Norwalk

II.— James and Hannah (Boutoxi Betts. - III.— Elias and Abigail (Burchard) Betts. .. IV. — Moses asp Ann (Stvrges) Betth. Stephen St. John1"1- (so indiccd to distinguish him from his father, Stephen.*1- and from Stephen,2"1 who was son of Col. Stephen St. John) was a son of Stephen*1 and Sarah tBctts-Hatt) St. John, and a grandson of .Moses and Mercy (Olmsted I St. John, and a great-grandson of James and Mary (Comstock) St. John, which James was a son of Matthias, 2d- who was a son of Matthias St. John, Sr.. and Xorwalk St. John father. This Stephen St. John'*- was born Oct. 9, 1772, and married on Jan. 4, 1797, to Sarah, born Dec. 22, 1777. daughter of Moses and Ann iSturges) Betts, of Wilton. Himself and wife lived in olden style on the site which forms, to-day, the Cannon street homestead of their grandson, Stephen St. John. Air. St. John was a man of high integrity. He had a large landed estate, in the matter of the improvement of which he directed rather than himself hard-labored. He horseback-rode over the farm and saw that his numerous " hands" were employed. Hi< home pieces — from his house north to " Beaver Dam Lane," and from the point on which the present North Center School is built, up to the sawmill — he could per- sonally attend to, but the working of outlying lands was done by others. He was good, and the community knew the fact. His grounds were untrespassed upon and no one de- frauded him. He was a reader, a thoughtful and quiet spoken man, and one who meant just what he said. The site of his house, in which his wife was an efficient manager, was inherited. It had. at his occupation of it at marriage (1797). been already in the family for sixty years. On May 19, 1722, it was changed from Maynard to Beekman possession. The former was a Xorwalk resident, the latter a Xew York Knickerbocker. Dr. William Beekman, who had studied abroad with the famous Boerhaven. made, for some reason, purchase of Xorw alk property, and that he intended to here reside would appear evident from the fact donc' but before "TarattaR Bacon Interrogated | 'She survived her husband (or many tears and in ho professional brother as to the nature of the . later life was well known for her iiu-rcy-ministrations. seven cli barges alluded to. "O," said Taylor, -I she was „„ the alert to extend sympathy and .tie- could not only bring seven but seventeen suits, but I : viale suffering. A tender remembrance of her laier do not -oppose that we could win any of them." rear is that of her delicate and faithful kindness 1 nomas Belden Butler, who was of a later dale than to an early pastor of St. Mary's church who, from hi* that ol the before indicated law gentlemen, became, I dying bed", gave her his blessing Her son, Charles after quitting the practice of medicine, a Norwalk ! O. C-, occupies, in 1896, her father's residence on forc.be pleader and thorough lawyer. The client- Norwalk Green ; her son Frederick resides in her own age of Tbajden- Betts and brethren was lar£e, and home (adjoining, on the south, that of her father); haUomrr "' V"*"*™ Km> f0r their *». »»d her son Maltby and daughters, Sally, Eta and Harriet are deceased. Her father's family was large. NORW ALK 233 of his ultimately building upon the spot under description. If the statement be reliable he had commenced his house and almost completed.it when on March 5, 1736, he sold every- thing out to Moses St. John, the grandfather of Stephen.*"1- Dr. Beekman paid £25 for the property (two acres). He sold it to Moses St. John for £100, and at Mr. St. John's death, in 1786, the same was appraised by his executors at £150 value. In this house, which a colored servant saved from Tryon devastation,1 the children of Moses and Mercy St. John, viz., Stephen, Moses and Josiah, who most likely belonged to that Colonial company of — changing the poet's tense — "Gallant sons who shouldered guns And twice a year went out a-training," and Mercy, Susannah, Lydia and Sarah were probably born, and all the sisters were possibly married beneath that venerable Beekman-St. John roof. Mercy wedded Capt. Jabez Greg- ory and became the notable "Grandmother Gregory at the spring" (see page 84). Su- sannah married James Raymond, of Bedford, across the state line ; Lydia took William Seymour to husband and comfortably lived at the foot of Flax Hill, being represented to- day by her grandson of Vermont finance reputation, a son of Belden Seymour, who left Norwalk for the Green Mountain State. Sarah, the fourth daughter, marrying Gershom Hubbell, of Greenfield Hill, there established a home, to which her brothers and sisters well knew the way. Of Moses St. John's three sons only two, Josiah and Stephen,3"1- have Norwalk mention. Moses, the third son, removed, as did his sister Susannah, to Bedford. It is believed that Moses St. John built for his son Josiah the present Henry Williams house in Cannon street. Here Josiah and Mary (Fitch) St. John (see page 43) lived and brought up their children, Joseph, Esther, Jesse, Polly, Nancy and Sally. Josiah St. John was a rigid but righteous, a very strict but sincere man. He was a devout observer of the Lord's Day, and permitted no in nor out-door work — excepting of the greatest necessity — to be done on that day. He, as is taught of the Bible patriarch, commanded his children. His son Joseph lived on the northwest corner of the Newtown Avenue and Cannon Street of 1896. This son, at twenty-three years of age, married, Nov. 15, 1792, Betsey Nash, a step-daughter of Hezekiah Jarvis, and his children were Esther (Mrs. Nathan Beers) ; Wil- liam, who married Lucretia Jarvis; George, who married a sister of Stephen Smith; and Edgar, who died young. Stephen St. John,3'1- son of Moses and father of Stephen,*"1- married, Feb. 1764, the widow of Joseph, son of John2d- and Hannah (Burwell) Betts. This grandmother of 'The family statement is that the household of Stephen St. JohnSd. left the building, when Tryon ap- proached, in the care of an employee who, after the house was fired put out the flames. The burned por- tion was seen as long as the house stood. The house (now Williams') opposite from Stephen St. John's, was not destroyed, the tradition being that the for- eigners' fire material here gave out. The fact in the case would appear to be that as an engagement be- tween the opposing parties took place in the near-by- France street, the enemy was otherwise and elsewhere- employed. ^34 the children of Stephen St. ]ohn^h- Sarah, daughter of John and Sarah (Hickox) Piatt,' was a woman of force. She survived her husband and insisted upon keeping up her own establishment, residing until her death in a portion of the Beekman-St. John house. Her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Stephen St. John,**" was an industrious woman who, as soon as the morning s dairy was attended to and the breakfast over and her husband's directions en- forced, brought out the spinning wheel. She did the weaving, knitting and making for the (rrowing family, besides providing for the, at times, numerous farm help. The family was astir betimes, the first sound which filled the children's ears being that of the running water at the "dam" and the creaking of the great barn gate, next to the mill, as it was opened to let the live stock out. The sheep washing and the children's watching the operation at the little bridge close by, was a primitive picture. These children grew to give proof of their vigorous descent. Caroline (Mrs. Henry Chichester) was the oldest and her character-strength will not soon be forgotten. From the cradle to the grave she was ever)' inch a St. John. In early girlhood it was on one occasion planned that she should visit her maternal Wilton grandmother, Mrs. Moses Betts, whose comfortable abode 'Here opens an interesting history. John Piatt, 3d- who married Sarah Hickox, was born April 2nd, 1702. His father, John Piatt,-*''- was born on the first day of the summer of 1664, and his mother was Sarah, daughter of Ephraim and Mercy (St. John), Loekwimd. This John Platt,.^- the grandson of the tii »t Piatt (Johnlsl-) who came to Norwalk, married Sarah, born, Dec. 6, 1707, daughter of Samuel, Jr., and Elizabeth (Plum) Hickox, of Waterbury. These had a daughter, Sarah, who married, first, Joseph lietis and second, Stephen St. John;,!'1- The Betts children were Anna (Mrs. Micajah Starr); Justus; Mo>es { who married, first, a Peck, and second, Mary, daughter of Elijah and niece of Capt. Jabez Gregory, of Norwalk, and who moved to Fairfield and was the well-known Moses Betts of that old town ) ; Aaron (went to Canada); Piatt and Susannah, Joseph Betis made his will May 10, 1760, and it was in- ventoried May 19, 1760. A record stare?- that he died May 19, 1760, but this is probably a mistake. His von Phut possibly died unmarried, as his estate was distributed among his brothers and sisters Dec. 23d, 1772, and the widow of Joseph Betts, four winters af- terward, married Stephen St. John 3<*. Mrs. Stephen St. John's mother (Sarah Hickox) was the grand- daughter oi Seargent Samuel and Hannah Hickox, one of the planter families of Waterbury. Their land embraced "Hickox." now "Ward'-" Inland, in the Naugatuck river, and the old Naugatuck and Derby highway ran through a portion of their territory. Their son Samuel, who was the grandfather of Mrs. Stephen Si. John,3d. married, April 16, 1690, Eliza- beth, born 1669, daughter of John Plumb, of Mil- lord. John Plumb was, in all probability either son or gravtd>on of the Robert and Mary ( Baldwin) Plumb.