Norwalk

the educational cart- of Rev. Jonathan Bouchier of j the nextsix years the Father of his Country was fight- Annapolis, and went afterward to Kings (Columbia) | ing for liberty and his family was at Mount Vernon. College, V. Y When only nineteen years old he t Here four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Custis, married, in 1774. Kleanur Calvert. Washington was | from one of whom sprang the wife of Gen. Lee, corn- present at the wedding, hut Mrs. Washington was j mander of the Confederate army of the "sixties." prevented from attending. A> the war of the Revo- In Oct. 1781, Washington was at Yorktown where his Union was about opening Washington was called to ' step-son, acted as aid-de-camp. On a cold morning Boston, where, w ith his wife and Mr. and Mrs. John ! of this month, tidings reached Mount Vernon of Parke Ctlstis, he spent some time, and where the victory, young Custis became bearer of dispatches. During 'See Warren lineage. NORWALK. whom, Mabel, married Charles Stuart, who also has two children, Gladys and Fletcher. The second son of Clarence is Wm. Gardiner, who is unmarried. Of the daughters of Capt. Daniel K. Xash, Mrs. William C. Sammis to-day sur- vives a husband who was for several years a faithful Nonvalk selectman, and Minerva Elizabeth, of fondly remembered girlhood, wedded her cousin, William Asa Raymond, whose establishment was one of the most reputable houses that graced the business avenues of the city of Detroit; while Mary II.. of grateful memory, was, as has been noted, the wife of Dr. Samuel H. Orton of Caldwell, New Jersey. DESCENDANTS OF CAPT. BURR NASH. Capt. Burr, born March I. 1807, a master mariner and younger brother of Capt. Daniel K. Xash, married, first, June 17. 1831, Abbie Jane, bom March II, 1812, daughter of Ezekiel and Sarah iWhitlock) Morgan of Wilton, and had: Melissa Jane, married Dec. 8, 1853, Capt. Douglas Fowler of Guilford.' Herman Bangs, died in infancy. Sarah Augusta, married Andrew Thompson of New York. Minerva Helen. Servian, married Rev. Henry E. Wing. Wilbur, killed at Battle of Fredericksburgh, Va. Charles Morgan, died Jan. 1, 1868, aged nineteen. Capt. Burr Xash married, second, Feb. 17, 1858, Mary Weed. There was but one child by this union, viz., Albert B., M. D., who married Ella Elmer of Newark, N. J. The children of Capt. Douglas Fowler were Frederick and Melissa, both of whom died young. The child of Andrew Thompson is Florence Helen, who married, June 14, 1895, Edwards Wilkinson. The children of Rev. Henry E. Wing are Henrietta and Charles Louis. Capt. A mot Xash, brother of Capts. Burr and Daniel K., married Deborah, daughter of Nathan S. Comstock of New Canaan, and had one daughter who married James Nail of Detroit. She deceased, and her husband married, for his second wife, Isabella, daughter of Algernon E. Beard of South Norwalk. ■It »», the eveof Gettysburg!.." On the after- soldier-born Fowler received a mortal wound, and was noon of July ,, 1N6,. Cnion and Confederate were lifted from his charger and rested against an adjoin- contesting the possesion of •• Seminary Ridge" at I ingwnll. All efforts to -ave the hero were unavaling, Ccttisburgh. Nightfall was approaching, and the and, his warfare over, he, 'mid the heat of conflict, army of the south had been successful, at the start, in slept the sleep that knows no waking here. His horse routing its opponents. The Conn. 17th was in the en- and military accoutrements were cared for hv his pat- gagement, led by Lieut.-Col. Douglas Fowler, who, in riot-comrade, Hon. A. 11. Bvington ,,896) of Nor- the temporary absence of Col. W,„. II. Noble, was ,„ „-alk, who later ,„nveved to lhe £idow hei. lmW command. In the midst ol tin. initial struggle the battle-field effec ts. " \ N O R YV A L K . HO ME- I O T IV John Rl'sroi-:, Rt'sco or RESCUE, the Huguenot, of Lot Xo. 6, was the son of \Ym. Rusco' of Hartford, and afterward, evidently, of Norwalk. The Rusco's may hav e chosen Norwalk for a residence through the intervention of the Marvin s, with whom they were fellow passengers from the Old World and, later, fellow Hartford settlers. They came from Essex County, Britain, to Cambridge, and from thence to Hartford and Norwalk. Johnwu son of William, was married in Hartford on Jan. 2, T650, to Rebecca Beebe.2 These two came with the pioneers to Norwalk and were allotted for a home the four acres, covered in part, to-dav, by the East Norwalk Consolidated station for east bound trains. The lot sloped pleasantly south, and Mr. and Mrs. Rusco had, for north-adjoining neighbors, Rev. Thos. Hanford and Thos. Benedict, Sr. From this green meadow-lot went forth their sons John2d- and Thomas, and daughters Man', (unmarried,) and Rebecca (Mrs. James Brown5) 'In the roll of *r Ludlow Agreement" settlers, see page 7S, is found the name of " Nathaniel Rusco,'' who appears to have no after Norwalk connection. Said Nathaniel is the same, probably, who married, Nov. 11, 1645, Joanna Corlet. (See Hartford Record.) William, father of John Rusco of Norwalk, was born abroad in 1504. His first wife is unknown, but it would seem that his second wife, whom he married in 1636, was a widow Hume. .(Norwalk may point with pardonable pleasure to one of its fathers of this name. James Bet-he — of the New London Heche's probably — arrived in Norwalk somewhat subsequently to the original lot lay-out and was awarded the two acres now covered bv the lower portion of C. V . Osbom's homestead, and the adjoin- ing Thorna-. and Wood sites. His wife, whom he married Dec. 19, 1675, was Surah, daughter of Thomas Benedict, Sr., who himself came a little later than t ie first pioneers, to Norwalk. James and Sarah fh'i'he Ime resided, having for neighbors, on the opposite side of the street ( Selleck school property to-day ) Judah Gregory and John I'toyt. There were horn to James Bvebe, Sr., two sons, James -J1"!, and Samuel. These were infants at the time of the family's removal to Danburv,* in which place the bovs' lather, James lieehe. was chosen first justice of the peace. James '-^ born in 1641, and coming in the early life to Norwalk, spent, afterward, forty-three useful year's in Danburv, where al length he died, Apr. 22, 172K, leaving his m>hs James 2 id. and Samuel tit found families of influence. James -*i'd, born, 16S2, who, like hi-- father, was a justice of the peace, Wil's the parent in 1717, of the distinguished North Strat- ford (Trumbull ) Conn. 1747 pastor, and Tieonderoga Chaplain, and Revolutionary war patriot, and of his brother Samuel. ■TJauluirv was •.<_■[( led In eight Norwalk men, and tlvu Diiiiliiiry fe\cr hi 16S5, like the t'alil'uniia fever iti iS^,. would -LL-m 1,, haiv deeii corn n^iou,. Tlie-vi.' three i']it-,f-,t N'orvw.lk 3james Brown is an early Norwalk name which at once arrests attention. He came to the town some years after the arrival of the settlers, and according to Bolton, ( see History of Westchester County, page 412) probably belonged to "a branch of the Brown's of Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, a house of no little repute." He is registered as owning in 1687, in Norwalk, £50 commonage, and himself and wife Rebecca, brought up their family in the meadow now occupied as the East Avenue home of the daughters of the late Eli B. Bennett. There is record of the birth, March 1, 1690, of their son Isaac, and of the marriage, Dec. 20, 1714, (to Joanna Whitehead) of their son, James-'d. who afterward figured so conspicuously in the history of The Oblong, and was, it is believed, the ancestor of many of the Norwalk and Oblong families of that name. To James and Joanna was born, in Norwalk, James.^1- who first saw the light within, it is supposed, the very frame around which was built the Kversely and now the re-constructed Eli B. Bennett home, and was one of the marked men of his gener- ation. His father, James ^ was one of the purchasers, in 1708, of Ridgefield, and had set off to him, in 1729, one hundred Salem acres. He made his will on Jan. 31st, 1769, and died within two months. He left a negro man, "Tower Hil ! ' to his wife and reserved for her a portion of his " Mansion I louse in Norwalk." lie was a partner of William Smith, Chief Justice of tiie Province of New York, the father of Joshua Hett Smith, at whose house, below West Point, the Andre and Arnold treason was planned. These two lawyers werf proprietors of some eleven thousand Salem acres, 'Pile Brown portion wa,s distributed by will, to a goodly share of which acreage James BrownS'1- fell heir. Jamcs.id. died in Salem, on Sunday, Feb. 19, 17X6. He is not, it is thought, buried in Norwalk. iieitfhln.rs. James Beehe, Judah Gregory, and John I tu vt \ ;iL-;iU'd lli(.-ir \.ir\\iilk home> and were annniff the eight founder., in 17S5 (if Pahquioque ( Diiiihiirv.} NO R WALK. as also their daughters Sarah (Mrs. Thomas Rockwell1) and Ruth (Mrs. James Abbott) and Mehitable .Mrs. Lieut. Wm. Lees). John RuscoJlL died young, and evidently before marriage, as the disposal of his estate (see Fairfield probate records) so indicates. This left his brother, Thomas, to perpetuate the Rusco sire name. Thomas seems to have been interested in the West Side " lands, and « Rusco Creek," in the rear of the present South N'orwalk corset establishment, was probably named for him. Himself and wile. Abigail, had a family of nine children, viz. : Thomas *\ John, James, Theophilus, Josiah, Samuel, Mary, Abigail (Mrs. Wendall) and Rebecca .Mrs. Samuel Smith). Thomas'*'- died in the summer of 1739. His son, Thomas 2d\ the date and order of whose birth are not ascertained, married Elizabeth, daughter of Ebenezer. and a grand-daughter of Matthew and Sarah (Treat 1 Campfield, and had a son, Thomas1*1-, who seems to have been the father of John Rt'sro of Rusco Ridge, This parent of a numerous descent was married, on March 9, 1758, to Joanna Arnold of Salem, and his home, on one of the most commanding heights in the lower Uhlon^, (named for, and possibly first occupied by, the Sachem Winnipauke) lay midway on the north side of the winding road that connects Bald Hill, Conn., with the hamlet of