Norwalk

From Samuel and Sarah Keeler, through their son Matthew and grand-daughter Rebecca, proceed the present Benedict, Phillips and Seymour descent, of West Avenue ; and from John and Mary Bartlett, through their daughter Rebecca (Mrs. John Belden),the Talmadge and Dudley Field families of Lake Gleneida,1 and the Norwalk North Ave., Mill Hill and East Avenue Treadwell and Lockwood descendants; and from Thomas and Elizabeth Seymour through Ezra Seymour of White Oak Shade, the venerable and hon- ored Seymour Comstock of New Canaan, and his sons Albert S. of New York and Stephen of Xorwalk. Bel], married N ehemiah,2d- son of Nehemiahisi. And Elizabeth Fitch Rogers. This Norwalk-born vouth | married A lady younger than himself, and arriving in N. Y at the age of 38, from St. John's, New Bruns- wick, established his home near the Battery, lie had several children; among them the venerable Archi- bald Oracle Rogers, until recently a well-known j figure in metropolitan circles, whose brother Henrv married Matilda Livingston of the upper Hudson, j and w hose sister Caroline married, as his second wife, Rev. John Crathome Montgomery of Philadelphia. The Mark and Elizabeth St. John lineage, to be treated of in its proper place, comprises a social, sci- | entifk-. soldier and saintly solidarity. Among the oldest of the constituency was the late Juliette Betts of cherished memory, of France Street, and among its youngest living representatives is the little daugh- ter of the late lamented James H, Bailev, which voting child, Florence, was born on the spot dear to and dig- f nified by one, Mary Esther Belden, (Mrs. William St. j John) who w as a grand daughter of Mary Betts Bart lett, herself the grand-daughter of Rhoda, daughter of Mark St. John. ■This i« a sheet of Duchess water of great beauty. When Amos Belden (son of John and Rebecca) of i Norwalk, went to L'annel, himself and wife Elizabeth li-aacs) took up theirabode in the lake's vicinity. At that time the same bore the le~s euphonious desig- nation of '-Sh.iw'- Pond," but the Rev. Henry G. Living-ton (see Pelletrean) proposed its present name, and the Carmei people, in 1852, in public assembly, adopted it. Thomas Belden of Norwalk went to Car- mei before the Revolution. Amos had not reached his teens when war between England and the colonies was declared, and had only two days before reached the age of fifteen when Garth made his Sunday morn- ing march, in 1779, past his father's (West Avenue, 1896) house. Himself and Thomas had charge of the large N. Y. Phillips estate, and Amos here brought up liis family. His children were: Julia, Charles, George, Sally, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Thomas, John, Frederick and Benjamin. His oldest son, George, married Sophia L. Miles, and these had two daugh- ters, Julia and Laura. Julia married Frederick S. Talmadge and Laura married Dudley Field. Amos and Elizabeth Belden sleep within not many feet of the mound which canopies the dust of Enoch Crosby the spy. The Field interments are made in the David Dudley Field plot in Mass. Amos Belden's grandson, George Mortimer Belden, (son of Charles) was the first President of the Putnam County National Bank, of Carmei. George M. Belden's great-uncle, Henry Belden, was the first President of the Fairfield County National Bank, Norwalk. William St. John, Sr., married Mary Esther, sis ter of Amos Belden. These had a son, Hooker, born Jan. 3, 1792, who married his cousin Julia, the oldest daughter of Amos Belden. Hooker and Julia St. John had one child, Frederick Augustus, who had nearly reached twenty-one, when he died unmarried. X O R W A L K 97 ROBERT BEACH Ayr S HOME-LOT. Unnumbered, but directly opposite to Mark St. John's home-lot, the " Beacham lane and house" are diagram-depicted on page 39, and in the Xorwalk founders catalogue there is not the name of one, perhaps, whose ancestry-story, in its truth-essentials, is with greater difficulty ascertained. Robert Beacham is a strong patronymic, and the hint has been broached of possible Beauchamp-earldom association if not affinity.' That he was adventure-spirited seems probable. His Xorwalk " coast-banke " fronting home-site awakens the suspicion of a pre- record transient appropriation of the area which, to a large extent, now forms the Kast Xorwalk Cemetery enclosure. This, at first, ma)' for a brief time, have been kept as a com- mon. Quite a period must have elapsed 'ere interments were there made. The Xorwalk "Companie" was composed, principally, of young timber, and the death-rate for the early years must have been inconsiderable. It is a curious fact, also, that one or more of the earliest settlers should have had, as far as appears by register, no assigned home-lots until some five years, at least, after the town's settlement. Who shall say that Thomas Fitch 1Bt-, whose only known home-site was the 1655 purchased " Edward Church lot" had not shared, with Robert Beacham, the afterward burial plain that bounded Joseph Fitch, his brother, on the west. At all events, there could hardly have been more than two or three inter- ments there before Beacham quit Xorwalk in 1657-8. The office held by this fore-parent during his last twelve months residence in the new plantation was a practical exemplification of one of the cardinal articles of the founders' creed , viz. : I believe in beinc; I'SEFUL. He lived near the gate (see page 39) that led to The Xeck, where cattle were pastured, and he was appointed "gate-keeper." His neighbor to the north, Matthew Marvin, an "assist- ant magistrate," was a wheelwright, and Xathaniel Richards, a still further north neighbor, who moved to Xorwalk after a residence upon a spot (now the Harvard University site) where he had been in touch with the great ones of the Xew World, was a miller. Beacham in the particular of "estates accommodations" was almost a "heavy weight," but the new place could not or did not detain him. He held lands at different points in the town, and was honored by three, at least, namesake localities, one traditional "lane" and "bridge," and one documentary " Beacham's Bridge."- The year 1657-8 put an end to his gate- wardening, and saw exchanged for the modest Xorwalk Cove-bank fireside, the magnificent Sound-view acreage a little west of the 1896 " Phipp's Beach Hotel" property in Fairfield. After the decease of his first wife, by whom he had, certainly, one child, (Mrs. Joseph Lockwood, a sister-in-law of Ephraim, the X'orwalk Lockwood father), he married Elizabeth, the widow of the ancestor of the Jessup's of America. iSchenck's History of Fairfield, page 385. settlers threw a small bridge, which was possiblv *Beacham lived a little west of the stream which known as " Heacham's Bridge." There was another ran into what is now familiarly called "Benedict's ■• Beacham's Bridge on the west side of the river, not Pond," in East Norwalk. Across this stream the ' remote from the present So. Xorwalk Baptist t'hurch. 9« N OR WALK One of the last acts of Robert Bcacham's life was to unite with his second wife in the acknowledgment of the sale of the now notable Kast River bordering domain known as Ui NI s Point, to Thomas Hunt, from whose family the celebrated section derived its name. As this lady— Mrs. Robert Keacham is, through her husband, Norwalk-linked. the succeeding mentions are by no means foreign to the scope of this work. Mrs Robert Heacitam had by her first husband ( Kdward Jessup) a son. Kdu ard who married a grand-daughter | Kli/abeth. dau. of John Hyde I of Humphrey Hyde of Fair- field. These had a son. Kdward who married. Dec. 7. 1724. Sarah, dau. of Richard rtlacklcach of Stratford. Their son. HlacMeach Jessup, born Dec. 14, 1 735. appears as a Norwalk land purchaser as early, at least, as 1703. He resided in Wilton, and was thrice married. His first wife w.i- a Ridgefield Stebbins. his second a Norwalk Kellogg, and his last wife was a sister of Mrs. John Hanford. fireen place i^gfi. on the Winnipauk roadi AXT8»KVO/.l'TT<>.\.t*r ,„>»,■: oF faux t/.LYFOKB , ua an aunt of Mrs Kbenc/er I) Hoyt of the present Main Street. Hlackleach Jessup was <Jt htiibfnl ptrmrtol tnchome ol John Htntonl 11 arm urarul-,,,, „f Wwalli'. nullum ,.l,.,i„r iitiu >M |»-li,r, Rri . lluniui llitliffiril. This humr, rr. lM.-int», rill l„ u.li . .„.,»( „„ ||„. ,,„. ,(f pnwlt L l Grttfl bo*** ..n the Wi„„l,M„k naj. I, „„ hull Iwforr th« Rr..,liiii„nnr« „ar. and CHMm .n hM "I lhr «<Hn(..n *i„ M *>mr .lranum u, «M !»W (>,, a Ua, ,(*,. ,H, ctw «, ,„ lhr InJi„ .,.,..ln,r ..I J,.hn It „,(,„„. |,. m ^ in."- Wvni) ihrrr. married I Wttton maiden, Mr hlialde. daughter of Nullum o.in.inc v, who lived M a hjr r.pUl| louffnn fr*"'' <h« pwm highwai iluu ttif "WT Halo Hill, Wilton, with Smith'* RldgC, Nf» I'anuan, in uhiih retired O.m-tmk liomr were fradlrd lhr anrestor* of iho*e tthu have been prom- inent in IhHr gmuHl— ■ The wrr rear lhal J..hn Ud MtMl.ll, ttani.ml were .narriej. the (troW. rowin. Samuel Si jolm.-.U hi. relato r a «lke of hi. XORWALK 99 a man of note.' His sister, seven years his senior, married, on one of the completing days of the winter of 1750, Thomas Couch 2d\ the oldest child of whom was born Feb. 12, 175 1. This child, Thos., Jr., lived to marry, when a few weeks past twenty-one, a dau. of Jonathan Nash of Fairfield, which young Couch-Nash couple breasted wedded life at a troublous period in lower Fairfield County history. The British held Long Island, and were disturb- ers of said County's peace. It was in the midst of this tribulation, and not three months before these shores were enemy-invaded and made the "fall-in" point from which the des- tructive Danbury raiders proceeded inland, that Sarah, wife of Thomas Couch, gave birth to one (Jonathan) whose child Norwalk to-day claims for a foster son, MajOR-Gen. Darius Nash Couch, U. S. A., a foremost citizen and one of the foremost soldiers of the civil struggle of over thirty years ago. He entered upon military life at the age of twenty, and has been no stranger to active service.