Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

seed from cotton. It was necessary for
him to even draw the iron himself, but
he completed the cotton gin toward the
end of 1792, a monument to inventive
genius and perseverance. Fulton went
on record as saying that Arkwright,
Whitney and Watts were the three men
who achieved the most for mankind in
their time. Eli Whitney married Henri-
etta Frances Edwards, born in 1786,
daughter of
New Haven.
Hon. Pierpont Edwards, of
Five children were born to
them : Frances Edwards, married Charles
L. Chaplain ; Elizabeth Fay ; Eli ; Benja-
min, and Josiah.
(III) Nathan Whitney, son of John
and Elizabeth (Smith) Whitney, was
born at Norwalk, Connecticut, and mar-
ried, in 1715, a woman whose Christian
name was Sarah. They settled at Ridgefield
on a piece of land conveyed to Nathan
Whitney on February 5, 1718, by
Joseph Keeler, Henry Whitney, and Matthew
St. John "for and in consideration
of the brotherly love and fraternal affec-
tion we have and do bear towards our
well beloved brother, Nathan Whitney of
ye town of Ridgefield aforsed." On December
9, 1728, at Ridgefield, he took the
freeman's oath, and both were living as
late as 1739. Nathan and Sarah Whitney
were the parents of: Mary, Eliasaph,
Eliakim, Sarah, Nathan (died young),
Nathan, Seth, Josiah, Jeremiah, Uriah,
Aun.
(IV) Uriah Whitney, son of Nathan
and Sarah Whitney, was born in Ridge-
field, Connecticut, November 12, 1737.
On January 6, 1773, he bought a farm and
dwelling house in Simsbury, Connecticut,
and was then called of Farmington, Con-
necticut, but Farmington records only
show the first record, April 28, 1728, when
he bought land in Northington parish,
now Avon, at a place called "the old
farm," which he sold January 29, 1781.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
240
The farm in Simsbury contained sixty
acres and "was within the first ledge of
the West Mountain." Uriah Whitney
married (first) Sarah Piatt, of whom
nothing further is known. He married
(second) in February, 1775, Marth (Hart)
Owen, daughter of Samuel and Eliza-
beth (Thompson) Hart, and widow of
Daniel Owen. About 1795 Uriah Whitney
and his family moved to East
Granville, Massachusetts, where both
died, he in June, 1816, she March 5, 1819.
Both were buried in East Granville Old
Cemetery. Tradition says he was a sailor
and a soldier of the Revolution, captured
by the British at White Plains, also being
counted as the seventh son, he was often
asked to touch for the "King's evil." He
had three sons and a daughter by wife,
Marth (Hart) Owen: Samuel Piatt,
Lucy, Seth, Thaddeus.
(V) Samuel Piatt Whitney, son of
Uriah and Marth (Hart-Owen) Whitney,
was born at Simsbury, Connecticut, November
8, 1775, and died in Montville,
Ohio, December 15, 1871, aged ninety-six
years, one month, seven days. He was
three days too young to vote at the presi-
dential election of 1796, but voted at each
succeeding election until his death. In
1795 he moved with his father to East
Granville, Massachusetts, and married
Lois Buttles, on March 11, 1799, at her
father's house in East Granville. Lois
Whitney was born at Granby, Connecticut,
March 18, 1772, daughter of Jonathan
and Lois (Viets) Buttles. Until 1834
they lived in East Granville, and then set-
tled in Montville, Ohio, where they cele-
brated their diamond wedding (seventyfive
years) at the home of their son, John
Viets Whitney, on March 11, 1870, where
Mrs. Whitney still lived in 1874, aged
ninety-two years. At the diamond wed-
ding, their descendants were reported to
number twelve children, of whom nine