Norwalk

drew the necessary implements for clearing up wild lands. A I ter a long and wearisome journey the v finally reached the mouth of Huron River, where they found a Moravian Mission house for the In- dians. The Norwalkers were hospitably greeted and offered the use of the Mission quarters until they could complete a lodge further inland for their pro- tection. The trio of men set themselves to work and it was not long before they asked the few white men in that part of the country to assist them in raising and putting up the new building, which was the very first house erected in ihe present township of Nor- walk, Ohio, and which was built and owned by Na- than Selleck Comstock, grandfather of Stephen Corn- stock, of Morgan Avenue (1S96), of Norwalk. The next year, Abijah, brother of Nathan S. Comstock, removed from this town to Ohio, and was the second settler of our namesake town in that Western State. He there remained and lived until 1X^7. 3Th;e Seymour (Ezra) into whose family Nathan S. Comstock married, lived on the property now oc- cupied bv Selleck V. St. John, on the Stamford road, New Canaan. Ezra Seymour's children were Ezra,2'1- Holly, Henry, Betty (Mrs. Nathan S. Comstock), Abigail, Nancy, Hannah, Rebecca, Lavinia, Sybil, Ezra**- was a farmer, who beyond carrying his produce to market, seldom left home. He was once in Silvermine, at a sister's funeral, but was never probably east of said locality, and he had been west as far as North Stamford and north as far as Ridge- field. He was unmarried, lived in primitive simplic- ity with his sjsier, Abigail, and gave his goods to Si. Mark's Church, New Canaan. His sister, Betty, Mr-. Nathan S. Comstock, had a daughter, Hetty, (sister of Seymour Comstock) born 1812, and baptized in Silvermine on the day of her mother's funeral and within a week of her father's decease, who married March iS, 1833, David S. , son of Thomas II. Rock- well, of Ridgefield (See note page 114). David S. Rockwell purchased the Davenport School property on Church Hill, New Canaan, (see 262 \ OR WALK ter of Thaddeus and Rebecca (Lockwood) Hoyt, of White Oak Shade, and had Albert S., Stephen and William. Seymour Comstock married, second, Mary, widow of Benjamin Rogers, and was the step-father of H. B. Rogers, of New Canaan, who married for his second wife Edna, daughter of Edwin Hoyt, of New Canaan. OF COMSTOCK DESCENT. Gen. I — Christopher and Hannah iI'latti Comstock. II. — Mosks and Abigail (Brinsmade) Comstock. " III.— Phineas and Hannah (Comstock* Hanford. " IV. — Stephen and Piickbf. (Fitch) Hanford. V.— David and Margaret (Bailev) Hanford. •■ VI. — Charles and Caroline (Hanford] Young. Charles and Caroline Voting, who were married Sept. 6, 1836, were the parents of Mary, who married Judge Henry W. Bookstaver, of the Supreme Court, of New York (1896). Mrs. Judge Bookstaver had three children, Carmi and Harry, who died young, and Mary A. Margaret (Mrs. Rev. John Turner) and Helen (Mrs. K. Starr Lloyd), were Mrs. Bookstavers sisters, and cousins of Thos. Cook Hanford of page 146. Phineas Hanford of Gen. Ill above, was the son of Kleazer and Hannah iFrisby) Hanford, which Kleazer was the son of Rev. Thomas and Mary (Ince) Hanford. Phineas Hanford's home was on Chestnut Hill. His son, Stephen, was a grandson of Abigail Brinsmade (Mrs. Moses Comstock). daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Kellogg) Brinsmade, and grand- daughter of Daniel Kellogg, the Xorwalk settler of that name, and probably the largest man among the pioneers. He was seven feet in height and of proportionate dimensions otherwise. Stephen Hanford's grandmother, Abigail, was a sister of Lieut. Daniel Brins- made. of Stratford, whose son was the Rev. Daniel Brinsmade, of Washington. Conn. Mrs. Stephen Hanford, born Sept. 5, ,733. was Phcebe, daughter of Elijah and Ph«he .Smith) Pitch and grand-daughter of James and Mary ( Haynes, Fitch. Her Smith grand- father was Robert, who married Judith Fountain, of Greenwich (see note page 186,. who not* page 1141 and for 28 rears maintained at that point a siuvrsslul boarding school for boys, lie dis- posed ot the property to the Rev. Mr. Gilder, who conducted a school to which both sexes were admit ted. During Mr. Gilder s incumbency the property was a short time occupied for school purposes In John Osborn, afterwards principal of a like institu- tion on Strawberry Hill, Xorwalk. After Mr Os bom's tenamo Mr. Gilder returned to the property and retained it until his disposition of it to Dr Wil lard Parker, of New York City. The elevation at Ridge was considered that anciently stood near the present H. li. Rogers premises was afterward removed, and planted near the present entrance to the senior Parker grounds. Nathan Selleck Comstock married, second, Su- sannah, born September 17, 1780, daughter of Mich- ael Lockwood, '»<• and aunt of Carmi Lockwood, of Xorwalk. They had a son Ralph, who removed to California, w here he died in 1893. He married, third, Esther, daughter of Samuel and grand-daughter (if John Rusco, who lived west of Hald Mill, near lands now flooded by water of the new Xorwalk reservoir. me luwci emi 01 names Kidge was consid d "cl "l tllc iicw entail icsnw" of the mo-t desirable spots in earlv NorwMk" I C"Ud named Matilda, who married Ro«well selected by the rlr«t New Canaan setters f "** 1 A' Ra-vmond> of Xorwalk. who had George, who ecclesiastical and academic site The , .., , ! ,"aiTie'1 Julio, daughter „f Thos. Mead, of the town e- the town academy „f N, „ Canaan. NO R W A L K . 263 made considerable land- purchase in Norwalk. Robert Smith,1 who took Miss Judith Fountain to wife, was the son of Ebenezer Smith, of Jamaica, L. I. His Xorwalk broth- ers and sisters were John, who married Magdaline Fountain (sister of Robert's wife), Sam- uel, Abraham and Mai)- (Mrs. John Gregory). The Comstoek-Sands blood is from ('apt. James Hands, a native of Berkshire, England, who came to Plymouth, Mass., in 1658, and purchased Block Island in 1660. His daughter, Mary, was wife of Hon. John Thus., first Judge of Westchester Co., whose grand- son, Samuel, married Mary, daughter of Thomas Pell, Lord of the Manor of Pelham, in Westchester Co., which Samuel was brother of the grandmother of Mrs. Thos. Comstock, of Silver mine. (See Bolton.) 'Robert, son of Ebenezer Smith, of Jamaica, L. I., appears (per document) first in Norwalk on May 2, 1729. On that date Rev. Moses Dickinson sold to him for £395 consideration, his home-lot of 4 acres, with dwelling house and barn thereon standing, and situated in that part of the present Earle property near to the Earle dwelling. Mis acreage extended from the town street west to Norwalk Creek, and be- tween it and Oyster Shell Point lane on the north lay the home-lot of Caleb llovt. On April 10, 1730, Robert Smith-" sold the rear of this property (reserving about one acre in front where his house and barn stood) to Joseph St. John, whose father's home adjoined that of Robert Smith's on the south. The young St. John paid Smith £i2f>l2 lor the same. On June 15, 1732, Robert Smith sold all that he still owned of the above mentioned property to his brother Abraham for £250. The above transactions all took place after Rob- ert Smith's marriage, on March II, 1724, to Judith, daughter of James Fountain, of Greenwich, the child- ren of which Robert and Judith were: Fountain, born Mar. 2, 1725. James, born Nov. 14, 1726. ROBEUT-Zd. Judith, born Aug. 21, 172K; mar. Chas. Pope. Phcebe, born Sept. 21, 1730, died young. 1731 ; married, Oct. *John Smith, brother of Koheft, married Magdaline, yiuing-- «i'.t daughter of James Fountain, of Greenwich, and sister of Robert Smith's wife. Judith and Magdaline Fountain, two future Norwalk mothers, lost their father when very young. The Probate Court, consequently, on Jan. S, 1710, appointed Anthony Nougier, une of the " bankers " of Fairlield County, guardian for Judith, and Alexander ltcssegirte, fur Magdaline. ijohn.isi. born Feb. 8, 1710-20, sun of Col, James and I.ydia (Smith) Lock wood, owned the East Avenue (1806) level of which the residence of the late Joseph \V. Hubbell formed the northern limit, and he also held the summit of " Dry Hill" (Newtown Turnpike ), which wa» afterward known as the Thatcher place. He had eight children: John, Matthew, Phi 11- eas, Scth, Polly ( Mrs. Daniel Hyatt ), Betty, Hannah, Jesse and Sarah (Mrs. Peter Buckout). As Mr. Lockwood, one year be- fore lie died ( 1 7SS gave to Sarah all of his deceased son Jesse's Phcere, born Dec 1752, Elijah, son of J as. Fitch. Abraham, born Mav 17, 1734. Fountain, the oldest son of Robert Smith, lived directly across the common from his father's, and immediately south of his great-grandson, the present Edmund Smith's home. Emerging from his house to learn the reason of the outcry on the morning of Try on "s invasion, he was taken by the British, put in temporary custody and sent to New York, where he died. His wife was afterward cared for by her son Mutton, at his home which he built on Strawberrv Ilill, the residence, in 1896, of Mrs. Albert Hyatt. The old lady's aversion ever afterwards to the King's American friends mav have been a mute, nevertheless was it a marked dislike. It was the custom at that time for the "master" to board around, and as the Norwalk School was for a season headed by a " tory " teacher, the patriotic woman would quit the family' table whenever said personage appeared at it. The children of Fountain and Hannah Smith (page 1H6) were : Saml'kl; removed to Saratoga Co., N. V.; no Norwalk record. Daniki. ; married had a family; lived in Mais ton. Mvkr (perhaps Jeremiah); went West. William; went West. James ; Ebenezer; removed to Ridgefield. Hannah; married a Harrow, of Balston, V Y 11 t'Ti'ON, married Phcebe Hyatt. James Smith, son of Fountain, married, Sept. 14, 1780, Hannah, daughter of John Lockwood, + He lived in the old Hendricks house in Oyster Shell Point lane, and had James, born July 5, 1785, and John L., born Nov. Nov. 5, 1787.