a story of Available to ‘Godfrey Scholars’ . 2 January 1, 2014 for the 2014 calendar year. The Barbarous Years by Bernard Bailyn. 3 Please send payment to: an introspective youth in the post- Connecticut Town Meeting Records Mike Campbell Revolutionary era of independent in the American Revolution by J.R. Mullen. 3 ‘Due’ it Thank SMFSD Treasurer thinking; (2) a story of an adventurer Early Families of Middletown wins award . 10 Today You 3570 Willow Street who relished his expeditions to Ohio Membership Information . 11 !!! Bonita, CA 91902-1226 !!! continued on page 4 MIDDLETOWN NEWSLETTER of the SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS he Mid e CONNECTICUT, U.S.A. CONNECTICUT, USA SMFSD NEWS • Facebook presence helps SMFSD visibility. Although your SMFSD welcomes five new members; editor neither twitters nor chatters, is neither linked-in or spaced-out, and is proposed bylaw change approved so overbooked that there is no time for Facebook, such conditions do not rule • Welcome new members. was passed by a unanimous vote of out rave reviews in this space for SMFSD welcomes five new members the membership. The vote changes SMFSD’s relatively new Facebook since the last issue of The Middler: the Section 7 of the SMFSD bylaws presence. About one year ago after the Kathryn S. Maxon, AM-336, to read: “Dues and fees shall be a set SMFSD Triennial Meeting, our Andrews AFB Md. (1st settler by the Officers and are payable secretary Cindy Nicewarner built a George Hubbard); Gary Stephen annually to be effective from January public Facebook page as an additional Petersmeyer, AM-337, Los Altos, to the end of the calendar year. A way for people to discover the organi- Calif. (1st settler John Savage); member who has not paid dues by zation. Even your editor must admit Kimberly DePrimo Holstrom, February 28 of the then current year that the site offers great potential for AM-338, Sturbridge, Mass. (1st shall be in arrears and ineligible to member networking. If you have not settler John Blake); John Grant vote.” This change will simplify yet checked it out, you can do so at Cornwell, AM-339, Upperco, Md. financial record-keeping. Thank you https://www.facebook.com/Societyof (1st settler William Cornwell); and to all members who voted by e-mail MiddletownFirstSettlersDescendants. William Howe, LM-340, San Diego, and postal mail. Calif. (1st settler William Cornwell). • SMFSD bylaw change approved by membership. The GODFREY LIBRARY NEWS proposed bylaw change detailed on the ballot in the spring 2013 Middler Early Middletown church records added to Godfrey Scholar database offerings N FIRST S OW ETT T LE By R.W. Bacon LE R Current Godfrey Scholar members D S D I D Editor, The Middler E can access the Middletown church M S C f E o N records by going to the Scholar home Y D Godfrey Memorial Library in T A E N I C T S O page and clicking on the “Church S Middletown, Conn. recently added Records” link in the category list. 1650-1700 202 years worth of searchable Middletown church records to its This will lead to a page with separate popular Godfrey Scholar database. links to the database and the page e The records, which are from the viewer. The databases are broken out Mid by category (baptisms & confessions, he handwritten record books of NEWSLETTER of the marriages, deaths, and members), SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN Middletown’s First Congregational FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS Church, comprise 4146 baptisms, and indicate the date, name, relation- 1650-1700 – Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.A. 1957 marriages, 2941 deaths, and ship, notes, and page number. Digital www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ctsmfsd/Index.html 6207 membership listings. The images of the record book are then accessed via the page viewer. Vol. 13, No. 2 records span between 1668 and 1870. Fall 2013 In 2008, Godfrey provided access to Also available to Godfrey Scholar members online are the records of Please send articles, letters, news items, the digitized page images – about and corrections to: 1500 pages and 12,000 names – but the First Congregational Church of The Middler the recently-completed searchable North Middletown (Cromwell), c/o R.W. Bacon, Editor beginning in 1715. (These records P. O. Box 489 index greatly improves access. Newburyport, MA 01950 Godfrey Memorial Library, a are page images in PDF format.) (E-mail: [email protected]) dedicated genealogy library con- As SMFSD’s nominal headquar- ters, Godfrey Memorial Library holds SMFSD OFFICERS ceived by librarian and genealogist the organization’s genealogical and President . Margery Piersen Fremont Rider, and opened in 1951, Vice President . Sue Welles offers two levels of online Godfrey organizational records. To read more Secretary . Cynthia Nicewarner Scholar membership. Basic member- about library founder Fremont Rider Treasurer . Mike Campbell ship is $45 per year; Premium (1885-1962) and the beginnings of Historian. Don Brock the library, see the feature biographi- Registrar. Hal Whitmore membership is $80 per year. To Middler Editor . R.W. Bacon compare the two levels, visit cal article in the fall 2010 issue of www.Godfrey.org. The Middler. 2 MIDDLETOWN NEWSLETTER of the SOCIETY of MIDDLETOWN FIRST SETTLERS DESCENDANTS he Mid e CONNECTICUT, U.S.A. CONNECTICUT, USA BOOKS OF INTEREST Bernard Bailyn’s life of study yields masterwork on 17th-century America: “The Barbarous Years” By R.W. Bacon century dynamics in the new At right, the Editor, The Middler latest work American settlements, this book will by Bernard As a later-in-life graduate student be a treasure. This should not be the Bailyn, is a several years ago, browsing in a only book on the 17th-century shelf, masterful 614-page Harvard Square bookstore after a however, as it falls short in the tome, with night class, a little book with a coverage of Native Americans and 64 pages of momentous title drew me like a African-Americans in that era. But endnotes to savor! magnet – The Peopling of British the author’s insights, gained from a North America, by Bernard Bailyn, lifetime of scholarship, and delivered the distinguished scholar and with such grace and clarity, far historian. I wondered how such a outweigh the shortcomings. slim book could possibly cover such For those interested in New an enormous topic. I bought the England, Connecticut, and book, first published in 1986, and Middletown genealogy, Chapter 12, then learned that it was merely the “The New-English Sionists: Fault At left, Bailyn’s 1986 introduction is a slim introduction for the series to come. Lines, Diversity, and Persecution,” volume of 192 pages. In 1987 Bailyn won the Pulitzer provides cogent analysis of the Prize (his second) for Voyagers to the Puritan-led “Great Migration” to social control, were set free to work West: A Passage in the Peopling of New England, as well as the shifting themselves out, to exfoliate, almost America on the Eve of the Revolution. of the British population throughout without restraint,” Bailyn writes. This year, Bailyn, now 91-years-old, the 17th century.