Mercy Griffin Pelton 1774-1844

Mercy Griffin was born in Killingworth, Connecticut April 3, 1774 the daughter of Samuel Griffin and Mercy Bailey. Her baptism was duly recorded in the ledgers of the Killingworth Second Society the daughter of Samuel Griffin. She was named after her mother Mercy. Mercy was the eighth child to join the Griffin household three more brothers would eventually join the family.---------- Mercy probably grew up under the tutelage of her three older half sisters, Lois, Polly and Azuba. By the time she was a teenager those older sister were married with homes of their own leaving her as the older sister presence in a household of boys. There are no historical references for how old her sister Molly was at the time of her death. I suspect that Molly did not live very long.----------- Life for the Griffin girls probably started and ended with the large fireplace that dominated the main room in the house. With a large family to feed history places the girls center stage managing the fire and moving the cooking pots, as meals were prepared. Unlike most of the household in North Killingworth the Griffin’s were not full time farmers. Their father’s loom was a prominent part of the estate he left to his children. I have always pictured the Griffin girls being involved with cloth and sewing. Cloth was a cash crop. The many steps needed to turn raw product into usable tread for weaving and sewing must have taken up much of their time.---------- Outside of their home the next biggest influence in the life of the Griffins was the Congregational Society. The Griffin names, births, deaths and marriages, are record on many pages in the society records. It was probably at a Society function that Mercy first met Ithamar Pelton.---------- The Peltons were from Essex/ Saybrook on the Connecticut River. Their family history notes that they were carpenters involved in the ship building trade. The Pelton family history reords that Ithamar was born in Essex, Vermont October 26, 1769. The 1790 census places Ithamar’s father, Josiah, in Killingworth. His household contained; 3 males over the age of 16, 3 under the age of 16 and 3 females.---------- The marriage of Mercy Griffin and Ithamar Pelton is recorded in the Congregational Society under the heading “1791”, “Nov 11 Ithamar Pelton & Mercy Griffin”. In Deacon Abraham Pierson’s notebook the date is give as November 13.---------- Apparently the Peltons did not make their home in North Killingworth. If they had the birth of their first two children, Eunice-1792 and Flora 1793 would be record in the Society ledgers. There is evidence that they instead moved just across the city boundary to what was then called North Bristol, which had its own Congregational Society. There was a very close connection between the citizen of North Bristol and North Killingworth. North Bristol is now part of modern day Madison. We find recorded in the North Bristol ledgers on Aug 12, 1792 the acceptant of “Ithamar Pelton and Mercy his wife” into full communion. There are bits and pieces of the North Bristol Society records that have survived. We cannot find a birth record for Eunice but there is a record for the baptism of a daughter they called “Besty”. Under the heading Oct 1793, ‘The same day was baptized Betsy ye Daughter of Ithamar Pelton and Mercy his wife.” Their daughter Flora was born in September 1793. Flora would have been baptized in September or October.---------- The story of Ithamar and Marcy is recorded in the Pelton family history titled, Genealogy of the Pelton family in America by Jeremiah Pelton. Reading the preface to the volume you are left with the feeling that the project to gather family data lasted a number of years. They describe a vast letter writing and advertising campaign. The work was published in 1892. Two points need to be emphasized. The first is the description of an account book kept by Ithamar’s grandfather, John Pelton. Used in his business John also kept a detailed record of the extended family in the book. The author notes that the Josiah, Ithamar’s father, took the book with him when he moved to Ohio. At the 1892 publishing date the author named the current descendant that was still is possession of the book. The account book in essence became the primary source for much of Ithamar’s generation. The second thing that jumps out in the history is the quite references to certain aunts and uncles who were in possession of family history, birth dates, marriages etc. All in all the history makes a firm argument for the authenticity and accuracy of its contents.----------- The Pelton history notes that Ithamar and Mercy moved to Essex, Vermont in 1794. By 1798 Mercy’s father, Samuel, and brothers, Samuel Jun, John and Dan were also firmly settled in Essex. Whether or not they all made the move together is uncertain. Six children were born in Essex; Oritta, Feb 9, 1795, Achsah, Aug 6, 1797, Josiah Feb 18, 1799, Lester July 7, 1801, Elizabeth August 21, 1803 and Samuel Griffin June 11, 1805. The children unfortunately for us were born in the time frame before birth records were kept in the new town of Essex. ----------- Samuel Griffin Pelton’s birthright seems to have been to serve as the torch bearer for the Griffin side of the Pelton heritage. He named a son Griffin Pelton and one of his sons named his son Henry Griffin Pelton.--------- Ithamar and Mercy left a very faint footprint in Essex, Vt. The Pelton family history reports that they left Essex in the Fall of 1805 moving to Ohio. In Ohio they were reunited with the Pelton clan who had gathered around his father in Gustavus, Trumbull County.--------- By 1800 in New England societal forces were such that many were in search for new land. In Killingworth the Griffin boys looked to the new frontiers for new opportunities. For them the new frontier was Vermont. The greatest promise for new land however was the Western Reserve, land in the Ohio River valley and beyond. The Western Reserve was claimed by the state of Connecticut. Companies were organized to survey the Reserve creating a structure for its sale and colonization. Advertising for land in Vermont and the Western Reserve was wide spread. In response to such advertising Josiah Pelton, Ithamar’s father, traded a piece of mill property for one half of the newly surveyed township, Gustavus, Trumbull County Ohio. In 1800 Josiah and some of his sons made the trip to Ohio on horseback to locate his newly purchased 6, 605 acres of virgin land. In 1801 his son Jesse again made the trek taking with him a new wife the first women to settle in Gustavus. A second brother was to follow. In 1802 Jesse gathered up the remainder of his family and made the arduous trip. From the Pelton History,---------- “On the journey west they traveled through New Haven and New York to Philadelphia, thense by “Ark” ( large six-horse wagons) to the Ohio River, down that river by flat boats to Beaver, and by ox-team sixty five miles to Vernon, Trumbull Co. After a cabin was built in Gustavus the family was taken there.” ---------- 6,605 acres represented a significant holding in 1800. A typical large successful farm may be only contain 200 acres. The history of Gustavus is replete with Pelton references. At the turn of that century they were the dominant presence in Gustavus. The lure of the large holding was such that Ithamar and Mercy left Essex, Vermont in the Fall of 1804 to make their own journey to Gustavus.----------- It is my guess that they followed the established route that stretched across upstate New York. It is a short days ride from Essex to the shores of Lake Champlain at Burlington. The well-established Lake Champlain Trail stretched south down the east side of the lake from Burlington, Vermont to Whitehall, New York, at the southern end of the lake, and then on to Albany, New York a distance of 150 miles. Albany had been the capital of New York since 1797. Albany had served as a major trade center since well before the Revolutionary War. As such it had served as the hub for a number of roads. One of the major roads ran from Albany via Utica to end up at Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario. Starting in 1794 the State of New York started building a road, referred to as the Great Genesee Road, from Fort Schuyler in what is now Utica to Canawaugus on the Genesee River a major north-south link in central upstate New York. In 1798 the legislature authorized a road extension to Buffalo on Lake Erie. Another road, the Lake Shore Path, stretched from Buffalo, along the shore of Lake Erie, all the way to Cleveland, Ohio. It is a short detour from the Lake Shore Path to Gustavus in total a distance of about 620 miles. By wagon you are probably looking at a trip that lasted 60 plus days.------------ Five more children joined the family in Gustavus; Hiram February 3, 1807, Albert March 26, 1809, Lucius April 1812, Ithamar Jr. March 26, 1816 and Charles October 6, 1818. The history of Trumbull County describes the area as being very fertile and successful farmland. As the founding family of Gustavus the Pelton’s, with their large land holding, are described as being very successful. By 1820 the town had grown to a sizable community. When the town was first organized Ithamar was elected to be one of the first trustees. In the 1820 census there are eleven people in the household of Ithamar Pelton. In addition to Ithamar and Mercy there are eight males under the age of twenty-five and one daughter. The census lists six members of the household as being involved in agriculture. In the 1830 census there are still three sons living with their father. In the 1840 census a female matching the age of Mercy Griffin Pelton is part of the household of Samuel Griffin Pelton.---------- Ithamar and Mercy Griffin Pelton are buried in the Old Gustavus Cemetery in the rather large Pelton family plot. He died March 16, 1832. Mercy died September 14, 1844. Their large family left its footprint in Gustavus and the surrounding communities. You also find their children and grandchildren scattered all throughout the upper mid west.--------------------- Mercy Griffin / Samuel Griffin / Samuel Griffin of Killingworth CT.