Asa Landon and James Selleck Land Deeds in Salisbury

Asa Landon, husband of Jerusha Griffin, and his son in-law, James Selleck, appears only briefly in the land records in Salisbury, Connecticut. Both were given property by their fathers. Most deeds contained the phrase “In consideration” a term that is the precursor to the agreed on amount of money or considerations to be exchanges for the property. In the case of Asa and James the “consideration” was “in consideration of parental love and good will”. With this phrase their fathers passed on to them enough property to set up a household. Asa’s father gave him two separate pieces of property. Most of the property held by Asa was in Vermont where he was quite active in land speculation. Of his Salisbury property it’s interesting to note that he later sold the property given to him by his father. Given his history of being on the Tory side in the Revolutionary War it’s interesting to note that the date on the deed, whereby he sells his Salisbury property, is May 13, 1776. After being forced to leave America for Canada after the war he was unsuccessful in his efforts to retain his property in Vermont. His father Ezra gave James Selleck 43 acres of land in the “Plantation” section of Salisbury on October 4, 1785. He later sells the property February 23, 1787 as he and his wife Lois Landon prepare for their move to New York. Lois/ Jerusha/ Samuel.

Connecticut in the 1800's

The children of Mercy Griffin Stevens, Mercy/Worden/Samuel/Samuel, and her husband Daniel all raised their families in the communities surrounding Killingworth. This is true of the majority of the first 3 generations in Samuel and Mary’s family tree. If you are like me you are probably more than a little curious as to what the communities looked like in the 1800’s. The photo we have added below is from Higganum which is one of the neighborhoods in nearby Haddam. It is in all likelihood very representative of a Connecticut neighborhood. Mercy’s son Samuel Griffin Stevens and his brother Ellis both lived in Haddam. Ellis later moved to North Branford. Samuel and his family are buried in Haddam. The photo was taken within the time frame when they lived there. The road in the photo was the main avenue of travel through the area. At numerous times in their lives these two Griffin grandchildren would have viewed this exact scene. Each of these communities keeps a historical register of old homes. One of those listed in Haddam is that of Samuel Griffin Stevens. His house could be among those shown in the photo.

Birth/Baptismal record for Joel Griffin Oct 4, 1767

This record is from the Congregational Second Society ledger. The record for the year 1767 starts on the bottom of one page and is continued on the top of the next page. We have included both portion. There are certain indications in these records that suggest that more often than not the dates represent a baptismal date. I have found it very interesting to note that the birth records only use the fathers name. Joel/Samuel/Samuel

Samuel Griffin Jr Land Deeds in Killingworth

Samuel Griffin Jr purchased the original home lot from Benjamin Turner on September 13, 1762. He did not begin purchasing additional property until 1765. During that interlude he was probably busy clearing the land and building the wood frame house that we have documented on the blog along with his joiners shop. Over the next several years he added to his property by bits and pieces buying two or three acres at a time. As you trace those deeds it shows that all of his purchases were for land surrounding his original home lot. In total he purchased about six different small plots for a total of about 22 acres. His property eventually included all of the property from Hwy 80 up to the other side of Wolf Hollow Lane. The eastern boundary on most of the deeds is Roast Meat Hill Rd. The western boundary reached about midway between Hwy 81 and Roast Meat Hill Rd. Many of the deeds are referenced to either his home lot or the burying yard. One of his last purchases was two acres directly across the road to the east from his house. As his family grew he made one large purchase of twenty acres of land a short distance to the east in the area that is now the Killingworth Reservoir. That purchase probably represented something of a working farm. The description states that it was east of the river and bounded on the south by the highway. We have included the original deed from Benjamin Turner with its date of purchase. One of his purchases was from his father in law Samuel Nettleton who lived to the north of him the deed documents that their properties were adjoining. Mercy Nettleton Griffin could take her two little boys and walk a short distance up Roast Meet Hill Rd to her mother’s door. In December 1784 he purchased the “burying yard” from the city. That location is now the Union Cemetery. Why did he make that purchase? The idea of a family cemetery was very common in the age. This circumstance argues that Mariah (Marah) Griffen Griffin and Mercy Nettleton Griffin and his daughter Molle (Mercy Bailey) are interred there among the unreadable headstones. I have always assumed that his parents were also buried there although there is no evidence to support that conclusion. Worden and his wife Rhoda Hull are buried just over the fence from the home lot. Worden’s son Harmon and all of his family are buried there as is his daughter Mercy Griffin Stevens and her husband Daniel and a number of their children. His sister Thankful and her husband Nathan Buell’s graves are marked with a pair of beautiful headstone. But one thing is certain the “burying yard” with its distinctive stone fence became the frame of reference for many of the land deeds in the area. The last deed added is a deed from Samuel to his son Worden. It is significant in that it includes a description of the original home lot. It points out that the purchase includes his joiners shop, a barn, and his dwelling house on a plot of ten acres. The descriptions in the deed go a long way in describing how Samuel lived and made his living. Samuel’s son Worden expanded on his father’s property he eventually owned all of the property from Hwy 80 to north of Wolf Hollow Lane. It extended from the Roast Meat Hill Rd to the other side of Hwy 81. The Congregational Chapel sits on Hwy 81 directly west of the Union Cemetery. The Buell home lot was located on Roast Meat Hill Rd south of Hwy 80.

Joel Griffin October 4, 1767 to September 15, 1833

Joel was the son of Samuel Griffin and his second wife, Mercy Nettleton. His birth/bapstism is recorded in the ledger of the Killingworth Congregational Second Society. On Oct 4, 1767 is the entry, "Joel son of Samuel Griffin. By the 1780’s most of the available land from the original Killingworth land grant had been allotted. As a result when Samuel Griffin and his wife Mercy Nettleton's boys reached the marrying age they were forced to look elsewhere to find suitable farmland of their own. This generation of young men represented the first major exodus out of the original Colonies. For most of the young men in Connecticut the move was north. They moved on to the upper counties in Connecticut or western Massachusetts. Those seeking a little more adventure made the move all the way to the newly established land grants in Vermont. Samuel’s boys were part of this generation. The first to leave Killingworth were his two oldest sons Joel and Asahel. Joel and Asahel ended up in southern Vermont in New Haven. They are both listed in New Haven in the 1790 Census. Both married in New Haven, Asahel to Polly Loyal and Joel to Submit Alvord. The only record of the marriage is in a history written by the Alvord family. Asahel purchased land and established the farm that we documented earlier in the Blog. There is no record of Joel buying property in New Haven. With no evidence for Joel in New Haven we began to search for him. We found him while conducting an audit of the 1800 Census for the whole state of Vermont. In 1800 the census records indicate that he was living in northern Vermont in Swanton about twenty miles from his father. In Swanton the records seem to indicate that Joel took on more of the role of a businessman rather than that of a farmer. Records indicate that he managed the concession for the toll road and bridge leading into Swanton. He also served as the town constable. In that role he was used by the courts to police land transactions. On one of the documents that we have included, which identifies him as a constable, we find his signature. As you can see by his signature, in this instance, he served as a “collector” for payments due. In most deeds written in this period all of the names on a deed are written in by the clerk who then adds his signature as verification for all of the names. In this case Joel is the person signing for all of the parties so the signature shown is probably Joel’s. Joel and Asahel both started their married life in very young communities. Record keeping was very spotty. As a result we have very few birth records for their children. In Joel’s case we have an exception. When a new community was legally established a probate court was set up to manage the land transactions. The court obtained a set of ledgers that were to be used as the official record for all land sales and transactions. The original land grant and the documents establishing the legitimacy of the court were recorded in the front of these ledgers. As the clerks were setting up the ledgers in Swanton one of them took a page to record a few of the earliest births. After that brief record there were no other births recorded in Swanton for the next dozen or so years. To our good fortune three of Joel’s’ children are listed on that one page of records, Oramel born March 26, 1794, Milton born January 18, 1796 and Lois born October 78, 1797. The 1800 Census shows Joel with a family of three boys and two girls but we do not have any records for Joel’s other children born in Swanton. Joel and Asahel sold their Vermont holdings and made the move to Franklin County, New York seeking bigger and better opportunities some time around their father's death in 1808. Joel ended up in Bangor/Malone and Asahel nearby in Moira. Both established successful working farms and raised their families. Several more children were born to Joel and Submit in New York. Again we are faced with a new community where very few records were kept. Based on census records Joel and Submit seem to have buried a young boy and two young girls and his adult son Aaron in Bangor. In the New York period we also lost track of his oldest child, a girl, probably born in New Haven. We find in the family records of Hiram Luther Drake notations that his wife was Lois Griffin. The census records indicate that Lois was born in Vermont in about 1797. Most telling that she is the daughter of Joel Griffin is the fact that she named her oldest son Oramel after her brother. Joel’s final days were spent with his son Oramel who had moved even further west eventually settling in Rushford, New York. Oramel had become a very successful businessman. He became what we would refer to today as a land developer. A community he established as a stopping place on the Genesee Valley Canal still bears his name Oramel, New York. Joel and Submit along with his sons Milton and Joel Jr. and his two daughters Sophia (Augustus Hitchcock) and Saphronia (Solon Nichols) all followed Oramel to Rushford. The later history of the family in the area revolves around Oramel’s daughter Achsah who married M. B. Champlain. Mr. Champlain became the attorney general for the state of New York. At one point he was under consideration to become a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. We have included pictures of her and her husband and a picture taken inside of her home in Cuba, New York. Joel is buried in a family plot in the White Cemetery just outside of Rushford. At some point after his death Joel’s grandchildren, who were among the most prominent families in the county, erected a marble pillar to mark the spot of the Griffin Plot. Joel and Submit are buried there along with Oramel and his wife Caroline Gary and his two sons Solon and Jackson, Solon and his wife Bridget and Jackson all died in Michigan. Their remains were brought back to Rushford for burial. Also in the plot are Joel Jr. and his wife Clarissa Frost. The headstones and the pillar record provide the following information. Solon W. 1836-1902. (Solon died in Union, Branch, Michigan April 20, 1902)- Bridget (Bridget is Solon’s wife)- Oramel Griffin Died Sept 15, 1877 aged 83 Yrs- Caroline wife of Oramel Died Feb 26, 1848 Aged 43 Yrs- Jackson Griffin Died Sept 11, 1893 Aged 54 Yrs (Kalamazoo, Michigan)- Joel Griffin Died Sept 15, 1833 Aged 66 Yrs- Submit his wife Died Sept 30, 1842 Aged 72 Yrs- Joel Griffin Jr Died Apr 22, 1871 Aged 70 Yrs- Clarissa wife of Joel Jr Died Oct 16, 1869 Aged 65 Yrs

The Killingworth Second Society Ledger

The records for the Killingworth Congregational Second Society were kept in a simple little ledger. It is organized into sections that cover about a ten year span. Each section is subdivided into a seperate section for births, deaths, marriages and church membership. The information is listed under a heading for a given year. Under the heading for a given year the records are listed in chronological order. After any one ten year span the process is repeated. This ledger contains the recorded history for the first four generations of Griffins. We have include here the marriage records for some of our family. Thankful and Nathan Buell, Samuel's marriages to Mercy Nettleton and Mercy Steevens, Samuel and Mercy Bailey Steeven's daughter Mercy to Ithamar Pelton, Worden and Rhoda Hull, Worden's daughter Mercy to Daniel Stevens, Samuel and Mariah's daughter Polly to Reuben Doud

Marriage record for Lois Griffin and Stephen Kelsey

This record for the marriage of Stephen and Lois is found in records of the Killingworth Congregational Second Society. Lois/Samuel/Samuel

Lois Griffin and Stephen Kelsey

Samuel and Marah Griffin’s daughter Lois married Stephen Kelsey in Killingworth. The couple made their home across the river in Madison. Their children lived in both Killingworth and North Madison. Lois and Stephen are buried in the Stone House Cemetery in Killingworth next to her sister Azuba's family. The Stone House cemetery was named after Azuba and Henry Davis' stone house and was probably started by them as a private family cemetery. Their cemetery inscriptions read “Kelsey Lois, wife of Stephan, died Mar 22, 1844, age 83 yrs”. “Kelsey Stephan, Rev. War. Baldwin’s Co., died Mar 22, 1833, age 76 yrs. Veteran.” They had four children together. Julius born September 8, 1783. Julius married Sylvia Hill they together had nine children. Polly, named after Lois’s sister Polly, married Peter Davis and they had 5 children. Stephen born January 3, 1789 married Malinda Davis and they had 6 children one of whom they named Samuel Griffin Kelsey. Cynthia born June 7, 1793 did not marry. She is buried next to her parents having died at age 37. We have added a few documents concerning Lois and Stephen. One is a record of their marriage dated March 29, 1783 found in the Killingworth town records. Her sister Azuba's marriage to Henry Davis is on the same page. It is part of a list compiled in the pages of the land deeds. The second document comes from the genealogical collection of Alvan Talcott a collection we have made reference to many times. This document is Doctor Talcott's notes for the children of Lois and Stephen. We have selected potions of Stephen's will. It references his widow and notes the transfer of a portion of his property to Julius. Stephen’s will also has a provision for the heirs of his daughter Polly Davis who herself had died earlier that year. Stephen out lived three of his children which accounts for the fact that his son Stephen and daughter Cynthia are not mentioned. We have also included Lois's baptismal and marriage records that are found in the Killingworth Congregational Second Society ledgers. We have a record of her death found in the records of the Congregational First Society in Madison. The last item is a record of their family that is written on a page in the ledger that records the land deeds._________ Lois / Samuel-Marah / Samuel Griffin.

Probate File for Samuel Griffin 1739 to 1808

The nine documents that make up the probate file for Samuel Griffin are housed in the Vermont State Archives in Montpelier, Vermont. They are indexed by box number and file number. Samuel’s will is located in the third box in the collection. This would seem to indicate that his was one of the earliest wills filed in what was in 1808, a very young state. What makes Samuel’s will so important is that it names all of his living children except Worden. Why not Worden? If you have spent any time reviewing deed records in Killingworth it’s easy to come to the realization that Worden ended up with his fathers holdings in Killingworth. Even though he purchased the bulk of his father’s property from him it is my observation that portions of that exchange constituted an inheritance. I had my first glimpse of a small portion of the will in the 1980s. Up to that point I had no idea that he had been married three times with three subsets to his family. I believe a good portion of his descendants shared this observation. Among Samuel’s children tracing Joel and Asahel proved to be the biggest challenge they having left the smallest footprint in Killingworth. Finding the Moira connection and Asahel’s family led by David Griffin was a real revelation. And so it has been with every family group that I have met ever since. It is my hope that the Blog can provide the crossroad where all of Samuel’s family can meet. A good portion of Samuel’s family lived close to him in Vermont. Passing their inheritance on to them was probably very straightforward. But he also left an inheritance to his children still living in Killingworth. This seems to indicate that they were still very much in contact and that he had the means to deliver their inheritance to them. One hint of the closeness of the connection is the fact that his grandson Samuel, son of his son John, went back to Killingworth to claim a bride, Zaida Field who is recorded in the Killingworth Barbour records as Lodah Field. Of Samuel’s ten living children Lois Kelsey, Azuba Davis, Polly Doud, Mercy Pelton and his sons Joel, Asahel, Samuel, John, Dan and Worden someone in each of their posterity has made contact with the Blog. My own line traces its roots back to his son Samuel. The first document in the probate file is the cover to the file created by the archivist. As with all probate records each step taken by the court is noted. Some are brief simply stating the intentions of the court. The third document is a list of his remaining assets, farming equipment mainly and all of the bedding etc. required to maintain a very comfortable home. I noticed that he still had some of his joiners tools and his loom. Did he use the tools to make things for his grandchildren? Storage chests, chest of drawers, etc.? What did he make on his loom? Shawls, little blankets for dolls, a nice piece of cloth as a Christmas gift? It’s easy to note that he had very few possessions left at the time of his death. We need to remember that he and his son John were partners on the farm. Much of what he had probably belonged to the partnership and went to John. I can envision that late in his life as each of his sons visited he took them aside and said I want you to have this giving them some item that he knew had a special meaning. I have a collection of letters written by his grandchildren. Those letters paint a picture of a very close family. The news they share covers all of the current events concerning the whole of the their scattered family. I am sure the same was true of Samuel’s children. The fourth document has his signature on it and the last document has the signature of his wife Mercy and his son John. The key to the file is his will. A transcription of it is posted in the early sections of the blog. It gives us a perspective on his concern for his wife and children. What he gives away is an indication of what was valuable in his life. It also probably reflected things that his children wanted in order to keep his memory alive. I hope you all look upon these documents as your inheritance just as his children did in 1808.