Supplement to Norwalk, Conn., Volume One: Genealogy

3Thiswas an old "Flax Hill" family'. Flax was grown all about the neighborhood, and in the clays of Tryon's British oecupancv of Eaton's Neck, Long Island, the English soldiers who were wont to rum- mage and raid the Connecticut coast strip twixt "Shippan" and "Compo," made their marauding visits as far inland as the Byxbies' and Woods' Flax- Hill neighborhood. "Dap," the familiar name (given, it is thought, by a grandchild) by which the first Nor- walk Byxbee (John) was known, lived peacefully immediately west of the only store, in 1899, on Flax Hill. He was well known near Eastham, Mass., from which vicinity he came to Norwalk and planted him- self on Flax Hill. The Wood's were neighbors who raised fine poultry, a fact which came to the Long Island depredators' attention. These military men made Mr. Wood an offer for his "game," but he was disinclined to consider it. The temptation was too strong for the English, who, consequent!}-, paid a nocturnal call to the poultry yard on the " Mill." The next morning the proprietor discovered his loss, but found the following explanatory note, to which was attached British coin, both mite and coin being tied to the neck of one of his coveted brood : " Deacon Wood, your geese are good, And stealing is but slander; We've bought your geese for a penny a-piece And paid it to the gander." The Wood's seem to have originated in Jamaica, L. I. " Deacon" Wood was evidently a descendant of fonathan Woodlst, who brought the name to Nor- walk. Dolly Wood, wife of Nathaniel Raymond (son of Eliakim1 st) was possibly the daughter of Electious Wood. Said Electious had two daughters, Dolby and Elizabeth, to whom he refers in 1775. J3 ^ O 25 O • 'U r« O o 4i C co 3 -p O co o "C P <u rC - +-> 1> a -a o J! M be ■£ .£ a -p c CJ W K « « 2 ft .a .s 5i u ^ c J3 -P — 1 o c & X -d £ -JO £ ^ 5 > 3 + -5 ^ K 0 g <1 r*<! V- '5 04 -p ,0 H PQ ■p <U f crt — - ■ n g aj a o -a j be o .S s- <u J3 pi be ■§ 5' en ,C os be to K K K £ 5, •g e -a &e o c 6 § NORWALK 419 It is a tradition (page 127) that Washington on one of his Boston trips suggested or actually made a re-survey of some part of Flax Hill. There seems, however, to be no evi- dence of this. THE SAMUEL CANNON HOME. "MILL HILL" CREST. This Norwalk family seat facing the harbor overlooking "The Bridge" and having for its "vicinity" the Dr. Uriah Rogers and Hezekiah Belden estates, was the home of Samuel and Sarah (Belden) Cannon. Samuel Cannon, as was true of his "Commodore" father, was stirring, and with his wife, who was of Nor- walk's staunchest blood (Haynes, Bartlett, Betts and Belden) headed a strong house- hold. "Commodore" Cannon would sometimes go as far as the Oblong to place his grain or other orders, and his son Samuel probably knew the widely stretching Norwalk ter- ritory as well. The plate-portrayed Mill Hill home was a spot dear to the Cannon children. LeGrand, the only son, appeared to possess the ardor-temperament of his Cannon grandfather and Belden uncle. Norwalk saw but little of him, as in his younger manhood he established himself in Troy, N. Y., where his wife's relations were a power. Mrs. LeGrand Cannon (see page 272) was a granddaughter of one of the proprietors of what is still known as the " Rock House Woods," a large forest-stretch extending westerly and northwesterly of the station known as "Cannons" on the Danbury division of the Consolidated road. Job Burlock held, with the DeForests, a large land tract in this section. He was loyal to the king and compelled, conse- quently, during the war troubles, to reside elsewhere. He evidently returned from the prov- inces to Norwalk to look after his property, and here, so runs the Layton testimony, fell dead at his door step in the romantic district referred to. Mrs. Job Burlock appeared afterward at St. Johns, New Brunswick, "with one child." She, it is believed, married, second, an English officer, and the whilom maiden of the diversified Norwalk Pimpewaugh Wold disap- pears from the history of her native town. Her name, however, (and that of her foreign hus- band, page 272) is legibly inscribed upon our records. LeGrand Cannon departed from the Mill Hill hearthstone and identified himself with living issues in his adopted Troy. Thither a number of his Norwalk relatives had already gone, and there he founded an influential home. He was an incorporator of the Troy Water Works, a member of the first board of directors of the Renssalaer and Saratoga Railroad, a di- rector of the New York and Albany Railroad Company, the head of the LeGrand Cannon Roll- ing Mil], and a prominent Trojan generally. The Cannon pew was close to the chancel in the Third Street stone St. Paul's church, the elegant damask hangings of which pew found, singularly enough, their way at last to Norwalk. John Pintard (page 303), second cousin of LeGrand Cannon, left Norwalk somewhat prior to the date of the latter's birth, but had so far life-succeeded as that when the young LeGrand was only five years old his cousin in the second degree endorsed to the amount of one million dollars the notes of the husband of Lady Kitty Stirling (see page 19). This was a blow to Pintard, whose Norwalk relatives must have wondered at his ability to make good the Duer loss. He gave up everything ; but rose again to a pinnacle, and has the proud 4^o NORWALK. record of being one of the founders of the New York free school system, to which he gave the sum of ten thousand dollars. His father, the son of Alderman Pintard, bought, Septem- ber 15, 1758, a Norwalk home site on the opposite side of the street from the grounds of John Cannon1". Colonel LeGrand B. Cannon, son of LeGrand of Troy, and grandson of Samuel of Norwalk, was a Norwalk school lad (see page 171) and himself and companions were large contributors to the happy side of Norwalk school experience. The Colonel chose New York city for a residence, where, possessed of abilities and fitted for an alert life, he has been a citizen of large interests and influence, while the nation will ever stand debtor to him by reason of his loyal, valuable and memorable services in the days of the American Civil War. His sisters (pages 272 and 412) were ladies of prominence, his son (page 412) was of social and skillful rank, and his nephew, Edward Courtland Gale, who married Marie, daughter of John I. and Mary Mabbett (Warren) Thompson (page 277), was not of the Norwalk Gale family of earlier days, but a descendant of Dr. Samuel Gale of honored memory of Troy, N. Y. The father of E. C. Gale (E. Thompson Gale) was one of the best known Trojans of his generation and his mother was a Norwalk DeForest-Lambert descendant (page 279). Mr. Gale, born October 28, 1861, is a graduate, class of 1883, of the Renssalaer Polytechnic Insti- tute of Troy. He married, 24th April, 1888, as before mentioned a daughter of John I., son of John L. Thompson of Troy. His children are Alfred Warren, born January 2, 1892, and Harold DeForest, born January 18, 1896. After the Cannon use of the Mill Hill home the property became the purchase of Colonel Buckingham St. John Lockwood. Mrs. Colonel Lnckwood was a niece of Mrs. Cannon and the handsome spot seemed naturally to fall to the Lockwoods, who have pre- served its old reputation. It has been a New England hearth of merit, and as it stands river- facing and elm o'erhung it to-day presents an imposing appearance, and is one of this town's fondest domiciles (pages 299 and 304). QUINTARD. Isaac1"' and Jeanne (Fume) Quintard were married in the Chapel of the Gaunt, Bristol, England, on November 26, 1693. The groom had resided "near Lusignau in Poitou in France," and the two were married by M. Descariac, pastor of the French Church in Bristol, the fruit of the union being : Marie, baptized January 13, 1695; Isaac2"'1, baptized December 13, 1696 ;J 1Isaac2nd, son of Isaac Quintard1 st, went with his brother Abraham to Stamford. Isaac2nd lived to reach the age of two and fort}' years. When twenty years old he married Hannah Knapp of Stamford. These had a son, Peter, born 1730, who married Elizabeth DeMills and had Isaac3ld, who married Hannah Palmer and had Isaac41'1, born May 15, 1794, who married Mrs. Clarissa (Hoyt) Show. Isaac41'1 and Clarissa Quintard were the parents of five children, among them Rt. Rev. Charles T. Quin- tard, Bishop of Tennessee, and Edward A., a heav}' New York city business man. The eloquent Bishop Quintard, well known in Norwalk, was happy in meeting his Quintard kin. NORWALK. 421 Abraham, baptized September 25, 1698; Pierrelst, born January 14, 1699-1700. The last two sons, Abraham and Pierre, were baptized in the French Church in New York. Pierre1*', or Peter, as he came to be called, married Jeanne, daughter of Jaques and and Jeane (O'dart) Ballereau (born July 3, 1708) of New York. On May 18, 1731, said Pierre or Peterlst was admitted a freeman and recorded as a goldsmith. He came to Norwalk in about 1637-8, and made several land purchases, appearing to select for his home seat the meadows somewhat north of the present Marshall Street in South Norwalk. His children were : Jaques or James1"', born February 6, 1723-4, no record ; Marie, born May 23, 1726 ; Pierre or Peter2"'1, born July 22, 1732 ; Jane, born October 24, 1738. Pierre or Peter1"' Quintard married, second, Deborah, daughter of John Knapp of Stamford, and had no issue. Peter Quintard2"'1 married, first, and had James21"1, Peter8"', born 1765, Evert1"' and Isaac. He married, second, May 23, 1774, Ruth Stevens of Stamford and had Rebecca (a Mrs. Raymond of New York), Lewis Y., and Clarissa (Mrs. Stephen Mott).1 James2"'1,2 son of Peter Quintard2"'1, married, first, Sarah, daughter of Deacon Raymond,