Chloe Davis and Nathan Fowler

In March of 2013 we posted a history for the family of Azuba Griffin and her husband Henry Davis. In the article we noted the difficulty we were having documenting the lives of their daughters. We have recently posted a history for Rebina. We would like to take up the case for their oldest daughter Chloe whose birth is recorded in the Killingworth town records on June 11, 1786. Starting in 1844 the cities in Connecticut, responding to state mandate, began keeping detailed records of births, deaths and marriages. For most family history researchers one of the great features of these records is the tradition of naming the parents in both birth and death records and in some instances marriage records. Such is certainly the case for Rebina. Her parents are identified as Henry Davis and Azubah Griffin. Sadly for us we do not have such a record for Chloe. There is no single document that says I am Chloe Davis daughter of Henry and Azaba. There are a number of families that have posted their family history that trace their linage back to the family of Chloe Davis and Nathan Fowler. Nathan’s linage is easily traced. Working backward through history without that single connecting document they have understandably hit a wall at Chloe. Working down through history offers a different perspective. One of our goals in the blog was to explore the original documents concerning our family’s history. What an original document represents is a moment in time for a real person a moment in time for one of our ancestors. Every time I find a new document I enjoy, along with the moment of discovery, the realization that a real person was writing down that information with the mental picture of the persons involved. That exercise brings those people to life. If you spend time in small places like Killingworth you can gain an appreciation of the mindset of the town and church clerks. You notice that in a town, where a father and son share the same name, the clerks, with an eye to their audience, always make the distinction between Sr. and Jr.. In the spirit of small town oral tradition they add a newspaper function adding the notes, son of, daughter of, widow of etc. In marriages, for example, they always note the place of birth of a spouse that was not born in the hometown. It is from this perspective that we offer our observations on the history of Chloe Davis. The starting point for this journey begins with marriage records found in the ledgers of the Congregational Second Society and the private journal of Deacon Abraham Pierson. Deacon Pierson’s private journal in particular concerned itself with his neighbors in Killingworth. He must have had a somewhat close relationship with the Griffin clan. He chose to be buried next to them in what was at the time a family cemetery the Union Cemetery. These two sources record the marriage of Chloe Davis to Nathan Fowler. In Pierson’s journal under the listing for marriages in 1801 we find “Jan 5 Nathan Fowler 2nd & Chloe Davis”. The “2nd” is written in both documents as a “2” with a small “d” written a little above. In the Second Society ledgers under the year 1801 “January 5 Nathan Fowler 2nd Guilford & Chloe Davis”. These two documents are telling us that the authors were introducing Nathan Fowler the son of Nathan Fowler from Guilford who married our own Chloe Davis, whose family we document throughout these records, the daughter of Henry Davis and Azuba Griffin. ------As with most of our histories from this time frame we again turn to the work of Alvan Talcott to provide us with a background. The extended Fowler family is well documented in Talcott’s family histories. Nathan’s own family is documented in great detail. Talcott, in addition to his own compilation of notes, had the family record from the Guilford town records to draw on. In the Guilford town records the family of Nathan Fowler Sr. and his wife Sarah Kimberly has been gathered and is presented in one concise little record including their son Nathan born June 1, 1780. Noted in Talcott after his date of birth on June 1 is the fact that Nathan married Chloe Davis. In a separate entry Talcott then documents the family of Nathan Fowler and his wife “Chloe Davis”. He then notes that “Chloe Davis” was the daughter of Henry. Of their children he writes, Sally, mar. Martin Griswold,------ Betsey, mar. Eliakim Wyllis Hull,------ Louisa, mar. Richard Fowler,------ Nathan, ------Maria Achsah mar. Uriel A Ayers,------ Jane Azuba, mar. Cyrus Kelsey, ------ Rachel, mar. Bishop Atwater, ------Henry. In this instance it seems that Talcott did not have any other records available to provide dates of birth. The only date he lists is for Maria, March 31, 1812. Note that Chloe named a daughter Azuba and a son Henry. Talcott also adds a note that has led to a good deal of confusion for those researching this family “lived in Durham, Conn.”. Most of the histories written for Nathan and Chloe incorrectly list Durham as the place where they were married and the place where all of their children were born. Nathan and Chloe only lived the last few years of their lives in Durham, thus Talcott’s notation. They are buried in the New Cemetery in Durham. The definitive source for the Durham vital records for our time frame is the volume, History of Durham, which was published by the town of Durham in 1866 and edited coincidently by William Chauncey Fowler. To the best of my knowledge there are no surviving original records. The history includes detailed birth records for the time frame in which Nathan and Chloe’s children were born but the only records for the Fowler family in the entire work are the marriage records for Betsy found on page 435 and the marriage of Jane to Cyrus Kelsey found on page 436. So where did Nathan and Chloe make their home and where are the birth records for their children? The answer starts with a geography lesson. Guilford was one of the original plantations from which a number of other towns sprung. The original Guilford Plantation included the area that makes up present day Guilford, Madison and parts of Wallingford and Durham. As with most of the early towns political divisions occurred along the lines drawn by the boundaries of the Congregational Societies. As these early towns expanded outward at some point in time distance and population dictated the formation of additional Congregational Societies. The Fowlers grew up in the Second Society in Guilford, which became defined as East Guilford. Eventually Guilford included five Societies. The northern most, the home of the Fowlers, was called the North Bristol Society. North Bristol became part of a new township when the former East Guilford became Madison. North Bristol then became know as North Madison. North Madison and the northern part of Killingworth are bounded by the township of Durham. Durham is only four miles wide. In many ways this area acted in concert as a separate community. In the 1810 census. Nathan Fowler and Nathan Fowler 2nd are listed under Wallingford. In the 1820 census Nathan Fowler Jr. is listed in the North Bristol Society. The 1830 census lists Nathan Fowler in Durham. Still at home is their son Nathan and 2 daughters Jane and Rachael. There is also a boy listed under the age of 10. That child is Nathan Fowler Griswold their grandson. We will take up that story later in the narrative. The number and ages of the children listed in the census records are a match for the family of Nathan and Chloe. There is a history, The History of North Madison, written by Merritt Cleaver, which chronicles the history of this unique area. The Fowlers, junior and senior, appear numerous times in its pages documenting their presences in the community. The town map, which is printed in the volume, identifies the location of Nathan’s home lot. In identifying the “where” it would seem that finding birth records would easily follow but such is not the case. The primary reason is that in a world dominated both secularly and ecclesiastically by the Congregational Societies Nathan Fowler Jr. was an Episcopalian. In the articles written on the families of cousins Julius Kelsey, and Chloe’s brother, Leonard Davis we chronicled their involvement with the Union Episcopal Society. The Union Society was made of the two separate societies that were founded in North Bristol and nearby North Killingworth. The clerk of the North Bristol Society was Nathan Fowler. The title page in the Episcopal Ledger reads, “This Book belongeth to the Episcopal Society by the name of the Episcopal Society of North Bristol Purchased for a Record Book Delivered to Nathan Fowler Clerk”. Nathan’s name appears numerous times in the records. In 1811 there is a document that would seem to indicate that he was withdrawing from the combined Union Society and returning to the North Bristol Society. The last entry for him is in 1812 where he is noted as having paid his dues. But for some unexplained reason, unlike Julius and Leonard, there are no records for his children. There is but a single baptism record for Sally listed as the child of Nathan Fowler Jun dated in November of 1802. This historical mosaic seems to tell the story of the Fowler family of North Bristol crossing paths with the Davis family of Killingworth in the Episcopal Society. The result was a marriage in 1801 in Killingworth. Nathan and Chloe raised their family in North Bristol/North Madison moving a short distance to Durham late in life. We do have the death records for 4 of their daughters, Louisa, Maria, Jane and Rachael. All of the records note that the girls were born in Madison. Jane’s is more specific noting that she was born in North Madison. Nathan and Chloe are buried in the New Cemetery in Durham along with their son Nathan and daughters Louisa and Betsy. Her headstone reads, “Fowler Chloe, wife of Nathan, died Oct. 22, 1843, age 57. Those dates are a perfect match for her birth date of 1786. Nathan’s headstone reads Fowler Nathan, died Dec 31, 1834, age 53. Those are the same dates that are recorded in a document housed in the Connecticut State Library titled “Durham Deaths”. _________________So what do we know concerning their children? Talcott lists their oldest child as Sally who married Martin Griswold. Their marriage record is found in the ledger of the North Madison Congregational Society. Dated September 22, 1822 “Married Mr. Martin Griswold of Killingworth to Miss Sally Fowler of Guilford”. There are no other records that document the life of Sally. But we do have a source of information on her life. The marriage produced a son who they named Nathan Fowler Griswold. Nathan grew up to become very prominent in the manufacturing of silverware. The history of Meriden, a center for the silverware industry, includes a detailed biography of Nathan Fowler Griswold. The American Silversmiths also has a biography, which includes his genealogy. The story told is that Nathan was born in Lockport, New York, which had attracted men from Connecticut to help build the locks for the Erie Canal. His biography reads “Nathan Fowler Griswold was born in Lockport, NY and his mother dying after his birth, he was taken to Durham CT and placed in the care of his grandparents until age six, when his father remarried”. This provides the explanation for the young boy that is part of the household of his grandfather Nathan Fowler in the 1830 Census. Of his parents the biography reads “”Martin the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in the old Griswold homestead in Killingworth he married Miss Sally Fowler daughter of Nathan and Chloe Davis Fowler”. Martin married for the second time to Mary Post in Middletown, Connecticut August 2, 1829. Nathan’s biography notes that his father Martin Griswold and his second wife eventually moved to Ohio. Young Nathan stayed in Connecticut. His biography notes that he lived for a time in the household of his Aunt Maria and her husband Urial Ayers after the passing of his grandparents. The genealogy written by the American Silversmiths notes that his father Martin died in Summit Co. Ohio in 1882. That death is also recorded in the Ohio death records. Some histories incorrectly link Nathan Fowler Griswold to the Martin Griswold buried in the Indian River Cemetery in Clinton. That particular Martin Griswold was married to Lucy Redfield. Their information is available in the Barbour records. _________________ Betsy Fowler married Eliakim Wyllis Hull. Their marriage record is found on page 435 in The History of Durham dated November 25th 1819. Betsy is buried near her parents in Durham. Her headstone reads, “Betsy Hull Fowler wife of Eliakim W. Hull Sept. 29, 1833, age 29. That suggests a date of birth in 1804. In the Guilford records Eliakim marries for the second time on April 12, 1835 to Ruhamah Davis. The record notes that he was from Durham. His death is also found in the Guilford records dated February 2, 1885. ____________________Louisa Fowler married a distant cousin Richard Fowler. Louisa was Richard’s 2nd wife. He had previously married Belinda Ford on February 6, 1817. That marriage is recorded in Volume 6 page 202 of the Guilford town records. Belinda died August 30, 1828. Richard Fowler died May 14, 1863. In the 1870 census Louisa is part of the household of Nathan Fowler Griswold listed as a housekeeper. Louisa is buried with her parents her headstone reads, “Fowler Louisa A. wife of Richard Fowler died March 9, 1884, age 77 ( 1807). Her death record in the Durham town records lists Madison as the place of her birth. It lists her parents as Nathan Fowler and Chloe Davis. __________________Nathan Fowler is also buried in Durham. From his headstone, “Fowler Nathaniel D. died Jan. 1, 1864 age 65 (1809). Nathan seems to have been handicapped. He lived with his parents until their death. In the 1850 census he is part of his sister Rachael’s household. _____________________ Mariah Achsah, name after her mothers sister, was born February 27, 1812. Her headstone reads “”Ayers Maria A. wife of Urial A, died Mar. 16, 1890 age 79”. Maria married Urial Ayers. The marriage is part of the Barbour records for Middletown “Urial A. Ayers of East Haddam m. Maria A. Fowler of Durham March 24, 1835”. Maria and Urial lived in East Haddam until after his death February 2, 1880. Maria moved to Meriden near her sister Jane. Her death record in Meriden provides the following information, death March 16, 1890, maiden name Fowler, age 78 years, born Madison, parents Nathan & Chloe. ________________Jane Azuba, named after her grandmother, married Cyrus Kelsey. Cyrus was the grandson of Jane’s great aunt, Lois Griffin Kelsey. Their marriage is found in the Durham history dated May 12, 1835. Information from her death records places her birth in February of 1813. Her death record in Meriden lists a date of death October 5, 1898. The record also list her place of birth as North Madison her parents as Nathanial Fowler and Chloe Davis. The death records for this time frame are usually written across two pages in a ledger so the documents on the deaths of the sisters are posted in two parts. Cyrus was born in Killingworth September 12, 1812 he died December 24, 1896. His death is also recorded in the Meriden town records. _______________Rachael Jennett Fowler married Bishop Atwell. The Atwells lived in Durham. Information found in her death record indicates a date of birth on about December 11, 1815. There is a very nice headstone in the New Cemetery near her parents in Durham. Her headstone and death records both note a date of July 27, 1894. Her death record found in the Durham town records notes that she was born in Madison, daughter of Nathan Fowler and Chloe Davis. Bishop Awell’s death record is also found in the Durham records dated March 13, 1892, born Durham, parents Jessie Atwell and Phebe. The Barbour records note a date of birth on December 4, 1812. _____________________ Henry Fowler, there is no information on Henry, named after his grandfather, other than his name in the Talcott records. My assumption is that he only lived for a short time. The pattern of the Talcott records would seem to indicate a date of birth in about 1817._________________ Chloe Davis Fowler/ Azuba Griffin Davis / Samuel-Marah / Samuel Griffin. Click on images to enlarge.