Woodstock: An historical sketchBowen, Clarence Winthrop
History
Woodstock: An historical sketch
Bowen, Clarence Winthrop
Woodstock (Conn. : Town) -- History
Say the old records: "After solemn prayer to God, who is the Disposer
of all things, they drew lots according to the agreement, every man
being satisfied and contented with God's disposing." Would that the
words of that prayer and the picture of that scene could to-day be
reproduced! Surely the spirit of the Puritans of 1630 was the spirit
of that band of pilgrims in 1686 on yonder hill. These are the honored
names of the first settlers: Thomas and Joseph Bacon, James Corbin,
Benjamin Sabin, Henry Bowen, Thomas Lyon, Ebenezer Morris, Matthew
Davis, William Lyon, Sr., John Chandler, Sr., Peter Aspinwall, John
Frizzel, Joseph Frizzel, Jonathan Smithers, John Butcher, Jonathan
Davis, Jonathan Peake, Nathaniel Garey, John Bowen, Nathaniel Johnson,
John Hubbard, George Griggs, Benjamin Griggs, William Lyon, Jr., John
Leavens, Nathaniel Sanger, Samuel Scarborough, Samuel Craft, Samuel
May, Joseph Bugbee, Samuel Peacock, Arthur Humphrey, John Bugbee, Jr.,
Andrew Watkins, John Marcy, Edward Morris, Joseph Peake, John Holmes,
and John Chandler, Jr.
Of that list of thirty-nine,[34] Benjamin Sabin, Nathaniel Sanger,
Nathaniel Garey, John Hubbard, Matthew Davis, and George Griggs
afterwards moved to Pomfret; Peter Aspinwall and his step-sons, the
sons of John Leavens, went to Killingby; and Arthur Humphrey and others
became the first settlers of Ashford. A few returned to Roxbury. But
a large share of the original settlers lived and died in Woodstock,
including Edward and Ebenezer Morris, Jonathan and Joseph Peake, James
Corbin, Thomas and Joseph Bacon, Henry Bowen, William and Thomas Lyon,
John Chandler, Sr., and John Chandler, Jr., John Butcher, Nathaniel
Johnson, Joseph and John Bugbee, John Marcy, John Holmes, and perhaps
a few others. As an illustration of the ages of the pioneers in 1686,
it may be mentioned that Benjamin Griggs was nineteen; Joseph Bacon
and Andrew Watkins, twenty; John Bugbee, John Chandler, Jr., James
Corbin, and Jonathan Davis, twenty-one; Peter Aspinwall, Matthew Davis,
John Frizzel, and Lieut. Ebenezer Morris, twenty-two; John Butcher and
Nathaniel Garey, twenty-three; John Bowen and John Marcy, twenty-four;
George Griggs, John Holmes, and Samuel May, twenty-five; Thomas Bacon,
twenty-eight; Samuel Peacock, twenty-nine; William Lyon, Jr., and
Nathaniel Sanger, thirty-four; Thomas Lyon, thirty-eight; Nathaniel
Johnson, thirty-nine; Benjamin Sabin and Samuel Scarborough, forty;
Joseph Peake, forty-one; Joseph Bugbee and John Leavens, forty-six;
Samuel Craft and Jonathan Peake,[35] forty-nine; Deacon John Chandler,
fifty-one; Lieut. Henry Bowen, fifty-three; Edward Morris, fifty-six;
and William Lyon Sr., sixty-five.[36]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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