Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

i8, 1680. He married, April 11, 1706,
Susannah Bell.
(IV) Abraham (2) Weed, son of Abraham
(i) and Susannah (Bell) Weed,
married, January 11, 1727 or 1728, Naomi
Pond.
(V) Peter Weed, son of Abraham (2)
and Naomi (Pond) Weed, was bom
March 29, 1745. He married, June i,
1768, Esther Bouton.
(VI) Zenas Weed, son of Peter and
Esther (Bouton) Weed, was born Au-
gust 24, 1790. He lived the greater part
of his life in New Canaan, Connecticut.
He was an industrious, thrifty man, and
besides following farming was a skilled
shoemaker. He married Betsey R. Comstock,
daughter of Abijah and Betsey
(Raymond) Comstock. This family were
descendants of William Comstock, an
early settler of New London.
(VII) Rufus Weed, son of Zenas and
Betsey R. (Comstock) Weed, was born in
New Canaan, Connecticut. He received
a thorough grounding in the essentials of
education in the public schools of that
town. He then learned the shoemaker's
trade. But he was not a young man to
sit quietly down and watch the world
pass by him, and he looked upon his trade
more as an equipment in case of emergency
than as a definite life work. He
left home at an early age and went to
New York City, where he secured a posi-
tion as clerk in a grocery store. He remained
there until he had acquired a
working knowledge of the business, then
opened a store for himself. His location
was the corner of Seventeenth street and
Tenth avenue, quite well uptown some
seventy-odd years ago. He continued in
business for some years, then was ofifered
an excellent position on the police force
of New York City, which he accepted.
Later he resigned and went into draying.
In this line, as in the grocery business.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
406
he operated for himself. The rapidly increasing
trade of the Metropolis made
this a profitable venture. He increased
his equipment judiciously, and after he
had acquired a sufficient sum of money
for further ventures disposed of the business
to advantage and went to Wiscon-
sin. This was in 1855, and he found him-
self one of the early pioneers of that State.
He bought a quarter section of land, erec-
ted a house for his little family, and remained
there for seven years. The open
spaces appealed to him, and the opportu-
nity of shaping the beginnings of the State
thrilled him as his ancestors had been
thrilled by early Colonial life in the East.
In 1862, still imbued with the pioneer
spirit, he pressed farther West, removing
to Minnesota. Here he again established
himself and his family, and here he died
in the home he had chosen for himself
rather than any place circumstances
might have apportioned him. His wife
was Charlotte Bowman, daughter of Samuel
Bowman, whose family home was
near Freehold, Monmouth county. New
Jersey. Of their six children four grew
to maturity ; the children were as follows :
Augustus, of
Eugene Zenas, deceased ;
whom further ; William, deceased ; Harriet,
who married James Pike, of Aurora,
Brookings county, Dakota ; Ithiel ; and
Charles, of Rochester, Minnesota. The
family were members of the Congregational
church, of which the father was
deacon for many years.
(VIII) Eugene Augustus Weed, the
second son of Rufus and Charlotte (Bowman)
Weed, was born in New York City,
December 22, 1847. ^t was in Wisconsin
that he began attending school, and he
enjoyed only the advantages aflforded by
the primitive schools of the pioneer country.
But many men of orderly minds and
a capacity for assimilating information
have won their way to success with no