Historical Wyoming County April 1957 - Old Fulton History

April 1957 Page 8 9
A REVOLTJTIOT'ARY HERITAGE (cont.)
Thayer, progenitor of one of the very oldest families in town. His
stone, now broken, revealed that he was 82 years old when he died
Feb. 20, I836. The inscription included the familiar epitaph:
"In early life in Freedom's cause
I fought to set my country free,
But now a slave to Nature's laws
That tyrant Death has con uered me."
Gideon Thayer, the son of Thomas Thayer 3rd, and Susannah Blake
Thayer, was born in Smithfield, R. I., to which his branch of the
family had moved from Massachusetts. He was married to Meribah
Wilcox of Smithfield, June 10, 1776, and removed to Mendon, Mass.
From there he served in the armies of the War for Independence, and
is said to have been among the first to receive a pension from the
government. His hatred of Tories was so intense and permanent, that
at the age of eighty he could hardly be restrained from caning a man
whom he suspected of having b'en one. After the close of the war,
he removed to Owego, H.Y., and afterwards to Lima, N.Y., where he
resided through his last yerrs. It is possible that he came to live
with his son, Willard, shortly after 1833, and died in Gainesville.
Willard Thayer articled the first land in 1 ; 06 on Lot 7 in
Gainesville. He was the eldest son of Gideon, born at Mendon, Mass.,
Mar. 1, 1784. He cleared a portion of the land, erected a log cabin
upon it, and returned to Owego, N. Y., to marry Phebe Harris,Feb. 9,
l809. The young couple then began housekeeping on this frontier.
Willard was Supervisor of Gainesville several terms; his second son
was General Linus Willard. Thayer, born in 1811, subsequently a prominent
lawyer and judge of Warsaw. Phebe Harris Thayer died March 12,
1817, aged 28, while Willard lived until March 23, 1862, aged 78
years. Both are buried on the old homestead cemetery with their
neighbors.
Other Veterans
Gardner Taber, who died Nov. 15, 1828, age 88 years,is interred
in the older portion of the cemetery at Perry Center. Nothing whatever
has come to light about his military record but his name is included
on the listing since many years ago a Mrs.Edith Taber Squires
came from out of town to see the grave of her ancestor and informed
the late Mr. B. B. Tweksbury that Mr. Taber was a soldier of the
Revolution. The visitor did not reveal any of the details nor her
place of residence.
Unsuccessful efforts have likewise been made to locate the
grave of Martin Terry, living in the Town of Sheldon in 18I|_0 with
one John Howe and on the pension list. The "Western New-Yorker" in
l8i|2 revealed that the veteran had celebrated his 100th birthday.
Buried in a private cemetery west of Varysburg on the former
Jeffrey F. Thomas farm of about 300 acres, is the body of Lodowick
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