Norwalk

Samuel Marvin 2d-, son of Matthew"1-, and grandson of Matthew Marvin, Sr., who was the "Assistant Magistrate" settler, had a son Matthew who was born in the autumn of 1702-3. At about the age of thirty said Matthew married Elizabeth Clark of the old town of Ripton. He was not destined to long life and on Dec. 3, 1744-5 drew his will. He will- named five sons, and intimates a posthumous birth. This birth occurred in the family short- ly after the father's decease, and the name of Ichabod was given to the child. To Matthew and Elizabeth Marvin was born Jan. 29, 1737, a boy who was to fill out seventy years of human life and to be a character in his day. When this lad, Osias, had reached twenty- four years of age he sought a bride in the old Joseph Lockwood family of " Pudding Lane" (now Main Street) and on Nov. 26, 1 761, Osias and Sarah were married. Deducting seven years of palsy on the part of Ozias (Capt.), there was still left nearly forty years, after reaching majority, of active service, and although his father had on Dec. 3, 1744 bequeath- ed his "silver headed sword" to his (Ozias I brother Matthew (probably for his name) yet was Ozias, himself an ardent patriot in Revolutionary days. With his Norwalk w ife, Sarah, who overlived him twenty-one years, he resided on the site of the present John Mar- vin house on the Connecticut turnpike, two or three-quarter miles west of the Westport carriage bridge. In the days of "76" he there kept a hotel. The house at that day was just at the southwest turn of the road towards Norwalk (the shortened cut through Peat 'Matthew Marvin 2<<-, son of Matthew 1st. and bro- j ter-in-law of Gov. Thomas Fitch. Daniel and Re- ther of the voting Samuel ist- who met an early death, j becca (Marvin) Fitch were the parents of the three named his second son for this departed brother. This ! brothers, Samuel M., Henry and Jonathan Fitch, son Samuel 'J- was, in 171S, a member of the Connect- j The late Daniel Fitch (father of the 1896 Daniel War ■cut Court, lie had a son, Samuel »>■, who married, j ren Fitch) lived upon his Marvin ancestors propertv, Nov. 25, 1735. Deborah Clark. These had a daughter, i and the Marvin association of the venerable still re- Rebecca, born March 19, 1738-9, who married Daniel, | maining building is a worthy one. The house occu- son of Samuel and Susannah Fitch, brother and sis- ! pies a site neighbor to the old Thos. Barnum home. NORWALK. Swamp was not then built) and it was a convenient spot for an inn. Washington on one of his eastern trips called at the house and after partaking of refreshment one of the landlord's daughters, Esther (afterward Mrs. Isaac Church I came into the apartment. The soldier ad- vanced to warmly greet the little lady, but his uniform or military appearance or something of the sort seemed to frighten her and she shrank back from the general. "Tut tut, my little miss." exclaimed the future President, humorously adding that she might live to be sorry for her shyness. Capt. Ozias built for his son Joseph L., born on the last day of the year 1772, and named for the boy's maternal grandparent, the house standing in 1896, a litle south of the old Capt. Ozias home and occupied to-day by George Nash. Here was born on Nov. 20, 1804, to Joseph L.' and Clarissa Meeker Marvin, one of Norwalk's good and just men, the late William Marvin of East Norwalk. When William, son of Joseph L. Marvin was thirty- one years of age, he left Westport and established himself upon his original ten acres on the east .Side of Charles Creek, "Down Town." The day that he drove with his wife and one child, Josiah R., to his new home, in which he was to prove a man of industry and un- swerving integrity, was the date of the great fire in December 1835, in New York city. He married, 1832, Amanda, daughter of Josiah and Clara (Matt) Raymond and had : Josiah Raymond ; William E. Josiah Raymond, son of William and Amanda Marvin, married, Sept. 5, 1 861, Mary Matilda, daughter of James and Matilda (Keeler) Wallace, and had: Clara Elizabeth, born Nov. 20, 1862; James Wallace, born Sept. 6, 1865 ; William Raymond, born Jan. 6, 1870; died Aug. 23. [870. William E., son of William and Amanda Marvin, married, Dec. 27. 1882, Orie Anna Eouisa, daughter of Albert J. and Julia M. (Jonesi Steele, and had : Mary Louise, born May 7, 1887; Orie Anna, born May 5, 1890. William Marvin made his first Norwalk purchase of John Eversley. The Rev. Edwin Hall. D.D.. who became the Congregational pastor two or three years before Mr. sJ2TrZTc^^lT^hWC]'b^b} ^ ' ""to*"** * *™* -ch other. The Ih^htM- Norv-alk rtm Congregat.onal S.h,«v. which edifice ) ness of Mr. Marvin « evidenced hy the hunch of stood on the lower portion of the Norwalk Green and « taken down in about ,849, tnay remlher the I ^ZrJZ lJuZ^T' " noo!"!: to?08iede«.h°U" °f m°rTR af,er- °" *; north"-„«.t corner of this church stood noon senue, muipied the e-reen sward ihimpriinrMv n- i ■ in the rear of the structure and between ThTchurc h ! r "I f ^"'"^ ^ and the roadway Thi- w,- 1 v , . , Lomstork of Silver Mine, accompanied hy her slave, he ™„, on Sundav. to worship. Between ,h .To " O f ■ "^"^ t0 ""Cuarv - entrance, service there was a noon intermission o, o e ho„ „ 4 ° T T ™ m " " *°™< P™ a"d winter, and five quarter hours in summer Tr" T£ ° "* «** * ccs- aHorded opportunity for the members „f the ^iHoiv ™™ ndmg" N OR WALK. '53 Marvin's Xorwalk arrival, was fond of visiting the Marvin marine farm, and as the same was at that day of small acreage the thoughts of the host and guest turned toward the ample fields of the west. Mr. .Marvin, nevertheless, joined gradually lot to lot, until he died possessed of one of the fairest domains in southwestern New England. This typical citi- zen inherited and transmitted the solid virtues of an excellent ancestry. His two sons, Josiah R. and William E., have succeeded to his large landed estate. A SARATOGA NORWALK-M ARVIN MENTION. Lieut. Samuel Marvin' (son of Matthew who was son of Matthew"' ) was brought up near the East Nonvalk handsome south meadow now belonging to H. M. Prowitt. The composition of the youth's home was somewhat remarkable. Of Samuel's mother, who may have been born in England, we only know that her name was Mary, but of his brothers and sisters we are well informed. Of his sisters, Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth and Marcy, married respectively, such prominent settlers as Thomas Betts, Jr., Epenetus Piatt, Joseph Piatt, and William Haynes (second wife). Samuel,'"- one of the three sons of Mat- thew !d- had a son, Josiah"1' who married, Elizabeth, born June 4th, 1 7 14, daughter of David"1 and Martha (Blagge) DeForest and grand-daughter of "Great Burgher " Isaac DeForest and his wife Sarah DuTrieux, (see Burlock- Warren-DeEorest addendum, page 278). By this wife Josiah Marvin'"- appears to have had Josiah Daniel, William, Jared and John. One or more of his daughters. Sarah, Lucy and Hannah 1 Mrs. Stephen Keeler)* may possibly have been by an after wife, Sarah Sturges. William, born March 24. 1740, son of Josiah"'- and Elizabeth Marvin, married, Nov. 10, 1767, Susanna Wright, and had William"', born Oct. 19, 1768. Said William"1 who married, March 5, 1793, Mary Benedict, was the father of Thomas J. and Hon. James M. Marvin, whose Saratoga Springs United States Hotel property is of world-wide celebrity. HOVE -I. O T XI. Richard Seymour"1-, found in Dr. Hawes' Catalogue of Hartford settlers in 1639, came in the early fifties of the seventeenth century to Xorwalk. His name is affixed to 'Samuel, son of Matthew Marvin3*, had a brother John, who, In his second wife (Rachel, daughter of Matildas St. John) had a son Joseph, born May 29, 1724, who married Catharine, one of the three daugh- ters ami only children of Matthias and Elizabeth St. John. The other children were Elizabeth (Mrs. John Abbot) and Hannah (Mrs. Lemuel Rogers.) After the decease, in 1748 9. of Matthias St. John, his widow married Nehemiah, son of John Gregory J*1-, son of John^l., son of John"t. This brought the Cranberry Plains Matthias St. John property into the Gregory name. Nehemiah was the brother of Stephen Greg- ory, who married Mat y, daughter of John Benedict, and had Susanna, born April 17, 1776, who married, first, Lewis Grumman, and second, Allen Hayes Betts, father of Allen Betts of Newtown Avenue, 1896. The original Grummans were from Fairfield. -Hannah Marvin (Mrs. Stephen Keeler) may have taken her great-aunt, Hannah Blagge's, name. It is possible that Josiah Marvin1"1- married, first, the widow Hannah Blagge. The Josiah Marvin sons, however, were not by this union. 154 NORWALK. the Ludlow agreement-articles of June 19, [650, and he was one of the parties present at the Runkingheage transaction of Feb. 15, 165 1. He was assigned the four eligible acres at the south-east angle of the "Town Street" and the highway to " Fayerfield," the corner, in 1896, of East Avenue and Fitch Street. With his next door neighbor, Richard Webb, he was chosen "Townsman" in 1655, but his Norwalk life was short, and he was probably the first settler to die in that office. Mrs. Seymour remained a widow a brief period, and married, second, Hon. John Steele of Hartford, a member of the upper house of the General Court of Connecticut, an early secretary of the new government, and a prominent colonist. She left Norwalk for her new home, taking the three youngest children, John, Zachary and Richard a<\ and gave the Norwalk property to her oldest son, Thomas. This son, who was nearly of age when the family here arrived, had married, the year previous to his father's decease, a young English girl, Hannah, daughter of one of the new settlements best founders, Mat- thew Marvin, Sr.