Higley Family History

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THE HIGLEYS ANDTHEIR ANCESTRY

AN OLD COLONIAL FAMILY

BY

MARY COFFIN JOHNSON

"I HAVE WRITTEN FRANKLY,

GARRULOUSLY, AND AT EASE,

SPEAKING OF WHAT GIVES ME

JOY TO REMEMBER

SOMETIMES VERY CAREFULLY OF

WHAT I THINK MAY BE USEFUL

FOR OTHERS TO KNOW, AND

PASSING OVER IN TOTAL SI-

LENCE THINGS WHICH I HAVE NO

PLEASURE IN REVIEWING."Prceterita

LIMITED EDITION

NEW YORK

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

MDCCCXCVI



CHAPTER LXX.

DESCENDANTS OF JOSIAH HIGLEY, 1ST.

Continuedfront chapter xxv.p. 145.

Josiah, ad, Josiah, ist, Captain John Higley.

None are so apt to build and plant for future centuries as those noble-spirited men who have

received their heritages from fargone ages. IRVING.

JOSIAH HIGLEY, ad, the first child of Josiah, ist, and Dinah

(Gillett) Higley, was born in the parish of Turkey Hills, Sims-

bury, Conn., "November ye6th, 1725." He was a young man

of twenty-six at the time of his father's decease. He received,

as a special legacy by his father's will, two and a half acres of

land more than was devised to the other heirs. He served with

his mother as an executor to the estate. It is not known when

or to whom he was married. Soon after his father's death he

purchased of his cousin, Jonathan Higley, land in Turkey Hills

" which formerly belonged to grandfather, Captain John." When

he purchased land in Westfield, Mass., the 8th of February, 1753,

he was described in the deed as "a husbandman of Simsbury."

Before the i2th of April, 1756, he had become a resident of

Salisbury, Litchfield County, Conn., selling his Westfield land.

How long he remained a resident of Salisbury cannot be stated,

but he appears to have returned with his family to Turkey Hills

by the year 1769 or 1770, as he had young children baptized the

beginning of the latter year in the old parish church of St. Andrew,

which was but a few miles away. It is probable that on the death

of his mother he took possession of the old home farm

"

on the

highway that goes from Hatchet Hill to Windsor."

The entire family, about this time, appear to have turned to

the English Church, or Episcopal faith. The difficulties and con-

tentions in the old Simsbury churches which were established by

the early founders had a weaning effect upon the next generation,

and many of the third generation severed their connection and

drifted away. During Josiah, zd's, time the Rev. Gideon Mills,

658



DESCENDANTS OF JOSIAH HIGLEY, 1ST. 659

who married Josiah's cousin, Elizabeth Higley, was for a number

of years the pastor of the Simsbury Church, also the Rev. Ben-

ajah Roots, his successor, whose son afterward married one of

the Higley girls. The tide of disunity ran high through the

last years of both of their pastorates. Difficulties and disputes

arose on different points ; among other chief bones of contention

came up the subject of singing, when, in 1773, it was settled,

for a time, by a "vote to sing new tunes half the time and

old ones the other half." While this state of things existed,

although this was not the society to which Josiah Higley, ist, had

lent his active aid in founding, the troubles had a perceptible

influence in alienating the younger Higleys in both societies.

The Rev. Roger Viets, however, who was a native of the town

and lived in the vicinity of Josiah Higley, zd, and was a graduate

of Yale College, went to London, in 1763, for ordination as an

Episcopal clergyman, and soon after returned to Simsbury, where

he became the rector of St. Andrew's parish. He was "a man

of more than medium talents, and his ministry was greatly

blessed," his labor meeting with acceptance and success. Inthis church Josiah, ad's, children and some of his cousins were

confirmed.

Josiah Higley, 2d, like his progenitors, had patriot blood in his

veins. He enlisted in the Revolutionary Army"for the war,

May 5th, 1778," joining the 3d Connecticut Regiment, Captain

William Judd's Company. He was then a little past middle life.

It is altogether probable that he was in the engagement at Mon-

mouth, N. J., as he was with Washington's main army that sum-

mer, and went into camp at White Plains. He was reported

"missing" the following November. The tradition in his

family and descendants has always been that he was drowned

while crossing a river when his regiment was transferred, late in

the autumn, to winter quarters at Reading. He was never heard

of afterward.

" Who of you all shall say

That from this bright array

Which glorifies to-day,

Where blended lights of past and present play,

Comrades beloved are banished,

Miscalled the vanished ?

It is not given to our clouded eyes

To see these heroes in celestial guise



660 THE HIGLEYS AND THEIR ANCESTRY.

Come thronging back down heaven's starry arch,

Each old commander urging on the march

From rapturous Paradise.

While stars, which in their courses helped them fight

To save our goodly heritage from blight,

Attend their steps with soft supernal light

Back through death's ebon portal

Behold them come, bright, radiant, immortal !

"'

Children of Josiah Higley, 2<3 :

Charity, Anna, Josiah, 3d, Jesse, ist, Philander, Sylvester, and

Theodocia.

CHARITY HIGLEY, the oldest child of Josiah Higley, 2d, was born at Salisbury,

Conn., September 13, 1756. She was baptized and confirmed by the Rev. Roger

Viets in the Church of St. Andrew (Bloomfield, Conn.), May 14, 1775. Nothing

further is known of her.

ANNA HIGLEY, the second child of Josiah Higley, 2d, was born October, 1760.

She was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal faith on the same day with her

sister, Charity. She was married in the same church, in 1794, to John Smith.

There is no further record of her.

JOSIAH HIGLEY, 3d, the first son of Josiah Higley, 2d, was

born at Salisbury, Conn., September 4, 1762. The following

public announcement is taken from the original town records at

Becket, Mass. :

9

"Intentions of marriage between Josiah Higley and Deliverance Carpenter, both of

Becket, was entered April ist, 1786."

The couple were duly united in marriage and settled in Becket.

On the 2oth of June, 1800, Josiah sold land to Moses Hall, Jr.,

of Syringham, Mass. From the earliest record of him he

appears to* have possessed property. About the year 1811 a large

colony banded together in Berkshire County, Massachusetts,

mostly residents of Becket, and migrated to Nelson Township,

Portage County, O. Among the number was Hezekiah, the

oldest son of Josiah and Deliverance Higley. This emigration

of their son appears to have animated the parents to remove to

Ohio at a later date.

On the i6th of April, 1815, Josiah Higley, 3d, purchased of

Ephraim Root of Hartford County, Connecticut, 418 acres of

1 From William H. McElroy's" None Missing.''

a " Becket Records," book ii. p. too.



DESCENDANTS OF JOSIAH HIGLEY, 1ST. 66 1

land, located in the "Massachusetts settlement" in Portage

County, Ohio, for which he paid $1032.' To this unsettled

and forest-covered township, which civilization had scarcely

reached, he emigrated with his wife and a large family of

children, all of whom were born at Becket, Mass. The jour-

ney was made in the teeth of formidable difficulties. Josiah

Higley was at the time an invalid, suffering with a lingering-

consumption, and was carried the long, rough route upon a bed

placed in the wagon. To accumulate landed property for his

children before his death was evidently his ambition.

Early in the year 1817 he conveyed to each child a portion of

land, and on the i3th of March, 1820, he conveyed a perpetual

lease to his wife, Deliverance Higley, of Lot 50, Nelson Town-

ship, "for her own proper use." This lot lay adjoining lands

owned by different members of his family in their own rights.

His pulmonary difficulties continued, though his life appears to

have been prolonged more than five years after his removal to

Ohio. The exact date of his death, which took place in the year

1821, is not known. His wife lived to a good old age, dying at

the home of her son Hector Higley, about the year 1852.

Josiah Higley, 3d, and his wife, Deliverance, were the parents

of the following children :

Polly, Hezekiah, Josiah, 4th, Sevilla, Adelia, Sophia, Philander,

Charity, Betsey, Hector, and Vashti,

POLLY, the eldest child, lived to womanhood and died unmarried.

HF.ZEKIAH HIGLEY, the second child of Josiah, 3d, and Deliverance Higley,

was born in Becket, Mass., probably in the year 1789 or 1790. He was one of the

earliest settlers of Nelson Township, Portage County, Ohio, coming when a young

man, having, previous to the declaration of War in 1812, passed his majority. He

made extensive purchases of land, in time becoming a large land holder and a promi-

nent and worthy citizen. He was a man always well-to-doin, the world, of ener-

getic character, and exerted considerable influence in the community.

The military spirit of his forefathers was his inheritance by blood, and the

motive power to quick action when the second war with Great Britain threatened

the young republic. He was among the first to enter the Ohio State Militia, Cap-

tain John Campbell's company of riflemen Volunteers, the 2d Company, ist Bat-

talion, 2d Regiment, 4th Brigade. Soon after the organization of this regiment

war was declared, June 18, 1812. His company received orders to meet at the

house of Captain Campbell on July I. On that date"the men pitched their tents,

which were made of homespun linen sheets. The command had no uniforms, but

each man was'

armed to the teeth'

with a rifle, a tomahawk, and a large knife.

1 " Records Portage County, O.," vol. ii. p. 510.

43



662 THE HIGLEYS AND THEIR ANCESTRY.

His company soon after started for the frontier." How long he was at the front

is not known. He is again found in the ranks, July 14, with the 1st Company,

ist Battalion, serving as a substitute for Seth Cole, who had been drafted. He was

again among the soldiers who were suddenly called to arms to defend the frontier,

on the 24th of August, remaining at the front till the ist of September.

After the close of the war he married Jerusha ;the maiden name of his

wife and the date of their marriage is unknown.

On the 28th of November, 1816, he purchased of his father one hundred acres

of land in Nelson, for which he paid three dollars an acre. He also was the owner

of lands in Fredonia Township, and for a time he lived on a farm in the township

of Hiram.

Later in life he removed to Clyde, Sandusky County, O., where he resided till

he reached the advanced age of ninety-three. It was with one of his sons, Orsen

Higley, that he spent the last years of his life.

Hezekiah and Jerusha Higley had a family, of which no particulars have been

furnished for these pages.

JOSIAH HIGLEY, 4th, the third child of Josiah, 3d, and Deliverance Higley, was

born at Becket, Mass., removing with his parents to Nelson Township, Portage

County, Ohio, about the year 1815. From his father he received, November 20,

1816, a conveyance of"

lots Nos. 51 and 52, in Township 5. This was probably

about the time of his marriage with Huldah Lamb. He sold this farm, December

19, 1825, and removed to Newburg, Cuyahoga County, O. His wife afterward

became insane. They had children, viz.:

Josiah Higley, 5th, Elisha, Philetus, Sarah, and Jane. Sarah married

Vincent.

SEVILLA, the fourth child of Josiah, 3d, and Deliverance Higley, married

Sweet. In the years 1817-18 she and her sister Charity purchased and sold con-

siderable land in the township, apparently on speculation. Sevilla and her husband

resided in Hiram, Portage County, O. She died, leaving a daughter, Eveline.

ADELIA, the fifth child of Josiah, 3d, and Deliverance Higley, married Grant

Redding. They had one son, Jack, who went to Nauvoo, 111. The family all

removed West.

SOPHIA, the sixth child, married, first, Ward Smith, who died while yet a young

man. Her second marriage was to Seth Jefferson. Her children, all of whom

were born of her first marriage, were :

Porter, Lucy, Sylvester, Wallace, and Mary.

PHILANDER HIGLEY, the seventh child, married, May 7, 1818, Charlotte Adams

of Hiram Township, where they afterward resided. No further information of

them is received.

CHARITY HIGLEY, the eighth child, was born in Becket, Mass., about the year

1801. Some time after emigrating to Ohio with her parents, she, together with her

sister Sevilla, entered pretty extensively into the purchase and exchange of lands

which lay in Portage County. She married William Knowlton of Nelson, Portage

County, and settled in the same township, where they resided much respected

citizens till the close of their lives. They had children, viz. :

Cyrus, Sidney, Elmina, and Porter. The two brothers, Sidney and Porter

Knowlton, are now residents of the township.

BETSEY, the ninth child of Josiah, 3d, and Deliverance Higley, was born in

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Higley Family History