Ancestor Birthday - October 1 - John Howe 1732

John Howe was my 5th gt-grandfather, born 1 Oct 1732, in Wallingford, the Colony of Connecticut. John's parents were Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Gaylord) Howe. The Howe Genealogies published in 1929 listed 11 siblings for John with at least 6 of his siblings living long enough to be married. It showed that 4 died as young children.

In the History of the town of Goshen, Connecticut a listing of marriages showed that John married twice: 1 Apr 1756 to Mary Wadhams and on 15 Apr 1766 to Lydia Norton. After he and Mary had 4 children: Mary, Experience, Anna and Deliverance, Mary died 30 Sept 1765.

John and Lydia had 7 children: John, Ichabod (my 4th gt-grandfather), Isaac, Luman, Daniel, Seth, and Lydia.

Since I had not found a death date for John, I checked some of the family trees on Ancestry.com. It was easy to see that one which said he died in 1736 was incorrect. But one gave a date of 1781 in Canaan Connecticut. The Howe Genealogies stated that John had moved to Canaan in 1766, apparently after his marriage to Lydia. The youngest child was born about 1779, so this date was plausible. Most researchers have left his death date blank, so I probably will also until I find some evidence about when and where he died.

Ancestor Birthday - June 5 - Ichabod Howe - 1769-1857

Litchfield County, Connecticut

It seems so fitting that my 4th great-grandfather, Ichabod Howe, lived at Cornwall Hollow in the town of Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut. He was the son of John Howe and John's second wife, Lydia Norton. John married his first wife, Mary Wadhams, in 1756 and they had 4 children before Mary died in 1765. So Ichabod had 4 older half-siblings as he was growing up. John's 2 marriages and the births of the 4 older children were recorded in Goshen vital records. The Howe Genealogies published in 1929 state that the family moved to Canaan Connecticut in 1766, apparently after John and Lydia's marriage 15 Apr 1766. Ichabod was born on 5 Jun 1769, the 2nd of 7 children born to Lydia. At least 3 of these children died young.

Ichabod was in the town of Cornwall by the 1800 census. The censuses before 1850 only name the head of household and give numbers for the various age categories, so it is difficult to know who the members of the household were. Tomorrow (6 Jun 2017) I will plan to write about some of my conclusions about the census entries for Ichabod's family.

As his father did, Ichabod also had two wives. His first wife, Irene Scovill, died in 1813 and his second wife, Lucy ? , died in 1841. Both are buried in the Cornwall Hollow Cemetery. I have not found a record for Ichabod's burial after his death 30 Apr 1857.

The town meeting minutes for Cornwall mention Ichabod Howe as one of the surveyors of highways in 1803, 1811, 1821 and 1822. In Theodore S. Gold's book of Historical Records of the Town of Cornwall..., there is a section on ecclesiastical history. Ichabod was named as one of those "brought into this fold of Christ" in a revival held in 1795. By 1822 he was listed as one of the deacons on the committee "to settle difficulties between brothers." In a historical address given in 1865, the following was written about him as one of the prominent laymen of the church: "Ichabod Howe will be remembered as a man of Pauline gentleness, and Christlike spirit of self-sacrifice for his brother's good. To a life of rectitude and consecration he added a very fitting closing chapter, by giving himself almost wholly to visitation of the parish and prayerful lay-labors for the conversion of men to his dear Lord. He died in 1857." It makes me feel good that he had this good reputation.

Ancestor Birthday - Lydia Norton - 5 March 1739/40

Lydia Norton was a 5th great-grandmother of mine. I seem to have very little information about her. Her entry on my website shows that she was born on 5 Mar 1739/40 in Durham, Connecticut, the daughter of Isaac Norton. She married John Howe, the son of Jeremiah Howe and Elizabeth Gaylord, on 15 Apr 1766. There is one child listed for her: Ichabod Howe. And that is all that is there.

What more can I tell about her?

Well, I can add her mother's name: Mary Rockwell.

From her father's will: she had at least 4 brothers: Silvanus, Isaac Jr, Aaron and Joel.

and she had at least 4 sisters: Abigail, Mary, Anna and Deborah.

Her marriage was recorded at Goshen, Litchfield County, Connecticut.

She was John's second wife, so became a step-mother to at least 2, maybe 4 young children.

The birth of her first child, John, was recorded at Goshen.

Her second son Ichabod was said to have been born in Canaan, Litchfield County, Connecticut.

She probably had about 7 children.

Now there needs to be some effort on my part to get this information entered into my database so it can be uploaded to my website.

But as seems to often be the case from this time period, I don't have information about her death. I need to keep looking.