Tombstone Tuesday: Capt. Edward Everett (1739-1815)

EDWARD EVERETT

Captain of 

N. H. Volt

1776

Buried in Quaker Cemetery, Au Sable, Clinton County, New York, USA

      "This is a large, uncared for cemetery, enclosed by an iron and wire fence. In front of it, on the corner, formerly stood a Quaker Meeting House, which has been removed, partly incorporated in a nearby house. The ground around the old Meeting House have many poplars growing in it; not many years ago traces of the location of the building, and of the drives, could be seen. The gate to the cemetery was behind the Meeting House.
      "Although in the Town of Au Sable, it stands just south of the northern bounds of the Town, and is usually thought of as in the Town of Peru. Location shown on map of Au Sable in Beers' Atlas. The Meeting House stood on the south-east corner of the road running from Peru to Keeseville, west of the main highway, and a cross a road running east. The fine old Keese house stands a little south of it, on the west side of the road.
      "The graveyard is overgrown with wild roses, etc.; there are many graves marked with flat field stones, some of which bear crude initials. Many of the stones have fallen and many are broken." 

-- M. N. McLellan, 1929, "McLellan Cemetery Records," Plattsburgh (NY) Public Library

Capt. Edward Everett was my 5xg-grandfather on my father's maternal side.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Amanuensis Monday: "The Town of Ausable"

From Reminiscences and Early History of Old Peru compiled by Seward Arnold, Lecturer of the Peru Grange, and published in 1913.  No publisher is listed --

THE TOWN OF AUSABLE

When the first white settlers of Ausable came to this locality in 1786 it was not to Ausable, or to Peru, or even to Clinton county that they came, for there were no such towns or county then, but they came to Plattsburgh, in the County of Washington, and built their log cabin at the foot of what is now known as Hallock Hill, on land now owned by Percy Keese. It may be proper to say in this connection that this County of Washington to which our first settlers came was about the size of the present State of Vermont, and that Clinton County when first taken from Washington was at least six if not eight times as large as it is today, for it comprised not only the present territory but all of what is now Essex County, over half of Franklin, all of Lake Champlain that lies north of the south line of Ticonderoga, and the northwestern one-fourth of what is now the State of Vermont. Vermont had not then been admitted to the Union and its territory was claimed by both New York, and New Hampshire, but the former held possession, at least of its western part. Now I will return to our first settlers and devote a few lines to their history.

Their name was Everett and they came from the central part of New Hampshire where they had lived about seventeen years, though the parents were born at Dedham and Milton, near Boston. Edward Everett, the father, had been a member of the New Hampshire Legislature and captain of a company of New Hampshire troops in the Revolution. His brother, David Everett, was a soldier in a company that fought the British at Bunker Hill, and he died nine days after that battle, leaving a son, David, who in his day was quite famous as a poet, but is now best known as the author of the juvenile recitation :

"You'd scarce expect one of my age To speak in public on the stage."

Captain Edward Everett's first cousin, Judge Oliver Everett, was the father of the celebrated orator and statesman, Hon. Edward Everett of Boston, and grandfather of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, the famous author. Judge Oliver Everett's brother, Andrew, was the great-great grandfather of Helen Keller, whose achievements, considering her limitations, have caused her to be called "the most wonderful woman on earth." During the first six and one-half years that our first settlers lived in their new home they were in Plattsburgh, for Peru was not made a town till the last days of 1792. Captain Everett served three years as Commissioner of Highways of Plattsburgh, and as such helped to lay out the first road in what is now Ausable, the road that we call Arthur street. After 1 792 he held the office of Supervisor of Peru four terms of one year each, spent the remainder of his days as a resident of Peru, and not only he but most of his family of ten members died in Peru without knowing that there was or would be such a town as Ausable. The youngest member of that family, David Allen Everett, lived till 1861, and has two sons still living, George and Harvey Everett, aged 84 and 80 years, respectively, the latter being the father of William E. Everett, Worthy Treasurer of Peru Grange.

When Peru was first taken from Plattsburgh it was half as large as the present County of Clinton, but it was gradually reduced by taking other towns and parts of towns from it till 1808, after which year it contained 257 square miles till 1839, when it was divided into three towns containing 38, 81 and 138 square miles, respectively. Why they put 100 square miles more into Black Brook than they gave to Ausable is hard to explain, but it is a fact that one is the largest and the other one of the two smallest towns in the county, exceeding only the town of Schuyler Falls by one and one-half square miles. The little town of Ausable thus created is bounded on the north by Peru, on the east by Lake Champlain and Chesterfield, on the south by Chesterfield and Jay, and on the west by Black Brook. Its principal streams are the Great and Little Ausable rivers, both of which flow into Lake Champlain. It has no city of village wholly within its borders, but contains parts of three villages — Keeseville, Clintonville and Ausable Chasm.

Captain Edward Everett (1739-1815) was my 5xg-grandfather on my father's maternal side.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Genealogical Serendipity?

In the year 1661 there were five selectmen (members of the local government board) in Dedham, Massachusetts.  One was Richard Everett and a second was Ralph Day. Sr.  Little did they know.........

Two hundred and fifty-six years later in 1917, Richard Everett's 7xg-grandson Keith G. Walker (1894-1980) would marry Ralph Day's 6xg-granddaughter Mattie Mae Needham (1884-1938) in Custer County, Nebraska.  Little did they know.

And their sixth child would be my father. :-)

Now you know.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Amanuensis Monday: Capt. Edward Everett (1739 - 1815)

From Descendants of Richard Everett of Dedham, Mass. (Boston, Mass. : T.R. Marvin & Son Printers, 1902) by Edward Franklin Everett --

Capt. Edward5 Everett (Edward4, John3, John2, Richard1), born Dec. 9, 1739, at Dedham,  Mass.; died about 1815, at Peru, N. Y.; married , 1762, at Milton, Mass., Ruth Field, of Milton, died at Peru, N. Y., between 1807 and 1815.

They were both received into the Secoud Church of Dedham, Dec. 25, 1763, and after their removal to New York, are reported as being Quakers. He was a land surveyor, and about 1769 removed from Stoughton to Rumney, N. H. He was one of a committee, in 1779, to settle the town lines of Rumney, and in 1785 was a town assessor. In 1781-2, he removed to New Holderness, and represented that town in the Legislature of 1782. In 1786, he crossed Vermont and Lake Champlain to that part of Plattsburg, N. Y., which was set off, in 1793, as Peru, when he was elected the first supervisor of the town, and re-elected three times. His name appears, May 3, 1757, as private on the muster roll of Stephen Miller's company, in Col. Miller's regiment, of Stoughton. He was captain, from Rumney, N. H., in Col. Bedel's regiment of New Hampshire Rangers, in 1776, in the expedition to Canada; was taken a prisoner, at the Cedars, May 19, 1776, and later released.

Children:
134. i. George, b. Oct. 26, 1763.
ii. Persis, b. Jan. 20, 1767.
iii. Hannah, b. July 2, 1769; d.___ at Peru, N. Y.; m. 1st, Robert Whitcomb, of Peru, d. about 1805; m. 2d, Eleazer Nichols.
135. iv. Edward, b.___
136. v. Robert, b.___
vi. Susan, b.___ ;d.___ at Peru, N. Y.; m. Capt. David Cochran, of Peru.
vii. Ruth, b.___ ;m. Elisha Green, of Peru.
viii. Polly, b.___ ;d.___ at Peru; m. John Stafford.
137. ix. David Allen, b. May 23, 1786.

-- Susan Everett and David Cochran were my g-g-g-g-grandparents.  That makes Captain Edward Everett and his wife Ruth Field my g-g-g-g-g-grandparents.  This is the maternal line behind my g-g-grandmother Phoebe Cochran (Ward) Chesley.

The interesting thing here is that the Everetts were said to be of Quaker persuasion.  Their daughter Susan married Capt. David Cochran, which one source said was mistaken for being a Quaker by the way he dressed.  Capt. Cochran was famously the leader of the local militia that fought the British in the Battle of Plattsburgh during the War of 1812.

Copyright © 2011 by Kevin W. Walker