Chapter 65 - Our Diller and Baker Ancestry

My mother's 3rd great grandfather on her mother's side of her family was a man named  David Ferree (1772-1832) who in the year 1794 married a woman by the name of Mary Baker (1775-1858), my 4th great grandmother.  Knowing, obviously, that my mother married a man with the surname of Baker, it made me immediately wonder if perhaps my parents were actually distant cousins. After a brief research however, I soon discovered that my mother's Baker ancestors were of German descent and that they came to America landing in Philadelphia sometime in the early 1700s.  Their surname at the time was spelled or pronounced as "Becker" which quickly was changed to the more English surname of "Baker".  My father's Baker ancestors on the other hand, immigrated from England into the Boston area in the early 1630s so obviously the Beckers and the Bakers were not related.

My Ferree family ancestry is told in Chapter 6 of this blog and it is here in this story that we noted that our early Ferree ancestors settled in what is now known as Lancaster County, Pennsylvania back in the year 1712. They were among the earliest European settlers in this area which at the time was inhabited almost entirely by Native American Indians. The David Ferree who married Mary Baker was in fact the great, great grandson of Marie Warenbuer Ferree (1653-1716), my 8th great grandmother, who first brought her family to what would eventually be named Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This current chapter will cover what is known about the ancestors of my 4th great grandmother, Mary Baker.  Her parents were Frederick Baker (abt. 1749-1814) and Margaretta Diller (1755-?). We shall begin our family history story with our Diller ancestors.

Alsace, France/Germany in lower left corner

Margaretta Diller's grandfather was a man by the name of Casper Elias Diller (1696-1789) and he is my 7th great grandfather. Quite surprisingly a great deal is written about the life of this man especially in a detailed book titled The Diller Family published back in November of 1877. Unfortunately, there are many contradictions in the various biographies about his life and thus the actual facts cannot be determined for certain. Casper Elias Diller is believed to have been born in Alsace, France located on the border of what is now Germany. In the 1600s, the residents of Alsace were mostly German speaking people and in fact the region had passed between French and German control several times following the Edict of Fontainebleau that was issued by the French King in 1685. The Edict of Fontainebleau in effect had outlawed the Protestant or Huguenot faith in France. The Diller family, as were most of the residents of Alsace at the time, were Protestants as opposed to French Roman Catholics and therefore following the issuance of the Edict of Fontainebleau it is written that the population of the Alsace area decreased dramatically as the residents were forced if they wished to survive as Protestants, to leave France and escape to Holland, Germany, or England. It would seem logical that based on Casper's 1696 birthdate that his parents must have already departed from the French controlled area of Alsace prior to his birth and in fact we believe that Casper was likely born in Germany located just east of France and not in Alsace. The Diller Family book that we previously mentioned, reports that the Diller family with Casper and their other children initially escaped France and moved to Holland and then later moved to England. It is then written that in England following Casper's parents deaths, that he married an English woman and subsequently he moved with his new wife back to Germany. We do not believe that any of this is factually accurate. What does seem to be known for certain is that Casper married a German girl by the name of Anna Barbara Dornis (1703-1766), my 7th great grandmother, on the 23rd day of October in the year 1719. Their marriage is well documented as having taken place in the Village of Gauangelloch in Germany located about 100 miles northeast of Alsace in France. She was therefore not an English woman as claimed in The Diller Family biography.

Anna Barbara and Casper Elias Diller soon moved following their marriage to the nearby town of Heidelberg, Germany where Casper operated a farm and allegedly was a cobbler who made wooded shoes while his wife raised their children including their oldest son, Philip Adam Diller (1723-1777), my 6th great grandfather. Why Casper elected to move to America in the year 1733 is unknown. He was by that point 37 years old, fairly successful as a farmer and merchant, married for almost 14 years, and had four surviving children. Obviously by the year 1733, America was no longer a mystery and the fact that many Germans had already immigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania was well known. Also word had already gotten back to Germany that religious freedoms in America were promised and good farm land was readily available.  Casper took his wife and by then four children ages 2 to 10 years old, on a long trip from their home up to Rotterdam in the Netherland, a distance of around 330 miles, where they then boarded a ship named the "Samuel" and headed for America. On board the ship were around two hundred and ninety-one persons including men, women, and children, almost all of whom were Germans. The ship departed from Rotterdam on 4 April 1733 and finally landed in Philadelphia on 17 August 1733 after a little over four awful months at sea.

Counties in Eastern Pennsylvania

including both Lebanon and Lancaster Counties

There is a little confusion as to where Casper Elias Diller and his family first lived after their arrival in Philadelphia but it is clear that they ended up owning land and building a home located just west of what is now the Village of Lebanon, in what is now Lebanon County, Pennsylvania located around 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia. There are records that show that in 1743 Casper actually had a claim on 268 acres of land in what would later become the city of New Holland in Lancaster County, however it is stated that he never actually purchased the land in New Holland. Family trees that show that many of his children were born in New Holland appear to be incorrect. Lebanon on the other hand, was first settled almost entirely by Germans beginning around 1720 so it is not at all surprising that this is where our Diller family eventually settled.

Casper Elias Diller's gravestone

Records show that Casper was among the early members of the Hill Lutheran Church that is located just west of Lebanon. The church was first established in 1733 which pretty much confirms that our Diller family members were early settlers in this area and the fact that Casper Elias Diller is buried in the Hill Church Cemetery located in what is now the Town of Cleona totally confirms where they lived for most of their lives in America. There are some historical records that state that Casper and his family first lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania rather than in Lebanon County. While this is a little misleading, it is technically correct since at the time of their arrival in 1733, Lebanon County did not exist and the land where the family lived at the time was a part of Lancaster County. It was however, separated from part of Lancaster County and made into a new and separate county in the year 1813. Anyway, Casper Elias Diller according to most historical writings became a fairly large and financially successful farmer. There are no records however, that show that he was in any way involved in the political, social, or religious leadership in his area.  Casper and my great grandmother Anna Barbara had around four to maybe six more children born in America following their arrival. Unfortunately Anna Barbara died fairly young although we do not know the exact year of her death. We believe that her death possibly following the death of a daughter born in 1746 as her name does not appear as being present at her daughter's baptism. If true, she would have been around 43 years old when she died, a far to common occurrence back in the early days when women had many, many children and doctors and hospitals did not exist and an early death following a child birth was not that uncommon. Casper is recorded as having a second marriage to a woman named Eva Magdelena Meyer in the year 1766. Casper died in the year 1787 at the age of 91, almost 22 years after his second marriage and later than the death of many of his children including his son Philip Adam Diller, my 6th great grandfather, who died in the year 1777, ten years before his father.

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Philip Adam Diller was around ten years old when he arrived in America and the voyage, and the ruralness, and the lack of a home for the first several years following their arrival must have been quite confusing for such a young boy. In the year 1745 when Philip was around 22 years old he married my 6th great grandmother, Maria Magdalena Ellmaker (1727-1807). Maria's parents and my 7th great grandparents, John Leonard Ellmaker (1697-1782) and Anna Margaretta Hornberger (1703-1779) were married in Germany on the 6th day of May in 1726 and then six days following their marriage they boarded a ship headed for America and Philadelphia. Soon after their arrival, they, like so many other Germans, moved to Lancaster County eventually settling in what would later be called Earl Township located about 2 miles north of New Holland and about 30 miles southeast of Cleona, home of Maria's future husband, Philip Adam Diller. Maria Magdalena Ellmaker was born on 9 August 1727 about a year following her parents arrival in America. Here again, we find it interesting to read where some of the history stories about our Ellmaker family report that their daughter Maria married a "close neighbor" by the name of Philip Adam Diller, again suggesting that our Diller family at the time might have been living in the nearby town of New Holland or perhaps even in Earltown. We do not believe that this is accurate and considering the rather scarce population at the time and the many large landholders including both the Diller and the Ellmaker families, finding a wife that lives 30 miles away would not be that unusual even in the year 1745.

Gravestone of Phillip Adam Diller

It does appear on the other hand, that following their marriage, Philip and Maria remained in the New Holland area for the remainder of their lives. They had at least eight children during their marriage including my 5th great grandmother and their fifth child, Margaretta Diller (1755-?) who was born in the year 1755. The area where Philip and Maria lived was originally founded back around 1728 when the first settlers arrived and at the time the land was largely covered by a forest of ash, oak, walnut, and chestnut trees. We have to believe that when Philip first acquired his land that a lot of work would have been necessary to create the large farm that he eventually owned that allowed him to become a fairly prosperous individual. Undoubtedly his sons and maybe even his daughters helped on the farm. Unfortunately we do not know a lot about his life other than that he was a farmer, a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church in New Holland, and shortly before his death in 1777 he served in the Lancaster County militia along with two of his sons during the American Revolution. It would seem unlikely however, that at his age he actually was engaged in any battles against the British especially considering their rather remote location in Pennsylvania. Philip Adam Diller died in September 1777 at the fairly young age of only 54 years old and he is buried in the cemetery by the Trinity Lutheran Church in New Holland. My 6th great grandmother, Maria Magdalena Ellmaker, outlived her husband by around 30 years. Unfortunately we know nothing about her life following Philip's death although she most likely lived with one of her children up to the time of her death.

Their daughter Margaretta Diller was around 18 years old when she married Frederick Baker. Unfortunately the history of our Baker, or perhaps more accurately our Becker ancestry, is not well known. Frederick's father was a man also named Frederick Becker (abt. 1721-abt 1755) who was from Germany and who is reported to have arrived in Philadelphia on board the ship "Loyal Judith" in November of 1740. The ship records reported that he was 19 years old at the time and traveled with a number of other men named Becker including a man named Peter Becker, age 22, who was most likely his brother or as some family historians report, his step-brother. Unfortunately the women and children onboard the "Loyal Judith" are not named although based on the number of children listed in his will that was written only 15 years later, it would seem likely that he was traveling with his wife and perhaps two or three children. All that we know about Frederick Becker's wife is that her name was Christina and she was likely my 6th great grandmother. We know that Frederick and Christina Becker left Philadelphia and eventually settled in what is today named Exeter Township in Berks County, Pennsylvania located about 24 miles north of New Holland in Lancaster County.

One of the things that we probably should have mentioned earlier is that much of the land originally settled by the Germans in Pennsylvania including the land of our Diller and Baker/Becker ancestors, was originally owned by William Penn. William Penn was granted land in the area in the year 1681 by the English King Charles II in exchange for money that had been loaned to the king by William Penn's father. At the time no one in all of America owned as much land as did William Penn and it is no wonder that they named the State of Pennsylvania after him. It is believed that he originally owned as much as 40,000 acres. Anyway, William Penn soon began encouraging settlement on his land and it is believed that he even encouraged as many as 30,000 or more Germans to immigrate to America beginning around the year 1683 and continuing until around the mid-1700s.  All of the new immigrants as they arrived in Philadelphia were required to take an oath of allegiance to the British crown and to agree to obey the laws of the province.

We unfortunately know almost nothing about the life of my 6th great grandfather, Frederick Becker other than based on his will he was a fairly successful farmer, and that he and his wife Christina had seven children at the time that his will was written in the early 1750s including my 5th great grandfather and their only son, Frederick Baker (Jr) (Abt. 1749-1814) who was granted his father's land and most of his possessions obviously to be granted to him when he reached his adulthood. Frederick's mother also unfortunately died only a few years later than his father and records show that Frederick Jr. was then placed under the guardianship of a man named Peter Baker, who we learned earlier was likely his father's older brother. One really fascinating thing that we learned about our great uncle Peter Baker is that he married a girl named Leah Ferree who was the granddaughter of my 8th great grandparents, Daniel Ferree and Marie Warenbuer Ferree (see Chapter 6) both of whom came to America in 1708. While Leah Ferree is obviously not one of my great grandmothers, her marriage to Frederick Baker's brother Peter shows what a small world it was back during this time period.

When young Frederick Baker who had just lost his father and mother, was sent to live with his Uncle Peter Baker, he was one of the youngest within his new family and his closest new "brother" or really his closest cousin with respect to age, was a boy named Peter Baker who was around seven or eight years older than Frederick.  Whether or not they were close friends we can not determine, but quite interesting was the fact that they married sisters: Peter's wife was Christina Diller and Frederick Baker married her younger sister, Margaretta Diller, my fifth great grandmother, around the year 1773. It would appear that Frederick Baker must have inherited money from his father for soon after his marriage to my grandmother, he purchased around 225 acres (one source says 300 acres) of land in Pequea in Salisbury Township, Lancaster County located about seven miles south of New Holland and around two miles north of the Village of Gap. His land was apparently along the banks of the Pequea Creek for it is reported that in order to water the land on his large farm he damned the Pequea Creek at a considerable expense. In the book "The Diller Family" it is written that our Frederick Baker "had some capital, was intelligent and energetic, and quite a scientific farmer." The book further reports that he was an early and active member of the Saint John's Church in the nearby village of Compass and that he died in Philadelphia in 1814 after undergoing a painful and dangerous surgery. It is also noted that he is buried in the Christ Church Graveyard in Philadelphia following his failed surgery. We could not verify his burial location but it was interesting to learn that also buried in the Christ Church Graveyard is Benjamin Franklin who died in the year 1790. Incidentally, there was a least one other family historian who wrote that Frederick Baker was buried in the Christ Church Cemetery in Compass in Lancaster County and not in Philadelphia, so who knows where he was actually buried. One other historical story about the life of Frederick Baker notes that he was a soldier during the American Revolution. While this claim would seem highly likely considering his fairly young age at the time of the war, there are no records that we could uncover that list his name or for that matter show that any militia troops in the rather remote Lancaster County were engaged in any major battles outside of their area. What we did find interesting however, while searching for any military records, was that when the British troops occupied Philadelphia in the early part of the Revolutionary War, the village of Lancaster was declared the "capital" of the country for a short period apparently because it was the largest inland town in America at the time. The population of Lancaster was around 4,200 residents and was located less than twenty miles from the home of our great Baker grandparents.

Diller Baker Ferree gravestone

Frederick and Margaret Diller Baker had at least six children during their marriage including their second child and my 4th great grandmother, Mary Baker (1775-1858) who was born around the beginning of the Revolutionary War on 12 May 1775. Considering that at least four of Frederick's and Margaret's children were born during the war would lead us to conclude that our Frederick Baker did not spend a lot of time away from his home and family defending his county against the British army. As previously mentioned, Frederick died at the fairly young age of 63 years old. When my grandmother Margaretta Diller Baker died we do not know, but hopefully they both attended the marriage of their daughter Mary and her new husband, David Ferree (1772-1832) which took place on 21 August 1784. We are going to end our story of our Baker and Diller ancestors at this point although it is worth stating that the first child of Mary Baker and David Ferree who was also my 3rd great grandfather was a boy named Diller Baker Ferree (1796-1865) who was obviously named in honor of both of his great grandparents. A really nice way to honor his grandparents.

From our Diller/Baker ancestors to the present time our ancestral tree is as follows:

4th Great Grandparents:  David Ferree  m  Mary Baker
                                      (1772-1832)         (1775-1858)
                                                                   
3rd Great Grandparents:  Diller Baker Ferree  m  Elizabeth Dewees
                                      (1796-1865)                   (1799-1844)
                                                                             
2nd Great Grandparents: David D. Ferree  m  Mary R. Hutchinson
                                      (1826-1869)               (1825-1901)
                                                                        
Great Grandparents:       Eugene H. Ferree  m  Marian E. Coapman
                                     (1866-1952)                 (1867-1895)
                                                                         
Grandparents:                Douglas Patterson  m  Florence Ferree
                                     (1888-1979)                 (1891-1938)
                                                                              
Parents:                        Charles A. Baker  m  Marian C. Patterson
                                     (1916-2000)                (1916-1973)
                                                                       
Living Generation:          Charles A. Baker Jr
                                    Anne Rappleye Baker
                                    Joan Patterson Baker

And so ends another story. . . .
           




  

Chapter 64 - Our Buell Ancestry.com

Movement of Buell Family in Connecticut

We were really quite surprised when we began our research on our Buell family ancestry to discover that there was an extensive book about this family that was written by Marian Buell Dye and titled "The Forebearer's and Descendants of George Buell". Her book was published in 1968. What really fascinated us, at least at first, was that Ms. Dye had traced her Buell ancestry all of the way back to a man named Robert de Bauvill who was born in England sometime before the year 1154 and died on or after 1189. Even more exciting was that this man was believed to have been descended from a Robert Beauville who came over to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. In her book she traces her Buell ancestry down to and past a man named William Buell (abt 1605-1681) who is both my 9th great grandfather as well as the first of our Buell ancestors to emigrate to America. He is also, at least according to Ms Dye, the 17th great grandson of Robert de Bauvill. What a family tree, although . . . . to bad as we soon discovered, that it is probably not accurate or at least there is no clear evidence that it is.  In any case, our first known "for sure" Buell ancestor is our William Buell and we will begin by exploring what is known about his and his family's life in America.

Founders Monument in Windsor, Connecticut

While it is not known for certain when and on what ship William Buell sailed on his voyage to America, some sources suggest he may have been aboard the Mary and John which arrived in what is now Dorchester, Massachusetts on March 20, 1630. While William's name appears on a listing of "Possible" passengers onboard Mary and John as opposed to a listing of the "Certain" or "Probable" passengers, what we find very interesting is that around twelve of the Certain and Probable passengers were my great grandparents. Combine this observation with the fact that all of these great grandparents are listed as being amoung the earliest settlers of Windsor, Connecticut, as was my 9th great grandfather, William Buell, this makes us believe that he too was likely onboard the Mary and John in 1630. Whether a fact or not, William Buell's name appears on the Founders Monument in Windsor that was built in 1930 and lists the names of 125 of Windsor's earliest settlers. Windsor as it turns out, is the first community settled in the future State of Connecticut with immigrants arriving in the year 1633, followed by the settlement of Wethersfield in 1634, and Hartford around the year 1635. Like the other early settlers of Windsor and so many of our other early ancestors in America, our William Buell was a Puritan who had left England to escape religious persecution.

Life was not easy for these early settlers of Connecticut for in the year 1636 they were forced to organize groups of soldiers to defend themselves against the Pequot Indian warriors who were attacking these new white settlers in numerous raids against their communities. Apparently the leaders of Windsor gathered together a group of around thirty soldiers to help battle the Pequots and it is believed that William Buell was one of these soldiers. While his name does not appear in any listing of the soldiers and the list is incomplete in any case, following the war around 1638, William Buell was one of the recipients of free land grants from his town most likely because of his service in the Pequot War. As a young single man at the time, his involvement in the war makes a lot of sense.

Book listing Woodworker William Buell

In November of 1640 William Buell married in Windsor a young girl by the name of Mary, my 9th great grandmother. Her maiden name is often listed as Mary Post although considering that nowhere could we find any of the early settlers in Windsor with a surname of Post, we have to wonder as to the accuracy of her surname. On the other hand, one of the early settlers in nearby Hartford, Connecticut was a man by the name of Stephen Post who some of the family trees on Ancestry.com claim was a brother of our Mary. Whether this is an accurate fact or not is unknown. There are also other stories that claim that Mary and her parents were accidently placed on two separate ships in England, with Mary on the ship "Mary and John" and her parents placed on a different ship. Unfortunately the second ship is said to have been destroyed and then sunk due to a major storm and her parents were drowned. Who knows if this is accurate and frankly it seems unlikely. In any case, William and Mary are known following their marriage ten years later, to have had at least seven children including my 8th great grandfather and their oldest child, Samuel Buell (1641-1720) who was born on 2 September 1641. As far as we could determine our great grandfather William Buell was not a major leader in Windsor although his role as a carpenter, or a "Woodworker", made him a valuable person as he helped build a lot of the much needed furniture for all of his neighbors for many years. William died in November of 1681 and Mary died three years later in September 1684. Based on both of their wills, they were fairly well off especially considering that William was able to leave both land, and "My Tools" to his two sons and of course other items including money to his daughters and land and money to his wife.

Their son, Samuel Buell, married my 8th great grandmother, Deborah Griswold (1646-1719) in November of 1662. Deborah's father and my 9th great grandfather, Edward Griswold (1607-1691) was also an early founder of Windsor as well as being a very prominent citizen including being the First Deputy to the General Court, a Justice of the Peace, and the First Deacon of the first church in Windsor and noted as a powerful preacher of the Puritan faith. Deborah is believed to have been the youngest daughter of her parents who had somewhere around fourteen children following their marriage around 1630. Samuel Buell undoubtedly had great respect for his father-in-law for less than a year following his marriage to his father-in-law's daughter, he joined Edward Griswold and around 28 other families when they departed Windsor in 1663 and moved southward around 50 miles to what many years later would be known as Clinton, Connecticut (or earlier known as Kenilworth and then Killingworth) located only a few miles north of the Long Island Sound. The land had only a few years earlier been purchased from the local Indians.

Buell Tool Museum, Clinton, Connecticut

Despite the fairly young age of Samuel Buell when he moved southward, he is still credited with being one of the original founders of "Killingworth" (Killingworth later was divided into two separate communities and where our Buell family lived is now known as Clinton). He also as he aged became a very prominent and wealthy individual.  He was both a member of the General Court and a Justice of the Peace as well as other public offices for many years during the late 1600s and early 1700s. He is also recorded as being an "extensive land owner" and like his father he was in the lumber and tool business, a business that he obviously passed along to his descendants for we discovered, today in Clinton, Connecticut there exists a museum containing a lot of old tools known as the Buell Tool Museum.

We also noticed in several different documents online that Samuel Buell was listed as having military service. We could not find any details regarding his possible service although local communities having local part time soldiers was very common during this period of history and our great grandfather was undoubtedly one of their local military officers. It is also very possible that Samuel Buell was one of the many Connecticut soldiers who fought in the King Philip's War which took place between the years 1675 and 1678. The King Philip's War was one of the largest of the many Indian Wars that took place following the arrival of the white men in America and in this case during the war as many as 3,000 Indians were killed and around a 1,000 white men. Furthermore more than half of the New England villages were attacked during the two plus years of fighting. Unfortunately for the Indians whose total population in New England only numbered around 10,000 at the time (many Indians had previously died as a result of diseases brought to America by the white men) as compared to a population of almost 80,000 whites, they had no hope of victory and the war pretty much ended with the death of their Indian leader, a man known as Metacomet who was also known as King Philip. At least 1,000 men from Connecticut are believed to have engaged in battles and it is very, very likely that our great grandfather, Samuel Buell, was one of these men and one of their military leaders.

My great grandparents Samuel and Deborah Griswold Buell also raised a large family during their long lives in Clinton as they had around twelve children, eight boys and four girls including their sixth child and my 7th great grandfather, William Buell (1676-1763) who was born on 18 October 1676. [Not surprisingly their next child, a son named David, was not born until 1679 as Samuel may very well have been away from home for awhile battling against Indians.]  My great grandmother Deborah died three years before Samuel in the year 1717. She was around 71 years old. Samuel died on the 11th day of July in the year 1720 at the age of 78. Despite his old age, only two months before his death he had again been reelected by the General Court as a Justice of the Peace, clearly showing that he was, despite his older age, a highly respected individual in his community. One other interesting occurrence that took place in Clinton during Samuel's lifetime is worth mentioning. We would have to believe that our great grandfather Samuel Buell as a public leader was a friend of the Rev. Abraham Pierson who both lived in Clinton having moved there in 1694, and was the head of their local Congregational Church. In 1701, the Rev. Pierson along with others helped organize a small school at his home in Clinton where he then functioned as its teacher with the intent of training future Congregational leaders. The school was later to be known as the Collegiate School. Unfortunately the Reverend died in 1707 but his school by then was so well respected that they moved it first to nearby Old Saybrook and then to New Haven located about 25 miles west of Clinton. In 1718 they renamed the school the Yale College and of course years later in 1887, it was to be known as Yale University. We now have to wonder if some of the sons of our Samuel Buell might have studied in the future Yale University under their father's friend the Rev. Abraham Pierson.

To be honest, we are still a little confused about the life of my 7th great grandfather, William Buell, despite having spent more than a few hours trying to learn about his life. Based on his father's will and being his parents' sixth child, we can understand why he did not inherit much in the way of money and land following his parents' deaths. Perhaps for this reason he moved away from his home in Clinton sometime in the late 1690s. He may very well have traveled with his older brother John Buell, who is known to have moved around the same time to Hartford, Connecticut. In 1695, my great uncle John Buell married a young girl in nearby Windsor named Mary Loomis. Mary Loomis as it turns out, was the granddaughter of my 10th great grandfather Joseph Loomis (1590-1658) who was an early settler of Windsor and whose ancestral story is told in Chapter 55 in this blog. Mary Loomis' father, John Loomis, is believed by some family historians to have been one of the earliest settlers of Lebanon, Connecticut and if so, it makes sense that his daughter and her new husband John Buell might very well have followed her father and mother to this only recently settled community. Our great grandfather William Buell is believed to have married Elizabeth Collier (1675-1729), my 7th great grandmother, sometime around 1705 in Hartford and since they are also known to have moved to the new community of Lebanon, it make a lot of sense that William and his new wife may very well have traveled to Lebanon with or shortly following his older brother John and his new wife.

Gravestone of William Buell

While we do not know much about the life of William Buell in Lebanon we did find one historian noting that written on William's gravestone are the words "One of the Fathers of the Town" which certainly implies that he was not an unknown man of his time, at least in Lebanon. While we have no reason to doubt what is on his gravestone, the photograph of his gravestone shown to the right, leaves us wondering how anything can be read on this over 250 year old gravestone. Anyway, William and Elizabeth Collier Buell were to have seven children including my 6th great grandfather and their second child, Samuel Buell (1708-1759), before Elizabeth's rather early death in 1729 at the age of only 54 years old. At the time of her death her youngest child had already passed away but her other children ranged in age between 9 years old and 23 years old. Not surprisingly considering their many young children, William remarried in the year following my great grandmother's death, but his second wife also died in 1751. Again not surprisingly in this time period where living alone was very uncommon, William again remarried for a third time within months of the death of his second wife. Unfortunately for our William, his third wife also died within a year of their marriage and William was again left alone. Most likely no more woman were interested in marrying him at this point as he was now in his mid-70s. He did survive however, for twelve more years probably living with one of his children and then finally dying on 7 April 1763 at the age of 86 years old. At the time of his death only four of his seven children were still alive.  His son and my 6th great grandfather, Samuel Buell, died almost four years before his dad.

My 6th great grandfather, Samuel Buell (1708-1759), married Ann Wright (1709-1748), my 6th great grandmother, in Lebanon in the year 1727.  Ann's parents and my 7th great grandparents, Abel Wright (1664-1745) and Rebecca Terry (1673-1745) had moved to Lebanon in the year 1700 and it is highly likely considering the small size of Lebanon that their daughter Ann had known her future husband Samuel from the time that they were young children. Ann was only 18 years old when she married 19 year old Samuel Buell. They are believed to have had six children at their home in Hebron, Connecticut, located about ten miles west of Lebanon, before they made the unusual decision around the year 1739 or 1740 to move to the new community of Kent (in present day Litchfield County), located at the western end of Connecticut and about 75 miles west of Hebron. Kent had been founded only a few years earlier and considering that at the time they moved Samuel and Ann had at least four young children alive at the time. This fact alone would seem to make their move highly unusual. Another thing that is unusual or perhaps confusing is that in a book titled The History of Kent published in 1897, they failed to mention our Buell family ancestors among the early settlers. On the other hand, they did mention a man named Abel Wright who arrived in 1638 and who was likely Ann Wright's brother and my 6th great uncle. He was about fourteen years older than his sister Ann and might very well have convinced her and her husband to make the move to this new community where land was inexpensive and perfect for farming. Despite this error in this old history book, it is very clear that Samuel and Ann had moved and had three more children who were born in Kent including my 5th great grandfather, Ephraim Buell (1741-1821) who was born on 21 August 1741.

Not surprisingly we know very few details about the life of our Samuel Buell in part we suppose because he lived in a small rural town where the primary occupation was that of a farmer and also because this small town did not maintain a lot of records of their early residents, at least records that have survived to the present day. While the town was noted at one time in the past to be "a thriving iron ore producer" it is doubtful that Samuel had anything to do with this business at least from a leadership position. He was we believe, a small farmer who grew crops and perhaps raised sheep and cattle. The land was hilly and rocky such that work as a farmer was probably not easy. Unfortunately we know that my great grandmother Ann Wright Buell died in 1748 at the fairly young age of only 39 years old. She had given birth to ten child over a 19 year period and combining that with being a mother was not easy work. Her youngest child had died at only 7 months old, only four months before Ann saw the end of her own life. Their two deaths were no doubt related. Samuel Buell married a woman named Mary Judd less than a year following my great grandmother's death, but she too died in 1754 after giving birth to two children. Perhaps it was just Samuel's personality or just his good looks, but he married for a third time shortly following Mary Judd's death, but his time Samuel Buell takes responsible for ending his 3rd marriage by his own death on the 4th of May in 1759. He was only 50 years old at the time. His five living children at the time of his death were ages 15 to 23 and my 5th great grandfather Ephraim Buell was just 18 years old.

Their son, Ephraim Buell, married my 5th great grandmother, Priscilla Holmes (1744-1820) on the 22nd day of February in the year 1764. Priscilla was the daughter of Israel Holmes (1713-1807) and Priscilla Cushman (1719-1763), both my 6th great grandparents, and she was born in Plympton, Massachusetts near Boston. Priscilla Holmes' mother died less than a year before her daughter married and at the time their family had moved from Plympton and were now living in the village of Warren in Litchfield County located around 8 miles or so west of the village of Kent where the Buell family lived. We found it quite interesting to learn that Israel Holmes was a great grandson of Edward Doty who was a Mayflower passenger and whose family history is told in Chapter 42 of this blog. Also Priscilla Cushman's ancestry is told in Chapter 43 of this blog, and she too is a descendant of another Plymouth passenger, Isaac Allerton. We have to wonder if Priscilla was aware of her descendance of these later to be very famous Mayflower passengers.

Map showing locations of Fort Ticonderoga,

Fort Edward, and Village of Castleton

Apparently Ephraim and Priscilla Holmes Buell moved away from their home in Litchfield County, Connecticut shortly following their marriage for all of their nine children are believed to have been born in Fort Edward, now in Washington County, New York. Fort Edward is located on the Hudson River around 130 miles north of Litchfield County and it had originated back in 1755 when a fort was built there during the French and Indian War fought between 1754 and 1763. Ephraim having moved his family there makes us wonder if perhaps he had been to this area in the past. According to one of the records that we found, in 1761 there was a soldier who fought in the French and Indian War whose name was Ephraim Buell. He was a soldier with the 4th Company in the 2nd Connecticut Regiment under a Col. Nathan Whiting.  Our Ephraim Buell was 17 years old in 1761 and it is very likely that it was he who was this soldier especially considering that his name Ephraim Buell was not that common. Fortunately for Ephraim, the French and Indian War in America had pretty well ended by 1760 so while he may have volunteered and is credited with being a soldier, he did not in fact face a lot of risks.  Incidentally, there are some family historians that report that Ephraim and Priscilla actually moved to Castleton in present day Vermont rather than to Fort Edward. Which location is accurate we could not determine although the fact that the two villages were only 36 miles apart might mean that they had lived at some point in both locations or perhaps somewhere between the two villages.

Present day photo of Fort Ticonderoga

The fact that Ephraim Buell was later to be a Captain in the Vermont militia during the American Revolution would lead us to believe that his home was, at least at some point, in Vermont. Vermont of course, was not technically in existence as a separate "state" prior to the Revolution and the fact that Ephraim might actually have lived in New York "State" would not have precluded him from commanding a militia based in Castleton, Vermont. Furthermore, Ephraim was for a period of the Revolutionary War, a member of Vermont's "Green Mountain Boys" under the command of Brigadier General Ethan Allen. Ethan Allen was a resident of Litchfield, Connecticut prior to the war and he may very well have been acquainted at a younger age with Ephraim and the Buell family. Allen also fought in the French and Indian War and most likely would have known Ephraim during this period.  Castleton as it turns out played an eventful part in the American Revolution in that in May of 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold planned their attack on Fort Ticonderoga in Castleton. Fort Ticonderoga was only 30 miles to the southwest of Castleton or just to the north of Fort Edward. Ephraim Buell is referenced in "Wikipedia" as being part of a committee that considered the "advisability of taking control of Fort Ticonderoga" and no doubt he was part of the forces that attack and took control of Fort Ticonderoga from the British on 10 May 1775. According to the few Revolutionary War payroll records that we reviewed, Ephraim served in the Vermont militia from 1775 until 1781 although not on a full time basis. The role of Ephraim's regiment was listed in one source as "scouting for security of the frontiers". Whether or not Ephraim Buell played a role in Ethan Allen's attempt to take control of Quebec in September of 1775 is not known. His name does appear in military payroll records in three subsequent periods, in June 1777, December 1779, and October 1781 and undoubtedly there were more time periods where the records may have been lost. Also he may not have always been a member of the Green Mountain Boys as it is noted in records that this regiment was disbanded as early as 1776. What is also known is that Ethan Allen along with some of his troops were captured by the British during a failed attempt to take control of Montreal in August of 1775. It would seem unlikely that our Captain Ephraim Buell would have been a part of Allen's troops at this point.

Ephraim and Priscilla's fourth child was a girl named Elizabeth "Betsy" Buell (1774-1825), my 4th great grandmother who was likely born in Fort Edward, New York in 1774. After the end of the Revolutionary War and sometime by the mid-1780s, Ephraim Buell moved his entire family to a new settlement in the Finger Lakes region in the future New York State. His family by that point consisted of his wife and his seven children including his oldest son Salmon who had only recently married. Their new home was near the present day city of Ithaca, New York. It was here at their new home that Ephraim and Priscilla had two more children including their last child, a daughter, who was born in 1787. What we find truly amazing is that sometime in the early 1800s they moved again, this time to the future state of Ohio. Their daughter and my great grandmother, Elizabeth Buell, did not join her parents in their move to Ohio as in June of 1790 in Ithaca, she married my 4th great grandfather, Silas Hutchinson (1758-1836). It might very well be that Elizabeth never again saw her parents as they both died in Crosby, Ohio, her mom Priscilla on 5 January 1820 and her dad, Ephraim, only a year later on 4 January 1821. Why they moved while in their early 60s to what was probably at that point a total wilderness area, is a complete unknown. Apparently these ancestors of ours were just true adventurists of strong stock.

My 4th great grandparents, Elizabeth Buell and Silas Hutchinson had ten children together including my 3rd great grandfather, Mosely Hutchinson (1795-1836) all of whom were born in Ithaca, New York. From my Buell and Hutchinson family down to the present time our ancestral tree is as follows:

              Elizabeth Buell  m  Silas Hutchinson
               (1774-1825)           (1758-1836)
                                     |
       Mosley Hutchinson   m  Elizabeth Hall  
               (1795-1861)           (1801-1877)
                                     |
          Mary Hutchinson  m  David Ferree
               (1825-1901)            (1826-1869)
                                     |
              Eugene Ferree  m  Marian Coapman
               (1866-1952)            (1867-1895)
                                     |
            Florence Ferree  m  Douglas Patterson
              (1891-1938)            (1888-1979)
                                     |
          Marian Patterson  m  Charles Baker
             (1916-1973)             (1916-2000_
                                     |  
          Charles Baker Jr
          Anne Baker Fanton
          Joan Baker

And so ends another ancestral story . . . . .

Chapter 63 - Our Hallock Ancestry

Suffolk County, England

While there are no historical records that can be found, it is generally believed that our first Hallock ancestor to immigrate to the "New World" was a man named Peter Hallock (abt 1585- abt 1640), my 11th great grandfather. Peter is believed to have married my 11th great grandmother, Elizabeth Youngs (or Yonges) (Abt 1589-Abt 1616) in Suffolk County, England around the year 1610. While the exact number of children born to Peter and Elizabeth is unclear, what is believed is that only two of their children survived before Elizabeth's early death in 1616, their son William Hallock (1615-1684), my 10th great grandfather, and his younger sister Elizabeth Hallock (1616-?). My great grandmother Elizabeth is reported to have died rather tragically along with her brother and 20 others when they drowned following a boating accident off the eastern coast of England near the town of Southwold in Suffolk County. Unfortunately we have been unable to confirm for certain that Elizabeth Youngs was actually the wife of Peter Hallock, and that the date of her death was in 1616. Elizabeth's father is believed to have been the Rev. Christopher Yonges (1575-1626) whose records show that he had a daughter named Elizabeth who drowned. Strangely perhaps, her name is listed in the drowning records as Elizabeth Yonges and not Elizabeth Hallock which certainly might suggest that this Elizabeth was not married at the time of her downing.  Another negative is that when Christopher Yonges died in 1626, his will mentions only two of his grandsons but does not mention his supposed grandson William Hallock who would have been around 11 years old at the time of his alleged grandfather's death. One final problem that we encountered was that some records indicated that Elizabeth was born in either the late 1590s or possibly as late as 1602. Both dates of course would suggest that she was unlikely the mother of William Hallock who was definitely born in 1615.  While it is not clear whether or not Peter Hallock and Elizabeth Yonges were husband and wife, it is clear that Peter Hallock lived in the same area as the Yonges family and that he was a friend of Elizabeth's brother, the Rev. John Yonges/Youngs (1598-1672). We will explain this in the subsequent paragraphs.

Mary Anne to America in 1637

Peter Hallock remarried sometime after 1632 a woman whose maiden name is believed to have been Margaret Jane Forsone (1603-abt 1660). Margaret had lost her first husband, John Howell, in 1632 but not before she had given birth to a son, Richard Howell, and a daughter, Margaret Howell, both of whom were quite young when they went to live with their new "father". It also appears that Peter Hallock may have remained good friends with his former brother-in-law, his first wife's brother, the Rev. John Yonges or Youngs, since they both moved to Hingham in Norfolk County, England shortly following John Youngs being denied the right to immigrate to America in the year 1634 apparently because he was a Puritan minister. As we have mentioned many times in previous chapters in this blog, Puritans during this period of English history were the "enemies" of both the Church of England and the English crown and hence many fled from the civil and religious oppressions that they faced in England. Both Peter Hallock and the Rev John Youngs were both very zealous Puritans and apparently Hingham was populated largely by members of the Puritan faith. It was here in Hingham, at least for a short period, that the Rev John Youngs was the minister of the local Presbyterian Church. The record of the Rev John Youngs' emigration to America along with his family seems to be well documented as they departed on the ship Mary Anne in 1637 and upon arriving in America they settled for a short period in Salem, Massachusetts and then soon moved to New Haven, Connecticut where John again served as a minister. Unfortunately, there are no records that show that Peter Hallock accompanied his former brother-in-law on the Mary Anne although this would seem to make sense. Another very confusing and perhaps controversial issue, is that many documents describing the life of Peter Hallock write that he apparently left his wife and his children and step-children back in England when he first departed for America and then he later returned to England and brought them all back to America. We really doubt that this was the case but then who knows and there are no clear records of his behavior one way or the other.

Connecticut controlled much of Long Island

 including Southold in early years.

One thing that is known is that in October of 1640, the Rev John Youngs along with twelve other men and their families including our Peter Hallock, left their homes in New Haven, sailed across the Long Island Sound and soon landed at the far eastern end of Long Island and then founded the town of Southold. Southold is now acknowledged as the first permanent English settlement on Long Island and in the future State of New York. The Dutch of course were the original settlers, settling in New Amsterdam at the western end of Long Island. What we find truly fascinating is that of these original thirteen settlers of Southold, seven of them including both Peter Hallock and the Rev John Youngs are my great grandfathers. In a subsequent listing of the early Southold settlers named in a history book describing the founding of Southold written back in 1902, of the 51 founders' names listed in the book, 16 of them are my great grandfathers including of course both John Youngs and Peter Hallock. Considering the rather small number of original settlers in Southold, Long Island, it should not be that surprising that so many of them were my ancestors as obviously sons and daughters would marry their neighbors' sons or daughters and hence in a rather small community soon many families would be related.  That said, it should also not be surprising to learn that Peter Hallock's only son William Hallock, my 10th great grandfather married his step-sister and the daughter of his father's second wife, Margaret Howell (1622-1707), my 10th great grandmother. The exact date of their marriage is not known although most sources agree that it occurred shortly after their arrival in America. The exact date of Peter Hallock's death is also not known for certain although it is believed to have possibly been as early as 1660 or maybe as late as 1689 which although unlikely would have made him over one hundred years old.  Obviously we do not know a great deal of real facts about the life of my 11th great grandfather, Peter Hallock. 

Peter's son William Hallock and his wife Margaret Howell Hallock lived the rest of their lives in the Southold area or more accurately in an area just west of Southold now known as Mattituck. Unfortunately we really know very little about their lives other than William must have been a successful farmer and a fairly wealthy man as he apparently owned a large amount of land based both on his tax records and on the quantity of land that he left to his sons in his final will. Some of the land of course, he would have inherited from his father or was granted to him by his father during his father's life. William and Margaret had four sons and five daughters together before William's death in 1784. Their fourth child and second son, Thomas Hallock (1660-1718), is my 9th great grandfather. The Hallock family lived during an interesting period of history on Long Island during the 17th century. Following the settlement of Southold in 1640, the eastern half of Long Island started a rapid population growth by English settlers as compared to a much slower growth of the Dutch settlement at the western end of the island. The Dutch on the other hand and despite the English population growth had always maintained that they controlled all of Long Island. In 1664 however, the English military attacked and took control of New Amsterdam. It undoubtedly must have come as a quite a surprise to all of the English settlers on the island including our Hallock family, when the British government was then forced to yield control of the entire island back to the Dutch in 1673 following a successful Dutch counter military attack. When the eastern English towns including Southold refused to yield any control of their area to the Dutch, the Dutch military warships attacked the village of Southold. The English colonists however, fought back and ultimately forced the Dutch to back off. Then in the following year 1674, all of Long Island once again was brought under British control following stronger British counter attacks. Whether or not any of our Hallock ancestors took part in any military action is unknown but it would seem highly unlikely based on William's older age and his sons younger ages. It is probably a safe assumption however, to believe that at least a few of my many ancestors who lived in Southold during this time period would have at least helped to fire a canon or a British shotgun at the Dutch ships trying to take control of their city. Great speculation. My great grandfather William died around the age of 64 on 28 September 1684. His wife and my great grandmother Margaret out lived her husband by many years finally dying on 9th day of May in the year 1707. Exactly where they are buried is a mystery.

Their son and my 9th great grandfather, Thomas Hallock, married my 9th great grandmother, Hope Comstock (1660-1732) in 1680 most likely in the local Presbyterian Church in Southold with dozens of their family members present.  On the other hand, Hope's parents and her brothers and sisters were all born and raised in New London, Connecticut as was Hope, so at first we were a little confused as to how she ended up meeting and later marrying a young man from Southold over on Long Island. We soon discovered however, that Hope's older sister, Mary Comstock, had recently married a man named Samuel Youngs, a descendant of the Youngs family over in Southold, and we quickly concluded that Hope may very well have met her future husband Thomas Hallock while either attending her sister's wedding or visiting her sister later in Southold.

Like so many of the families during this time period in history, Thomas and Hope Comstock Hallock had a large number of children and by some records as many as nine or ten including my 8th great grandfather, Zerubabel Hallock (1696-1761). Unfortunately however, we know little to nothing about the life of Thomas and Hope. He was undoubtedly like so many others in his community, a farmer or possibly even a fisherman which was a very common industry during this period of Southold history. He was also a likely strong Puritan and deeply religious. We also could not help but enjoy a hopefully accurate historical record noting that when Thomas was granted money in the death will of his wife's father, Daniel Comstock (1630-1683), my 10th great grandfather, he turned down the money and asked that it be given to his mother-in-law, Palthiah Elderkin Comstock (1630-1712), my 10th great grandmother. If this is an accurate fact, Thomas Hallock and obviously his wife Hope, were truly wonderful people.

Hallock State Park Preserve

Zerubabel Hallock was around 22 years old when his father died in March of 1718 and less than a year later in January of 1719 he married Esther Osman (1695-1773), my 8th great grandmother. One of the interesting things about my great grandmother Esther Osman was that her great grandfather on her mother's side, a man named Matthias Corwin (1590-1658), also my 11th great grandfather, was also one of the original settlers in Southold joining many other of my ancestors as we previously mentioned. Zerubabel and Esther were to have around ten children during their married lives including their oldest son, Zerubabel Hallock (Jr) (1722-1800), my 7th great grandfather. In the final will of Zerubabel Jr's father written on 3 March 1761, he writes in part "I leave to my wife Esther the improvement of my now dwelling house for life , to improve as she sees fit and 1/4 of the grain raised on my land, and all the provisions, and 3 cows, a riding chair, and a horse, and all household goods (except a feather bed), and a negro slave and . . . " We were naturally quite surprised to learn that he owned a "negro slave" but that fact alone would suggest that he had wealth. We also learned during our research of our Hallock family that they lived and owned a large amount of land in Mattituck that as we mentioned earlier was just west of Southold. Zerubabel had inherited land from his parents and grandparents and later he had willed land to his sons and grandsons. What was truly remarkable to learn as a Hallock ancestor was that some of the land once owned by the Hallock family is today part of a large public park named the Hallock State Park Preserve that consists of 225 acres sitting on the Long Island Sound and located just a few miles west of the present day city of Mattituck. We wonder how many visitors of this state park know anything about the history of our Hallock ancestors?  Another interesting thing to learn was that Zerubabel Hallock's grandfather, William Hallock, had a home built on what today is named Hallock Lane which sits along the eastern border of the Hallock State Park Preserve. We could not help but be very jealous when we discovered that today one of the homes currently for sale on our great grandfather's former property on Hallock Lane is for sale for just under $5 million dollars. Anyway, William's oldest son Thomas, inherited his father's home as did Zerubabel Hallock when his father Thomas died. Then unbelievably, Zerubabel Hallock Jr. also lived on Hallock Lane through most of his life.  My 8th great grandparents Zerubabel and Esther Hallock are both buried in the Old Bethany Cemetery in Mattituck.

Zerubabel Hallock Jr married my 7th great grandmother, Elizabeth Swezey (1722-1806) in December of 1743. She, like so many others in the Southold/Mattituck area, was a descendant of many of the earliest settlers of Southold. Her great, great grandfather (and my 11th great grandfather), John Swezey (1595-1686) while not one of the original settlers of Southold in 1640, he did arrive shortly thereafter. Another of Elizabeth's many great grandfathers was the original founder of Southold, the Rev. John Youngs who though a different line in my family tree is my 10th great grandfather. Like we said earlier in this story, many of the children and then their children, married and thus many of the descendants of the early settlers of this area of Long Island are related to multiple families of the earliest settlers. Zerubabel Hallock lived during an important period in our American history, the Revolution War. While the beginning battles of the Revolutionary War began in the Boston and the Massachusetts Bay area, nevertheless in 1775 numerous men in the Suffolk County area including many members of the Hallock family, signed a petition called the "Form of Association" which basically was a pledge of support to the new Continental Congress. In the following year they all formed a regiment of minute men and our Zerubabel Hallock was listed as a sergeant. Unfortunately in August of 1776, General George Washington who led the American forces, was defeated by the British at the Battle of Long Island (in Brooklyn) and thus the British maintained control over Long island for the remainder of the war. Whether our grandfather Zerubabel Hallock ever engaged in any of the battles is unknown and it is also unlikely, but to his benefit following the war he was granted the title of Captain Hallock. During the war he remained at his home in Mattituck and he and his family apparently managed to coexist with the British occupation and generally kept his mouth shut one way or the other. Many of his friends on the other hand had left Long Island and joined forces with the American army in Connecticut. Following the war with many of the patriot families having left the Long Island area, Zerubabel Hallock was able to buy up much of the abandoned farmland in the area thus dramatically increasing his wealth and land holdings. It probably would not be a good idea to try and use Zerubabel Hallock as your Revolutionary War soldier ancestor as your means of joining either the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution. Well, at least it is not wrong to call him Captain Zerubabel Hallock and in his defense we might note that near the beginning of the war in 1775 he was 53 years old which is a little old to be engaged in a battle and around 10 years older than their leader, General George Washington (1732-1799).

Zerubabel and Elizabeth Swezey Hallock  had as many as twelve children including their 4th son and my 6th great grandfather, John Hallock (1751-1842). All of their children were born before the start of the Revolutionary War. We did not do a lot of research on his male children although we have to believe that most of them were soldiers during the Revolution. We also believe that my grandfather John Hallock spent about twenty-two months in the military in years 1776 through 1778 although somewhat strangely, an application for a membership to the Sons of the American Revolution listing his name as the ancestral soldier was turned down apparently for lack of evidence as to his service. Unfortunately we were unable to locate a copy of the will prepared by his father Zerubabel Hallock but we have to believe that he left to his wife and children a great deal of land, goods, and money.

Minisink was at western end of Orange County

John Hallock married my 6th great grandmother, Mehitable Aldrich (1752-1828) around the year 1775 which makes us wonder why he would have spent two or three years away from his wife fighting in the American Revolution. We did note however, that their first child was born around 1776 shortly after their marriage but their second child was not born until the year 1779, a fact that clearly suggests he may have been away from his wife serving as a soldier. In Chapter 22 of this blog titled "My Revolutionary War Ancestors Part 2", the individual in this chapter described as Patriot #32 is our John Hallock. If you are interested in reading about John Haddock's service during the war this chapter is a fairly detailed outline. A short summary of his service during this period is as follows. When the British landed at the west end of Long Island, John and the other men in his local militia marched westward to join with George Washington's forces. As the total American troops were greatly outnumbered by the British forces they soon retreated following the Battle of Long Island which took place on 27 August 1776. Subsequently many of the militia troops were then disbanded including John's militia.  He then returned home to his wife and recently born child and they rapidly left their home in Mattituck and leaving almost everything behind, they moved to Blooming Grove in Orange County located about  60 miles north of New York City and by land around 135 miles from Mattituck. John Hallock was shortly thereafter drafted into the Orange County militia where he served for the next several years although fortunately for my great grandfather his militia was focused more on constructing fortresses along the Hudson River than they were in engaging in any major battles against the British. Sometime near the end of the war, John and Mehitable Haddock moved and settled in the town of Minisink in Orange County where they remained for the rest of their lives. While the exact number of children born to John and Mehitable is not known for certain, most informed sources list a total of four children only, which seems to be confirmed by John Hallock's last will and testament written on 28 December 1838. The birth year of their daughter Sarah "Sally" Hallock (? - 1844), my 5th great grandmother, is usually listed as sometime between 1785 and 1790 although with Sarah's first child being born in 1799, even a birth year as early as 1785 would seem unlikely.

The Old Hallock Family Cemetery

Orange County, New York

It is not clear what John Hallock did for a living following the war although most likely he was a farmer. Also as he is often referred to in some of the historical writings as the "Deacon" John Hallock, he obviously was deeply involved with his local church. My great grandmother Mehitable Aldrich Hallock died in the year 1828 at the age of around 72. Her husband John lived to the remarkably old age of 91 years old, finally dying in the year 1842. They are both buried in the very old Hallock Family Cemetery located near the town of Ridgebury in Orange County, New York.

Sarah "Sally" Hallock married my 5th great grandfather, Joseph Smith (Abt. 1778 - 1846) around the year 1799 or 1800 and they are recorded as having ten children including my 4th great grandmother, Maria Smith (1804-1897). One of the most interesting things about this ancestral family is that Joseph and Sarah moved along with most of their children to Elmira in Chemung County, New York in the year 1834. Why this is most interesting is that my father, Charles Asbury Baker (1916-2000) was born in Elmira which means that this side of my family lived in Elmira for at least six generations.  My family tree from this generation down is as follows:

5th Great Grandparents:  Joseph Smith  m  Sarah Hallock
4th Great Grandparents:  Maria Smith   m  Henry Wisner 
                                      (1804-1897)        (1801-1862)
3rd Great Grandparents:  Clara Wisner  m  Henry Spaulding
                                      (1822-1906)       (1812-1902)
2nd Great Grandparents: Charles Spaulding  m  Mary Catherine Sly
                                      (1841-1875)              (1844-1917)
Great Grandparents:        Henry Spaulding  m  Elia Reynolds
                                       (1863-1889)           (1963-1935)
Grandparents:                 Helen Spaulding  m  Charles S. Baker
                                       (1887-1937)               (1885-1952
Parents:                          Charles A Baker  m  Marian Patterson
                                       (1916-2000)              (1916-1973)
Living Generation:            Charles A. Baker Jr.
                                       Anne Baker Fanton
                                       Joan Patterson Baker

And so ends another story. . . . .