Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2025 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= The Vermont Phoenix Brattleboro Friday, 23 March, 1894 NEWFANE'S EARLIEST SETTLERS Some Suggestions Regarding the Plan to Mark their Graves and Fix Historical Spots The plan mentioned in the Newfane correspondence of The Phoenix of marking historical places on Newfane hill and setting memorials at the unmarked graves of the early settlers of Newfane by the southeast corner of the old fair ground, seems very commendable. Of course pains should and will be taken to have the right names put upon them. In the article upon Newfane in Thompson's Gazeteer, written by Gen. Martin Field, a man of great accuracy, about 1823, the name of MR. DYER, one of these settlers, was by some mistake given as EBENEZER. That his name was, however, JOSEPH, and not EBENEZER, appears very clear from records made very early, about which mistakes would be improbable. A census taken in 1771 under an order of WILLIAM TRYON, royal governor of the province of New York, by the sheriffs through deputies and constables. Here is the return for Newfane, then within the jurisdiction of that province: "A true list of the names of the head of every family in the town of New Fane: HEZEKIAH BOYDEN, JOSEPH DYER, JOSEPH DYER, JR., EBENEZER FLETCHER, THOS. GREEN, EBENEZER MERRICK, JONATHAN PARK, SAM'L RICHARDSON. Males under 16 12 Males above 16 and under 60 14 Females above 16 11 Males 60 and upwards 1 Blacks None Total 52 No. of heads of families 8 "Sir, I have gone through the business assigned me in your warrant with as much care as possibly I could, and if there be any errors please to excuse them. From your humble Serv't NATHANIEL STEDMAN, Constable. New Fane, April ye 20th, 1771 To DANIEL WHIPPLE, Esq." The names of the first settlers would be in this return, and that of MR. DYER was placed there as JOSEPH by MR. STEDMAN, who, among the few people then here, must have been an intimate neighbor and acquaintance. MR. DYER died Sept. 2, 1800, aged 90, and his death is recorded as that of JOSEPH DYER. This error as to the given name of MR. DYER has been brought along into the history of Newfane, although the want of any EBENEZER DYER in the records of the town has been noticed by the historians. This want is accounted for by the name of this first settler being JOSEPH and not EBENEZER. At the time of this census EBENEZER MERRICK lived at the DANIEL FISHER place, the next but one below DYER'S on West river. He sold out there to DANIEL FISHER Feb. 24, 1776, but lived afterwards in that neighborhood, was killed by the falling of a tree Jan. 9, 1779, and probably was buried at that place with these other early settlers. HEZEKIAH BOYDEN lived on the side hill east of the road and north of the common; EBENEZER FLETCHER west of the road at the first forks south of the common; JONATHAN PARK north of the road down the first hill east of the common; SAMUEL RICHARDSON south of the road at the second place below the first fork east of the common; NATHANIEL STEDMAN, then single, east of the road by a little brook nearly half a mile north of the common; and THOMAS GREEN south of the road about a mile further northeast, near the JUDGE ALLEN place, all on Newfane hill. The histories mention the meeting house started in 1792 and built on top of the hill at the southeast corner of the common, as the first meeting-house; but the record of a deed from AARON MERRIFIELD to ANDREW GRIMES, dated Dec. 8, 1785, de- scribes lands on "the road from the meeting-house to MR. THOMAS GREEN'S," and the road "from the meet- ing house to Brattleboro" is mentioned in a deed from JUDGE KNOWLTON to DR. STONE of the first place north of that road below the first forks, dated Aug. 10, 1787. This shows that there was a meeting-house before that one. There was a graveyard at the north- east corner of the common, and this meeting-house was probably built early, or it would have done later, and soon after the church was organized in 1774, on the east side of the common near the grave- yard. NATHANIEL STEDMAN was married probably in 1772 and then settled on the STEDMAN farm on the hill east of Fayettevile; and JONATHAN PARK moved at about that time to where the savings bank stands north of the tavern in Fayetteville. They were buried in the cemetery there. The settlers who died on the hill were probably buried in the grave- yard at the northeast corner of the common, from which the bodies were moved to where the cemetery now is on the south side of the road about half a mile east of the common. ===========================================================================