Ancestral Lines of Chester Everts Howell - (PDF ... - Adkinshorton.net

In Ausburn Towner's History of Chemung Co. it is related that ThomasBurt came from Warwick to Chemung early in the spring of 1786 and that hemarried a sister of Thomas Welling; that in 1796 Thomas Welling Jr. and hiswife Sybil gave to Thomas Burt a deed to land in Lot #7 as "their free act".This may have been in settlement of the estate of Thomas Welling Sr. whosewill made in 1784 was probated in Orange County on April 29, 1796. The nameof the Welling daughter who married Thomas Burt is not known. She may havedied before 1784; certainly her death must have been prior to the earliest grantordeed legally made by Thomas Burt for Chemung land (the one dated 30 July 1801)since her signature here is not found, (as co-grantor) according to the customfollowed in other deeds made at the same time and place. By tradition ThomasBurt married for his second wife Betty Hathorn; his two younger children werenamed Hathorn and Betsey.In his pension application for service in the War of the Revolution, ThomasBurt furnished us with his otherwise unknown birthdate. In this application hestated he was born in Warwick, Orange County, N. Y. May 26, 1752. He wasallowed a pension for part of his war service; this he drew for his last tenyears, until his death on July 24, 1842 aged ninety years.His children:Anna who married Abraham WestbrookPeggy born Oct. 1, 1781 married Abraham BennettThomas born about 1777 married Eunice CookSally born 1787 married Vine BaldwinHathorn born before 1800 died earlyBetsey born before 1800 died unmarriedThe names on this list are from family records. In the County History (Towner's)one finds "Among those who went to school in the first schoolhouse (inChemung) were the Buck, Wyncoop and McDowell children and also Thomas andHathorn Burt and their sisters Peggy, Sally and Betsey". This omits Anna whowas apparently the eldest daughter and probably was married before the schoolopened.The house of Thomas Burt was on the old Sullivan trail laid out in 1779 bythe General's soldiers during the expedition into central New York to paralyzein that region the Indians who were such a menace in the early part of the War.The Battle of Newtown, the decisive conflict of this campaign, was tought ona hill a few miles north of the Indian War Camp site at Chemung. Just north ofthis Indian town, Sullivan's military road left the river bank and was led up overthe side of the steep hill that to the east of the river is a precipitous rock massrising abruptly from the water's edge. This hill with the bend in the rivercreates the rapid water known as the Chemung "narrows".Thomas Burt's house, now gone, was yet standing in 1892 and AusburnTowner wrote a good part of his County History in the house of Miles Baldwin, agrandson of Thomas Burt. The location of the older structure was about fourrods west of the Baldwin house which is a short distance up the hill from thepoint where the old road leaves the present highway at the west edge of Chemungvillage.32