Introduction
The following biographies relate to the currently known Revolutionary War veterans who resided in Lima after returning from the war. The biographies are based on a number of sources:
- Ancestry which includes census data, family histories, obituaries, and grave site information.
- Pension applications
- J. H. Smith (1881). History of Livingston County, New York 1687-1881
Please Contact Us for sources relevant to specific individuals.
Downloadable File (PDF)
BENJAMIN BARLOW was born March 4, 1758, in Granville, Massachusetts. He married Phebe Doud ca. 1781. She was also born in Granville on January 22,1761.
In September 1776, Barlow enlisted as a private in Captain William Cooley’s Company of Colonel John Moseley’s 3rd Hampshire County Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia. He was discharged on November 16,1776.
The Barlows moved to Lima in 1795 with six children. An additional three children were born in Lima. In 1801, Benjamin served Lima as an Overseer of Highways in District 1 and in 1802 he was appointed County Sheriff.
Phebe died in Lima in 1830. Benjamin died about a year later on September 23,1831. Both are buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery. None of the children are buried in Lima except for their six-to-seven-month infant daughter who is also buried at Oak Ridge.
JOHN BARNARD was born on October 14, 1762, in Stow, Massachusetts. From 1779-1780 John was a private in the Company commanded by Captain Greenleaf in the 11th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel Tupper. After he was discharged in 1780, he rejoined in New Jersey under General Washington and served in Colonel Jackson’s regiment and was on guard when Major Andre was executed. He was stationed at Dorchester Heights and West Point. He was discharged again at West Point in December 1780.
On September 5, 1785, he married Elizabeth Fallass in Bolton, Massachusetts. She was born on December 3, 1758. The Barnards had three children. In 1793 the Barnards moved from Bolton to Rome, New York where John purchased land.
By 1839 John, Elizabeth and daughter Abby had moved to Lima to live with their son Reverend John who began serving as minister of the Lima Presbyterian Church in 1819. Reverend Barnard’s cobblestone home is located at 7192 West Main Street.
Elizabeth died January 22, 1838. John died August 30. 1853 at age 90. John Barnard’s oldest son, James, was a miller in Rome before becoming a Methodist Episcopal minister late in life. He died of cholera at his brother’s Lima home in 1849 after preaching in Rochester
Elizabeth, John, Reverend John and wife Ann, James, and Abby are buried in the Lima Presbyterian Cemetery.
ABEL BRISTOL was born ca.1753 in Canaan, Connecticut. On January 24,1775 he married Mary Norton of Goshen, Connecticut in Harwinton, Connecticut
Family history states that Abel served first in Connecticut before serving in the 2nd Battalion of Col. Gay, Capt. Wells Company from Albany, NY. According to the family history he and brother Eliphalet “lost their guns in retreat from York Island.”
Following the war, in 1793 Abel was a Lieutenant and in 1800 a Captain in the Columbia County NY Militia.
The family history also notes that Abel came first to Richmond, Ontario County and then to Lima. Abel, his wife and four children arrived in Lima ca. 1802 as that year he was listed as Poor Master and Overseer of Highways in District 6. In 1803 he was listed as Overseer of Poor. After the town was renamed Lima, Abel was elected supervisor at that meeting in April 1809.
Abel died in Lima on May 11, 1827. Abel and three of his four children are buried in Lima’s Presbyterian Cemetery. No information is available on the death or burial location of Abel’s wife Mary.
AUSTIN BROWN was born July 21,1762, in Hebron, Connecticut. There he enlisted as Private in Colonel Butler’s Regiment of the Connecticut Line. He served five years until the end of the war. He was placed on the pension roll in 1818 for his service as a private and a corporal of the Connecticut Line. His tombstone is inscribed with “A soldier of the Revolution. Served under Gen. La Fayette. An 1825 letter from Lafayette, held by the Rochester Museum and Science Center, says that he was going to stop in Canandaigua and Lima. Could he have reunited with Brown at that time?
On October 21,1786 Austin married Anna Fox. Anna was born in 1764. According to their son Austin’s 1880 obituary, the Browns and their two sons came to Lima from Connecticut ca. 1799. An 1803 Tax Assessment Role of the Town of Charleston indicated his house and farm were worth $199, a comparatively small amount even at that time.
Austin Brown died In Lima on April 26,1837 at age 74 and is buried at the Presbyterian Cemetery. Anna died In Lima on September 1,1846 and is also buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery. Son Alanson, a cabinetmaker, lived on West Main Street in Lima until his death in 1872 and son Austin, a very successful miller, lived in Lima until the 1860s.
JEHIEL BUNNELL Jehiel Bunnell was born October 29,1763 in Wallingford, Connecticut. In 1780 Jehiel joined as a substitute and served three months as a private in the Connecticut Militia commanded by Colonel Waterbury. In 1781 he enlisted as a teamster at Cheshire, Connecticut and served for a year throughout the Hudson Valley.
He first married Temperance Hotchkiss on November 21,1784, in Waterbury, Connecticut but she died at age 19 on May 3,1787 in Cheshire, Connecticut. On December 23,1788 Jehiel married Statira Hotchkiss in Cheshire, with whom he had three sons. It is unknown if the two Hotchkiss women were related.
By 1800 the Bunnells had left Connecticut and were residing in Whitehall, New York before coming to Western New York in 1819. Jehiel, Statira and sons settled in Lima in 1823.
Jehiel died April 8,1844 in Lima at age 80. Statira died August 11,1846, age 70, in South Livonia. Both are buried in Lima Presbyterian Cemetery. All three sons did not remain in Lima.
ASAHEL BIRCHARD Asahel Burchard (alternately spelled Burchard) was born July 14,1762 in Norwich, Connecticut. In 1779 he served in the 20th Connecticut Regiment.
On January 1,1788 he married Elizabeth Fox in Bozrah, Connecticut. Elizabeth was born in 1767 in Windham, Connecticut.
Remembrances state that Asahel Birchard came to Lima in 1789 with Jonathan Gould and Paul Davison’s family. Asahel brought his family the following year. The 1790 census lists his household as consisting of an adult male, a female, likely his wife Elizabeth, and two males under 16.
The Birchards were engaged in farming at the homestead that still exists at 7400 Corby Road. Asahel also served Lima as an Assessor in 1798, 1799, and 1801 and in 1799 as Path Master in District 4 and School Commissioner. In 1800 and 1801 he was Overseer of the Poor and in 1803 he was Lima’s Commissioner of Highways.
Elizabeth died February 7,1840 in Lima age 42. Asahel died September 27,1853 at the age of 91. Both are buried in the Lima Presbyterian Cemetery as is Asahel’s brother Ezra Birchard, Jr., and parents Ezra Sr. and Martha Barrett Birchard. Asahel’s son Barrett, who died at 19 years, is buried in the Commins Corners Cemetery, near the Birchard home.
JEDEDIAH COMMINS (CUMMINS) was born September 7,1756 in Dover, Dutchess County, New York.
Commins enlisted in 1776 and served as Private in Capt. Ransom’s Company, Col. Denninson’s Regiment in the Pennsylvania Line and went to New Jersey. He was discharged because of ill health in 1778 but later that year rejoined at Kingston. Available information indicates he was a prisoner of war under British Colonels Brandt & Butler and released if he would not rejoin the forces.
Jedediah married Olive Whipple on March 20,1784. She was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts on November 12, 1762.
Commins purchased land in Lima in 1793 and built his house at 7649 Corby Road. His wife Olive and four children arrived in 1794 from Charlotte, Vermont.
Jedediah died March 6, 1836. Olive died December 27, 1851. The Commins Corners Cemetery, where Jedediah, Olive and daughter Olive are buried, was part of their family farm.
CAPTAIN PAUL DAVISON (DAVIDSON) Paul Davison (alternately spelled Davidson) was born in 1765 in Ashford, Connecticut. Paul came from a family that firmly believed in the goals of the revolution. In 1778, at age 13, Paul joined Captain Nathaniel Webb’s 4th Connecticut Regiment commanded by Colonel John Durkee. He began as a fifer and served for three years.
The decision to enlist may have been influenced by the fact that in 1778 Paul’s father, Asa, had also enlisted in this company three months earlier and served as a fife major for five months. Asa (1736-1831) devoted eight years to advancing the cause of freedom. According to family history Asa was at the battle of Lexington in 1775 and served 10 days. He then enlisted in the Third Regiment commanded by Colonel Israel Putnam from May -December 1775. As was customary, throughout the war Asa would enlist, serve for varying periods of time under different commands of the Connecticut Regiment, and return home for a time before enlisting again.
In 1782, Paul’s brother Ezra also enlisted in Colonel Durkee’s Regiment at age 17 and served as a gunner’s assistant for one year.
After his War service ended, Paul Davison married Sally Gould ca. 1785 and purchased land in Ashford. Sally was born on July 8,1765 in Windham, Connecticut.
After the War, New England was in a state of upheaval, destruction, and uncertainty and its rocky soil still limited crop production. While it is impossible to know his motivation for setting out to uncharted Native American lands, it is likely his military service played a key role in his decision. The fertile soils he discovered in the Seneca territory and the skills he gained from conquering unimaginable challenges likely gave him the confidence to return to this area in 1788 with his brother-in-law, Jonathan Gould. West of Geneva these pioneers made their way through the wilderness using existing Native American trails. When they arrived at present day Lima, they built a small log hut and thus became the first white settlers in the Seneca territory west ofGeneva. The following year, Davison, Asahel Birchard, Davison’s wife, Sally, and two sons, and Davison’s recently divorced mother-in-law, Abigail Kingsbury (Gould) Abbott, traveled by ox cart to the cabin in the wilderness.
When these first settlers arrived, all the land belonged to the Seneca nation and was part of the Haudenosaunee Reserve, created in 1784. In 1788, Oliver Phelps of Suffield, Connecticut and Nathaniel Gorham of Charlestown, Massachusetts paid $1 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy to purchase the preemptive rights to about six million acres bounded by Seneca Lake to the east, Genesee River on the west, Lake Ontario on the north, and Pennsylvania on the south.
In 1790, Abner Mighells purchased the Sixth Range, Town 10 from Phelps and Gorham, and then sold Davison 160 acres, lot #36. This property is located north and south of present-day Cleary Road near the Avon town line. Turner’s 1851 History of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase confirmed that he settled “one mile south of the Indian trail, near the west line of the town.” While he was likely engaged in subsistence farming. Turner’s history notes Davison raised oats and turnips. Records indicate Davison also served as Path Master of District 6 in 1800.
In 1791, Davison’ mother-in-law Abigail Kingsbury (Gould) Abbot died, becoming the first death in the Genesee Valley. In the same year, Paul and Sally Davison gave birth to a daughter, Lovina, who became the first child born in the new territory. The Davisons had eight children, none of whom remained in Lima.
Paul Davison died February 19,1805 as a result of injuries suffered from being thrown from his horse. Turner states that at the time of his death he was a successful farmer and owner of a large farm. Sally Davison died in Lima on October 21, 1844. Both are buried in Lima.
ADONIJAH DAY was born July 16,1733 in Colchester, Connecticut. He married Sarah Loomis in 1753 in Colchester, and they had 17 children between 1753 and 1783.
Adonijah was a private in Captain James Fitch’s company, 19th Connecticut Regiment,1775-1776. It is reported that he responded to the Lexington alarm.
Adonijah died October 1,1799 in Ellington, Connecticut. Sarah died January 28, 1802, also in Ellington. Despite the existence of a cenotaph in the Lima Presbyterian cemetery stating that he was a member of the Connecticut militia, there is no evidence that Adonijah lived in the town. It is unclear when the cenotaph was erected. However, since two of Adonijah’s children, several grandchildren and further descendants lived in Lima they could have chosen to honor Adonijah’s military service with this marker.
Adonijah’s son Levi was born March 14,1765 in Connecticut. On February 10, 1792, Levi married Abiah Chamberlin in Dalton, Massachusetts. By 1800 Levi and Abiah were living in Lima as three of their five children were born there, beginning in 1800. Levi was referred to as Deacon Levi. In the 1700s the prefix Deacon was used as a religious and social designation recognizing participation in ministry and in the life of the community. Abiah died on December 4,1848 and Levi died on June 11,1849. Both are buried at the
Presbyterian Cemetery. Deacon Levi’s sons, Levi and Dan, carried on farming, likely at 2163 Plank Road at what is known as the Day farm.
Adonijah’s daughter Lucy was born June 12,1756 in Colchester. She married Lieutenant Benjamin Chamberlin in 1780. They had two children born in Dalton, Massachusetts. Their daughter died in Dalton in 1802 at age 22 or 23 about two years after marrying William Cady. Lucy’s husband Benjamin died February 21,1824 in Glenville, NY. Lucy died in Lima September 16,1843 and is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery. It is unknown whether she came to live in Lima after her husband’s death or she died when visiting her brother.
Lucy’s son Joseph married Sally (Sarah) Chamberlin in Amsterdam, NY on March 6,1808. They had eight children and lived on a farm in Mendon from c.1840-1870. Sally died September 7,1855 in Lima. Joseph died on June 23,1879 in Lima, likely at the home of his daughter Jane and husband Justin S. Goodrich where he was recorded as living in the census of 1875. Joseph and Sally are buried at the Old Baptist Cemetery.
CAPTAIN STEWART DEAN was born July 4,1748 in Somerset County, Maryland. At 18 he was apprenticed with merchant Henry Lowe to learn sailing and navigation. After his servitude ended in 1769, he came to the Hudson Valley to become a merchant marine. In 1773 he married a shipwright’s daughter, and they built a home on the Albany riverfront.
In 1776-78 he volunteered with the Albany militia in different efforts to engage with the enemy in the Mohawk Valley. Each time he would return to Albany where he lived. In 1780 he served as a commissioner detecting and removing internal enemies.
In 1776, he was also commissioned to be a privateer and with his ship the Beaver. For three years he sailed to the Caribbean to obtain supplies to aid the war effort. In 1782, the Nimrod, the privateer he built and captained, was captured in the West Indies. He was injured but he and his crew were later released. In 1783, soon after he returned to Albany, his wife Pieterje Bratt, died in childbirth. Dean then built another ship which he sailed to China.
On October 4,1787 he married Margaret Wheeden in Albany. Their first child was born in 1788. From 1788 to 1897 they had seven children and lived most of that time in the Albany area.
However, in 1830 when Dean was 82 he and his wife moved to Lima as two of their daughters, Martha Stewart Dean Sedgwick and Jane Ann Dean Clark , and their son William Whetten Dean were living there at the time. Jane was wife of Erastus Clark, a prosperous Lima merchant who built Hillcrest at 7242 West Main Street. William Whetten Dean had joined Erastus Clark in the operation of Lima’s large general store when Clark’s former partner James Guernsey moved to Pittsford. William Dean continued in business with Clark until Clark retired in 1830. He then sold the business to
Godfrey and Cargill in 1836. By 1850, William Dean and his family were living in Green Oak, Michigan.
In 1833, at age 85, Captain Dean applied for a pension, but records indicate he was denied the pension as he could not prove he served six months, despite his very detailed account of his service activities first on land and second on water. While Dean provided many details of the ways in which he volunteered and served, his age and inability to recall all details as well as the fact that most corroborating witnesses had died may have contributed to the rejection. Lima’s prominent citizens testified that Dean was respected in the neighborhood, and they believed his account of his Revolutionary War service.
According to a history of Captain Dean’s life, he and his wife moved to New York City with the Sedgwicks in 1833. Dean died August 4,1836 at age 88 in New York City and is buried in New York Marble Cemetery in the East Village. Margaret Dean died December 21,1851 in Lima, likely at the home of her daughter, Jane Dean Clark. She is buried in the Lima Presbyterian Cemetery.
CAPTAIN JOSIAH GATES, JR. was born January 15,1722(3) in Colchester, Connecticut.
Josiah married Lydia Marvin on April 19.1753 in Colchester, Connecticut. They had 12 children. Lydia died June 9,1775 in Colchester, age 41.
In 1775 he served as Private in Captain Levi Well’s Company of Spencer’s Second Connecticut regiment at the siege of Boston.
On November 26,1777 Josiah married Judith Peck Sears in Lyme, Connecticut, widow of Captain John Sears II who died in 1766. They had two children.
In 1778 he served in Captain Seth Holmes Company of Colonel Chapman’s Connecticut Regiment and was involved in efforts to remove the British from Newport, Rhode Island.
Josiah is believed to have come to North Bloomfield with his brother Marvin in 1789. He died in North Bloomfield September 22,1807 and is buried in the North Bloomfield Cemetery. Judith died March 17,1815 in Stafford, NY and is buried in Stafford.
Esther, daughter of Josiah and Lydia Marvin, born 1773, married Manasseh Leech who came to Lima in 1797. Current Lima resident Marilyn Lloyd MacIntyre is a direct descendant of Esther and Manasseh Leech. o
JOSEPH GILBERT was born in 1748 in New Hartford, Connecticut. He married Miriam Hopkins on March 20,1773 in New Hartford. Joseph and Miram had 12 children between 1774 and 1798, all born in New Hartford.
According to his widow he entered service in 1775 in New Hartford in a company commanded by Captain Griswold serving on Lake Champlain and St. John’s in Canada. In 1777 he enlisted for three years in Colonel Webb’s regiment and served as a sergeant.
Joseph died November 11,1812 in Richmond, Ontario County and is buried in the Richmond Center Cemetery.
In 1838 at age 84 Joseph’s widow applied for a pension. At the time she was living in Lima at the home of her son, Orrin, a shoemaker. Miriam died January 20,1839 and is buried in Lima’s Presbyterian Cemetery.
JONATHAN GOULD was born April 28,1763 in Windham, Connecticut. From October 5 to 16, 1776 he served as a 1797 in the New York 9th Van Ness Regiment.
Even though Gould accompanied his brother-in-law in 1788 to what is now Lima, it is unclear when he settled permanently. Deed records indicate he purchased 160 acres, Lot #34, Sixth Range, Town 10 from Abner Mighells on March 23, 1790. Lot #34 is located west and east of Livonia Center Road, south of Oak Ridge Cemetery. Gould does not appear in the 1790 census, but he was living in Lima by 1796 as town records state he was a Commissioner of Highways 1796-1798; Path Master 1797-98, Fence Viewer 1799, 1800; and Path Master District 4 in 1800.
Jonathan Gould is first listed in the 1800 Lima census. However, he moved to Livonia by 1807 as three of his seven children were born there between 1807 and 1814.
Gould’s marriage information is also unclear. Some records indicate he married Patience Dyer on January 1,1795 in Ashford, Connecticut. Other information states she died the same year. At a date unknown he married Rachel Rice who was born in 1775. It is known that the Gould household consisted of seven children born between 1793 and 1814, all of whose parents are listed as Jonathan and Rachel.
Jonathan Gould died March 3. 1816 when his last child was only two years old. The Geneva Gazette, 24 April 1816 reported he died in Livonia. Rachel Gould died March 7, 1830. Rachel and Jonathan are buried in Livonia.
CAPTAIN DANIEL GOULD was born on February 5,1747 in Stoneham, Massachusetts. He first married Mary Porter on February 15, 1770, in Winchendon, Massachusetts. Mary was born on February 14,1749 in Essex County, Massachusetts.
Available information indicates that Daniel Gould did patriotic and civil services in Massachusetts which likely means he did not fight in the war but aided the cause in other ways. The Goulds lived in Winchendon where at least two, possibly four, of his five children were born. In 1787 Daniel and his family were living in Chesterfield, New Hampshire where his fifth child, a daughter, was born.
Daniel served Lima as a Path Master in 1799 and he and his and family are listed in Lima’s 1800 census.
Daniel died September 16,1829 and is buried in the Honeoye Falls Cemetery. Mary died March 9,1837 in East Springfield, Pennsylvania at the home of her son William.
JOSEPH (JO) HAVENS Joseph Havens was born c.1750 in Vermont. Many records state his name as Jo. While Livonia was his home in Livingston County his association with Lima is that he and several family members are buried in the Old Baptist Cemetery on Plank Road.
In his application for a pension in 1833, 82-year-old Havens recounted that he enlisted in January 1776 with Captain or Lieutenant Abner Seeley and marched from Royalton, Vermont, where he lived, and traveled over the Green Mountains to Quebec, then back to Rutland, and then crossed Lake Champlain to Fort Ticonderoga. He also marched to Crown Point and Montreal in the several months of his enlistment. When he returned home, he stated he served as an “Indian spy” or volunteer living upon the frontier.
From September to November 1777, he volunteered to serve again and said he was an eyewitness to the surrender of General Burgoyne. After his term of service, he returned home and continued as a scout. In March and April 1779, he volunteered into Lieutenant Colonel Calvin Parkhurst’s command and in the summer of that year enlisted under the command of Captain Jo Hatch to guard the frontier in Royalton, Vermont. In January 1780 he again volunteered under Colonel Calvin Parkhurst and Zebulon Lyon and spent the winter scouting Vermont’s Mad River, White River, and Onion River. In October he was taken prisoner to Canada and did not return from captivity until October 1781.
On November 8,1781 he married Abigail (surname unknown) in Royalton, Vermont. Abigail was born in 1760. In 1790 the Havens were living in Royalton with three daughters.
It is unknown when the Havens arrived in Livonia but it was likely prior to 1813. Abigail died May 7,1813 and is buried in the Old Baptist Cemetery in Lima. Joseph died July 22,1836 in Livonia at the age of 86 and is also buried in the Old Baptist Cemetery. His three daughters survived him but his will notes that for some years his daughter Eleanor (born c. 1797) had been in ill health and was without other means of support. Census records indicate daughter Anna Havens Taylor (born 1791) was living in Livonia until her
death in 1861. Eleanor was living with the Taylors in 1850. Anna and her husband Benajah, who died in 1862, are also buried at Lima’s Old Baptist Cemetery.
SOLOMON HOVEY was born on March 27,1851 in Mansfield, Connecticut. On December 26,1773 he married Lucy Barlow in Wales, Massachusetts. Lucy was born October 21,1754 in Granville, Massachusetts. Presently it is unclear whether she was the sister or otherwise related to Revolutionary War solder Benjamin Barlow who came to Lima in 1795.
Beginning c. 1775 the Hoveys lived in Wales, Massachusetts as their five children were born there between 1775 and 1786.
In 1777 Solomon served three months as a private in Captain Daniel Winchester’s company of Colonel Ruggles Woodbridge’s Massachusetts regiment. It is believed he may have been present at the battles of Saratoga and the surrender of Burgoyne at Bennington.
In 1788 Solomon, Lucy, their children and Solomon’s mother Mary left Brimfield, Massachusetts for the Utica area and in the 1790 census are listed living at Whites in Montgomery County, New York. They are believed to have settled in Lima c.1791 along with Stephen Tinker.
In 1797 Hovey was selected as the first supervisor of the town of Lima.
Solomon died March 25, 1804. Lucy died in Lima July 16, 1830 in South Lima. Lucy, Solomon and two of their sons are buried in Lima’s Oak Ridge Cemetery.
ZEBULON MOSES was born November 10. 1754 in East Granby, Connecticut. Oher information states that is was East Granby, Vermont. Vermont may be more likely because of all his other associations with the state.
Zebulon’s widow, Hannah, stated that he told her that in 1776 he enlisted in a company of Rangers under Captain Fassett at Rutland, Vermont and served for one year. He then re-enlisted in Rutland for another one to two years as a Ranger under Captain Thomas Lee. He was involved in the Battle of Bennington and under the command of Colonel Seth Warner on that day. However, his family’s pension request was rejected because of lack of sufficient proof of service.
At an unknown date Zebulon is reported to have first married Phebe and had three children born between 1780 and 1785. According to her pension application, Hannah Lee married Zebulon at Rutland in February 1787. Hannah was born January 16,1764 in Gloucester, Massachusetts and was the daughter of Captain Thomas Lee in whose company Zebulon served during the war. They had eight children born between 1787 and 1806.
Smith’s history of Livingston County states that Zebulon came to Lima in 1791 from Rutland, Vermont but Hannah stated in her pension application that they came to Lima from Rutland about seven years after her marriage, which would be c. 1794. The Moses family homestead was located at 2163 Plank Road.
Zebulon died in Lima on August 30,1808 and is buried at the Old Baptist Cemetery.
BENJAMIN KNAPP From 1780 to 1783 Benjamin was a private in the regiment commanded by Colonel Swift of the Connecticut line. He was discharged at West Point, New York.
Hannah, widow of Lima Revolutionary War soldier Zebulon Moses, married Benjamin on September 29,1811 in Lima. Zebulon had died August 30,1808.
In his 1818 application for a pension Benjamin stated that he was a farmer but unable to work because of age and a rheumatic complaint; that his wife Hannah was sickly and unable to labor; his 24-year-old daughter Sally was subject to fits and unable to provide for herself; and his wife’s 13-year-old son Wells Moses was very weakly and unable to labor.
Benjamin received his pension and died in Lima on June 22, 1844. When Hannah applied for and are received a pension after Bemjamin’s death, she only signed with a mark indicating that she may not have been able to read and/or write.
In 1855 Hannah was living in Lima with her daughter Catherine (Moses) and son-in-law Manning Hardy, a blacksmith, and their daughter Jane. Hannah died in Lima on March 23,1860 of pneumonia at age 92 and is buried at the Old Baptist Cemetery alongside Zebulon Moses.
TIMOTHY KIBBE The Livingston Register reported that Timothy Kibbe died in Lima on February 1830 at age 91 and that he has served in the French and the Revolutionary wars. No other information could be found.
BRIGADE MAJOR ABNER MORGAN was born January 1745 or 1746 in Brimfield, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1773 and entered the bar in 1774. That year he prepared a covenant stating that the signers pledge not to buy, sell, import, or use any good made in Great Britain or brought by British ships. The document was signed by residents of Brimfield including his brother Jonathan, Jr. and his cousins, Joseph, John, Jr. and David.
In 1776 he was appointed Major in a Massachusetts regiment of about 750 commanded by Colonel Elisha Porter that undertook the Canada expedition, dealt with smallpox
among the troops and engaged in key battles, including at Montreal and Crown Point, and with General Greene in New Jersey. In 1778 he marched to Quebec. He was also a Brigade Major in the Hampshire County Massachusetts militia. Abner was honorably discharged in 1781. After the war he held several government posts and was chairman of the Brimfield Board of Selectmen for 22 years. On March 31,1796 Abner married Persis Morgan, daughter of his cousin Sergeant David Morgan. Persis was born May 30, 1774. They had five children born between 1797and 1808.
On October 8,1791, Abner Mighells sold Abner Morgan, Esq. of Brimfield, Massachusetts 8000 acres, half of township 10 in the sixth range. On September 17,1795 Morgan sold Ruben Thayer all of his right, interest, and estate in township 10 in the sixth range, with the exception of the three center lots where Colonel David Morgan lived and other numbered 160-acre lots conveyed to him by Thayer and half of the land on the east side of the gore which had not yet been surveyed.
Major Morgan owned land in Lima but may never have lived there. He is listed on Charleston’s 1804 tax assessment rolls, but it states he possessed only land, no house, and includes his name as of Brimfield, Massachusetts. A newspaper account of the marriage of his daughter Persis states that his residence was Brimfield.
When he applied for a pension in April 1831, it was stated that he was now a resident of Avon, late of Brimfield. In that application he attested that though he had previously enjoyed wealth, payments of debts had resulted in him presently owning no real or personal property other than his wearing apparel and he and his wife lived with and were dependent on his son Peyton Randolph Morgan. On April 15,1831 Abner was awarded a government pension.
Peyton attended Yale and was admitted to the bar at Avon Springs but later became a successful attorney in Racine, Wisconsin. Abner died November 5,1837 at age 91 and is buried in Lima at Oak Ridge Cemetery. It is unknown when Persis died and where she is buried.
DAVID MORGAN was born on January 2,1744 in Brimfield, Massachusetts. He married Tabitha Collins on November 27,1766 in Brimfield. Tabitha was also born in Brimfield on February 25, 1746. Tabitha and David had 12 children between 1767 and 1794
In 1776 David was commissioned as a First lieutenant in the Company commanded by Joseph Lyman in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Elisha Porter. Other records indicate in 1775 he was a Massachusetts Minute Man under Capt. Joseph Thompson and Col. Timothy Danielson and served about 16 ½ days.
David may have come to Lima ca. 1795. On April 5,1794 Abner Mighells sold him lot #52 bounded by the highway (likely West Main). On January 7,1795 David purchased
100 acres, part of lot #40, located south of West Main Road on the west side of Livonia Center Road. In 1796 he became Commissioner of Highways and School Commissioner in 1797. Colonel David died on June 12,1817 in Lima. Tabitha died in Lima in May 11,1822. Both are buried in Lima at Oak Ridge Cemetery along with son Abner and his two wives.
ELIJAH MORGAN was born May 31,1758 in Brimfield, Massachusetts. He was brother to David. He married Martha Hitchcock on October 8,1778 at Brimfield. They had two children.
Revolutionary War pension lists include Elijah Morgan as receiving benefits but few details of his life are available especially as there was more than one Elijah Morgan.
Elijah Morgan is listed in the 1790 census of Genesee town. In transactions that occurred in 1792 and 1794 Abner Mighells sold Elijah Morgan all of lot #71, located north and south of Heath-Markham Road.
CORPORAL JOHN MORGAN, JR., was born October 3,1762 in West Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1777 he enlisted at Springfield as a private in Captain John Carpenter’s Company of the Massachusetts Militia and served throughout the war, ending his service as a Corporal under Colonel Gideon Burt. In his pension application he stated that he served with his father, Captain John Morgan guarding the arsenal at Springfield. In 1778 he also was engaged in guarding the arsenal for two terms under Captain Carpenter and continued serving under different commands and locations as far as the Hudson Valley.
On March 22,1786 Morgan married Alice Diane Shaw. According to his pension application Corporal Morgan stated that he came to Lima in February 1792. It is believed that he arrived with his family and his father, Captain John, and mother Margaret. In 1802, Corporal Morgan served as Overseer of Highways in District 1.
Corporal Morgan’s wife died in Lima on December 2,1806 at age 40. It is unclear whether they had any children. In 1808 Corporal Morgan married Mary Pierce and they had one son, Shepard, in 1811. In 1815 Morgan built the large brick home that exists today at 6369 West Main Road.
Mary died in Lima January 2,1837 at age 59. Corporal Morgan died in Lima on December 26,1846 at age 84. John, Mary and son Shepard are buried in Lima at Oak Ridge Cemetery.
CAPTAIN JOHN MORGAN was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on October 13, 1717. He served in the second Massachusetts militia and commanded a company serving in the Northern department and assisted with the relief of Ticonderoga.
John Morgan married Dorothy Belding on October 12,1753 in Springfield, but she died after three years on October 6,1756 in West Springfield at age 31. Three years later Margaret Bannister Mighell married Lieutenant John Morgan at Brimfield, Massachusetts on July 22,1761. Their son John was born in 1762. Margaret was the widow of John Mighell, Jr. who died June 10, 1758.
Information in Lima Historical Society files, possibly contributed by Mabel Jenks, states that Morgan and family came to Lima in 1790 by ox cart and built a log cabin west of the subsequent Morgan home at 6369 West Main Road.
Captain Morgan died September 5,1790 in Rush, NY. Margaret died in Lima July 3,1810 at age 80. Both are buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Lima.
