Genealogical story (Dayton and Tomlinson)

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Given By

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LAURA DAYTON FESSENDEN.

GENEALOGICAL STORY

(DAYTON AND TOMLINSON )

TOLD BY

LAURA DAYTON FESSENDEN

1902.
Crist, Scott & Parshall, Publisher!

COOPERSTOWX. X. V.

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NOV 2 4 19S2 0 3 1

Copyrighted 1902

BY

Laura Dayton Fessenden.

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1 ' Happiegoluckie . ' '

Highland Park, Illinois.

This book has not been compiled in any spirit of vain
glory. It is printed and published as an individual fam-
ily memorial of an honest lineage. Naturally our link is
part of a great chain and with this thought in view, the
edition will be sufficiently large to enable us to present
copies to certain libraries devoted to genealogical research.

All the auto-biography has been written entirely and
exclusively by me and I am grateful in having been per-
mitted to have my way in the matter of its publication.

Laura Dayton Fessenden

January 1902.

" The history of any private family, however humble,
could it be fully related for five or six generations, illustrates
the state and progress of society better than any elaborate
dissertation."

" Each human being possesses forces and qualities
that may date back centuries and find their origin in the
life and in the thoughts, and in the deeds of remote ances-
tors. Forces the germs of which are enveloped in the awful
mysteries of life, and are transmitted silently through the
generations. Thus each new life is the heir of the ages."

TO MY

NIECES AND NEPHEWS

AND TO MY

OWN DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS.

1| dedicate this true story of ''Many Well Spent
Yesterdays." That they may hold in grateful
and loving remembrance their grandparents, Maria Annis
Tomlinson and Abram Child Dayton, who were made
man and wife in the City of New York on the Third day
of September, in the year of our Lord Eighteen Hun-
dred and Forty-four.

Contents.

Adams, 3

Aymar, 191

Babbington, 216

Beach 118

Belon, 204

Booth 119

Bowers, 127

Brewster 218

Buel 44

CaNfield 35

Child 183

copeleyand 207

Coventry, 215

Dayton, 131

DeDuffield, 201

Delano 191

DeMorton 200

Dickenson , 122

Fairchild, 121

Glover 128

Green 211

Griswold. 125

Hanks, 217

Hawley 129

Hyde 126

Jenkinson, 214

Loomis 124

moffitt, i94

Peck 123

Pool 212

Reed 206

Rogers 209

Stapleton 202

Tomlinson, 73, 205

Treat „6

Vasby 213

Van Dusen, 203

Vele 208

Wheeler 210

WlLLOUGHBY, 197

^TOODRUFF 219

Illustrations.

Frontispiece — Laura Dayton Fessenden.

The Corner of the Den at "Happiegotuckie" where
the Genealogical Story was written.

"Happiegohickie."

Cornelia Laura (Adams) Tomlinson from a minia-
ture 1825.

Maria Annis (Tomlinson) Dayton, from photo 18/6.

Charles Willoughby Dayton, from miniature about
1822.

Abram Child Dayton, from a miniature about 1835.

Abram Child Dayton, from a miniature about 1838.
(^/t^^hCJlbram GJM Dayton, from a miniature about 1848.

Hon. Charles Willoughby Dayton, from photo 1901.

Chcrles Willoughby Dayton, Jr., from photo when
at Harvard College, 1895.

John Nezvman Dayton from photo, ipoi.

Laura Adams Dayton.

William Adams Dayton, M. D., photo, by Moreno
1891.

Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton and William Adams
Dayton, Jr.

The Fessenden Children and their Mother.

Alice Griswold Hyde Fessenden, from photo. 1901.

Dorothy Dayton Fessenden from photo. 1901.

Aymar Child Fessenden, from photo. 1901.

Benjamin Hurd Fessenden, from photo. 1894.

Alice, Dorothy and Ben Fessenden, from photo.
1901.

Laura Augusta (Newman) Dayton, from photo.
i877.

Laura Augusta (Newman) Dayton, from photo.
J901.

Benjamin A. Fessenden.
Abram Delano Ch.ild.
Eliza Delano (Child) Freeman.
Fannie Aymar (Mohhtt) Child.

THE CHILDREN OF

""an umm

AND

HID

CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON,
LAURA CANFIELD SPENCER (DAYTON) FESSENDEN,
WILLIAM ADAMS DAYTON,
HAROLD CHILD DAYTON,
The children who died at birth (or in babyhood)
are
MARIA ANNIS DAYTON,
JOHN CANFIELD DAYTON,
THEODORE EDWIN DAYTON,
CORNELIA BLOW DAYTON,

A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

The Grandchildren of
Abram Child Dayton and Maria Annis Dayton,
are
Charles Willoughby Dayton (Junior),

Aymar Child Fessenden,
Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton,

John Newman Dayton,
Alice Griswold Hyde Fessenden,

Laura Adams Dayton,
William Adams Dayton (Junior) .
Benjamin Hurd Fessenden,
Dorothy Dayton Fessenden,
Hayden Child Dayton.

The Grandchildren who have died

are

Luke Lockwood Dayton,

Son of

LAURA AUGUSTA (NEWMAN)

and

CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON,

Anne Bncknani, and Laura,

Children of

BENJAMIN ARTHUR

and

LAURA (DAYTON) FESSENDEN.

Nellie,

Daughter of

MARGARET (HAYDEN)

and

HAROLD CHILD DAYTON.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON.

As our mother, MARIA ANNIS (TOMLINSON)
DAYTON, was deeply interested in all that concerned
her ancestors, it seems fitting that she should lead in

this research.

ADAMS

(i) William Adams,

(2) Nathaniel Adams,

(3) William Adams,

(4) Samuel Adams,

(5) Andrew Adams,

(6) Andrew Adams,

(7) Cornelia Laura (Adams) Tomlinson,

(8) Maria Annis (Tomlinson) Dayton.

(1)
WILLIAM ADAMS.

William Adams was a "Freeman" of Massachu-
setts, as early as 1635. He lived at Cambridge for a
time, and then removed to Ipswich where he died in
1 66 1. The name of his wife (or wives) is unknown.
but it is known that he had four sons whose names
were William, Samuel, John and Nathaniel.

(2)
NATHANIEL ADAMS.

Nathaniel Adams was born in Ipswich. Massa-
chusetts, in 1642. He married Mercy Dickenson.

A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

Nathaniel died in 171 5, leaving four sons, Nathaniel,
Thomas, William and Samuel.

(3)
WILLIAM ADAMS.

William Adams was born in Ipswich in 1678. He

was twice married ; first to Abigail , secondly

to Mary . He removed from Ipswich to

New Milford, Connecticut, in 1699, and from New
Milford he went to Stratford, where he died on the
second of September, 171 3. He left four daughters
and two sons. The daughters were Abigail, Mehet-
able, Esther and Elizabeth. The sons, Samuel and
William. This William Adams (3) was one of the
earliest lawyers of Connecticut.

(4)
SAMUEL ADAMS.

Samuel Adams was born in New Milford, Connec-
ticut, in 1706. His father, William Adams (3), had
not intended that his elder son should enter upon a
professional career, arranging, for some reason best
known to himself, that his namesake, William, should
be the lawyer, and Samuel take the farm ; but Samuel
had a strong will, a fine mind, and indefatigable
persistency. He mastered all opposing conditions, and
without the aid of tutors or instructors, with a scanty
supply of legal text books at his command, he by spencl-

NOTE.— In 1745 Samuel Adams was one of the Five Captains of the
Connecticut troupe: Roger Wolcott. Commander in Chief: Andrew Burr. Col-
onel; Simon Lathrop, Lieutenant Colonel: Israel Newton. Major Captains:
Elizur Goodrich, David Wooster. Stephen Lee, Samuel Adams and John Dwight.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON.

ing the greater part of each day in study, in due time
passed a creditable examination, and was admitted to
practice. He removed from New Milford to Stratford,
Connecticut, and was for many years one of the town's
most honored citizens. He held during his life many
offices of trust, both military and civil, and at one
time was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of
Fairfield county.

Samuel Adams' nature was so noble, and his in-
fluence for good so great, that he retained to the day
of his death the title of "Peace Maker." He married on
the 7th of March, 1728, Mary Fairchild, a daughter of
Zacharias and Hannah Fairchild of Stratford, and
it is interesting to know that Mary (Fairchild) Adams,
when she died on the 29th of August, 1803,
was one hundred and six years old. The "Litchfield
Monitor" of September 7th, 1803, said: "After her
centennial birthday, Mrs. Adams rode thirty miles on
horse-back in one afternoon, and during the last two
years of her life, she frequently walked two miles to
visit friends." To return to Samuel Adams, he was
a loving husband, a kind father, and an excellent
neighbor. During the war of the American Revolu-
tion he was a most ardent patriot. Late in life he
removed to Litchfield, Connecticut, where he died
November the 12th, 1788, in the 82nd year of his age.
The children of Samuel Adams and Mary (Fairchild)
Adams were Samuel, Elijah, Andrew and Mary. The
following is a copy of a letter written by Samuel
Adams to his daughter-in-law, Eunice CBuel) Adams
of Litchfield.

A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

"Pawlington, 22 May, 1782.

Smith starts this morning for Litchfield, and I write
to tell you that although old and feeble, I have a great
desire to see you again, but I willingly leave all things
with my Redeemer. I hope that you and all yours
may be prepared, when God shall call you. We are as
well as usual here, and your mother and myself, present
our love and respects to you all, with suitable com-
pliments to our relatives and friends.

Your sister De Forest presents her kind respects.
Doctor Samuel and his wife behave themselves most
becomingly towards me, but your mother will admit
of no conversation with her and she has not yet been to
our house, which is a great grief to me. Some Provi-
dence orders all things I know. I wish to add, that
your mother will let Samuel's wife have anything she
wants of late, so I hope they will be better friends in
time.

How long I have to live in this troublesome world,
I know not, but 'til that time is expired, I hope to
remain your tender and loving father,

Samuel Adams
P. S.

My kind love and respect to the Colonel.* When he
returns, I should be glad to see him. if he could take a
journey up into the country. "

Concerning Mary and Elijah, children of Samuel
and Mary (Fairchild) Adams, Mary married a Mr.
De Forest, and Elijah died in early boyhood. Samuel
Adams, Jr., was a physician, and married a Miss
Dewy. For a long time Samuel Adams practiced his
profession at Arlington, Vermont, and during the con-
troversy between New York and Vermont (prior to

* Andrew Adams of Litchfield.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON.

the Revolution), Dr. Adams at first took sides with
the Vermonters in sustaining their title to the New
Hampshire grants, but when the controversy was ex-
tended into years without the least prospect of settle-
ment, the Doctor in the interest of harmony and peace,
counselled an acquiescence to the demands of New York.
For this advice he was badly treated by the Ver-
monters ; his large landed estate was in danger of being
confiscated, and in order to save his family from ruin,
he deeded all his property to his brother-in-law-, De-
Forest, who again re-deeded it to his father-in-law,
Samuel Adams. Doctor Adams, unlike his father and
his brother, when hostilities between England and
America began, espoused the cause of Great Britain
and after Burgoyne's surrender, he removed to Nova
Scotia with his family.

The following is a letter written by Doctor Samuel
Adams to his brother, the Hon. Andrew Adams of
Litchfield, Connecticut :

"Pawlington, July nth, 1776.
Natural affection induces me to improve this oppor-
tunity to forward this to you. Through the Divine
benefactions of an Omnipotent Providence, we are all
in health at present (though we have lost one child
since I have had the pleasure of seeing you). Please
give our tender regards to Mrs, Adams, Elijah, and
the rest of the family. Any letters directed to you
through father Dewey, kindly forward to me, as soon
as an opportunity shall permit. My wife desires her
duty to our mother, and her respects to yourself and
Mrs. Adams. Accustom yourself to ride a horse daily.

A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

but do not ride too far to fatigue you. In riding keep
a shifting, not a steady pace; drink only light wines at
dinner, and have a care to your diet. Do not fail to
say to your family that Mrs. Adams and all our family
join with me in our duty to our honored mother.
Your sincere and affectionate brother,

Sam Adams.
P. S.

Since I wrote the above, I find it probable that I
can sell my land to De Forest, but a certificate from
loyal persons would greatly aid me."

Samuel Adams."

The only other reference I have to Doctor Samuel
Adams is a part of a letter written by him in which he
describes to his brother Andrew, his impression of
Niagara Falls, he says :

"To take a view of this much talked of Niagara,
which is one of the wonders of the world, I now invite
you. The Fort called Niagara stands on a point at
ye mouth of ye river which makes the communication
between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The river is
about a mile wide, and is deep enough for any ship in
the Navy to sail.

The shipping goeth up the river about seven or nine
miles, and there it is unloaded, as it can go no further.
The banks are nearly twenty feet high, but all at once
the rocks on either side rise up about a hundred and
fifty feet. The river is about half a mile wide and
ninety feet deep, and the current is almost as swift as a
bird will fly. The rocks on either side are perpen-
dicular, and are about the same for about seven miles,
which is up to the Falls where these rocks meet to-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON.

gether in the middle of the river and then the whole
river runs over them. Above the Falls the river is
over a mile wide and considerably deep. About a
mile above the Falls the river begins to run terrible
rapid ! a tumbling over the rocks all white with great
foam! In this method it runs about a mile, and then
it comes to the Falls. In the middle of the Falls in the
river there riseth an Island of about two or three acres,
with large timber growing out of the cracks of the
rocks. When the water goeth over these rocks, it
appears to have a course in the air, and then it turns
and falls into a great vacancy, leaving an arch of dry
space as large as two oxen might go abreast, but it is
the darkest place I ever saw! Stones of all sizes are
continually being carried over these Falls, and numbers
of fish are sucked down. There have been several men
and many boats carried over these Falls, but neither
men nor boats have ever been seen since. There is a
smoke which cometh up as if a coal pit was burning and
a man standing near these Falls will be wet through
as quick as he would on a rainy day. There are here
beautiful rainbows of the brightest colors. No con-
versation can be heard, indeed nothing but the thunder
or the firing of a cannon can be distinguished through
the roar of the waters. Numbers of gentlemen from
England, Ireland and Scotland, and even from the
West Indies come every year to view this wonder."

(5)
ANDREW ADAMS.

Andrew Adams, son of Samuel Adams (4) and

10 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

Mary (Fairchild) Adams, was born in Stratford, Con-
necticut on the i ith day of December, 1736. He grad-
uated at Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut, in
the class of 1759, and soon after settled as a lawyer at
Litchfield, Connecticut, where he spent the remainder
of his life. Andrew Adams was successively :

King's Attorney,

Judge of Probate,

State's Attorney,

Speaker of the House (1779 & 1780.)

Member of the State Legislature (1776 to

1781.)

Assistant Servitor,

Member of the Continental Congress,
Lieutenant Colonel (January 1780),
Colonel (October 1780) of the 17th Reg.
Conn. line. He was appointed with Will-
iam Williams and Elisha Dyer, a commis-
sioner from Connecticut, to meet the com-
missioners from New York, Massachus-
etts and Rhode Island, at Hartford in May,
1780.

He participated in the drawing up of the
Articles of Confederation,
He died while Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of Connecticut.
From the Congressional Records I have selected a
few of the many references to the acts in which An-
drew Adams took part.

"A. D. 1777. Journal of Congress, Volume 2, Page
246. Resolved by this Assembly that Roger Sherman.
Eliphlet Dyer, Samuel Huntington, Oliver Wolcott.
Titus Hosmer, Oliver Ellsworth and Andrew Adams.
Esq., be, and they are hereby appointed, delegates to
represent the State of Connecticut at the General Con-
gress of the United States of America, and be it re-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 11

solved that one or more of these who shall be present in
said Congress, are authorized and empowered to resolve
upon all measures as may be deemed necessary to be
taken and pursued for the defense, security and preser-
vation of the said United States, and for the common
safety of its people."

"Journal of Congress, Volume 2, Page 319, A. D.,
1777. "A motion was made to supply Colonel Dayton
with a horse. (Andrew Adams, aye)."

"Journal of Congress, Page 193, A. D., 1777.
"That a warrant be issued on the Treasurer in favor of
Johnathan Dayton for Ten Thousand Dollars in dis-
charge of the bill drawn on the Postmaster (General
William Palfry, Esq.) in favor of the said Johnathan
Dayton. (Andrew Adams, aye)."

"A. D., 1777, Journal of Congress, Volume 2, Page
439. "Gives the pay decided for Officers and men in
the ranks of the Continental army (in this establish-
ment Andrew Adams took part)."

"A. D., 1778, Journal of Congress, Volume 2, Page
608. "That there is due to Doctor Johnathan Dayton,
for attendance and medicine to thirty-four prisoners
of war, who were placed under his care by order of
Brigadier Maxwell the sums of Two hundred and
eleven dollars, Twenty-seven dollars, and Ninety dol-
lars. (Aye, Andrew Adams)."

"Journal of Congress, Page 551, Volume 2, "That
Two hundred dollars be advanced to Captain M. Bee
to discharge a draft of John Asche (the Provisional
Treasurer of the State of North Carolina). (The draft
dated May. 10th, 1777) in favor of one Francis Child.
And expressed to be for the service of the United

12 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

States. The said States being accountable." (Andrew
Adams, aye).

And here, being a woman, I must break in upon "the
affairs of State" to say, that it is an interesting coin-
cidence that our great, great and great, great, great
grandfather Adams, was saying "aye" to the petitions
of two men, probably total strangers to him, whose
blood co-mingles with his own and through us of
to-day.

"Journal of Congress, Volume 3, Page 58. A
committee of three members was chosen as a Marine
Commission. This committee are Mr. Gerry. Mr.
Duer and Mr. Andrew Adams."

"Journal of Congress, Saturday, July 25th, 1778.
"The Board of Treasury recommend some inspectors
of Presses. A motion is made that the sense of the
House be taken as to whether it will be proper to ap-
point any persons of ecclesiastical profession to any
civil office under the United States. Whereupon the
previous question was moved, and the ayes and nays
being requested by Mr. Duer there were ten nays and
twenty-five ayes. (Andrew Adams, aye)."

"journal of Congress, Vol. 3, Page 639. "Resolved
that a sum of money in specie, not exceeding twenty-
six thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars be
issued by Elias Boudinot, Esq., Late Commissary Gen-
eral of prisoners for the discharge of such accounts.
(Andrew Adams, aye)."

"Journal of Congress, Vol. 2, Page 642. "A letter
was read from Hews Smith, also one from Allen
Enderson. Ordered that these be referred to a com-
mittee on Commerce. Taken from the Commerce
Committee. The members chosen were Mr. Telfair

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 13

of Georgia, Mr. Harvie of Virginia, and Mr. Andrew
Adams of Connecticut."

"Andrew Adams was in this Marine and Commerce
connection, appointed by Congress to demand the arrest
of inimical and dangerous persons, also to meet with
those from other States (at such times and places as
shall be hereafter named) to consider what may be
proper and necessary for the fleet and for the army,
and to put the United States upon a mutually advan-
tageous footing with that of Great Britain. Also to be
vested with such power as to contract with such agents
as may be appointed by the army of his Most Christian
Majesty."

"Journal of Congress, Vol. 2, Page 625. "That the
Marquis de Vinne, a Major in the service of the King
of France, having served with reputation as a volun-
teer in the American army during the present cam-
paign, requests Congress to honor him wTith the Brevet
commission (without emolument) of Colonel, in the
United States' service. Eight nays seventeen ayes.
(Andrew Adams, aye)."

During my grandmother's life she had in her pos-
session a great many valuable Colonial Papers and
letters, but she made no disposition of her effects, and
in the general distribution, the letters and papers were
scattered past all recalling. Many probably were
burned, and the few that remained were treasured by
my mother, until during advancing years, her strong
mind became less and less forceful, and under some
delusion that she was throwing away worthless bits,
I found her one day making the fire in her room, bright

14 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

with finely torn strips of old yellow paper; out of the
burning ruins I snatched back all that I could, and
as there was an apronful, I have been able by much
patience and any amount of time to save all that is
presented here. These letters zvere all written to the
Hon. Andrew Adams, and are addressed to him as a
Member of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia.
With this introduction, I present the first letter of
my collection :

Litchfield, September ioth, 1778.
Sir:

Your favor of the nth ultimo is received. The
early opportunity you took to obtain an acknowledge-
ment, that the essential part of the treaty has become
positive, was no more than you were entitled to know.
This discovers the earnest desire of this Nation to
reduce the power of Great Britain further than by
merely establishing the Independence of these States.

Be it so ! Such is the insolence and pride of Great
Britain that nothing but the certain expectation or the
real infliction of the severest chastisement will give us
peace.

I believe that God has not permitted so villainous a
government as that of Great Britain to disturb human
happiness, and as it is in Her power to put a period to
Her present distress, and prevent the miseries which
hereafter threaten Her. If She refuses to barken to
wisdom, I shall be perfectly satisfied if She sinks, as
all those Nations have whose violence and cruelty She
has so fully imitated. In peace, Great Britain will, if
we have much concern with Her, be a curse to us ! For
we have the same language, religion and dress, and an

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 15

old reviled and silly superstitious fondness for Her
maxims of law and government, so that it would be in
the power of the people of that country (with our too
great facility to keep up a ridiculous veneration for
them which thereby makes them able to influence our
political measures) while at the same time they make
use of that secret corruption, which they have for so
long a time considered as essential to support the
Government. The farther from Great Britain the better
I think for us, and although Peace is a most desirable
object, and as it has respect to our finances, unless these
are speedily attended to, peace may become necessary,
yet God forbid that peace should ever be settled, until
we can have it established upon such principles as will
give us the most confident assurance that it never will
be in the power of Great Britain to give us any fresh
disturbance. Your observations respecting the Treas-
ury and the expenditures (or whatever you please to
call these still unaccounted millions) will I apprehend
be best remedied by a deep and universal taxation. Say
twelve or fifteen millions for next year, and such other
aids as can be adopted. Then constitute a board of
Treasury, not for the members of Congress, but some
other men of as upright and independent principles,
who, Hercules-like, will cleanse these Augean stables;
as it is, there are so many friends (unknown to be
such) who have or hope to have accounts to settle, and
wish to introduce them, or there will be some other
strange reasoning, that will so govern these appoint-
ments, that is, if I may judge of them by some others,
wrho are appointed members of some other boards, that
I think you will have miraculous good luck, if you get
the proper men chosen. As to the Department which

16 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

you mention, that office in itself is an insult to common
sense ! and tne present possessor of it makes it doubly
so!!

The events of the Rhode Island expedition, you will
hear of earlier, and more correctly than I can give
them. The expedition has proved more and less fortu-
nate than at different times we had expected. Upon
the best information which I have yet received, I can
not see that Count de Stang ought to be blamed for
leaving Rhode Island Station.

I have nothing very special to communicate, it is
said that the Army can be and is fully supplied with
fresh beef, especially from this quarter.

Home politics are much the same as when you left
the country. There is some grumbling I understand,
with regard to the mode of taxation and perhaps there
may be some ground for it, but this a subject of which
I have not a complete knowledge.

You will please inform me whether all of the States
have acceeded to the Confederation ? This ought to be
done without delay, and in case it is effected, we shall
be happy in the hope that the ligament when formed,
will be sufficient to bind the acceeding States together,
but until this is done, we are in a dangerous condition ;
our enemies in some of their late publications, have
fully pointed this out to us.

What is General Mcintosh about? and what is to
be the fate of General Lee in the army? In this part
of the country, I believe, he stands almost universally
condemned, at least, I hear that is the case. He loves
dogs too well to possess that genius which some think
he has.

Much has to be done to bring this war to a happy

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 17

conclusion, at least this may be the case, and it is best
that we should consider it in this light.

I hope or rather wish, that Congress would, — as
every wise Government does, — keep its eye fixed eternal-
ly upon the Treasury, but they are too apt to avoid it
as a disagreeable subject, but they ought to consider
the infinite danger, which in our present circumstances,
attends a neglect of this nature.

I wish that this letter had been better writ, both for
your sake and mine, but you will please make the best
of it.

My compliments to Mr. Hosmer.
I am sir,

Your most obedient servant,
Oliver Wolcott/'

Oliver Wolcott, as we all know was one of the signers
of the "Declaration of Independence", and Secretary of
the Treasury under President John Adams. He was a
neighbor and personal friend of our ancestor Andrew
Adams, and all during the Revolutionary struggle, they
kept up a vigorous correspondence, of which to the best
of my knowledge and belief, this is the only letter that
remains, but this one certainly is a treasure, bringing
us as it does, into the confidences of the founders of our
Country, giving us an insight into their hopes and fears,
their expressions of thought upon people and acts that
made up the sum and substance of that historic yester-
day.

"Litchfield, 13th July, 1778.
Honored Sir.

This early opportunity is embraced by me to begin

18 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

an epistleatory correspondence with you, though I have
nothing important to communicate.

As yet we have not received particulars to be depend-
ed upon respecting the action in the Jerseys (twenty
eight ultimo) and perhaps shall not till from Congress.

We hope the enemy will for the future be sparing
of their blood, since our army has beat them in the
field where they presumed "we would not dare to look
them in the face."

Very convincing is this proof of American valor
if any common reports are to be credited.

Wherefore General Lee is under arrest, remains
with us an uncertainty, whether it be for rashness,
remissness, or neither. We hear that a part of General
Washington's army has arrived at the North River.

As to domestic intelligence, we are all in health and
your family all well. Among those baptized last Lord's
clay, Captain Seymour's son was christened Horatio.
It has been a remarkable growing season, but the
weather is now moderated as to the extreme heat which
we had for near three weeks together.

To me it appears something strange that the Com-
missioners from Great Britain should inform Congress
to the effect, "that as they could not act a part in mat-
ters pertaining to the War, they would retire to New
York." Was it collusion and mere deceit, or was it
ignorance ? for, to New York, it seems the enemy were
then going! or was it the removal of the enemy from
Philadelphia, (to them sudden and unexpected). But
these are matters I cannot comprehend. Peace upon
honorable terms is our ardent wish, upon these dis-
honorable our abhorrence. May the Father of Lights
afford our principal counsellors all that wisdom, direc-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 19

tion and guidance that they need. With anxious ex-
pectation we await for further information respecting
the enemy's situation. That person who came with
Admiral Gambler, (the one who deserted and came
here a little before your departure) informs me that
England is, at present, very poorly furnished with
arms. He says that upward of twenty thousand were
lost last Spring after being shipped to America. It
is his opinion that should twenty thousand French
land at Cornwall, they might go to London ! take the
King!! the Crown!!! If this be anything near the
truth, how defenseless is Great Britain ! As we are
far from wishing to deprive Her of any of her rights,
so we hope, trust, and firmly believe, that God will
not suffer Her to subjugate these States. I recollect
no foreign intelligence of importance. After compli-
ments to yourself, and desiring that they may be made
acceptable, to those gentlemen of Congress, with whom
I have the honor of an acquaintance

Believe me dear sir, with sincere affection, to be
Your Obedient servant,

Judah Champion."

The writer of this letter has not the world wide
reputation that Oliver Wolcott can claim, but no truer
Patriot is enrolled than Judah Champion, Pastor of
the Church at Litchfield for many years prior to the
Revolutionary period, and it seems fitting to introduce
here a story that my Grandmother told me when I was
a little girl :

One pleasant Sabbath morning, when the people
of Litchfield, Connecticut, were gathered in their church
for public worship, there was heard coming down the

20 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

road the swift clatter of horses' hoofs. There was a
pause beside the meeting house door, and then in walk-
ed a man who made his way to the pulpit and handed
Doctor Champion a paper. After reading it, the Pastor
stepped to his desk, and leaning forward, looked
down on his congregation : "St. John," he said,
"has been taken by the American Army. Thank God
for the victory!" The people could not restrain their
joy and clapped their hands and shouted "Amen ! and
Amen !" When quiet was restored, Doctor Champion
continued : "News has also been sent me that our army
is in want of many things ; our men are marching with
bare feet and tattered garments ! Our duty lies plainly
before us."

That afternoon, men and women, young and old,
worked for the cause of liberty, and on the morrow
a cart piled high with offerings of comfort and cheer
went out from Litchfield and toward the Camp. To
one who asked Doctor Champion, "How he justified
such a use of the Lord's day" he made answer, "Mercy
before sacrifice is the will of our God." This staunch
patriot, when the news of Bourgoyne's invasion was
sending consternation through the land, bade good bye
to his flock, and was ordered as chaplain to Ticon-
deroga. He was with the American Army during all
that siege, and after the stand at Saratoga he gave
his time and strength to comforting the sick and car-
ing for the prisoners; and he so endeared himself to all
those who needed bodily or spiritual help, that the
British officers at the close of hostilities sent him a
letter of thanks and gratitude for all that he had done
in and for his Master, Christ's sake, to and for the
English Soldiers who were prisoners.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 21

There is a story that the first time Doctor Champion
went among the British Prisoners, one facetious soldier
addressed the white haired visitor as "old Methody
Blower." With a gentle voice the venerable man made
answer, "You are right, my son, in some of your con-
clusions, mistaken in others ; for while I am not num-
bered in the Methodist communion of saints, I am in
deed and in truth, but a tooting horn, calling invited
guests to Heaven." Doctor Champion was present
when the British evacuated New York. His country
needed his services no longer, he turned the head of
his mule homewards, and once more, shut in among
the New England hills, he taught his flock the way
to salvation praying; "again may they know me before
Thy face. Let me hereafter not miss at Thy throne
one spirit of all these, when I shall say in my gladness,
"Father here am I and the children, that Thou hast
given me."

Thus, over and over again, repeating this message
of peace and good will, he served God and man, and
after a ministry of fifty-seven years, he answered to
the call and was not. In a speech made by the Hon.
F. A. Tallmadge in Litchfield in 1851, he said: "The
Reverend Mr. Champion's venerable appearance is
deeply impressed upon my youthful recollection ; short
in stature, with a head adorned by a massive wig, and
a countenance that indicated that sincerity and purity
of purpose that characterized his conduct through
life. During the Revolutionary War he presided as
pastor in yonder church, and I will relate an incident
given me by my father (Colonel Tallmadge) illustra-
tive of the fervent zeal and stirring patriotism that in-
spired the Clergy during that momentous struggle:

22 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

At a period of the Revolution when the whole country
was in a state of great alarm in anticipation of the
arrival of Cornwallis with a formidable army, my
father was passing through Litchfield with a regiment
of cavalry, and he and his men attended services. The
following are some lines taken from a prayer of the
Rev. Dr. Champion on this occasion :

"Oh Lord, we view with terror and dismay the ap-
proach of the enemy. Wilt thou send storm and tem-
pest and scatter them to the uttermost parts of the
earth, but peradventure should any escape Thy ven-
geance, collect them together, oh Lord, as in the hollow
of Thy hand, and let Thy lightnings play on them."

In his Litchfield centennial poem, the Rev. John
Pierpont, said :

"The Reverend Champion (champion of the truth)

I see him yet as in my early youth ;

His outward man was rather short than tall.
His wig was ample, though his frame was small.

Active his step and cheerful was his air,

And, oh, how free and fluent was his prayer.
He sleeps in peace and honor."

"Salisbury, May 15th, 1786.
Honored Sir :

Yesterday I heard that Mr. Huntington was elect-
ed to fill the old great chair of State, and that Mr.
Oliver Wolcott was to sit next to him; that being the
case, the General's seat (like David's of old) in the
County Court, will be vacant, and who is to fill it is
a question of such importance that, if it were not
thought impertinent in me, I wish to asserve (as the
Clergy do) by negatives. First, the office must not

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 23

he filled by one unacquainted by the Law! nor by an
envious, malicious or contracted person, or by one
whose conduct may be influenced by sinister motives
or base views ! Secondly and positively, it must be
held by one given to hospitality, as well as a thorough
knowledge of law, one who will preside with modest
bearing, commingled with dignity, and also with can-
dor and impartiality. Such an one, I am sure, would
meet with your approbation and though in your great
modesty you may not view yourself as one of the
authorities of our country, yet as an essential member
of our upper house, you know your influence to be
great. I hope your goodness will excuse the freedom
I have taken in writing to one of such exalted station
so freely on this subject, and if leisure permits, I shall
esteem it a particular mark of favor to have a line from
you, informing me a little of how politics are in this
Assembly. Hoping that a better state of health than
usual may attend you through this session is the wish
of

Your affectionate friend,
Adonijah Strong.

N. B. What do you think of your brother Canfield
for Judge? Politics run half right with us this spring,
and I have effected my purpose in some good measures.

In regard to he stays at home for want

of notes; he may do well when he learns his depend-
ence. This is a secret letter and for private use only.'*

"Adonijah Strong," says Chief Justice Church,
"was a Colonel in the Connecticut Line, a lawyer,
unique in genius and manner and of large professional

24 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

clientage. He was a man of sound practical sense and
great wit. Many anecdotes of his sayings and doings
are still remembered and repeated."

"Goshen, July 14th, 1778.
Sir:

By this time, I conclude that you have arrived at
Philadelphia and have taken your seat in Congress
among ye Senators of ye United States. You have
now the pleasure of forming a personal acquaintance
with the great Statesmen of this Continent, which I
think must be gratifying, if you have any degree of
curiosity or ambition. I hope you arrived in health,
but suppose your journey was very fatiguing, as it was
uncommonly hot. Mrs. Adams was very anxious for
you, and is afraid that you will not consult your health
enough. We would recommend exercise of body and
relaxation of mind as far as it is in any way consistent
with your obligations to our Country. I called at your
house a few days since, and the family were all in
health. Mrs. Adams keeps up good spirits in her state
of widowhood ( !) Mr. Baldwin, the Schoolmaster,
tells me he intends to write you as to the health and
other circumstances connected with your family when-
ever he has opportunities. I have no news of any con-
sequence, indeed you can expect none from me as soon
as you will see it in the public papers, excepting, of
course, what is of a more private nature, and yet may
still be of some importance to the public. You were,
doubtless, before you left us acquainted with the
politics of some of the gentlemen of this State respect-
ing our paper currency, and you knew that they were
desirous of having it sunk and not redeemed. I am

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 25

afraid that this doctrine is growing too popular. There
are political heresies as well as ecclesiastical, and both
may be damnable and equally fatal, with this difference;
Religions heresy respects our happiness in future world,
the other, though limited and temporary, still closeh
interferes with our National future. The consequence
of not redeeming our National currency is pregnant
with every kind of evil. It means the loss of our re-
putation by a most flagrant violation of public faith.
It means the impossibility of giving any credit to future
emissions ( if necessary upon any emergency) . And to
complete our wretchedness, we shall have a most
bloody civil war among ourselves. I think the State
ought to feel a sort of National pride in forming for
themselves a character among the Nations of the Earth.
A good name should be as precious to this Nation as
it is to an individual ! I know our public debt is great
and enormous! But what are we buying? Or rather
what is the price or value of the thing we have bought/
Isn't Liberty a consideration sufficient? She has been
sold at public auction, and we have outbid all Europe,
and if this generation cant pay for her, the next can,
and I dare say that they will esteem her a good legacy
and valuable patrimony, altho' she may still be under
some encumberance.

Since writing the above, I have seen the good people
of this town, and I find that Mr. Adams is much talk-
ed of to fill General Wolcott's place. Notwithstanding
the dispute with you. Why can't it be you, my dear

friend ? is changed, I hear he is ostensibly

for Sherman, but he knows that another Justice may
be named. I heard him talk yesterday. I had no
thought of being so particular on the subject of politics

26 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

(in which I am but a novice) but I had nothing else
to say, and so I suppose it would do to be a little im-
pertinent at so great a distance. Please to write me
by first conveyance if consistent with your other en-
gagements, and be sure your letter shall be received
with respect.

By your obedient and very humble servant,
Samuel Lyman/'

I have no record of who this Samuel Lyman was,
but this letter proves him to have been a patriot.

Andrew Adams received the appointment of Chief
Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut in May,
1793. This office he held until his death, November
17th, 1797.

Of Andrew Adams' ability as a lawyer, Judge Church
in his Litchfield Centennial address said : "The Hon.
Andrew Adams, Chief Justice of Connecticut, was a
man whose eminent talents shone with uncommon
lustre, and these talents were always exerted to the
greatest advantage of the public, and to the honor of
the high Court over which he presided."

Upon the same occasion the Hon. Seth Beers said :
"Few men excelled Andrew Adams as a lawyer, and as
an advocate before a jury he was unsurpassed. He was
an able Judge, an eloquent speaker, and in all points
his reputation at the bar was distinguished/'

"The home of the Hon. Andrew Adams was on the
west side of North State Street in Litchfield, Connecti-
cut. It was a Colonial Mansion, and so carefully was
it built, that in 1879 it was sold for Three Thousand
Five Hundred Dollars to Dr. Buel, and removed to
the grounds of his Sanitarium."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 27

After the death of Andrew Adams his heirs sold the
house to the Church for a parsonage, and in the old
Adams' house lived the Rev. Lyman Beecher, and there
Henry Ward Beecher was born.

The wife of Andrew Adams was Eunice Buel. The
children of Andrew Adams and Eunice (Buel) Adams
were Samuel, who died in infancy. Elijah, Lydia,
Eunice, Polly (or Mary) and Andrew (6). Of Elijah
I have no record. Lydia married Elias Cowles of
Farmington, Connecticut, an East India merchant.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cowles went to
reside at Rhinebeck on the Hudson. They had four sons
and one daughter. Two of the sons. James and Wil-
liam, became associated with their father in business;
the other sons, Henry and Edward, were lawyers and
judges. The daughter, Frances, married Doctor
Nelson of Rhinebeck. "Lydia (Adams) Cowles was a
woman of stately presence and remarkable intellect. "
Once, in her presence, a number of noted Unitarians
were discussing the humanity of Christ. Mrs. Cowles
listened quietly until upon being asked for her opinion,
she said gently : "Ye have taken away my Lord, and
I know not where ye have laid him." Mrs. Cowles
was an ideal famous hostess.

Polly (or Mary) Adams married Daniel Lambson
an East India merchant. "Uncle Lambson was tall,
finely proportioned and very handsome. He was not-
ed for his happy nature and his excellent wit." Polly
(Adams) Lambson and Daniel Lambson had two
daughters, Amanda and Cornelia. Amanda married

a Mr. of on the

Hudson, and Cornelia married . I have a

faint shadowv recollection of Aunt Polly Lambson

28 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

for she used to come and visit her niece (my grand-
mother) ; she was a dainty, tiny old lady, and she "did"
fine needle work without glasses, and with peculiar
stubby needles, that she called "Ground downs."

Grandma used to tell us that Amanda "was

a very superior woman and that she had twin daugh-
ters," and as this was all the information vouchsafed
(none of us ever being privileged to view Amanda
or her twins) we were forced to be satisfied with this
advice. But Aunt Polly's other daughter, Cornelia

, all Grandma's grandchildren remember.

Cornelia was an object of lively interest to us from the
fact that in her early youth she had been the heroine
of a real romance, and as a result had brought down
the wrath of the family upon her head. We never

knew why was not received, and

opinion on the subject, as expressed in our youthful
conclaves differed, and it being a regular Sphinx of
a problem, we never knew and never shall know who
was right, for our Grandmother permitted no question-
ings upon topics or themes that did not redound to the
family's glory and enduring honor, so when Cornelia
visited at Grandma's, as she did once or twice every
year, we called her "cousin," and paid her many little
attentions, principally because we were religiously im-
pressed with the belief, that if any of us, great, great
cousins, ventured to depart from this respectful atti-
tude, that Cornelia would set up an apple stand in some
conspicuous locality, and, in the middle of a penny
ballad string, display her family tree, with not a branch
shorn, not a name hidden. Cornelia never talked, she
was absolutely and painfully self-contained; and be-
cause of this silence, we children came to a tacit agree-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 29

ment, that she was ungrammatical ! Cornelia lives in
our memories as an imperishable incident; she hangs
a quaint, pathetic picture in our gallery of the past, a
small withered woman, with a nose so singularly red,
that she seemed impelled to break through her usual
silence when she found our eyes fixed upon it and to say
slowly and impressively, "Erysipelas."

Eunice Adams, daughter of Andrew and Eunice
(Buel) Adams, married Judge Josiah Masters of the
State of New York. She died in childbirth a year
after her marriage, but whether her child survived her
I do not know. Of Andrew Adams, Jr., the son of
Andrew Adams and Eunice (Buel) Adams, as our
lineal ancestor we will speak after finishing the record
of his father, Andrew Adams.

The only letter in my possession from the Hon.
Andrew Adams (5) is a portion of an epistle written
to his son Andrew (6) just after he (Andrew) had
entered Yale College. Andrew Adams, (5) says:

"When an old man removes into a strange place
where he has few or no acquaintances, people will
naturally inquire into his character and his past conduct
in life, and will treat him accordingly. If he has al-
ways sustained the character of a gentleman, or in
other words of a man of virtue, honor and integrity,
he will naturally associate himself with those of similar
character, and of course he will be shunned by the
profligate and vicious, who will both fear and reverence
him, and having already subdued his own passions
and irregular appetites, he will have no incentive to
vice ; so that let him go into what place he will, he can
be in no danger of being led aside by evil example,

30 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

but will himself become an example to others, and will
be honored and respected by all, but ye case is quite
the reverse with a young man who having never
established a character to serve him, will be applied to
by all sorts of people in order to gain him over to their
particular taste, principles and conduct; and, not hav-
ing ye advantage of ye long experienced in ye world,
nor a large acquaintance with mankind nor yet an
established character to serve him as a guard against
the addresses and insinuations of ye vicious, nor any
fixed set of principles to which he may resort, he will
be in most danger from a natural unwillingness to be
uninfluenced by ill example if ye solicitations of ye
vicious are encouraged and enforced by his own youth-
ful inclinations. To avoid this, will require the utmost
exertion of all his resolutions, prudence and wisdom.
He is indeed a wise youth who shuns ye snares so
effectually as never to be catched in a trap ! That you
may become this wise youth is ye anxious wish and
desire of my soul, and for this reason I give you ye
warning beforehand that you may not be taken by sur-
prise. To spy ye danger is more than half to avoid
it. The youth that will run into ye mischief when he
sees ye danger must be vicious indeed ! Now ye greatest
art is to avoid ye evil, refuse all compliance, but always
with amiable complacence. In order to obtain this
great and desirable end, you must appear to be religious
and complacent, and the only way to appear religious,
studious and complacent is in deed and in fact to be-
come so, but without the actual being, it will be im-
possible to appear so for any length of time. The dis-
guise is sure to be soon discovered, and by this dis-
covery you will become ye subject of not only ridicule,

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 31

but of contempt, besides this ye attempt to keep up ye
appearance being discovered in a thousand ways, that
you cannot foresee or guard against, will cost you much
more pain than you can now comprehend. Religion
can never be obtained without regeneration and ye
sanctifying influences of Ye Divine Spirit upon ye
soul, and this influence you must most fervently and
constantly pray for. You must not think you are too
young, for remember you are not too young to die.
It is within your power to perform all ye external duties
of religion, but I would have you do more, I would
have you with steady, regular and manlike conduct
observe all religious duties, and in this same spirit
avoid all ye open acts of vice. I would not by any
means have you put on ye airs of ye ridiculous super-
stitions, for that is not religion. For instance when
you attend Public Worship on ye Sabbath day or at
any other time, and indeed when you attend all ye
College exercises of every kind, do not, my son, dis-
cover any reluctance, as tho' forsooth it was done by
compulsion and under constraint, but let it be done
willingly and by your choice, a choice founded upon
principle and a high sense of honor, and out of respect
to your own interests. As regards your being studious,
whether you are so or not, will lie to ye observation of
all by ye appearance you make at your classes and in
other public performances. Your standing in this world
depends upon your mental ability rightly directed.
Your acceptance of intellectual thought will produce
the character you are to show throughout the remainder
of your life. I would have you ever maintain a most
strict regard for truth, integrity and honor all of which
is not only compatible but necessary to the character

32 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

of a gentleman. By this I do not mean a fawning com-
placence, but I do mean that in all things you must
have a strict regard for decency and decorum. Try to
be pleased, nay, even entertained in all civil company,
and should anything be said or done that you do not
fully agree with, you are not called upon to contradict
it, for in doing this you open a dispute which means
you challenge ye opinions or inclinations of your host
or his guests ; by thus doing you make yourself dis-
agreeable, and lose the friendship of the courtly. Now,
instead of contradicting let the matter pass as tho' un-
observed ; but should the company you are with happen
to be viciously inclined, and urge you to join
with them, excuse yourself gracefully; if they
still urge, make them a polite bow, and a hand-
some adieu and leave the company but if by
main force they hold you in their midst, and
you are reduced to expressing your opinion, even in
that case let it be done with infinite delicacy. Your
own prudence, however, should teach you to avoid such
company unless you believe that you possessed great
and good influence over some of its members. In such
a case do not lose the opportunity to administer to your
friend or friends a gentle and kind rebuke at some time
when his and your mind is calm and considerate,
but be sure to let ye reproof show real friendship. A
few such tests and ye struggle will be over; you will
cease to be solicited; your conduct will inspire both
love and respect, and you will have established a
character which will recommend you to the esteem and
regard of ye virtuous."

Here the letter abruptly ends. How we all wish it

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 33

had gone on to tell the home news, the dear every day
incidents of family and friends, but ye yellow mildewed
page holds nothing more.

Andrew Adams (5) was "deeply read in Theology,
and in the absence of the minister he was often called
upon to occupy the pulpit." He was a very frail man
physically, never free from lurking sense of pain, and
yet he was constantly to the fore in every good work."
In the Litchfield Monitor of November 29th, 1797,
was printed the following:

"Died in this town early yesterday morning after
a lingering and distressing illness, the Honorable
Andrew Adams, Esq. LL. D., Chief Justice of Con-
necticut, aged 61 years."

The inscription on his tombstone is as follows :

"Honorable Andrews Adams, Esq., LL. D., Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court who died November
the 27th, 1797, in the 62 year of his age. Having filled
many distinguished offices with great ability and
dignity, he was promoted to the highest Judicial Court
in the State which office he held until his death. His
Judicial talents shone with uncommon lustre, and were
exerted to the greatest advantage of the public, and to
the honor of the high court over which he presided.

He lived the life and died the death of a Christian,
and his filial piety and paternal tenderness are held in
loving remembrance."

(6)
ANDREW ADAMS.

Andrew Adams, the son of Andrew Adams
(5) and Eunice (Buel) Adams, was born in Litchfield,
Connecticut in 1766. We know that he graduated at

34 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

Yale, that he became a lawyer, and when still a very
young man he married his cousin, Annis Canfield of
Sharon, Connecticut. He evidently did not make a
success of life. How or in what particular he failed,
I cannot say, for neither our grandmother (his daugh-
ter) or our own mother commented much upon the
subject, and their silence was of the sort that defies
questioning. Two great cousins whom I have asked,
have told me that Andrew Adams (6) was "hand-
some, winning, indolent and intemperate." He had by
his wife Annis (Canfield) Adams two daughters, Maria
and Cornelia. Maria married Henry Tallmadge, son of
Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge of Revolutionary promi-
nence. I have a vivid recollection of this Aunt
Tallmadge, although she died when I was a tiny girl.
She was one of the most socially prominent grande
dames of New York for many years, and when she was
an old, old lady she wore decollete gowns for dinner,
and was as formal and haughty as the reigning queen
of Spain. Cornelia, our grandmother, married David
Tomlinson, M. D., of Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson.
Andrew Adams (6) died December 9th, 1804, in the
38th year of his age, and he is buried beside his father
and mother in Litchfield.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 35

CANFIELD.

(i) Matthew Canfield, Esq.,

(2) Samuel Canfield,

(3) Samuel Canfield,

(4) John Canfield,

(5) Annis Canfield Adams,

(6) Cornelia Adams Tomlinson,

(7) Maria Annis Tomlinson Dayton,

(8) Charles Willoughby Dayton,

" Laura Canfield Spencer Dayton Fessenden,
" William Adams Dayton,
" Harold Child Dayton,

(9) Charles Willoughby Dayton, Jr.,
" Aymar Child Fessenden,

" Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton,

" John Newman Dayton,

" Alice Griswold Hyde Fessenden,

" William Adams Dayton, (Junior),

" Laura Adams Dayton,

" Benjamin Hurd Fessenden,

" Dorothy Dayton Fessenden,

" Hayden Child Dayton.

(1)
MATTHEW CANFIELD, Gentleman,
Matthew Canfield resided in New Haven as
early as the year 1644. He married Sarah Treat, a
daughter of Richard Treat of Connecticut. In 1645
Matthew Canfield removed to Norwalk, Connecticut,
from which place he was sent as a member to the
General Colonial Assembly (in the year 1645) and he
so continued to represent Norwalk until the union of
the ten colonies of Connecticut and New Hampshire

36 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

was consummated. Hinman tells us that "Matthew
Canfield was one of the nineteen signers of the petition
to King Charles the Second, for the Charter of the
Colony and his name is mentioned in that invaluable
grant to Connecticut in 1662." This is, he says undoubt-
ed proof of Matthew Canfield's standing in the Colony,
as only those were asked to sign this petition who had
sustained high social position in England before coming
to make their home in New England. In 1665 Matthew
Canfield was appointed by the Crown a Judge in the
Jersey Colony. He then removed to Newark, New
Jersey, where he died (in office) in 1673.

(2)
SAMUEL CANFIELD.
Samuel Canfield, the son of Matthew and Sarah
Treat Canfield, was baptized on the 19th of October
1645 m Ne\v Haven, Connecticut. When his father
removed to Newark, New Jersey, Samuel Canfield
remained in Norwalk. There he married Elizabeth
Willoughby. Samuel afterwards removed to Milford,
Connecticut, where he practiced the profession of law,
and died Judge of Litchfield County.

(3)
SAMUEL CANFIELD.
Son of Samuel and Elizabeth Willoughby Canfield,
was born in Norwalk, Conn., in 1702. He married
Abigail Peck, and died Dec. 14th, 1754, aged 52
years. He was a deacon in the church and a lawyer
bv profession.

(4)

JOHN CANFIELD.

John Canfield, the son of Samuel Canfield and

Abigail Peck, was born at New Milford in

1740. He graduated from Yale in 1762 and in 1765

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 37

went to Sharon to establish his home and practice law.
(He was the first lawyer of Sharon). He bought of
the Reverend Cotton Mather Smith a plot of ground
directly west of the Smith place, and upon this he built
a fine brick mansion, Old English in design with a
brick office in a wing for his professional uses. He
married Dorcas Buel of Sharon. John Canfield re-
presented Sharon in eleven sessions of the Colonial
Legislature. Among his personal friends was Ben-
jamin Franklin and for many years (both while
Franklin was in America and abroad) they kept up an
unbroken correspondence. The letters concerning the
tax on tea being particularly interesting and historical
ly valuable. These letters our mother used to pore
over in the great garret at the Canfield house in Sharon
when she was a little girl ; their value was not then
appreciated, and they were probably destroyed by some
zealous housewife in one of her yearly upheavals and
destruction of the worthless and useless things that will
accumulate and cumber the home world. In 1776 John
Canfield was elected a member of the Continental
Congress, but quick consumption had fallen upon him,
and he died suddenly on October the 26th, 1786, in the
46th year of his age. Mrs. Maria Gaylord Seelye of
Easthampton, Massachusetts writes me in 1898: "My
grandmother, Eunice Canfield, wras the eldest daughter
of John and Dorcas (Buel) Canfield of Sharon, Con-
necticut. She was born in Sharon, September 20th,
1766. When her father was elected a member of the
Continental Congress, it was decided that Eunice
should go with him to Philadelphia, and preparations
for such a distinguished outing were made. One of
the gowns in this wardrobe I still have in my possession,

38 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

also the slippers to be worn with it. The gown is of
white silk, with a wide stripe of brocaded pink roses,
and a narrow alternate stripe of apple green (also
brocaded), the slippers are white and pink kid in
stripes ; these stripes meeting at the instep and the point
of the toe."

It is said that the grief of the community upon the
death of John Canfield was deep and general. Upon
his tombstone is this inscription :

"Sacred to the memory of the Honorable John
Canneld, a member of Congress from this State, who
died the 26th day of October, 1786, in the 46th year
of his age.

" Tis not for lifeless stone to tell the worth,
A partner's heart the deep impression bears,

His orphans oft around this hallowed earth,
Shall tell a father's love with speaking tears.

i\nd numerous friends who swell the tide of grief,
Thy good and generous deeds shall oft relate,

Thus through revolving years thy name shall live.
Till to immortal life thy slumbering dust shall wake."

The children of John Canfield and Dorcas (Buel)
Canneld were Eunice, Laura, Annis, Avis, Alma, Al-
mira, Isabella and John Montgomery.

Eunice Canfield, the eldest daughter of John and
Dorcas (Buel) Canfield, married Doctor Samuel
Rockwell on July 10th, 1787. By him she had two
children, a girl christened Maria, who was born De-
cember 10th, 1788. A boy, whose name I do not
know, was born in 1790. After the birth of her last
child, Eunice Canfield Rockwell became a confirmed
invalid, dying of consumption on February 11, 1795,
when not quite 29 years old.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 39

Laura Canfield, the second daughter, married Am-
brose Spencer of Salisbury (one of her father's stu-
dents) on the 1 8th day of February, 1784, when she
was barely fourteen years of age, and here I pause to
say that it was the custom of prominent Colonial
Lawyers to receive into their homes young men pre-
paring for the bar, and among John Canfield's stu-
dents may be mentioned John Cotton Smith, after-
wards Governor of Connecticut, Noah Webster, of
Dictionary fame, and x\mbrose Spencer, Chief Jus-
tice of the State of New York.

To go back to Laura Canfield and Ambrose Spen-
cer. This marriage was clandestine; and, owing to
the extreme youth of both bride and groom, was
kept a profound secret by Mr. and Mrs. Spencer
for some months after its accomplishment. "When at
22 the youthful husband was admitted to the Bar,
he had been married man and boy four years." "Am-
brose Spencer's marriage at this early period into a
family of high standing, and with a girl of uncommon
beauty and rare sweetness of character, seemed in the
light of future events to have been the one thing of
all others that he needed to mould and fashion his
strong will, peculiar temperament and forceful mind
into channels of ambition, courage and steadiness.''
Surely if to Laura Canfield (our great, great aunt)
Ambrose Spencer owed all that he was, it seems fitting
that we speak of him. Ambrose Spencer was appoint-
ed Attorney General of New York State in February,
1802. In 1808 he was made Justice of the Supreme
Court, in 1819 Chief Justice. He was for many years en-
gaged in every important case in the State of New
York, meeting in these legal contests Hamilton, Burr,

40 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

Livingston and many other prominent advocates. It
was when Ambrose Spencer was at the zenith of his
fame and his intellectual manhood, that a great political
revolution occurred, placing Thomas Jefferson in the
Presidential Chair. In the front ranks of this memora-
ble battle field, stand Ambrose Spencer and DeWitt
Clinton, (two men whose friendship was so close and
fond through many years that they were always spoken
of as "David and Jonathan"). It was during this
struggle that Spencer and Clinton were chosen mem-
bers of the "Council of Appointment," a body at that
period which had the dispensing of all political patron-
age. About the time of the war of 1812 came the
bitter and eternal estrangement of Spencer and Clinton
which was all the more startling from the fact that
upon the death of his wife (Laura Canfield) Spencer
had married a sister of DeWitt Clinton's. So sensible
was Mr. Madison of Mr. Spencer's services, even
though like Mr. Clinton he did not agree with some of
his ideas, (it is a positive fact, which can be proved by
letters still in possession of the family), that any office
within the gift of administration was at Mr. Spencer's
command. But he had no ambition for political prefer-
ment, and asked that his friend, John Armstrong, of
Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson, be appointed Secretary of
War, and the wisdom of this appointment was soon
apparent. Reports of cases decided by Judge Spencer
became standard authority and were even quoted with
high respect in Westminster Hall. When in 1829
Judge Spencer retired from the bench he was elected
Mayor of the City of Albany. Then at the conclusion
of his term of Mayoralty he was elected to the State
Legislature. He married three times : First to Laura

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 41

Canfield (the mother of all his children) then to Mrs.
Mary Norton, and at her death to Mrs. Burrage. It is
noteworthy that both were daughters of General James
Clinton, and also sisters of DeWitt Clinton. He
(Ambrose Spencer) died at Lyons, Wayne county,
New York, on March 13th, 1848. The children of
Ambrose Spencer and Laura Canfield Spencer were
John Canfield, William, Abby, Theodore, Laura and
Ambrose. Abby married John Townsend of Albany.
John married Elizabeth Smith of Sharon. Laura mar-
ried Robert Gilchrist of Albany. William two, Miss
Lorillards of New York. Theodore died at 19, and
Ambrose, the youngest child, was shot and instantly
killed during the war of 1812, as he was carrying a
flag of truce into the camp of the British. He fell at
the side of General Brown, who, with expressions of
profound regret, did all that a brave soldier could do
of kindness to the young American officer's family.
His, Ambrose Spencer's, blood-stained sash and sword
are still preserved.

John Canfield, who married Elizabeth Smith, was
Secretary of War, and also Secretary of the Treasury
under President Tyler. The cause of the change from
one cabinet position to the other, may or may not have
been resultant from the fact of the terrible affliction
that came to John Canfield Spencer, and concerning
which Gail Hamilton has so graphically written in her
series of articles in the Cosmopolitan, entitled, "The
Murder of Philip Spencer." The young boy of 18 was
midshipman of the United States Man of War "Somers"
commanded by Captain McKenzie ; he with two sea-
men were accused of piratical intentions, were put in
chains and after a half hour's notice of his fate (during

42 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

which time he was refused his only request that of
writing" to his mother) he and the two seamen were
strung up on the yard arm and their bodies thrown
into the sea. William Canfield Spencer was an officer
in the United States Navy. Laura Canfield Spencer,
the mother of all the children of the Hon. Ambrose
Spencer died of consumption on the anniversary of
her wedding day, February 18th, 1807. On her tomb-
stone is the following :

"Here lies the body of Laura Spencer who was the
wife of Ambrose Spencer and the daughter of John
Canfield, Aged 39 years 2 months. While the re-
membrance of her mild disposition, of her fervent affec-
tion for her husband and her children and her tender
solicitude for their welfare, swells their hearts with
sorrow, the recollection of her humble submission
to the will of God through all the vicissitudes of her
life, and of her constant trust in His mercy, and in the
faithful performance of her duties of her station, re-
presses their tears and invigorates their hope that she
may enjoy the rich reward of unblemished virtue,
through a steady confidence in the efficacy of a Savior's
atonement.

" 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God.' "

(5)

ANNIS CANFIELD.

Annis Canfield, daughter of John and Dorcas
(Buel) Canfield, married Andrew Adams (6) of
Litchfield, Connecticut. She must, like her sister
Laura, have been very young at the time of her mar-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 43

riage with her cousin, Andrew Adams, for both of her
children, Maria Annis and Cornelia Laura, were born
to her before her eighteenth birthday. She always
made her home after her marriage with her father-in-
law, the Hon. Andrew Adams. It is said that beautiful
as were all the Canfield girls, our great-grandmother,
Annis Canfield Adams was the loveliest; and that by
common consent she was spoken of as "The Rose of
Sharon." She died previous to her 40th year of cancer
resulting from a slight bruise upon her breast inflicted
six months previous to the time of her death. She was
living with her daughter Cornelia (Mrs. David Tom-
linson) at Rhinebeck, and she is buried in the old
churchyard there beside her little grandsons and her
son-in-law.

The other children of John Canfield and Dorcas
(Buel) Canfield married as follows: Alma married
General Elisha Sterling of Salisbury, Connecticut ;
Isabelle married the Hon. Ansel Sterling of Sharon ;
Mira married General Elisha Buel of Hartford; John
Montgomery married Frances Harvey of Sharon, and
removed to the South; Avis Canfield died at 13.

44 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

BUEL.

( i ) William Buel,

(2) John Buel,

(3) Solomon Buel,

(4) Dorcas Buel Canfield,

(5) Annis Canfield Adams,

(6) Cornelia Adams Tomlinson,

(7) Maria Annis Tomlinson Dayton.

(8) Charles Willoughby Dayton,

Laura Canfield Spencer Dayton Fessenden,
William Adams Dayton,
Harold Child Dayton,

(9) Charles Willoughby Dayton, Jr.,
Aymar Child Fessenden,
Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton,
John Newton Dayton,

Alice Griswold Hyde Fessenden,
William Adams Dayton, Jr.,
Laura Adams Dayton,
Benjamin LIurd Fessenden,
Dorothy Dayton Fessenden,
Hayden Child Dayton,

(1)
WILLIAM BUEL.

William Buel, our first American ancestor of that
name, came from Wales to New England, and settled in
New Haven in 1630.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 45

(2)

JOHN BUEL.

John Buel, son of William Buel, was born in 1671.
He married Mary Loomis on November 12th, 1695.
They had twelve children. John Buel died in 1748,
aged 75 years; his wife, Mary Loomis Buel, died in
1796, aged 90 years. At the time of her death she had
living 101 grandchildren, 274 great grandchildren, and
22 great, great grandchildren.

(3)
SOLOMON BUEL.

Solomon Buel, the 9th child of John and Mary
Loomis Buel married Eunice Griswold. They lived in
Sharon, Connecticut.

(4)
DORCAS BUEL CANFIELD,

Dorcas (Buel) Canfield was the youngest
daughter of Solomon and Eunice (Griswold) Buel,
and she was born, married and died in Sharon. Her
husband was the Hon. John Canfield. She, Dorcas
(Buel) Canfield was "a woman of remarkable beauty,
which her daughters inherited from her;" "her face
was as exquisite in its proportions as are the marble
representations of the goddesses of ancient Greece.
She was tall, slight and very fair, and her hair was a
wonderful auburn, but her greatest beauty was her
mouth, which was shaped like a cupid's bow," and
added to all this, I am told that "she possessed rare in-
tellectuality, being deeply read in the Latin and Greek

46 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

classics as well as in her own language." From my
earliest childhood, the fact has been borne in upon me,
that the Buel blood indicated force, spirit, pride and
strength of purpose, for whenever there arose among
us youngsters at home some illustration of Spartan en-
durance, such as taking castor oil without protest, or
being silent when an eye tooth was pulled out, our
reward came in these words, "Now, that is the Buel
spirit," or "Of course you were brave, the Buels always
are!"

A(7),C(5),B(6).
CORNELIA LAURA (ADAMS) TOMLINSON.

The uniting of the various strains of New England's
strongest and best humanity in Cornelia Adams was
indeed the producing of one of the rarest bits of
nature's handiwork. Beautiful in form and of feature,
blessed with perfect health and endowed with an un-
usual mentality, she influenced through a long life for
the highest and the best ; and after more than 80 years
she passed on, still young in spirit, to become a potent,
forceful memory in the hearts of her children's child-
ren.

Cornelia Adams opened her brown eyes on the
world the 16th of February, 1786, in the home of
her grandfather, the Hon. Andrew Adams of Litch-
field, Connecticut. As little Cornelia was nearly ten
years of age when her grandfather died, she not only
had a perfect recollection of him, but she remembered
being brought into the drawing room with her sister
Maria to be spoken to by some guests of her grand-
father, and they were Lafayette, Rochambeau and
General George Washington.

CORNELIA LAURA (ADAMS) TOMLINSON.
From a miniature, 1825.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 47

She remembered how Mr. Champion's wife used to
ride to meeting behind the Reverend gentleman, on a
pillion, with her hair rolled on a high cushion and
powdered white as snow, under her ' 'broad tied down
bonnet." She recalled her dolls, puppets actually
hewn out of wood and so vividly complexioned as to
suggest an Indian artist, and she used to tell how her
sister Maria objected to such ugly playthings, substi-
tuted a kitten in their place, and how she taught this
kitten to stand up whenever its little mistress would
say to it: "Sit up! sit up! Glorify-God and Enjoy-
Him-Forever." (This being the kitten's name).

Cornelia Adams first went to a "Dames' school" and
when she was ten she entered Miss Pierce's Academy
for young ladies. This was the first school in the
United States devoted to the higher education of
women. Just as Judge Tappen Reeves's Law School
was the first institution for legal study for young men.
(Judge Reeves was a brother-in-law of Aaron Burr).
Litchfield certainly deserved its title : 'The Athens of
America." To Miss Pierce's school came girls from
every state in the Union. In one of the Eighteen and
Seventies, when I was a young girl and travelling
through the South with my aunt, we met, in Savannah,
a dear old lady who said that she was one of Miss
Pierce's pupils. She told me that she and her sister
drove in their father's coach all the way from Savan-
nah, Georgia, to Litchfield, having relays of horses at
the various post towns provided for them. And in this
connection I should like to add the following extract
from a letter written me by Mrs. Maria Gaylord Seeley
of Easthampton, Massachusetts. She says: "I have
often heard my mother tell how her mother, Maria

48 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

Rockwell, was sent to stay with her aunt, Annis
Adams in Litchfield, so that she might become a scholar
at Miss Pierce's school. She went directly after her
mother's death (when she was six) and remained until
she finished at sixteen. She had many charming things
to tell of those years, and often spoke of your grand-
mother and her sister as her little cousins, Maria and
Cornelia. I have a "Mourning Piece" drawn by my
mother and then embroidered in flosses and chenilles;
it is a conventional monument, with the willow tree,
church, water, grass, &c, &c. I (Maria Gaylord.
Seeley) once met Miss Pierce in a stage coach when
I was a young girl, and she talked to me with loving
interest about my mother and her cousins as her former
pupils." This thought of Miss Pierce brings to my
memory an incident that occurred when I, (Laura Day-
ton Fessenden), was once visiting at grandma's. There
came to spend the day with grandma, from Brooklyn,
one of her former schoolmates, at Miss Pierce's school.
This schoolmate may have been no older, or even
younger than grandma, but she was so much more
feeble, that our grandmother seemed young in com-
parison. From a respectful distance, we grandchildren
looked interestedly on. At first these old girls were
formal to each other and exchanged no end of compli-
ments, but by degrees the ice of conventionality melted
away, and they wandered back into their lang syne. It
seemed almost weird to hear them talk of men and
women and little children that had mouldered into
dust ; but, oh, if we who listened so carelessly then, had
only treasured up that talk, if we only could have real-
ized that in our coming manhood and womanhood, the
facts in the lives of our grandsires would not only.be

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 49

of personal but historic value, how we Sons and
Daughters of Colonial Wars and dames, how we Sons
and Daughters of the American Revolution would have
listened !

To Judge Tappen Reeves's Law School came young
men from all the other twelve United States, and
among the number was young Mr. Rutledge of South
Carolina, and Cornelia Adams and young Rutledge be-
came engaged, and the wedding day was set. But —
''Those we first love we seldom ever wed. God rules
us all." However that may be, the plans and the hopes
of these young lives were shattered; and it is best to
believe it was a wise fate that made them say "good
bye" and forever. Cornelia Adams left Litchfield at
once, and went to her aunt Lydia Adams Cowles at
Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson. Now there had recently
come into this town a young physician, David Tomlin-
son by name, of Derby, Connecticut, and very soon
after meeting Miss Adams, he asked her to be his wife.
My mother once told me that there was an honest
understanding of previous love affairs on both sides.
The marriage was consummated within a few
weeks after their first meeting and Doctor and
Mrs. Tomlinson were cordially welcomed by the
cultured element of Rhinebeck, as will be noted in later
allusions to his eventful life. In the old graveyard at
Rhinebeck is a little lichen-covered stone, and on it
are these words :

"William Adams Tomlinson, eldest son of David
and Cornelia Tomlinson, Died September 21st, 181 5,
aged four years.

"Also David who died in early infancy."

50 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

Grandma never spoke to me but once about these
little children and then she told me how beautiful both
her boys were and how proud she was of them. She
said that "William was too bright to live." She told
me that his Godfather, General Armstrong (who had
been an officer during the Revolutionary war, and was
Secretary of War under President Madison) had a
little Continental Uniform made for William, patterned
exactly after those that were worn by General Wash-
ington's Staff Officers, and that he used to put the
small soldier on the Library table, and make him go
through all the military tactics, which the child per-
formed with surprising accuracy. After William and
David, came Henry Tallmadge, Cornelia Laura, Theo-
dore Edwin, Maria Annis, Julia Caroline and Ellen
Adams. Soon after the arrival of Ellen Adams, it was
decided, that for the educational advantages of the
children, the family should remove to New York city.
Our mother, Maria Annis (Tomlinson) Dayton, was old
enough to remember perfectly this exodus. They
chartered a sailing vessel and on it the family, servants
and furniture were brought to New York. The negro
cook and coachman (Sarah and John Bogart) my
grandfather bought, and then set free upon his wed-
ding day. They lived for many years in our grand-
father's family, and most of the grandchildren, I am
sure, can remember them both as vividly as I do.
There is no better or more direct medium of picturing
other days than by and through intelligent correspond-
ence, and I here introduce a few letters written by our
grandmother Cornelia Adams Tomlinson.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 51

"To Miss Maria A. Tomlinson,

At Rhinebeck.
Politeness of Judge Cowles.
My very dear Child,

Although I have not heard from you a second time
I conclude you are still at Rhinebeck, and as your
cousin Henry goes this afternoon, I will write to you.
We all continue in our usual health, and your father
is as busy as ever, for the Cholera has not declined at
all. There have been a few cases in our vicinity as it
is confined chiefly to those whose habits are bad. I have
not heard from your little sisters but once, but I pre-
sume that they are doing very well, and I
am rejoiced that they with yourself are out
of the City. Your sister Cornelia has gone
this morning to call upon her Aunt and Uncle
Sterh'ng, who are in town, and expect to remain here a
week or so longer, as Uncle's eyes are still being treat-
ed. I have not seen them but once, as I am not able to
walk to St. Mark's Place, and there is no opportunity
to ride, as our horses are all required for the gig, which
is never unharnessed night or day. Cornelia passes a
great deal of her time with Miss Taylor. We see some
of your companions occasionally, but most of them are
out of town. As I said, I stay persistently at home and
see nobody. The servants are very faithful; Betsey,
Louisa and dear old Aunt Sarah, all present their re-
spectful love to Miss Maria. My love to cousin Fannie
and Uncle Cowles; also to William and Edward. I
suppose aunt and cousin James have not- yet returned
from Connecticut. Write and tell me if you are going
to accept the invitation to Sharon? You must not
think of returning to town until the Cholera has sub-

52 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

sided. I have been interrupted by an agreeable call
from Mr. Merwin. As your brother Henry must take
this down to cousin Henry, I bid you an affectionate
good bye.

Most affectionately

Your mother C. Tomlinson."

"New York, July 22nd, 1832.
My Dear Children :

I have just received your letter and am truly grati-
fied by the punctuality of my dear Cornelia, as I am
most desirous to hear concerning her stay in Pough-
keepsie, and am most happy to know that her decision
was fortunate and agreeable in all its details. The
Cholera is all we hear and think about. It continues
its dreadful ravages with unabated vigor. Your father
was out all night attending an old lady, who spent the
entire day previous (Sunday) in church; she died this
morning. Her husband has contracted the disease
since her death and cannot live the day out. You see
the terrible work is going on, but wTe who believe that
the "Judge of all the earth will do right," seek for
our safety through His mercy, and we pray that he will
preserve us ; or if it is His will that we go hence, that
He will sustain us in our hours of pain and weakness.
I presume you are all in Salisbury now, but not know-
ing, I shall direct this to Sharon. Your brothers are
well and send their love. Adieu my dear girls.

Your affectionate mother, C. Tomlinson.

Postscript : Your father has lain down to snatch a
few moments of sleep ; he is in excellent health, altho'
greatly fatigued."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 53

"New York, September, 1834.

Fearing that you might allow the opportunity to
pass unimproved of returning home under Mr. Prin-
dle's care, I hasten to inform you, that we shall expect
you all to come with him. Our cousins in Salisbury
will see Cornelia as far as Sharon, and then all together
you can take one of the Post Coaches. Make your
father's and my best and kindest regards to all the
uncles, aunts and cousins and express to them our
appreciation of the many kindnesses that they have con-
ferred upon our children. We had hoped that our
cousin Isabella would return with you, but doubtless
her mother has decided wisely in thinking it better for
her to wait until the health of our City is fully estab-
lished, then we shall be happy to see all our friends.
I can only add an adieu as your father will finish. —

My dear Child. The Cholera has so far subsided
that we think it will be safe for you to return. You
will add to your mother's my expressions of thanks to
your uncles, aunts and cousins for all their attentions
to you during your stay with them. Do not fail to
say how happy we shall be to reciprocate their kind-
ness. We anticipate much pleasure in seeing you all
once more, and may our Heavenly Father (whose
kindness you will not fail daily to acknowledge) pre-
serve and protect you. Tell your aunt that if she
should decide to let Isabella spend the winter with us,
she can secure excellent masters in French, Spanish,
Music and Painting.

Your loving father

D. Tomlinson."

54 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

"New York, February 23rd, 1837.
My dear Cornelia.

When I wrote Harvey on Saturday last, we thought
that Mr. Greg had left the city, and we feared that he
had done so without knowing that both your brothers
had called upon him, but on Wednesday he paid me a
visit, and I asked him to dine and pass the evening
with us ; this he declined, having made a previous en-
gagement. He said that he would be delighted to take
a letter to you. Mr. Greg speaks most flatteringly of
you both, and you know all such praise goes directly
to my heart. Your father's health is much improved;
he walked home from a call in Dey Street yesterday
without feeling fatigued. Sue Oakley has just re-
ceived a letter from her sister Caroline. Caroline is
keeping house about a mile out of the city of New
Orleans. Her home is embowered in orange trees, and
she has a beautiful garden. Caroline wrote that she
had attended a great many dinner parties given in her
honor, and that she was now beginning to reciprocate
these compliments. She likes living in the South, but
she misses her family and her girlhood's friends. Your
description of your mode of life does credit to your
husband's hospitable disposition and to your own good
taste. Mr. Greg says you sing charmingly. Are you
able to get new music? Julia is practicing faithfully,
and when the days grow longer, Ellen shall devote some
hours of every day to the piano. Maria sings with
Julia much more than she formerly did, and improves
as a vocalist. Your old friend Thomas Walden
says he is going to Illinois in the spring with one of
his brothers. They will select an agreeable location
and then take their family to the far zvest to reside.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 55

New York presents few inducements for young men
without fortunes or professions. I had almost for-
gotten to tell you that we are to lose the Prices from
this neighborhood. They are to remove to Prince
Street ; they have taken that double house of the Gouv-
eners. Mrs. Price sends her best love to you and hopes
that you will decide to pay us a visit in the spring (we
all respond, Amen). Do write and tell us all that you
are doing. And now my dear girl with best love

Your mother, C. Tomlinson."

It seems about time now to stop and explain some
things to the younger generation. The first letters tell
of a dreadful Cholera visitation and shows that the
younger children of the Tomlinson family were sent
into the country, while grandma bravely remained
beside her good husband, whose profession forced him
to face the pestilence and as far as was humanly possi-
ble to stay its ravages. Aunt Tallmadge, grandma's
only sister, lived in St. Mark's Place when uncle and
aunt Sterling were visiting. I think I have spoken of
her before, but it occurs to me to add that I have a
vivid and delightful recollection of her funeral, because
it brought together a host of distinguished relatives
from far and near, and in accordance with the decrees
of old-fashioned hospitality all our houses were crowd-
ed with guests, and at grandma's there were enough
brandy, peaches, plum-cakes and mince pies in evidence
to afford all us eighteen grandchildren opportunities
for future generous potations of elixir pro and castor
oil (we took these two medicines for everything, and
I think we all took them both after this occasion). I
fell into disgrace. In an incautious moment of childish

56 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

truthfulness and in the presence of a critical audience,
I announced to my mother that her relatives made me
think of the picture of war horses, that I had seen, be-
cause their nostrils fluted, and they held their heads in
a very prancing fashion. I know I meant all this as
an awesome compliment, and I felt keenly the injustice
of several things that were apportioned to me. The
first included a vigorous application of a slipper's sole,
the second was solitary confinement, the third was
bread and water for my tea. I hope I may safely tell
something that I did while I was a prisoner. I never
was possessed of a contrite heart when I was punished.
I used to enjoy believing that in some time my mother
would be turned into a little girl, and I into her guar-
dian, and it was a joy to contemplate the pairs of slip-
pers I would use up in my discipline, but on this occa-
sion probably goaded thereto by the gnawings of the
imps that reside in mince meat and plum-cake, I stole
softly down stairs and found a book which I knew that
my mother read and followed in the bringing up of
her children. It was called "Mother at Home" and
was written by John S. C. Abbott. On the very first
page there was a steel engraving of a bed room. A
well furnished, but cheerless place with its bare, hard
wood floor, and its severe chippendale appointments.
On a broad-seated, high-backed chair, with her feet on
a stool (that looked like a jewel casket) sat a lady
with a little girl on her lap. The lady and the child
were in very low necked, short sleeved gowns, and
under this picture in fine print were these words :
"Takes Mary in her lap and says, 'My dear, are you
sorry that you disobeyed mother?' see page 34." I
turned to page 34 and read aloud but not before I had

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 57

slapped the lady and made several unflattering faces
at her (being very careful, however, not to touch poor,
little low necked, sleek curled Mary). I read, "Mary
begins to cry and to promise not to do so again, but,
'Mary,' says the mother, 'you have disobeyed me and
you must be punished.' Mary continues to cry, but
her mother seriously and calmly punishes her! She
inflicts real pain ! Pain that will be remembered," and
when she has thrashed poor little helpless Mary (prob-
ably until her arms give out) she says, "Mary, mother
loves her little daughter, and then she retires, that soli-
tude may deepen the impression." "In five minutes
she returns, and takes Mary on her lap, and she says,
'Mary will you be careful not to disobey me again?'
and Mary says, 'Yes, Mother,' and then the mother
says, 'I will forgive you as far as I can, but God is
displeased with you, do you wish me to ask God to
forgive you?' and Mary says, 'yes, mother,' and then
they kneel down and pray and Mary walks out holding
her mother's hand, humbled and subdued." T turned
back to the frontispiece and gave Mary a resounding
slap. "I hate you" I said slowly. "I hate you, you little
coward! Why didn't you kick and yell as I did?"
and then my fury needing some further vent I threw
the book on the floor and stood the whole weight of
my body on Mr. Abbott's name. There was some
one behind me! I turned and there stood my hand-
some father. Whereupon I held out my arms to him
and he lifted me up and carried me back to prison,
whispering as he mounted the stairs that no one should
ever know of my daring escape, and once there, he took
me on his lap and opened his vest and put my sunny
little head so close to his heart that I could hear it

58 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

beat, and then I began to sob, and I told him all that
was uppermost in my heart, and he listened in silence
to the end (for he was a gentleman of the old school
and was as courteous to his little daughter as tho' she
were a princess). At last I lifted up my face and said
pathetically : "Do you think God is angry with me
because I said our relations looked like war horses?"
and I found unspeakable comfort in his reply, "Damn
it, no, of course He isn't," and then my father began
to sing, "Hark the sound of jubilee." He hadn't much
idea of a tune, but I loved his voice, and I said, "Now
I lay me," softly to myself and fell asleep, and that is
why I always remember so vividly Aunt Tallmadge's
funeral .

The Cornelia to whom many of grandma's letters are
written was her eldest daughter. She is said to have
been one of the most beautiful girls in New York in the
early 1830's. At all events she had lovers galore, but
among the twain there were two that were considered
especially. One of them was related to a very distin-
guished family and Was poor, the other was charm-
ing and the only son of a very wealthy man and a
president of one of the New York banks. Grandma
(so the story runs) sent Cornelia to Sharon to serious-
ly consider amidst nature'sgroves, thislife problem, and
then wrote to her daughter, that dear Harvey had been
accepted. Cornelia evidently was satisfied with her
mother's selection, for she came home and the engage-
ment was announced (as all engagements were at that
period, by the lover and his fiancee promenading to
church Sunday morning, the fair lady blushingly re-
clining upon the arm of her future lord and master).
Ere long there was a grand wedding, and among

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 59

Aunty Weed's (his name was Weed) bridesmaids
were Cornelia Livingston, afterwards Mrs. Charles
O'Connor and Arietta Hutton, who brought in her
dower to her husband (Mr. Kelly) Ellerslie, an estate
at Rhinebeck, now owned by Mr. Seward Webb. Di-
rectly after the conclusion of their wedding journey,
Mr. and Mrs. Weed went temporarily to Canandagua
to live, so that uncle Harvey might study law with
cousin John C. Spencer, and before I stop I cannot
resist telling you children something about that wed-
ding journey. Aunty Weed told me that her travelling
dress and cloak were of ashes of roses merino, lined
with ashes of roses silk. Her gaiters were of the same
color, and her bonnet was of ashes of roses uncut
velvet, very large and pokey, and adorned inside and
out with a profusion of staring orange blossoms ; to
this was added a white blonde lace veil, that when it
was gracefully worn over the face, enveloped her to
her ankles. To this costume she added a long cape, muff
and cuffs of ermine. She was married in January, and
the tour included Washington, and the conveyances
were sleighs with canvas tops, like, I suppose, the old-
fashioned prairie schooners. Somewhere near Phila-
delphia, the stage fell into a mountain of a snowdrift,
and was overturned. Poor Aunty Weed had her head
(bonnet and all) shot through a rip in the canvas roof,
and there she hung while the passengers were shouting
in chorus, "Oh, help the bride ! Oh, help the bride !"

60 A GENEALOGICAL STORY,

"New York, March, 1837..

My Dear Cornelia.

I know of no young married woman who has such
entire command of her time as yourself. Let it not
depend upon accident how you employ it ; every sensible
woman should reflect on the best mode of fulfilling her
duties to God and man; how best she. may secure health
and cheerfulness and an agreeable exercise of her
talents; and here let me counsel you to treasure this
advice at any time, should disagreeable feelings come
to you, as far as possible disregard them. The dis-
cussion of ill health is an eminently vulgar topic. True,
we all require sympathy, but by constantly complain-
ing, we weary those who are with us. To avoid any
such occasion, let your mind be agreeably occupied,
and do not spend your whole day in one or two employ-
ments, but diversify your time with reading, embroid-
ery, music and correspondence. Then be sure to ride
each pleasant day, such exercise is so beneficial, and
your husband should avail himself of it as much as
possible, since he is such a close student. Cornelia
remember that the wife must at the very first unite her
husband's pleasures with her own ; if not, the husband
will soon come to think of his wife and his plans for
pleasure at different times. Your brother Edwin has
returned to his school at Wilton. I took tea yesterday
afternoon with Mrs. Burrows to meet Mrs. Smith from
Litchfield.

With dear love your mother,

C. Tomlinson."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 61

"New York, January, 13th, 1838.
My dear Cornelia.

I can not let your cousin Benjamin Tallmadge de-
part for the Western country* without sending a letter
to you. You will be surprised to learn that Miss Cram
is married to a Mr. Mason of the Park Theatre, an
actor ; and with the free consent of her father. This
is not all. Young Mr. Mason, an elegant, refined and
cultured gentleman has married a Miss Wheatly, an
actress. Now, this subject reminds me to tell you of an
invitation that your sister Maria received. Maria and
your brother Henry were asked to meet Captain
Marryatt, the writer, Russell, the celebrated English
vocalist, and some others artists, writers and musicians.
Now the circumstances surrounding the invitation were
most peculiar. Some weeks since at a cotillion given
by Mrs. Price, your sister met a Mr. Dayton. He has
been particularly attentive to your brothers ever since
and expresses himself as extremely drawn to Henry.
On Tuesday, of last week, Mr. Dayton called at about
eleven, asked for Henry. Henry was out. Mr. Day-
ton called at twelve, but Henry still being absent, Mr.
Dayton left a note, and in this note, he not only in-
vited your brother, but requested him to bring Miss
Tomlinson to pass the evening at his father's house
on Washington Square, as his aunt and cousin were
very anxious to meet her ! ! ! This Mr. Dayton has no
mother living. He said the ladies at his father's house
were an aunt and cousin. I believe the Daytons are
English. I know that the son has just returned from
Europe. We did not think it quite American for Maria
to visit ladies that her mother had never seen. Henry

* Canandagua, New York.

62 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

went, however, and spent a most delightful evening,
hearing Russell and Horn sing, and marking the
physiognomy of Captain Marryatt, for that gentleman
is extremely silent. When you write again, tell us how
you passed your New Year's day. What did you wear ?
and what gentlemen called? Do not fail to spend a
portion of each day among your books. Your library
is sufficiently large to afford you ample opportunities
for a continual advance in mind culture. Remember,
my girl, that the soul does not wither with the body;
it will be young when your beauty is a memory, when
your youth is a dream and then if you have enriched
this soul (or spirit) you will never sigh for the return
of the past, for the charm of intellectuality is so great
that it blots any thought of age; it is the fountain of
perpetual youth. As to your personal appearance, never
fail, my dear, to dress well, and let your costume be
always appropriate to the occasion. At home and
abroad be tasteful and elegant. Let me beg you to
avoid any habit of stooping, always hold yourself erect.
x\s to your face keep it in repose as much as possible.
Expressing one's emotions by facial contortions should
be relegated to clowns, and is always an evidence of a
lack of breeding. I hope you do not neglect your
guitar.

Your affectionate mother, C. Tomlinson."

"New York, December 7th, 1837.
My Dear Cornelia:

I was indeed disappointed at your long delay in
writing, but your letter, when it did arrive, met with a
most cordial reception. I am glad to know that you
and Harvey are the recipients of so many polite atten-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 63

tions. You describe graphically the elegant silver and
gold dinner services, but leave entirely to our imag-
ination the appearance, and conversation of the guests.
So Mrs. Greg loves to talk to you of her and of my
girlhood. Is she vivacious and sprightly as in her
youth, I wonder? When you pay your dinner call (if
this reaches you in time) present my love to her, and
say that I congratulate myself upon having my
daughter so near her. Your uncle Tallmadge and your
cousins Mary and Cornelia were here to-day. Mary
had on a charming new bonnet ; white ribbed satin with
flowers on the sides. She said she should have pre-
ferred watered silk, but could procure none in New
York. You desire a description of Meg Chauncey's
wedding. The reception was a perfect crush. Meg
looked prettily in a plain satin gown with flowers in
her hair. The bridegroom (Mr. Stanton) is fine look-
ing. Meg had two bridesmaids. The supper was at-
tractive and well served. Mr. and Mrs. Price gave a
splendid party for Meg and Mr. Stanton about two
weeks before her wedding. They issued engraved
cards ten days in advance. At Airs. Price's urgent
request all the children accepted, even little Ellen, only
your father and I declining, as he is quite too feeble
to go anywhere upon occasions of ceremony. The
Prices had a fine band of music and a cotillion (with
favors imported from Paris for the occasion) was
danced. Mr. Dayton led the cotillion, and was master
of ceremonies. Meg and Mr. Stanton have gone to
Albany to reside. Your father-in-law complains that
your letters to Bond Street are not frequent enough.
He speaks of making you a visit this winter. So your
ladyship expects to receive calls on New Year's day,

64 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

and your good husband wants you to have another
out-of-door costume, "And green it shall be," said the
country girl in my old spelling book, "because green
suits my complexion best."

Ever your affectionate mother,

C. Tomlinson."

"Canandagua, 1838.

My Dearest Family :

I am now safely arrived at Cornelia's home. The
journey thither was attended with every circumstance
to render it a pleasant one. The morning that we
arrived at Albany, Mr. Tomlinson came to the Hotel
and invited us to breakfast at his house. We accepted
and accompanied him home. There we found as guests
Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood, former patients of your
father's; their home is at Kingston Point. Mrs. Tom-
linson was most agreeable and her house was fur-
nished fashionably and expensively. After breakfast
Mr. Tomlinson escorted me to a curl store, where I
bought some curls, as mine had become entirely
straight. At half past eight a. m. we took the Rail Car
and we arrived at Utica at a little after three in the
afternoon. I like travelling on the Rail Cars very
much, and did not experience one sensation of fear.
At half-past four of the same afternoon we took the
canal boat (it being Tuesday) and arrived at Palmyra
at ten on Wednesday night. We went to the hotel and
after breakfast on Thursday morning, took the stage
coach to Canandagua, where we arrived at about noon.
There were many agreeable people on the canal boat,
among others Judge Els worth and Judge Baldwin.
Cornelia found her house in excellent order, and her

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 65

servants glad to see their mistress once more. Mrs.
Greg and Miss Chapin called upon me yesterday. In the
Mrs. Greg of to-day I find I can vividly recall my girl,
friend of yesterday..

Affectionately your mother,

C. Tomlinson/'

Here is a poem written by Grandma Tomlinson to
Harvey and Cornelia :

"On this dawning New Year may prosperity bright
Shed its beams and encircle your pathway with light.
And through all its seasons no cloud interpose
Its youth and prime, tranquil, serene be its close.
May your hearts be a mirror to each other true,
Blending confidence, honor and love in one view.
May genius and knowledge and wisdom combine
On the brow of my Harvey a laurel to twine ;
While goodness and sweetness their rare charms impart
A wreath for Cornelia, the girl of my heart."

When, upon confidential occasions in my advanced
youth, my mother used to read me this poem, I
always longed to say that it did not seem to me up to
grandma's prose, and to the suggestion concerning
Uncle Harvey, decorated with a laurel wreath, I should
like to have smiled if I had dared.

This poem I think is better :

To Miss Elizabeth Cornelia Tallmadge :

"Had I, dear girl, the Sybil's scroll,
Could I thy page of fate unroll,

Thy page of destiny;
The leaves should be both fair and bright,
With characters of living light,

Telling of all earth's best for thee.

66 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

And there should tints of deeper glow-
On life's maturer current flow,

A richer radiance I would shed,

And holy rays of wisdom spread.
Pearls of great price should grace the page,
And mark the advancing steps of age,
That speak of the to be.

Aye, on that truth illumined leaf,
Should God will life be long or brief,

(For Heaven holds our destiny,)
1 fain would find a robe for thee,
Wrought out by grace all rich and free,
■Glitter with gems thy diadem,

Thy crown of deeds that is to be."

When my father was owner and editor of "Porter's
Spirit of the Times," he printed this poem in one of the
issues of the paper, and brought it home to mother.
She was pleased, and cutting it carefully out, put it
in a little jewel case belonging to her greatgrandmother
and in which (in company with two tonca beans) she
hid her most sacred treasures, — bits of her baby's hair
and other little mementoes. This box was lined with
satin that had once been white, but was now yellow
with age. Its shape exactly resembled the coffins in
Hogarth's drawings.

The following is a letter written to me when I was
a little girl and away at boarding school by grandma :

"New York, December 3rd, 1866.
My Dear Laura :

Your clear little letter though so long unanswered
has been affectionately borne in mind. I am happy to
know that your home-sickness has passed away and
that your own cheery nature again holds sway. Dear

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 67

Child, let your ambition to excel rise with every intel-
lectual opportunity, and make the utmost of the great
capacity with which you are endowed. In your account
of the various tasks and duties assigned you, religious
observance seems to have a prominent place. Happy is
it indeed when Evangelical truth is a forceful element
in the education of childhood and youth. You ask
me to excuse your spelling. In that particular, my
dear, I am happy to say that there is little opportunity
for reproof, but there is a decided lack of punctuation.
I wish that I had something of interest to tell you, but
your mother, your father, and Charlie reap the whole
harvest of news for the little girl at school, leaving me
not even the gleanings which is not living up to the
scriptural injunctions, is it? But even if they did not
leave me a bit of news here and there, I am afraid I
gather so slowly these days, that by the time it reached
you it would be a withered sheaf. Have you ever
read the story of Ruth and Rebecca? If not, I think
you will find its perusal (I detest the word) interesting.
Write me soon again,

Your own Grandmama,

C. Tomlinson."

This letter was written to me four months before
grandma Tomlinson's death, when she was past her
eightieth birthday. I wish I could describe to you
children graphically all that grandma was. She was
mentally a great force. No woman of her day had a
better knowledge of ancient and modern (translated)
literature. She was a born politician, and in the pri-
vacy of her home, discussed State and National issues
brilliantly with her son and her grandsons. Grandma

68 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

recognized no sovereign of society. She entertained
delightfully and constantly, but was indolently in-
clined, and though often tardy in making conventional
visits, she was persistently courted by the most ex-
clusive and most intellectual element of old New York.
She was urged and entreated both by Lossing and Dr.
Francis, the noted historians, to write her personal rec-
ollections of her family and connections, who were so
conspicuous in the early history of our Republic, but
Grandma hesitated and procrastinated and so lost an
opportunity to afford those who were to follow her
a genealogical treasure, which now is past finding out.
Grandma lived always with her son Theodore E.
Tomlinson (after the death of her husband), but
until her death, the large family invariably al-
luded to the house on Second Avenue and
Twelfth Street as "Grandma's." Grandma's room,
just above the drawing room, was the gathering
place for children and grandchildren. It was a large
room, and in an alcove stood the high post bed, with its
crimson silk canopy and hangings. On either side
of this bed were rosewood steps, and the broad landing
was finished like a balcony railing. Here on these bed
steps we little grand daughters played, and up these
steps I have mounted many time on my way to a "Lily
White party," or in other words, to bed, on occasions
when Grandma had honored me with an invitation to
pass the night with her. There was a perfect mountain
of a feather bed to tumble into, and once we were both
settled down for repose, Grandma and Grand-
child were divided by quite a hill, but from
our valleys we hailed each other and had de-
lightfully confidential talks about many things.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 69

In Grandma's main room there was a Chip-
pendale dressing table and chairs that matched it,
and a little thin legged rosewood worktable with a work
basket on it in which Grandma always kept a piece of
fancy work, for she made it a rule never to read any-
thing but the newspaper before luncheon. Grandma
wore black silk gowns for every day, and black satin
upon state occasions. Her waists always had full
vests and kerchiefs of white illusion. She had quantities
of beautiful rippling white hair, which in consequence
of the united decrees of Aunt Tallmadge and Madame
Fashion, she hid under a brown toupee. Grandma's
caps were of real lace, black for morning and relieved
by a few sombre flowers, but the afternoon and evening
headdresses were things of beauty, composed of Blond
or Regency or Point and bright even to fetching with
ribbons and posies. Grandma was a brunette and to
the end of her life she had a fine delicate complexion,
bright, clear brown eyes and no wrinkles ; she had little
dainty hands and beautiful feet ; she always wore white
silk stockings, and in the house black satin slippers that
had points over the arched insteps. Her particular
chair was large, soft cushioned, high backed and roomy,
and we children called it "Grandma's throne." We
never said "you" to Grandma, nor "sat" in her presence
unless we were invited to do so. I never remember
hearing her scold one of her grandchildren but she could
when occasion required, look at us in a way that made
the stoutest and most defiant heart quail ; yet we had
no fear of her, and from the youngest to the oldest,
from the child with her doll to the girl with her
sweetheart, she was the dearest possible confidant and
friend. Not many years before her death, a cousin,

70 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

a young boy in the New York University, asked her
to write an essay for him to read as his own at morning
exercises ; and in making this request, he gave her some
rather abstruse subject as a topic. Grandma took him
at his word and wrote the essay, and the boy read it and
it was criticised by the Chancellor as "the most brilliant
effort he had heard in the room in many a day." My
mother told me that as life's end drew near, Grand-
ma's mind wandered, but it was into a realm of
eloquent thought. She rallied and a clergyman was
sent for. After praying beside her he asked, "Do you
feel at peace, Mrs. Tomlinson?" "Sir," she replied,
"my credentials are sure." Soon after this she fell into
what seemed final unconsciousness. Doctor Willard
Parker and Doctor Robert Watts were standing beside
her bed, and Doctor Parker said, "At last this great
woman whose mind and whose body have so long
defied time and weakness, is conquered; her mighty
will has found its master; she is incapable now of so
much as lifting a finger." Then those that watched
saw slowly but surely the hand, and then the arm lift-
ed up and yet up. Then it fell heavily down. Grandma
was dead.

In the New York Evening Post of April 17th, 1867,
appeared the following obituary : "Those who were
young people in society in New York thirty years ago,
retain a vivid •recollection of the dignity and grace
with which Mrs. David Tomlinson presided over the
charming circle that almost every evening assembled
at her house. Broadway was then the promenade.
The Bowling Green was still occupied by the oldest
families. St. John's Park, Varick Street, and the
regions contiguous were in vogue, while the extreme

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 71

limit of fashionable habitation was in Bleeker, Great
Jones and Bond Streets. Mrs. Tomlinson was at this
period over fifty years of age, and her manners in a
marked degree, displayed the forms that were in use
at the time of Washington and his immediate succes-
sors. She was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her
father Andrew Adams was a graduate of Yale College
and was a lawyer by profession ; he died in early man-
hood, and his daughters were brought up under their
grandfather's roof. This grandfather was the Hon.
Andrew Adams, a member of the Continental Congress,
and for many years Chief Justice of the State of
Connecticut. Through her mother's family (the Can-
fields) she was connected with the Spencers; she was
a niece of Chief Justice Spencer of the State of New
York, and first cousin of John Canfield Spencer, who
was Secretary of the Treasury under President Tyler.
The generation which succeeded the notables of the
Revolution in which her ancestors were so distin-
guished, was that in which Miss Adams flourished
as a young lady. At the time that Litchfield
was the Athens of America. Its famous Law School
attracting to the spot the wisdom, erudition and
scholarship of the land. It was in Litchfield that John
C. Calhoun took his first lessons in a study which he
afterwards turned to such unhappy account. In Litch-
field it was fashionable for young ladies to be educated,
accomplished and well read; and here in Litchfield
surrounded by everything that could foster and develop
her natural taste and abilities, Miss Adams early be-
came distinguished for her intelligence, her wit, and
her beauty. She married David Tomlinson, a young
physician already known for his culture and scientific

72 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

attainments, and took up her abode at Rhinebeck-on-
the-Hudson, where the name of Mrs. Dr. Tomlinson
is still held in loving remembrance. Some years later
Doctor Tomlinson removed to New York City where
he at once took the highest rank in his profession, and
where he died in 1840. It is not the destiny of woman
to influence by stirring deeds, nor ordinarily by achieve-
ments of any kind, but woman's influence on the world
is none the less potent, because it is without observation.
The power of Mrs. Tomlinson over every one with
whom she came in contact was extraordinary. Genuine
in character, she appealed to every class and condition
of humanity; she held admiration and respect of all.
She was haughty and austere, yet she had keen
sympathies, and took a deep interest in all the pleasures
of the young lives gathered about her. She permitted
from them a well bred and conventional freedom ; she
discouraged in them presumption, affectation and
assumption. She would have a graced a throne. She
would have presided with dignity over a Counsel of
State, but she did more than this in exercising an
influence for the highest and best in thought and in
word and in deed. She retained until her death all
the mental force of her prime, and surrounded by
children and grandchildren, she expired in the 84th
year of her age."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 73

TOMLINSON.

( i ) Henry Tomlinson,

(2) Jonas Tomlinson,

(3) Abram Tomlinson,

(4) Agur Tomlinson,

(5) Joseph Tomlinson,

(6) David Tomlinson,

(7) Maria Annis Tomlinson Dayton.

(8) Charles Willoughby Dayton,

Laura Canfield Spencer Dayton Fessen-

den,
William Adams Dayton,
Harold Child Dayton.

(9) Charles Willoughby Dayton, Jr.,
Aymar Child Dayton,
Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton,
John Newman Dayton,

Alice Griswold Hyde Fessenden,
Laura Adams Dayton,
William Adams Dayton, Jr.,
Benjamin Hurd Fessenden,
Dorothy Dayton Fessenden,
Hayden Child Dayton.

HENRY TOMLINSON.

Henry Tomlinson and Alice (Hyde) Tomlinson
his wife, with their three children came from Derby in
Derbyshire, England to New England in 1652, and
settled at Milford, Connecticut. Henry Tomlinson
was the son of George and Maria Tomlinson, and was
baptized in St. Peter's Church, Derby, in November
1606. The coat of arms that he brought to America

74 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

proves by its ornamentation that his family was
descended through some line of Royalty. In 1656
Henry Tomlinson removed from Mil ford to Stratford,
and on April the first, 1657, he bought of Joshua
Atwater "an estate". In 1668 Henry Tomlinson and
Joseph Hawley purchased a tract of land in Derby,
and this portion of the land he presented to his son
Jonas Tomlinson in 1671. Then in the same year
Henry Tomlinson purchased a tract of land in New
Milford sufficient for a township. Henry Tomlinson
died at Stratford on March 16th, 1681, leaving a
widow, two sons and five daughters. In 1688 his
widow Alice Hyde Tomlinson married John Birdsey,
she died January 25th, 1698, in the 90th year of her
age. The Coat of Arms that Henry Tomlinson
brought with him was in 1897 in the possession of
Mrs. Katherine Plant Sterling of Stratford, Connecti-
cut.

(2)
JONAS TOMLINSON.

When Jonas Tomlinson was born is not recorded,

hut he married Hannah , and then

settled on the land that his father, Henry Tomlinson,
had given him at Derby. He died in 1692 and at the
time of his death owned large tracts of land in Derby,
.Stratford and Huntington.

(3)
ABRAM TOMLINSON.

Abram Tomlinson, son of Jonas, married twice.

His first wife was Mary ■ , his second,

Lois Wheeler, formerly widow of Ebenezer Riggs

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 75

What Lois's name was previous to Riggs is unknown.
Abram Tomlinson was a prominent citizen of Derby.
He held many offices of honor and trust under the
Crown, and at his death in 1761, left a large estate to
be divided among his children.

(4)
AGUR TOMLINSON.

Agur Tomlinson was born in Derby, November
10th, 171 3, he married on December 4th, 1734, Sarah
Bowers, daughter of the Rev. Nathaniel .Bowers of the
Parishes of Rye (New York) and Greenwich (Con-
necticut). Agur Tomlinson was a man of wealth and
wide philanthropy. It is known that he took a little
Indian boy the son of Manwehu and educated him.
The children of Agur and Sarah (Bowers) Tomlinson
were Nathaniel, Joseph, Webb, David, Abraham,
Sarah, and Hannah. Agur Tomlinson died February
7th, 1800 aged 87 years.

The children of Joseph Tomlinson and Bethia Glover
Tomlinson were Joseph, Bowers, David, Daniel and
Agur.

(5)
>s JOSEPH TOMLINSON.

Joseph Tomlinson married Bethia Glover of
Newton, Connecticut, Oct. 27th, 1763. She died
November 1st, 1799. She was the mother of all
Joseph Tomlinson's children. Joseph Tomlinson
married for his second wife Mrs. Jedediah Wakelee,
the widow of Jeremiah Hawley of Brookfield. Joseph
Tomlinson was a man of wealth and position, and he
gave all his sons collegiate educations, and here I

\

76 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

want to introduce a little incident. It seems that our
great, great grandmother's mother, Mrs. Bethia Glover,
lived with her son-in-law, Joseph Tomlinson, and one
day during the Revolutionary War she happened to
be left alone at home with her little grandchildren.
Suddenly the door was forced open and in walked a
British officer who blustered and threatened until the
children were clinging in noisy terror all about the tiny
old woman, who nothing daunted, is said to (like Silas
Wegg) have dropped into poetry and to have made
the following metrical remarks :

"Indeed gallant Captain, I do understand
You are a great warrior from England's far land !"
Have you a commission a monarch to right?
Or is it old women and children to fright ?
If the latter, I tell you as you are a man,
The task is unequal while armed you stand !
But strip off your coutrements, throw down your

g™,
See, I have two ladles and you shall have one.

Then we'll try it out fairly without more delay,
For you are too noble to show me foul play,
Then if it's my fate in this fray to be beat,
With submission, my ladle I lay at your feet.
My face it is furrowed and wrinkled appears,
For time has been plowing there seventy years ;
But rouse up your courage, and fight like a man,
And handle your ladle as well as you can !

If you win this battle, your fame it will ring,
For brave Alexander ne'er did such a thing !
And Hercules too with envy will flount
To think he weren't here to assist in the rout !
You decline? Well, fight on your King to en-
throne,
But, my son, let old women and children alone."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 77

(6)

DAVID TOMLINSON.

David Tomlinson A. M., M. D., was born in Derby,
Connecticut in August, 1772. He entered Williams
College and graduated in 1798. He studied medicine
and surgery under Doctor Wheeler of Red Hook
Dutchess County, New York, and was licensed to
practice by the Connecticut State Medical Society
November 2nd, 1802. Establishing himself at Rhine-
beck, New York, where he rose rapidly to prominence,
he soon numbered among his patients the most dis-
tinguished families along the Hudson. For many years
he was President of Dutchess County Medical Associa-
tion. In the War of 181 2 he was appointed surgeon-in-
chief of the Second Regiment. In 18 19 he was elected a
member of New York State Legislature. In 1825 he
removed to New York City, where he lived the re-
mainder of his life. "All mankind love a lover,"
and so I am impelled to speak of Grandpa Tomlinson' s
first love. Her name was Polly Lobdell. She was a
near connection of the Tomlinsons, and from two of
my mother's cousins (both now past their eightieth
year) I have gathered that this Polly Lobdell was a
beautiful girl, as lovely of soul as she was of face, and
that she lived in the family of Joseph Tomlinson.
"Your Grandfather, my dear," (writes one of these
cousins) "was a very fascinating man; polished
as well as handsome. I don't know why he
never married Polly Lobdell, but I think that
when he met the beautiful, haughty and gifted
Miss Adams his ambition conquered love. In
time cousin Pollv married a Mr. Barnum, and went

78 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

to western New York to live. Her two daughters Miss
Maria and Miss Emily Barnum married the Mr.
Parsons of Detroit." Grandpa Tomlinson was honored
by his associates, and beloved by all his patients. I
have heard my mother say that every summer and fall,
Grandma put away a separate store of jellies and
cordials for Grandpa's poor patients; that he bought
fuel for homes where he found it needed and when he
discovered a particularly bright child he paid for it?
schooling, and that finally his death was hastened by an
errand of mercy one stormy night. A poor widow had
sent the message that her baby was strangling with
croup and that he alone could save it. He responded
to her call ; the baby was saved, but the Doctor fell in-
sensible across his threshold in the early morning, and
in a few hours passed away. He was the physician of
the Vanderbilt family and brought all Commodore
Vanderbilt's children into the world. He admired the
pluck and energy of this energetic sloop captain and
his wife, and when the eldest daughter married a young
man named Clark, he received a note from Cornelius
Vanderbilt asking him to honor the occasion with his
presence, which he did. My mother had this note, but
it has evidently been destroyed with many other in-
teresting papers.

Here is a letter written by Grandpa Tomlinson to
his youngest son Theodore E. Tomlinson when he
(Theodore) was attending the Western Reserve
College at Hudson, Ohio.

.r _ c "New York, April nth, 1833.

My Dear Son :

I received on the fifth instant a letter from President

Stom, announcing that you had received a silent dis-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 79

mission from College because of something that had
occurred in which the Faculty believed that you had
been improperly connected; and they express the ap-
prehension that if you continue in Hudson, you will be
led more astray and stand exposed to public discipline.
No specific charge was made, only that you were not
sufficiently open and ingenuous with the Trustees.
Professors Wright's and Wortley's letters speak well
of your industry, and pay high compliments to your
talents. These letters say that you were absent but
from one recitation, and that that was by permission.
Your letter is more in detail, but it evinces marks of
strong excitement. You are too young, my son, to
engage in partisan political warfare, especially with
your superiors, who, in this instance, are men of age,
high standing and experience. You ought not to pride
yourself on being a champion, and those young men
who now flatter and encourage you, may at any time

not only abandon but disown you. Your

subject of controversy appears to me to be quite outre!
I should as soon expect to hear that you in Ohio had
made it a matter of serious controversy and party strife,
whether the Emperor Tuowkwaog in his late prayer
to Imperial Heaven, to relieve his Kingdom from
draught should have bumped his head against the
ground once or thrice! or whether Don Quixote
in his attack on the wind mills, showed sufficient
courage to compensate for his want of wisdom, as to
see anything profitable or beneficial resultant from
what you have undertaken. You could do about as
much with the first two arguments as the last. Ab-
stract principles grounded on opinions of National
rights will not apply to all causes or to all times. I

80 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

regret to hear that the students are leaving the College,
and that there is so strong a feeling among them
against the Professors. I enjoin it upon you, my dear
son, not to encourage this, but rather seek to allay this
condition. Remember one of the best precepts in Holy
Writ : "Do good to your enemies." Ponder well before
you act; keep your temper cool. If you feel yourself
injured, pause and view the matter in every light be-
fore you attempt retaliation. In short, pursue
Fabian policy, and be only on the defensive. In this
way you may come off with honor, and you certainly
will be more sure of possessing the esteem of your
friends, and commanding the respect of your enemies.
Be determined never to give the latter any advantage
by your impetuosity. Speak respectfully to those
under whose care you have been, and treat them with
the deference due to their standing. 12th. I have
just received another letter from President Stom,
stating that you have taken a room near the College
building where the Faculty think you will be exposed
to some danger from a careless and injudicious selec-
tion of company. They think your welfare requires
your removal. They say that your feelings toward the
Institution are such that there is danger of your being
involved in further antagonism, thereby forcing them
to pass public censure (and at present there is no
such condition so you could doubtless obtain admission
to some other College). This solicitude on the part of
the Faculty seems to me to indicate that you are not
as quiet as you might be. Now I would not have you
sit down and receive stripes when you have not de-
served them, but do not invite their infliction. Every
thing you do by word or action to incite the students

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 81

against the Professors is blameworthy and dishonor-
able. My son, be moderate and discreet if you wish to
avoid my displeasure. I have not a fear that you will
descend to either meanness or Billingsgate, if you will
remember the advice I have given you, the precepts
with which you have been reared, if you will follow
the example of your ancestors. I wish you to write to
your Uncle Spencer (so legibly that he can read what
you have written) and give him a history of the whole
matter, and ask his counsel. I, too, will write him,
enclosing your letter to me.

You will remain where you are until you hear from
him personally or through me. I fear that being ex-
empt from College regulations, you will relapse into
your old habit of late rising, which will certainly im-
pair your health and retard your mental improvement.
You know that I am an advocate for system. I shall
expect you to give me a candid and explicit account of
all that concerns you. Put it in the form of a diary ; tell
me the books you study; where you are while you
write, and in what relation you stand to the men of
your class ; who you have as an instructor, and whether
you have engaged him with the approbation of the
Faculty, and whether any of the Faculty are courteous
to you. I should be pleased to have a few words by
post from Esq. Hudson or some other prominent per-
son in regard to this matter. Write me how many
students have left, and for what cause, or whether
they were expelled or permitted to resign : and candid-
ly state whether it was through your agency or caused
by any act of yours. Do you still spend time in con-
troversy? Can you now attend the debating societies?
Send me some of the Hudson papers that discuss this

82 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

controversy. I will send you money whenever you
write for it. I think that your Uncle may advise that
you be sent to New Haven. You suggest Athens. The
Faculty of the Western Reserve advise that you be
near me and under my personal supervision, which 1
think you will agree with me, seems to imply that you
have evinced the possession of a refractory spirit. I
have written them for further particulars, requesting
them to hand you their specific charges before they
post them to me, in order that you may have all oppor-
tunity to prove your case. Don't disappoint me ! It
was embarrassing to know just how to answer these
Faculty letters, and I hope they will not accuse me of
a want of courtesy. I trust that you have too much
frankness, nobleness and independence of character to
conceal anything from me. I will do you justice, and
pardon all your faults. You know I will never con-
demn you unheard. Accept, dear son, the warm and
ardent wishes of your father for your prosperity and
happiness. You have my benediction.

D. Tomlinson.

P. S. I leave a page for your mother to write about
the family and your friends. Since beginning this
letter I have had frequent interruptions, for my practice
grows constantly larger, so large in fact that to your
brother Henry's care I must resign many of my friends
to watch and help and tend. He must follow his father
in this blessed work.

This letter shows, it seems to me, what manner of
man Grandfather Tomlinson was, and I feel sure that
no great grandson of his will ever read it without
loving and admiring him.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 83

Let us go back for a moment from grandpa Tomlin-
son's October to his June time, and read another letter.
It is dated, •

"Rhinebeck, August 4th, 181 1.
My Dear Cornelia,

I am disappointed in not receiving an answer to my
letter, but suppose that you expected to see me ere this.
I intended to set out on Wednesday, but at the moment
of my departure I was requested to visit Henry Arm-
strong, who has been wounded in a duel. I under-
stand that the interview took place twenty miles from
here by the cart road. As Henry was but slightly
wounded, I did not tell the General until morning. I
mention this to apprize you of the probability of my
not being able to come to you as soon as I could wish.
I am impatient to see you and not indifferent about the
rest. Give my love to sister Maria and brother Henry
Tallmadge, and kiss our boy for me.

Entirely your "Doctor Tom.-"

P. S. The duel took place in consequence of a dis-
pute at Colonel Deveraux's. Henry mentioned the
matter to me, but I thought it would end in smoke and
paid no further attention to it until I was called. It
was not until the third shot that the wound was given.
The other gentleman did not fail to express earnest
solicitude for the fate of the injured man. Not to feel
the utmost anxiety when one has attempted the life of
another, would be the height of vulgarity. They dined
together, and exchanged every courtesy. Neither had
the least feeling of anger for the other, so that it was
an explosion of outrage which pardons both.

84 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

OUR MOTHER,
MARIA ANNIS TOMLINSON DAYTON.

"Honour thy Father and thy Mother."
I think that the sweetest memory the boys and their
sister have of mother is that which takes them back
to the twilight times, in the days when they were little
children, when the firelight was all that lifted the dusk
and mother sang to us the songs of her girlhood,
"Blue Eyed Mary," "The Soldier's Bride," and other
old melodies, stopping now and then to tell us of the
lang syne; for mother was proud of her ancestry and
earnestly desired to implant in her children a kindred
sentiment. She was our tower of refuge in all
times of childish, bodily or mental, distress. She
was always our guide and our counsellor, but
never our intimate friend. She cuddled her babies,
but her sons and daughter cannot recall much caress-
ing. She expected from her children the best in every
effort of thought or word or deed, and she saw no
occasion for praise because of an action well or bravely
performed. To herself she was the severest of task
mistresses, and whatever her natural inclinations may
have been, she laid them unflinchingly upon the altar
of her religious convictions. The blood of her Puritan
ancestors came to the fore in every act of her life. She
lost four of her eight children; two at birth time, and
two in babyhood. For these she made no outward
moan; she "anguished in solitude." We who read
this story shall come to know how she loved them
and how she missed them. Mother read more
deeply than most women of her day, yet in all the years
of her life, she found time but for one novel, and that

MARIA ANN IS (TOMLINSON) DAYTON.
From Photo, 1876.

DAYTON AND TOML1NSON. 85

was East Lynne ! She told me that she sat up all
night to finish it, and then she put it in the fire, vowing
as she watched it turn to gray ashes, that it should be
her last visit into the realms of fiction. She was to
all outward seeming practical. Of light wit she had
no comprehension, tho' not wanting in humor, and in
her religious life she was singularly rigid for a woman
so gentle, cultured and surrounded. She believed in
a literal Devil and a burning Hell. Her God was the
God worshipped by her great grandfather. Her Adam
walked in a garden, and her Eve was a trans-
formed rib ; so it came to pass that her children as soon
as they could lisp, were taught that "The chief end of
man was to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.''
Until her mind in her last years became shadowed,
Mother gave a seventh part of all that she had
to the poor. She reserved a place at her table
for some homeless or friendless one on every
Sabbath day. Mother was by nature and by inherit-
ance imperious, yet it was this grand pride, self-reli-
ance, courage and profound faith in God, which made
her the tower of strength on which we all leaned,
husband and children, in hours of misfortune. Her
indomitable perseverance and cheerfulness, her sublime
endurance and helpfulness, and her ideal mother-love all
insured our abiding fidelity to the fifth commandment.
But the boys and their sister, in their youth,
never knew their real mother. Indeed it is piteous
to think how very little at best, we really know
concerning our nearest and dearest ones. These
souls of ours are lonely things; they seldom come
to the windows and look out upon life; so
we come from the unknown, take possession of our

86 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

houses of clay, and when they crumble, we take up our
pilgrim staff and go on our way into the unknown again.
I never knew mother until a few weeks ago. And
the longing is strong within me to call her back just for
a little space in which to tell her that I understand
her now ; that I know how dear and sweet and tender
she was. Among mother's effects I found a scrap
book in which were pasted a potpourri of old and recent
newspaper clippings, some unusual receipts for pud-
dings and pies, with here and there a quotation from a
sermon or the announcement of the most recent mi-
crobe. The whole theme was so completely unlike
mother's thought trend, that I fully intended to de-
stroy the book, yet treasured it, and this last summer
it chanced to lay where it was exposed to the
direct rays of the sun, and the glue or mucilage that
mother had used as a paste lost its power and I noticed
that underneath it had once been covered with pencilled
writing which had been faithfully rubbed out, but a
great deal of Mother's "I will," has descended upon
her daughter. Thus I took those faintly shadowed
pages one by one and dipped them a little at a time in
water, and while they were wet, by the aid of a strong
magnifying glass, I was able ere the impression faded
out again and forever to get enough back of the young
girl's and the young wife's journal to show that
mother possessed all the hidden sweetness and gentle-
ness that heart could desire. I am sorry so much
was lost, and I do not feel that I am betraying
Mother's confidence in treasuring for to-day, and
I hope many to-morrows, this "remembrance of the
just." Before I refer to this journal and its extracts,
1 want to talk to the grandchildren about their grand-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 87

mother. Maria Annis Tomlinson was born at Rhine-
beck-on-the- Hudson on some second April, in the
earliest quarter of the nineteenth century. Age was
considered by conventional people when my mother
was born "a vulgar topic," its introduction was rele-
gated almost exclusively to tombstones ; and even then
in case of the gentler sex it was often omitted.
Grandma Tomlinson used to tell us that we were all the
exact age of our little fingers, and that fact had to
satisfy a great deal of youthful curiosity, but the idea
was upon the whole beneficial, for it came to pass that
we judged of the ages of those about us through their
ability to enter into our pleasures, pursuits and inter-
ests and it drew our large family and its numerous
connecting links into closer and more enduring bonds.
Mother's childhood was passed in Rhinebeck. Her
girlhood and womanhood in New York city. She was
a pupil at Miss Ten Broeck's school for young ladies.
Before me as I write is a "Reward of Merit" card.
It is an oblong bit of yellow paper with designs of scroll
work engraved at either end. In company with a head
of Minerva are the words, "Reward of Merit." In
the centre is a representation of the Battery. There
is an illustration of a ferry house on the New York
side, and another in Brooklyn, while upon the water
that glides between, Mr. Fulton's steamboat is strongly
presented. Beneath this artistic creation is the follow-
ing : "The bearer Miss M. Tomlinson has by diligence
and attention excelled those of her class in Dictionary,
and merits my esteem. E. P. Ten Broeck, Instructress."
In the dear old journal was first a number of
mother's compositions; all were written before her
thirteenth year, and principally to show to the children

88 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

of to-day what was expected of a child of eighty years
ago, I copy one of them.

"Untiring Labor Overcometh All Obstacles."

"From labor health, from health contentment springs.
Contentment opes the source of every joy,"

"This is a just sentiment and is beautifully expressed
by Beattie. That it was the design of Providence that
man should labor is evident from the fact that idleness
is incompatible with health or with happiness. We are
indebted to labor for all the stupendous works of
art. It is labor that has brought us to this elevated
state of civilization, and of refinement. All the mag-
nificent palaces that have ever been erected, and even
the pyramids of Egypt which excite both our wonder
and admiration, were designed by the labor of the mind
and accomplished by the labor of the body. Labor
not only creates the new, but restores the old. What
illimitable stores of knowledge may be attributed to
mental labor. What great victories have been achieved
by the workings of one great mind. What light, labor
has thrown upon art, literature and science."

Then follow a number of other compositions whose
titles are : "A Prose Condensation of the Poem Hoen-
linden," "Knowledge is Power," "Delays are Dan-
gerous," "The Fame of Lycurgus," "Reflections on the
Grecian States," "Reflections on the History of Rome,"
"Republican Institutions and their Influence," "The
Seasons of the Year; how they resemble the Periods
of Life," "Prosperity and Adversity, the summer and
winter, the sunshine and storm of life," "The duties
and enjoyments of evening as described by Cowper,"
"Idleness and Industry."

These compositions of a little school girl in 1833

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 89

may be crude and unfinished effusions, but I doubt if
one of our kindergarten-blown advanced girls of 190 1
could do better than match them in point of order and
originality.

Mother at the age of eighteen was thus pictured to
me by my father : "She was a trifle above the medium
height; she had an exquisite figure; her neck and
shoulders were marvels of beauty." In mother's
young ladyhood, swansdown was extensively used as a
finishing trimming for the necks of decollette bodices.
One evening at a party, Mrs. "Chancellor" Livingston
called mother to her and said : "My dear, come close to
me, I want to see where the swansdown begins."
Mother was startlingly white. She was so entirely
devoid of color that she always felt it to be a great
defect. Her eyes were dark gray, rather large but deep
set, her eye-brows and eye-lashes were black. Her hair
was a perfect glory, neither chestnut, auburn nor gold-
en, but holding the beauties of each ; all the wonderful
lights and shades of the three. From girlhood, mother
was eminently pious. A connection of hers, The Rev-
erend Augustine Hewitt, used to say that "if Maria
had been a Roman Catholic she would have entered a
sisterhood at sixteen and been canonized as a saint at
sixty."

Mother was exceedingly calm, and this calmness
made her appear in girlhood to disadvantage. She told
me that on the occasion of her introduction to father,
he was pronounced in his attentions to her, that he
talked fluently and charmingly, while she said just
"yes" and "no" until father, unable to comprehend that
anything so charming to look at could be so silent said,
"Pray Miss Tomlinson, don't be a chair."

90 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

And now having given in a desultory way the grand-
children an idea of grandma Dayton at eighteen, I here
introduce the bits from the diary that I have rescued,
stopping here and there to elaborate as memory serves
me.

"November 29th, 1837. We went to Meg Chaun-
cey's wedding last night. One of the guests, Mr.
Howard was very devoted to me. He sails for New
Orleans to-day so I shall never see him again."

"December 5th, 1837. I spent a delightful evening
at Mrs. Price's. I was introduced to a young Mr.
Dayton who has just returned from Europe where he
has been educated. He was master of ceremonies and
led the cotillion with me. I danced almost entirely
with him, only once with William Price, who said,
"He felt hurt." Mrs. Price came to me once and said,
"My dear, as you have four beaux, I think I shall have
to borrow a few of them." Once in dancing, Mr. Day-
ton said he wished that I would express more life."

"December 10th. I received this morning a package
brought by a footman whose livery I think I knew.
On opening it I found a spray of Arbor Vitae, and
these words, "Unchanging friendship, St. John Park,
A. C. D."

"December 12th. Some beautiful roses have come
from William Price, with these lines : "Nothing could
be more sweet, nothing a fitter emblem of thyself than
these queenly flowers." William Price is the eldest
son of our United States District Attorney. He is a
young lawyer rich and talented."

I cannot resist stopping to tell you a little incident
that occurred in connection with this gentleman in my
presence. When our father died in August 1877, the

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 91

funeral services were held in the evening, and at the
conclusion of the ceremony, a few of the most intimate
friends of our mother's came into the room where she
and her family were seated. A little whitehaired gen-
tleman crossed the threshold, made his way to mother's
side, lifted one of her hands to his lips and then without
a word left the room. They told me afterwards that
this was William Price, who had never married.

"January, 1838. I spent the afternoon with Mrs.
Walden. Mr. Walden, Abby, little Ellen and I sat and
talked about the future, and we wondered what it had
in store for us all. Mr. Walden asked me to write this
down, that I might look back to this afternoon when
Father Time had answered our question for us."

"January, 1838. Thomas Walden has given me a
bit of Eglantine taken from the spot on which Alex-
ander Hamilton fell."

"February, 1838. Mr. John Newman Bradley sent
me some beautiful flowers to-day, as did John Cotton
Smith (Governor Smith's son from Sharon, Connecti-
cut)."

"June, 1838. Mr. Walden has sent me a new song,
it is called "Come to the Lattice to me Love." Mr.
and Mrs. Livingston asked Julia and me to go with
them to the Panorama of Jerusalem and Niagara Falls.
They are fine beyond all description. On our return
home we walked up as far as Houston Street to hear
the band play in Niblos Garden, and we saw Tonsicaro,
the new tenor."

"March 15th, 1839. To-day Mrs. Price has invited
me to be her guest for the last time before her de-
parture for France. She said to me, "Maria, I wish
with all my heart that you would go with me." "In

92 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

deed," she said, "you had better go, for Mr. Price has
a beautiful house in Paris in readiness; it is in the
midst of a fine garden, and it is within a few minutes
walk of the Tuilleries." I cannot go. * * * *
William has asked me for a lock of my hair and I have

given it to him, and he insists that it shall be ."

All the rest of this confidence was hopelessly rubbed
out, but one wonders if he did not say "buried with
him," and one wonders if it was?

"March, 1839. The Prices are about to cross the
broad Atlantic, and perhaps I shall never never see them
again on earth. William and I have had a serious
talk. I weighed it all ; my ambition, my love and my
duty. I went to my creator for guidance and then I
told William my secret, a secret that I had not breathed
even to myself. I told him that my heart was gone. I
told him this in tears of sorrow for his pain and for
my own too.

"Oh Lord, I know not what to ask of Thee
Thou only knowest what I want.
Thou lovest me better than I can love myself ;
Oh Lord give to me, who desires to be Thy child
What is best for me, whatever that be.

I dare not ask either crosses or comforts;
I present myself before Thee,
Behold my true wants of which I am ignorant.
Do thou bestow according to Thy wisdom,
Smite or heal, distress or set me up.

I adore all Thy purposes without knowing them,

I silently offer myself a sacrifice,

I abandon myself to Thee.

Having no greater desire than to accomplish Thy will

Teach me to pray, say Thou, Thyself, Amen."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 93

The white bud felt for the first time the power of
human love. Through her childhood and early girl-
hood, she had folded her affection for father, mother,
sisters, brothers, kinfolk and friends within her love
for God, but now she was startled to discover that
for her there had come to be not only a new Earth
but a new Heaven upon earth ! That the songs of the
angels, the gates of pearl, the streets of gold, aye, even
the great white throne itself were as nothing in her
thought, when compared with a new name which the
hand of Fate had written upon her heart. The realiz-
ation brought with it a sort of terror of this strange
power that was mastering her will, and in her journal
she writes down this prayer of Fenelon's, and makes
it her own. God's answer to it is and shall be written
in the lives of her children and her children's children.

"April 19th, 1838. I met Mr. Dayton at Bond
Street and Broadway, and he walked on with me. I
told him that his father, Mr. Charles W. Dayton, had
paid mother a call last evening."

"April 2 1 st. I have had my first serenade. I think
it was one of the Ward boys from Bond Street, but am
not sure. I was asked to a luncheon at Mrs. Dewar's
to meet some young ladies from England, afterwards
we all went to the Academy of Design."

"April 23. This afternoon little Ellen asked me to
take her up to see cousin Cornelia Staples, and when
we were on Broadway near Houston Street, we met
young Mr. Dayton. He asked where we were going,
and said if I would permit him, he would walk with
me. I said he might, and he escorted us quite to cousin
Cornelia's door. He told me that he was feeling badly
because his beautiful saddle horse "Willoughby" had

94 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

been sent up to Cato's to be shot. He said he would
never go past there as long as he lived. Before I knew
Mr. Dayton. I used to see him on bright afternoons
on Broadway on this beautiful gray horse, and we used
to wonder how the slight young figure kept
his seat, for the great horse would stand on his hind legs
and snort and paw the earth, and if there chanced to be
any barricade where the road was being mended he
would vault over it as swiftly and as gracefully as a
bird. Air. Dayton has told me that "Willoughby"
was as gentle as a kitten and that he had trained him to
go through these performances whenever they came
within range of certain parasols: he said that
all he had to do was to pretend to be taking his hand-
kerchief from his coat-tail pocket, simply touch
"Willoughby" and off he would go. Then he told me
an amusing story: he said not long since, the Presi-
dent came t; Xew York and the Militia decided to
give a grand review, and General Sanford asked him
to let him ride "Willoughby." The day arrived
and "Willoughby." showed all his Hambletonian pedi-
gree as he headed the march with the stalwart little
General upon his back; all went well for a while; "Wil-
loughby" snorted and danced to the music of the drums
and fifes, but when the cannons poured out a salute,
"Willoughby" stood perfectly still, and then as though
he had quite made up his mind that he didn't approve
of the sound and the smell of the powder, he drew his
legs gether, hunched up his body and sent the gaily
caparisoned General over his head. Before the aston-
ished attaches could comprehend the situation. "Wil-
loughby" took his way across Washington Parade
Ground, and was neisdiin^ at his own stable door.

DAYTON xVND TOMLINSON. 95

"April 23. Mr. Dayton called this evening. He
asked mother to let me take a drive with him behind his
flyers (as he calls them), but mother declined to per-
mit it. Mr. Dayton told me he thought it was absurd to
be so rigid. He said, New York was neither Paris or
London."

"June 9th. At nine o'clock I had a serenade. The
songs I liked best were, 'Maid of Athens,' and 'How
can I leave my Father's Halls.' At three this morning
I was awakened by the sound of a guitar and a flute.
I knew the voice that sang 'On the Banks of the Blue
Moselle,' and 'Ah, well a day.' "

"June, 1838. Mr. Charles W. Dayton spent the
evening with me. A. C. D. was a master of ceremonies
at the Jay's cotillion the other evening. He never seemed
half so charming to me before; he is so graceful, so
distinguished and elegant, but he danced a great deal
with Miss Brevoort. Mr. Charles W. Dayton says
that his son is a butterfly, and every rose in the New
York garden of girls has but a passing interest for him
(then he probably does not care for Miss Brevoort).

"He has told me that he loved me. I asked him
about Miss Brevoort and Miss Astor, and he said,
"Don't ask me about it." I asked him about Miss
Cook, and he said, "You make my blood run cold."
He asked me to give him a little curl that is always
hiding at my neck just back of my ear, and I cut it off
and gave it to him.

"Some one (who shall be nameless because I prom-
ised him that he should be) has sent me some verses
that A. C. D. wrote on the death of Miss Cook, after
Epps Sargent had taken him to see her grave." This is
the poem :

96 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

"To the Dead."

"They say thy heart has ceased to beat
Thy gentle voice has ceased to sound;

They led me to this wild retreat

And pointed to this solemn mound.

So should it be, I could not brook
The world above thy grave to look.

No stately marble sculptured line
Thy name, thine age, thy virtues tell,

But here one lonely heart reclines
In woe that tears can never quell.

And poor and weak and more than vain
All words that strove to paint thy worth

And what were now the loftiest strain

But mockery from lips of earth,
For death would be the burden still

Its every note would jar mine ear.
The words might crowds enraptured thrill,

I could not heed, I could not hear.
Enough ! enough ! since thou art not,

No maid on earth I ask to know,
Still will I haunt this desert spot,

And dream of thee who sleeps below."

Mr. C. W. Dayton has been here this evening. He
says that time only makes his son's affection for Miss
Cook's memory the stronger. I must see him at once,
and yet I keep saying over and over to my heart, "he
does love you best, he does love you best." I met him
on Broadway this afternoon. He promenaded with me
and I quietly and calmly told him all that his father had
said about him and Miss Cook and the poem. He seemed
to be rather more amused than distressed. He said

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 97

out of mingled respect and veneration for his forty-two
year old father, he must decline the honor of standing
sponsor to the poem to which I alluded, as it emanated
entirely from his father's gifted pen. But I do not
believe it. I know that he loves Miss Cook. I have
early learned what a power one can exercise over self.
I am to-night looking back upon the romance of my
life. This experience will surely strengthen me and
make me useful to my own. Time has proved so many
things that I was so unwilling to believe, and we part
to-night."

"July ist. Mrs. Abram Child, A. C. D.'s grand-
mother, sent for me to-day to pass the afternoon with
her at her home in St. John's Park. She is a charming
little old lady, so courtly and dainty. She told me that
her grandfather, John Aymer, owned most of the
ground where the Tuillieries now stand. She said he
was a zealous Hugenot, and fled from France because
of the religious persecutions. He first went to Eng-
land, where he had many noble relatives, and finally
came to America. Mrs. Child said that when she was a
little girl she used to take baskets of fruits and jellies
to the sick American prisoners that were shut up in
the sugar houses. She said Cunningham never refused
her admission, although she used to tell him if she were
only a little boy she would be a Federal drummer and
hurrah for Washington. She told me what a lovely
young man Abram was, and said all he needed to
make him just what he should be was a good noble
girl's love. When I came away she handed me a sealed
envelope. I opened it in the carriage on my way home.
(It was in Mr. Dayton's handwriting.)
"July 2nd. I met A. C. D. on Bond Street this after-

98 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

noon and he drew my hand through his arm and then
said : "Now you have publicly announced our en-
gagement." We are reconciled, he has been with me
all the evening. He says that she was his first love
it is true, but that time strengthens the possibilities of
a man's affection, and I do not wish to believe other-
wise. I have always said that if I should ever marry,
it should be to one whom I would follow as a guide.
Am I doing this ? At all events he shall be ever to me
the first object in this world; one to whom I will
gladly surrender every thought but that which belongs
to Heaven. I am so happy and yet so sad. What a
puzzle to ourselves we are ! I have always thought
that I had the ability to accomplish great things, and
only lacked the courage and the assertion; yet where
he is concerned I can do nothing but bend. I am, I
know morbidly sensitive; and I am jealous, and I
tremble at my idolatrous worship. I know I should
not be jealous, for it is his nature to charm and to win,
and it is no fault of his that he is a distinguished pre-
sence everywhere. I know that he is admired and
courted, and yet way down in my soul I know that he
loves me dearly.*'

"September ist, 1844. This is my wedding day and
I am dressed for the ceremony, but I have shut myself
into my room that I may say good-by to you, my little
book, my dear friend, because I love you for all the
memories you have treasured, and when I next write
on your pages it will be to record a new life."

"January 7^1,^848. Years have come and gone
since I last openecl these pages, and what changes time
does make. I am now enlisted heart and soul in the
two most sacred duties of life, wifehood and mother-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 99

hood. To-day I presented my little son, Charles Wil-
loughby, for baptism."

"April 25th. It is just a year since my precious
father breathed his last. I am staying with mother for
a few days and she has given me back my old room.
This is the bed beside which I knelt down in all my
fair bridal robes on my wedding day to ask God's
blessing on my love and on me. Has my prayer re-
ceived its request? There has been such a mingling
of sorrow and chastisement that one wonders! It
seemed as though my heart would break when my little
baby girl came and went her way, my baby that was
never held against my breast, whose little face I never
saw (How shall I find her in Heaven?) But I must not
question. I must be grateful that God's grace has sus-
tained me, and at last a peace fell upon me when my
little Charlie came."

"May 19th, 1848. Dear Brother Henry died a week
ago. He did what every physician should do, stood
at his post of duty. He was directing the treatment
of the patients at quarantine and in a moment the plague
came upon him and he was gone. My sweet baby
Charlie has taken whooping cough, and as it is contagi-
ous he has been taken away from me. It is terrible
for a mother to be separated from her child. I am so
grateful that good Betsey Rice, his faithful English
nurse, was allowed to go with him. How often in
my dreams as well as when I wake, I hear my baby's
voice. Oh dear Father in Heaven, let me hold him in
my arms again! Let me feel his sunny head against
my breast. My husband was detained down town
much later than usual this afternoon, and I foolishly
made myself think that he had received word that he

100 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

might bring the baby home, but at last he came alone
and told me that I must not expect to see Charlie for
a long time, then I went and found you, little book, to
tell my sorrow to."

"May 20th. I went to bed and to sleep and dreamed
such a fearful dream. I dreamed that my baby was
dead ; and it was so blessed to wake up and know that
it was all untrue."

"November 14th. My Charlie boy is at home again.
Mrs. Abram Child (Mr. Dayton's grandmother) died
last Friday. She was within a few days of her one-
hundredth year. She never failed mentally, she never
was ill, and was at breakfast with the family on the
morning of the day she died. At eleven a maid whose
duty it was to serve her with a cup of coffee at that
hour, found her lying peacefully upon her bed; the
angel of death had kissed her while she slept and she
had awakened in Heaven."

"November 17th. My baby is in the cradle beside
me, he is cutting ten teeth."

"November 23. Mr. Dayton has gone to Philadel-
phia with his regiment, the Light Guard. He dined
with his father last Sunday. The house in St. John's
Park is re-opened. There is a day and a night nursery
for the children and a play room for Charlie. An en-
tire floor has been set aside for me, refurnished and re-
decorated. It consists of a bedroom, boudoir and a
commodious dressing room and bath.

"October 24th, 1849. I was made so happy to-day
by something that Abby told us at the breakfast table.
She said that she was in the store room this morning,
and that Charlie and Davey were both with her. Davey
asked for a lump of sugar, Charlie asked for one too.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 101

Abby said, "Charlie, I fear that your Mamma would
not allow you to take any if she were here, but I will
give you this tiny piece." She said Charlie took it
and looked at it a moment and then handed it back to
her saying (with a sigh) "I'd like it Aunty Abby, very
much, but if my mother don't want me to, I won't even
take a little bit." I am so proud of my boy who has
only just passed his third birthday."

"November 7th, 1850. Mr. Dayton has brought us
so many beautiful things from Europe, many more than
he has ever brought us before. He had a watch and
chatelane made, and expressly designed for me in Paris.
He brought me a beautiful India Shawl, and some lace
for my baby's caps (that he paid forty dollars a yard
for, which I think was too extravagant for such
a purpose). He had a pair of Xmas stockings manu-
factured for the little boys in Birmingham. They are
much taller than Charlie and will hold a host of gifts.
Then he brought both the children velvet coats lined
with white silk and trimmed with ermine. I have
never talked to you dear Journal about my sweet baby
Theodore. He is ten months old and so beautiful.
Truly as his name implies, he is a gift from God."

"November. My dear baby has been very ill and
I have not taken any rest night or day. The Doctor's
treatment seems to me so heroic. My father gave us
children little or no strong medicines when we were
ill. I gave Theodore by the Doctor's direction sixteen
drops of laudanum in eight hours. Then I said that
whatever came of it, I would give the child no more.
The Doctor insisted that I need not hesitate, that any
danger from the giving of laudanum discovered itself
immediately by inducing sleep, and if sleep was not

102 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

produced he said that one could safely continue its
use at intervals of two hours.

There has been a consultation, and our dear Dr.
Francis and Dr. Willard Parker, who I insisted should
be sent for, have been with my boy all day long.

"December 8th. My baby has left me : he died in the
early morning, long before the light came. It is now
noon and every thing seems so unreal, so far off*, so
vague, and my arms are very empty. They tell me I
must go to bed, so I have been to say good night to my
baby. He was so cold and so still, and I could not
nestle his golden head in my arms."

"December 13th. This time last week I was holding
little Theodore in my arms, and singing to him. How
blessed I was that I could not look forward and see
this desolate to-day. I know that I shall never recover
from this blow; it will change my whole life. If it
be God's will that I live to extreme old age, I shall
mourn for this child that is not. I shall long for my
baby; I shall want him back; I shall never lose him
from my daily and hourly memory so long as reason
lasts., and I pray God to hear this as a prayer and grant
its fulfillment. I have told Betsey Rice to bring me
all the baby's clothes, and here they all are ; the dainty
pretty things to be folded away, but not with a mother's
tears, for my eyes are dry; my soul is a parched land.

How I did look forward to this coming Xmas day.
I am afraid I was too proud of my two bonnie boys,
but indeed I always tried to remember that they were
God's too."

"New Year's Day, 1851. I have come over to
mother's to spend the day because it is too desolate at
home. I am all alone in mother's room (the others

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 103

are in the drawing room receiving calls). Last year at
this time Theodore was ten days old, and the nurse let
me sit up among the pillows and dress him. I feel
that he might have been spared to me. I said this to
mother this morning, and she asked me if I thought
that such expressions evinced a Christian spirit. I
suppose they do not, but what can I do ? What can I

do, for I can not forgive Dr. G , I have told

him so."
"April.

And thou art gone, not lost or flown

Shall I then ask thee back, my own ?

Back and leave thy spirit's brightness?

Back and leave thy robes of whiteness ?

Back and leave thine angel mould?

Back and leave those streets of gold?

Back and leave thy Heavenly Father?

Back to earth and sin? Nay, rather

Would I live in solitude.

I would not ask thee if I could,

I patient wait the high decree

That calls my spirit home to thee.

For I know he is faithful that has promised

That he'll surely come again.

He will keep his tryst wi' me, what time I dinna

ken;
But he bids me still to wait and ready aye to

be
To gang at any moment to my ain countree."

And here our mother's Journal comes abruptly to
its close, and there is nothing more written in the book
save this :

"Sunday evening September 3rd, 1882. It is now
thirty-eight years since my wedding day. My husband
died five years ago, and the children are divided, four

104 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

with him and four left to bear me company. I am
looking back through these pages to-night, and I see
how yesterday's shadows are forgotten in gratitude for
to-day's sunshine. My dear ones are most of them
gone before me, and I know the fullness and joyous-
ness of the meaning when I sing; 'I am nearer my
home in Heaven to-day than ever I've been before/
My three boys and my girl are all honorable, forceful
and self reliant, and my Laura is coming to me with
her little baby boy. I cannot express all the gratitude I
feel."

Although this is the only Journal that Mother kept,
she was an eager gleaner of forceful precepts when-
ever they appeared, and to give some idea of this intel-
lectual trend, I will copy a few selections from among
her extensive collection. Frequently these clippings
were enclosed when writing to her children.

"It was the opinion of Simon the Just, a prince of
the royal line of Jewish Kings, that the world needs
but three pillars to uphold it. Knowledge, Worship
and Charity."

"Work is a sublime prayer. The doing the best one
can, is the key note to all that we can do."

"It was the effort to do his best for his master that
gave Leonard de Vinci the inspiration and enthusiasm
to paint the Last Supper. This effort made his name
immortal."

"The virtuous man builds the child, the virtuous
child the family, the virtuous family builds the com-
munity, the virtuous community builds the govern-
ment."

"Reading makes a full man, talking a ready man,
writing an exact man," says Bacon.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 105

"It is clear from the writings of both the Greeks and
Roman authors that in ancient times the position of
the nurse was one of honor and importance."

"The shield or knightly escutcheon of the middle
ages was circular in outline and convex ; the body was
of wood, the rim of metal."

"Moral truth will always look old fashioned, just
as a well regulated household has something patriarchal
about it."

"To float like Aristippus with the stream is a bad
receipt for felicity, for there must always be some fixed
principle by which all wishes and desires may be
regulated," says Juvenal,

"Horace was crowned with more tenderness than
respect in the palace of Augustus. His gate was
called the infant gate."

"Perhaps I have written this down somewhere be-
fore, but it is too good to forget, therefore, I write
it now : Plato said that Aristippus was the only man he
knew who could wear with equal grace fine garments
and rags."

"Tertallian says, 'The materiality of the soul is evi-
dent from the Evangelists. A human soul is there ex-
pressly pictured as suffering in Hell ; it is placed in the
middle of a flame ; its tongue feels a cruel agony, and
it implores a drop of cold water at the hands of a
happier soul. Wanting materiality,' he says, 'all this
scene would be without meaning.' "

"Strauss calls the resurrection of Christ the centre
of the centre, the real heart of Christianity; and this
leads Christlieb to assert that dogma is the proof of all
dogmas, the corner stone on which the Christian church
is built."

106 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

"John Wycliff under Edward the Third, first gave
the Bible to all England. Forty years after Wycliff' s
death, his bones were taken up and burned to ashes;
and these ashes were then thrown upon a little stream
called the Swift. Fuller tells us that the Swift convey-
ed these ashes into the Avon, the Avon into the Severn,
the Severn into the narrow seas, and thence to the main
Ocean. Thus are they the emblems of his doctrine
which now is dispersed all over the world."

"In 1736 Bishop Butler published his Analogy which
extinguished the Rationalists of England for a long
series of years. The form that infidelity now effects
to define by the term Rationalism, is this : The ration-
alists maintain that the sole guide to the truth in re-
ligion is reason especially in the interpretation of the
Bible. The Socinians were long ago called Ration-
alists, and in the Eighteenth Century the name was
given in Germany to those who had previously been
called Naturalists. Rationalism is universally embod-
ied in those who deny the uses of Faith. The Deists
and Infidels of England in the Seventeenth century
were called Rationalists; and among their number
were such men as Lord Shaftsbury, Anthony Collins,
Charles Blount and John Toland. In 1730 Matthew
Tindal held that natural religion was sufficient for all
practical purposes ; that revelation was unnecessary, and
that Christianity was an unseemly excrescence. Wol-
liston in 1728 wrote a series of letters in which he tried
to prove that Moses was not an authentic historian.
This Wolliston was imprisoned for blasphemy, and as
none of his former friends and admirers were willing
to pay his fine of seven hundred dollars, he died in
jail."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 107

"I do not believe we are half aware of our great
indebtedness to those persons who faithfully preserve
for us, through their written descriptions, the histories
of their present lives and surroundings."

"In his book, 'Evolution in Geology,' Doctor Bixby
says : Throughout the inconceivably long ages, during
which living beings have existed, there has not been
the smallest atom of time wherein there has not been
an evidence of a Personal Presiding Mind."

"The old man Jacob and the Monarch met. The
King bowed in reverence to the patriarch and gratefully
received his blessing for, 'The gray head is a crown of
glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.' '

"One in speaking of the rural piety of New England
says : "I have lived years and years among the Puritan
People of New England ; I have summered and winter-
ed with them; I have attended parties at Deacons'
houses and Prayer meetings too ; I have been on sleigh
rides and to husking bees and to apple bees and barn
raisings ; and weddings and to revivals and to funerals ;
and I am prepared to say that the stories of hardness
and bitterness that we read of are wilful misconcep-
tions. In Dr. Sprague's book "The lives of the Early
Preachers of New England," he says, "As a whole they
were the most genial, companionable and happy set of
men that ever lived. They did keep the Sabbath day
holy, but they enjoyed all rational pleasures ; and what
is more to the purpose, they enjoyed their religion."

"Christ began his ministry with eight blessings, and
ended it with eight woes."

"The Preternatural is a power exercised by men or
seen in nature. It is simply an unusual gift of insight
into some law as yet beyond our intelligence and com-

108 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

prehension. Bacon and Aristotle studied the vagaries
of insanity just as we to-day study the supernatural
which is the exercise of some divine power in Provi-
dence. The Greeks and the Roman sages believed in
the supernatural as truly as do many Christians of
to-day. The miraculous is the sudden and transform-
ing power of the Author of All in creating new forms
of power in animal life, which Socrates among the
Greeks and Cicero among the Romans, Cuvierre in
France and Agazziz in America, have scientifically
demonstrated. Of the supernatural it has been said
that the tear and the star are equally embraced in an
infinite scheme ; that one law regulates the arrangement
of leaves upon their stems, and the vast revolution of
the planets in the heavens. We know that the humb-
lest life which has intellect, and will in it, is associated
intimately with unreached cycles of surprising thought
to which it has organic relations."

"The real man, the gentleman, treats every one from
the personal standard of his sense of honor and dignity.
It is only vulgar haughtiness and haughty vulgarity
that defies kindness and humanity."

"The effect of our public schools has been to pro-
duce liberty of thought, liberty of conscience and liberty
of speech."

"A century ago a session of the Presbyterian church
in Scotland caused an adjournment of its deliberations
for a week in order that its members might attend a
series of theatrical performances with Mrs. Siddons
as star. Such a statement shows a marked change in
the thoughts and convictions of that denomination at
the present day. In Colonial days in New England
there was always an Ordination Ball when a new pastor

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 109

settled in a parish and the Minister's wife (if he had
one) opened the dance."

"Before going into battle at Edgehill, Sir Jacob
Astley made this remarkable prayer, "Oh Lord, Thou
knowest how busy I must be this day so if I forget
Thee do not Thou forget me."

"Prosperity not infrequently in the case of Nations,
as well as of men, brings about ruin. Wealth begets
luxury, luxury moral laxity, and these in turn beget
the love of ease and an indifference to duty, which
means a shirking of responsibility."

"Hannah Moore says that in her girlhood there was
nothing to read between Cinderella and the Spectator."

Cicero's first speech in defense of Roscius was made
at the age of twenty-seven. At twenty-seven Demos-
thenes distinguished himself in the Assembly at Athens.
At twenty-seven Dante published his Vita Nouva. At
twenty-seven Bacon formed his new system of
philosophy. Washington was twenty-seven when he
covered the defeat of the British troops under Brad-
dock. John Quincy Adams was twenty-seven when
he was appointed minister to the United Netherlands.
Cowper was past fifty before he gained intellectual
recognition. Young never wrote anything that could
be called poetry until he had passed his sixteenth birth-
day. Pope began to write at twelve. Chatterton at
twelve. Cowley at fifteen. Samuel Rodgers at nine.
Thomas Moore at fourteen. Campbell wrote his
"Pleasures of Hope" at twenty-one, and Pope his essay
on criticism at the same age. At eighteen Shelly pro-
duced his atheistical poem "Queen Mab." Keats
wrote his "Endymion" at twenty-two. Mrs. Hemans
began to write at fifteen. Mrs. Norton at seventeen

110 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

composed her "Sorrows of Rosalie." John Mayne at
sixteen wrote the "Siller Gun." Hannah Moore wrote
her "Search after Happiness," at seventeen, and Sir
Edward Bulwer Lytton wrote verses at five."

"Goethe died in 1832, a year which swept away
many of the great men of the European world. Among
those who died in this year were Cuvier, Crabbe and
Sir Walter Scott. In the year 1779 Napoleon and
Cuvier were born, In 1757 Alexander Hamilton and
LaFayette were born. Hegel, Wordsworth and Chal-
mers in 1770, and MacPherson, Herschel and West in

1738."

"Truth is violated by falsehood; it is equally out-
raged by silence."

"He who puts a bad construction on a good act re-
veals his own wickedness. When God would educate
a man he compels him to learn bitter lessons ; he sends
him to School to the necessities, rather than the graces."

"Croesus, King of Lydia, was, defeated and taken
prisoner by Cyrus, King of Persia. Cyrus treated
Croesus not only with kindness but with honor and
ever afterward Croesus was the advisor and friend of
Cyrus."

"Katharine de Medici brought the luxury of knives
and forks into fashion from Venice. She also in-
troduced the use of fine glass and Majolica."

"It was in the tea cup days of Queen Anne that the
mania for collecting china began and tea sets were
introduced. We all remember the lady in the Specta-
tor, "who loved her marmoset as well as she loved her
blue china tea pot, and loved her blue china tea pot
better than she did her husband."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. Ill

"Napoleon decided upon his generals by the shape
of their noses."

"Memory makes eternity an evolution of the life that
now is, by making friendship that begins here the
charm of immortality."

"Creation or evolution is the question of the hour.
Was each species created or was it evolved out of some-
thing else? Agassiz believed in creation; Haeckel
holds that no logical mind can fail to see that there is
no intermediate consistent resting place between the
two opposite positions. Agassiz saw clearly that each
new species of plant and mineral organization must be
one of God's plans ; and when challenged to his mean-
ing in using this expression, he answered in the words
of Socrates, "I admit," said he, "that mind must organ-
ize organisms."

These are but a few of the many thoughts that our
Mother culled from her daily readings, and she only
gave herself a limited time in every day for literary
relaxation. I should like to add in this connection
that Mother never belonged to any Club, attended a
sewing society or made herself personally conspicuous
in any public gathering in her life.

She had eminently old fashioned views on many
points. She considered it vulgar to dress conspicu-
ously in the street or in public places; she thought it
improper for a young woman to go unveiled
and unattended for walks and drives and that a chap-
erone or a brother should be included in every in-
vitation. The acceptance of invitations to luncheons or
suppers at Delmonico's and kindred places she highly
disapproved. She always received her daughter's
guests and remained a distant but perceptible

112 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

figure during any call. Anything but a marriage or
an obituary mention she considered a species of dis-
grace if found in the daily papers, and words fail of
expressing her disapprobation of "Soda Water" treats
at the Drug Store. It seemed quite as dreadful to her,
as if the women of birth and breeding had congregated
by common consent in bar rooms, but Mother lived
to be a very old fashioned woman.

I shall never forget attending with her a course of
Lectures given at the New York University on the
"Nebula." They were by Prof. Draper. We sat
through the entire twelve, and one day being more than
weary I ventured to tell my Mother that I did not un-
derstand a single word of it and made bold to inquire
what it meant to her ? She gave me a glance that made
me feel weak, small and hopelessly insignificant, and
then said quietly, "My dear, it is never wise to acknowl-
edge our own mental inferiority, even to ourselves,
and if you feel that you are incapable of comprehending
in this particular, comfort yourself with the knowledge
that the atmosphere is intellectual."

I hope I have been able in this brief retrospect to
give the grandchildren a faithful account of their grand-
mother. They will see from Mother's Journal that
she was well born, delicately nurtured and carefully
sheltered ; and it seems fitting to add that whatever may
have been at various and varied times our financial
condition, our home was a palace and Mother was its
queen. There might be little served at our breakfasts,
luncheons or dinners, but all the appointments were
beautiful and dainty. Our great grandmother's silver
was reflected on the mirror-like surface of the dark old
mahogany round table; our china was spode and can-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 113

ton, and onr crystal beautifully cut. I am sure the
boys remember as well as I do those table talks of
Mother's. We felt so much admiration for Miss Por-
ter, who wrote the "Scottish Chiefs" and was so poor
that she had to make a dinner headdress out of shaving
curls. We used to laugh heartily at Scarron when at
his dinners he would say to Madam Scarron, "An-
other anecdote please my dear," because he knew that
an entree had failed to go round among his guests.

We all remember the little "Shepherdess of Salisbury
Plains," who felt so sorry for the poor folk who had
no salt to put on their potatoes. Mother always said
a blessing at the table, and it was one of the severest
tests of her faith, for she dreaded to do it. I remember
when she was once called suddenly away by the illness
of a sister that when we sat down at evening to dinner
father said, "There is something missing from this
table! Something we always have; I wonder where it
is." We all felt that he was right, and joined in the
search with our eyes, when father suddenly enlightened
us by saying, "Why, it is the Blessing !"

When we were all young children our Grandfather
Dayton died and his estate was involved, but I doubt
if we ever comprehended the loss, for Mother
was an exacting commander, and we had little time in
our busy lives for idleness or repining. Next Father's
health began to fail ; father whose life's story shall
be told to you ; father who had never lost the glamor
of youth, whom everybody loved because of his ir-
resistible charm and magnetism. The evening after
Father was buried, I slept with Mother ; for a long time
we both were quiet, and then she broke the stillness
by saying : "I have no moan to make, it was best for

114 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

your Father to go. Life had passed him by, but I loved
him and was devoted to him to the last When I was
sure that every one in the house had gone to sleep, 1
went down to the room where he lay and sat with him
until morning. In those two nights I lived over again
all our past, all our mutual joys and sorrows, and on
the second night, just as the day was dawning, I took
the wraiths of my bridal roses (that I had treasured
all these years,) and I cut off a tiny curl of white hair,
that he used to say grew at my neck so prettily when
I was a girl, and I laid these next to his stilled heart,
ihen I kissed him good bye and left him."

A change passed over Mother as the years of her life
bordered upon the three score and ten. An apoplectic
stroke left her a strange commingling of strength and
weakness, and gradually it came to be that her in-
terest and her joy centered in and about her
eldest son; all others were but passing dear to her,
and in this son's home she was enshrined
like some rare jewel. Everything for her pleas-
ure and comfort was accomplished, and at last
amid a life of perfect present happiness Mother heard
one morning the sound of the "Boatman's Oars."

Perhaps their muffled music stirred some sleeping
chord of memory, at all events she took paper and pen-
cil, and feebly traced these words.

"My dear mother may I come to you? Do let me
hear from you? Ever your affectionate daughter M."

Did this letter written to the mother dead so man)'
years, reach the somewhere and was her mother's sum-
mons the answer?

However that may be she was ready. She needed
neither bell nor candle. She had "fought the good

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 115

fight" she had "finished her course" she "had kept
the faith."

She had one message to leave, her thoughts, her
heart, had gone back to her eldest son.

"Lizzie" she said to her maid, "remember that I told
you, that my son is one of God's children", then silence
came.

Mother ere long answered to her name and "was
not."

As one writes a book whether it be a novel or a com-
pilation, the scope and interest of the subject matter
under discussion, has a happy way of broadening and
lengthening.

Before closing Mother's side of the genealogy, I
wish to add a few more lines and besides this there
will be some blank pages inserted for other lines men-
tioned which any one desiring to add to the book may
fill out, at his or her pleasure.

116 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

TREAT.

(I)

Richard Treat.

(2)

Sarah Treat Canfield.

(3)

John Canfield.

(4)

Annis Canfield Adams.

(5)

Cornelia Adams Tomlinson.

(6)

Maria Annis Tomlinson Dayton.

(7)

Charles Willoughby Dayton.

Laura Canfield Spencer Dayton Fessenden.

William Adams Dayton.

Harold Child Dayton.

(8)

Charles Willoughby Dayton, Jr.

Aymar Child Fessenden.

Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton.

Alice Griswold Hyde Fessenden.

John Newman Dayton,

William Adams Dayton.

Benjamin Hurd Fessenden.

Dorothy Dayton Fessenden.

Laura Adams Dayton.

Haydon Child Dayton.

RICHARD TREAT.

On May 20th, 1658, Richard Treat was chosen
one of the sixteen magistrates of Connecticut. On
May 17th, 1660, Richard Treat was again elected
Magistrate. On the 20th of April, 1662, His Majesty
granted the colony of Connecticut a Patent granting
and conveying the most ample privileges under the

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 117

seal of England and one of the sixteen names upon this
Incorporation of the Colony is that of our ancestors
Richard Treat. In October, 1662, under this new
Charter he was made magistrate. There is such a
voluminous Treat Genealogy that it seems needless to
do more than show our line. Through Richard Treat
we are entitled to Colonial Wars and Colonial Dame
ship.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 118

BEACH.

(I)

John Beach.

(2)

Mary Booth Beach Fairchild.

(3)

Mary Fairchild Adams.

(4)

Andrew Adams.

(5)

Andrew Adams.

(6)

Cornelia Adams Tomlinson.

(7)

Maria Annis Tomlinson Dayton.

(8).

(9) &c

JOHN BEACH.

John Beach and Mary Booth Beach his wife,
came from New Haven to Stratford, Connecticut, in
1660. He bought land at this time of Ensign Bryan
of Milford. When the Beaches came to Stratford
they had four children. In 1665 Hannah Booth Beach
their third daughter was born, and she married Zacch-
aria Fairchild in 1668.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 119

BOOTH.

( i ) Richard Booth.

(2) John Booth.

(3) Mary Booth (Beach).

(4) Hannah Booth Beach Fairchild.

(5) Mary Booth Fairchild Adams.

(6) Andrew Adams.

(7) Andrew Adams.

(8) Cornelia Adams Tomlinson.

(9) Maria Annis Tomlinson Dayton.

(10) (11) &c.

RICHARD BOOTH.

Richard Booth was the fifth son of Sir William
Booth Knight. He came to Fairfield and bought land
and then he married Elizabeth Hawley, a sister of
Joseph Hawley, of Stratford, Connecticut. Richard
Booth settled at Stratford.

(2)
JOHN BOOTH.

John Booth son of Richard Booth and Elizabeth
Hawley, was born in Stratford, Nov. 6th, 1658. He
married Dorothy Hawley, daughter of Thomas Hawley
of Roxbury.

(3)
MARY BOOTH.

Mary Booth, daughter of John Booth and Dorothy
Hawley, married John Beach of Stratford.

120 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

(4)
HANNAH BEACH.

Hannah Beach, daughter of John Beach, and Mary
Booth Beach, married Zaccharia Fairchild.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 121

FAIRCHILD.

(i) Thomas Fairchild.

(2) Zaccharia Fairchild.

(3) Mary Beach Fairchild Adams.

(4) Andrew Adams.

(5) Andrew Adams.

(7) Cornelia Adams Tomlinson.

(8) Maria Annis Tomlinson Dayton.

(9) (10).

Trumbull says "Thomas Fairchild (Gentleman), was
the principal planter and the first gentleman in the
town of Stratford (bordering on Fairfield, Connecti-
cut. ) He was the first man vested with civil authority.
He came directly from England to Stratford in 1639.
His son Zaccharius Fairchild, had in 1680,
bought twenty acres of land in Newton, Con-
necticut. On November 3rd, 1861, Zaccharia
married Hannah Beach and they lived at Strat-
ford. Mary Fairchild, daughter of Hannah Beach
and Zaccharia Fairchild was born in 1698. She mar-
ried Samuel Adams, March 7th, 1728, and was the
mother of the Hon. Andrew Adams, Chief Justice of
Connecticut. She died at the age of 106 years in
Litchfield, Conn.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 122

DICKENSON.

(Through Mercy Dickenson who married Nathan-
iel Adams of Ipswich, before 1700.)

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 123

PECK.

(Through Abigail Peck who married Samuel Can-
field.)

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 124

LOOMIS.

(Through Mary Loomis who married John Buel
'7 )•

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 125

GRISWOLD.

(Through Eunice Griswold who married Solomon
Buel 17 )

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 126

HYDE.

(Through Alice Hyde who married Henry Tomlin-
son 1 6 — )

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 127

BOWERS.

(Through Sarah Bowers who married Agur Tom-
linson ij — )

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 128

GLOVER

(Through Bethia Glover who married Joseph Tom-
linson in ly — )

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 129

HAWLEY.

(Through Elizabeth Hawley who married Richard
Booth and Dorothy Hawley who married John Boothv
16 i7 )

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 130

We will leave Mother's ancestors, and take up Fath-
er's line.

The family of Deighton, Dyghton, or Deyson, (as it
is variously spelled,) took its name from the hamlet or
village of Deighton in the parish of Deighton, in the
east riding of Yorkshire, England, and is about four
and a half miles south, south east from the city of
York.

The Deightons appear to have been for generations
tenants of a farm, on the Manor of Deighton, which
was held by the Abbott of St. Mary's York, he being
Lord of the Manor.

( i ) Robert de Deighton.

(2) Robert de Deighton.

(3) John de Deighton.

(4) Robert de Deighton.

(5) John de Deighton.

(6) William de Deighton.

(7) William de Deighton.

(8) John de Deighton.

(9) Henry de Deighton.

(10) Robert Deighton.

(11) William Deighton.

(12) Ralph Deighton or Danton or Dayton

(as it is variously spelled.)

(13) Robert Dayton.

132 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

(14) Samuel Dayton.

(15) Isaac Dayton.

(16) Brewster Dayton, Jr.

(17) Charles Willoughby Dayton.

(18) Abram Child Dayton.

(19) Charles Willoughby Dayton.

Laura Canfield Spencer Dayton Fessenden.
William Adams Dayton.
Harold Child Dayton.

(20) Charles Willoughby Dayton, Jr.
Aymar Child Fessenden.
Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton.
John Newman Dayton.

Alice Griswold Hyde Fessenden.
Laura Adams Dayton.
William Adams Dayton, Jr.
Ben Hurd Fessenden.
Dorothy Dayton Fessenden.
Haydon Child Dayton.

(1)
ROBERT de DEIGHTON.

Robert de Deighton was admitted a freeman in
1305 and he was a Yeoman. I have made it my pleasure,
to look up old English words, and their absolute mean-
ings, at stated periods. In 1300 a Yeoman ''implied, a
gentleman of small estate who beside being a free-
holder, was an officer in the Militia of his section of
the country, hence the expression "an officer of the
guard". Robert de Deighton had four sons and their
names were Robert, William, Nicholas and John.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 133

(2)

ROBERT de DEIGHTON.

Robert de Deighton was admitted a freeman in
1329. His occupation is given as "pistor." Sir Edmund
Sandus says "A Pistor is one who maketh small fire
arms or little pistols." The sons of Robert were John,
Walter, Galpudis, and William.

(3)
JOHN de DEIGHTON.

John de Deighton was admitted a freeman in 1349,
his occupation is set down as "Tailler" and my first in-
clination was to pass over the fact without comment
but Cowell says, that "a Tailler was not a fashioner of
garments" but "a collector of tolls or taxes." John had
William and Robert.

(4)

ROBERT de DEIGHTON.

-

Robert de Deighton was admitted a freeman in
1372. He was a Sauce-maker and he had two sons
Willard and John.

(5)
JOHN de DEIGHTON.

John de Deighton was admitted a freeman, in
1389. He was by occupation a Marshal, Shakespeare
says that a "Marshal, was an officer standing highest
in arms". Dryden "the officer who regulates combats
in the lists". Spencer "an officer who regulates rank
and order at a feast." John de Deighton married Isabel

134 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

a daughter of JohndeDuffield, a silk merchant of York.
The sons of John de Deighton, were Golen, William
and John.

(6)

WILLIAM de DEIGHTON.

William de Deighton was admitted a freeman in
14 19, he was a wine merchant and he married Joan
de Morton of York. She was a daughter of Robert de
Morton a merchant. Joan had a brother Thomas de
Morton, who was the "Residentiary of York". In his
will this reverend gentleman left to his Nephew
William de Deighton, son of his sister Joan, two separ-
ate legacies. William de Deighton (6) died September
14th, 1456, and was buried beside his wife Joan, "on
the south side of York Minister". Drake's history of
York, shows that William died a rich man. He had
one son William de Deighton.

(7)
WILLIAM de DEIGHTON.

William de Deighton was a Brewer. He was
admitted a freeman in 1452. He had John.

(8)

JOHN de DEIGHTON.

John de Deighton was admitted a freeman in 1481,
he had Henry.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 135

(9)
HENRY de DEIGHTON.

Henry de Deighton was admitted a freeman in
1504. By occupation he was a ''dyer". In 1522, he
was made City Chamberlain of York. This was the
officer to whom all the city revenues were paid. He
was elected Sheriff 1524-5, Alderman 1525 to 1551.
The position of Alderman at that time, was to all in-
tents and purposes (says Bacon) "that of a senitor or
governor". Henry de Deighton was made Lord Mayor
of York in 1531. He was twice married and we are
descended from the son of the second wife Alice, who
at the time of her marriage to Henry de Deighton was
the widow of Robert Petty an Alderman. Henry de
Deighton died in September 1540, and in his will he
directed that "he should be buried, in All Saints, on
North State Street." He had Robert.

(10)
ROBERT DEIGHTON.

Robert Deighton was the first of his line to drop
the Norman de and become Deighton. He was born
in 1525, was made a freeman in 1557. In 1550 he
married Elizabeth Copeleyand a daughter of John
Copeleyand, and Margaret Copeleyand his wife, who
was a daughter of Sir John S. Stapleton, of Wighill,
York. Robert Deighton had William.

(11)
WILLIAM DEIGHTON.

William Deighton was born in York in 1551.
He seems to have been the first one in this line to leave

136 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

the home of his ancestors. Perhaps he was not pleased
with his mother's second marriage, for shortly after
Robert Deighton's death, his widow married Sir Fran-
cis Ayscrough. At all events William left York, and
went to London, settling in St. Martin's in the Fields.
He married on August 9th, 1584, Agnes a daughter of
Ralph Green and Johannah Reed, his wife. William
had four sons William, Thomas, Ralph and Nicholas.

(12)
RALPH DAYTON.

Ralph Dayton was born in St. Martin's in the
Field, London in 1598. About 1629 he married Agnes
a daughter of Henry Pool of St. Martin's London. In
1636, Ralph imigrated to Boston, with his two little
sons and with him came his brothers, Thomas and
Nicholas. Ralph Dayton at this time was a widower.
In 1639, he removed from Boston to New Haven.
It is recorded in Lambeth's history of Connecticut, that
"Goodman Danton has a seat in the fifth row on the
other side of the door of the church. Mr. Whittemore
in his book, Heroes of the Revolution, brings Ralph
Dayton from Bedfordshire to Boston while I insist that
he came from London. Ralph Dayton was one of the
original settlers of New Haven. In 1648 his two sons
Robert and Samuel removed to South Hampton, Long
Island. In the following year Dorothy Brewster,
Ralph Dayton's second wife, died in childbirth leaving
an infant son who was called Brewster Dayton. In
1649 Ralph Dayton left New Haven and went to South
Hampton. Later he became one of the founders of
East Hampton. In the court records of East Hampton

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 137

it shows that on March 7th, 1650, "it is ordered that
Ralph Dayton is to go to Keniticut for to procure the
evidence of our lands, and for a boddie of our laws."
Ralph Dayton married a third wife in June, 1656, Mary
the widow of James Haynes. He died in the year
following. He had four sons and Robert is our ancestor.

(13)
ROBERT DAYTON.

Robert Dayton was born in London in 1630. In
1652 he married Elizabeth Woodruff, a daughter of
John Woodruff, of South Hampton, Long Island.
Robert Dayton died October 16th, 17 12, aged 84 years.
His son Samuel is our Ancestor.

(14)
SAMUEL DAYTON.

Samuel Dayton was born in 1653. He owned
large tracts of land in various parts of Long Island and

in Connecticut. His wife's name was Wilhelmina

He had five sons and his youngest son Isaac was our
ancestor.

(15)
ISAAC DAYTON.

Isaac Dayton was born in 1698. He left Long
Island, and settled in Connecticut where he married
Sarah Brewster, a daughter of Daniel Brewster, of
Brookhaven Connecticut. Their son Brewster Dayton
Jr., is our ancestor.

138 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

(16)
BREWSTER DAYTON.

Brewster Dayton was born in his grandfather's
home on Long Island, and spent much of his boyhood
there but he went to Connecticut to live in 1755, making
Stratford his home. He married Ruth Judson of
Stratford in 1777. He was a member of the Coast
guard in 1778 and a private in Colonel Enos' regiment
(and Captain Yeates company) and during his service
in the continental army he was stationed on the Hudson
river. The death of his wife Ruth Judson made it
necessary for Brewster Dayton to return home at the
expiration of his term of enlistment and on the twenty-
fifth of December, 1789, Brewster Dayton married
Elizabeth Willoughby of England. There are always
two sides to every story, and this Willoughby narra-
tion does not prove the exception so while I say Eng-
land, another authority says Stratford. Now from baby-
hood, I have believed the story that I am about to set
down, my father told it to me and he had the same ver-
sion from those who were living at the time when
what I am about to relate transpired. But it shall be
given in the mention of our Grandfather. Brewster
Dayton had two children by his wife Elizabeth Wil-
loughby, Elizabeth (or Pollie) and Charles Willough-
by. The mother died at the time of the latter' s birth.
Afterwards Brewster Dayton married Pollie Gary.

(17)
CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON.

Charles Willoughby Dayton son of Brewster
Dayton and Elizabeth Willoughby, was born in Strat-

CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON.
From a miniature about 1822.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 139

ford, Connecticut in 1795. Soon after his birth he and
his sister Pollie were taken from their father's house,
and into the homes of two prominent members of the
little community. The girl into a lawyer's family, the
boy into the house of the Reverend Nathan Birdsey
of Roanoke. This arrangement must have met with
Brewster Dayton's approval, and it was said, to have
been done in compliance, with the wishes of his late
wife's English relatives ; because he was evidently a well
to do farmer, and a man held in high respect by his
associates. I have no absolute knowledge of what be-
came of the girl, my father used to say that he believed
that she went back to England and finally married an
army officer. Our grandfather Charles Willoughby
Dayton spent his entire childhood and boyhood with
Doctor Birdsey. When he was prepared for Yale he
expressed a preference for a business career and was
furnished with money to establish himself as an Im-
porter in New York City. -

At 19 he married Jane Raveau Child, a daughter of
Abram Child and Francis Moffitt Child of New York
City. He spent much time in England, and there is a
legend that he made an effort to secure a patrimony
from the Willoughby D'Ersby estate. We have no data
as to the result other than family tradition, that under
the law of primogeniture, he was not allowed to suc-
ceed. His business ability however enabled him to
amass a handsome competence. His residence was on
Washington Square, (then the aristocratic section of
the city) and there he entertained President Van
Buren, Captain Maryatt, and many other distinguished
people. His stable and equipages, were a feature in the
fashionable life of that period, and his appearance on

140 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

horseback (often accompanied by his son Abram)
attracted admiration. He was unusually handsome,
understood the art of "costly habit, not expressed in
fancy". He had a perfect English complexion, dark
blue eyes, brown, curly hair, a beautiful mouth and
perfect teeth.

His wife (Jane Child Dayton) died early in their
married life and grandfather remained a widower the
balance of his days although "Lord Willoughby" (as
he was called in old New York,) was courted by many
ambitious mammas. We two older children remember
grandfather perfectly and delightfully too, for he
brought us beautiful toys from Europe and often sent
us bunches of bananas, and hampers of oranges. He
had Christmas stockings expressly manufactured
for us in Birmingham and he had a pleasant
way of giving us twenty dollar gold pieces on our birth-
days. Our grandfather courted the Muse, probably
more frequently than we know, at least one of his
efforts appeared in print (no doubt anonymously). Our
father had committed it to memory and often recited
the following to us children.

A Chamber Scene.

"She rose from her untroubled sleep,

And put aside her soft brown hair;
And in a tone as low and sweet

As love's first whisper — breathed a prayer.
Her snow white hands together pressed

Her blue eye sheltered in its lid,
The folded linen on her breast,

Just swelling with the charms it hid ;
While from her long and flowing dress,

Escaped a bare and slender foot :

DAYTON AND TUMLINSON. 141

Whose fall upon the earth did press,

Like a snow flake white and mute —
Thus from her slumbers soft and warm,

As a young spirit fresh from Heaven,
She bowed her slight and graceful form,

And humbly prayed to be forgiven.
Oh God! if souls unsoiled as these

Need daily mercy from thy throne,
If she upon her bended knees,

Our loveliest and our purest one —
She with a face so clear and bright

We deemed her some stray child of light,
If she, with those soft eyes in tears,

Day after day in her first years
Must kneel, and pray for grace from Thee,

What far, far deeper need, have we ?
How hardly if she win not Heaven,

Will our wild errors be forgiven.''

One who is an able critic says of this poem "It is
a pretty conceit, and quite in touch with the senti-
mentalities of that time," (probably 1837).

I have also some lines that grandfather Dayton wrote
for our mother's album upon her wedding day.

"The spotless album of thy maiden years

Is closed forever, all its hopes and fears
Are merged in the new volume of thy life

The blissful annals of a happy wife;
This book is open, every page is white,

Inscribed to hope in characters of light.
But guard it fair one with the strictest care

Angels alone should leave their impress there.
Good nature, friendship, sympathy and love,

With all the moral blessings they approve
Let them enrich its pages with their lays

But not a note of flattery's heartless praise.
So shall thy mental loving album be

Like this which friendship dedicates to thee,

142 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

Without a blot of passion or of grief,
To mar the beauty of a single leaf;

Unstained by error, envy, pride or strife,

And Heaven will smile upon the book of
life."

Here is a letter that Grandfather wrote to our father
when he (father) was a schoolboy in Germany.

London, December 25th, 1834.
My dear Son :

I received your letter by course of mail, and was
highly gratified at its contents. There is nothing but
what I shall most cheerfully grant you for the promo-
tion of your education and happiness, providing your
course of conduct is that of elevated propriety and
industry, which, is the only manner, by which we can
hope to attain, moral and mental success. As you are
now withdrawn from my personal observation, and
example, I would commend you to be careful, in the
observance and fulfillment of all the duties that may be
required by your present instructors and guardians.
I have great reason to believe that they will do all in
their power to make your way that of pleasantness and
your paths those of peace. Then I would say with this
favorable opportunity go on, and when in the years
to come you return to your native country, you will be
able to give practical evidence that you have been in
the pursuit of knowledge. I shall leave here for
Liverpool to-morrow evening and embark on the
United States for New York, on the second of January.
The vessel has been delayed in starting because of an
accident she met with on the eighth, when attempting
to go to sea. I shall be pleased to hear from you often.

ABRAM CHILD DAYTON.
From a miniature about 1835.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 143

Give my kind respects to the Doctor, and tell him that
I hope we shall both be gratified, in the spring, by
a personal acquaintance, as it is then my intention to
visit Germany.

For the present a short farewell.
Your father Charles W. Dayton.
This letter is addressed to

Abram C. Dayton, care of Doctor Serriur,
Losnitz Grund near Dresden,
Germany.

There were many of these letters, but our mother in
the last years of her life forgot their value to the
present, and future and destroyed most of them.

When our grandfather died suddenly January 30th.
1861, (in seemingly perfect health.) he was still com-
paratively a young man.

Our Father, ABRAM CHILD DAYTON.

Father was born in Dey street. New York city, on
the 2nd of March, 18 18. He told me that it was a
stormy day; but that through the snow drifts,
and the bitter cold, his maternal grandfather
and grandmother, his aunts and his uncles plodded
joyfully to see "Jane's new baby." He was baptized in
the Middle Dutch church. At seven he was sent to the
boarding school of Monsieur Coudert, one of Napo-
leon's staff officers. This school was located some-
where near the old Tombs building. Among his school-
mates I have heard father mention the late Reverend
Robert Howland, of the Church of the Heavenly Rest,
and "Teuton," afterwards the Confederate General
Beauregard.

144 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

A few years after this father was taken to Europe
and placed at a then famous school on the outskirts
of Dresden. I used to love dearly to have father tell
me about this time in his life when I was a little girl.
He said that although he was eleven years old, he was
so slight and small that he looked much younger. He
was sent from London to Dresden "as a valuable ex-
press package." It was a dreary journey for the little
fellow, both by sea and land; but his first night at a
German wayside inn was the most awful. The guard,
upon the arrival of the diligence at this particular
spot in the journey, consigned the child to the care of
mine host, who took his hand and led him into a long
room full of tables where he 'was given a mug of beer
and some slices of coarse bread, then he was taken up
stairs, by a pretty house-maid, who kindly helped him
to unfasten his clothes (because his fingers were so
blue and stiff with cold). Her kindness made his poor
lonely little heart all the heavier, and when he finally
got in between the feather beds, he sobbed himself to
sleep, only to awaken with the feeling that he was
being smothered to death, but he did not dare to move,
because there were now men in the room, who were
whispering to each other in an unknown tongue, and
he thought they might be highwaymen, come to do
him some blood curdling mischief ! So he lay gasping
and shaking with terror until dawn, when the maid
came back and helped him to get ready to go on his
journey. He said that the morning after he had ar-
rived at the school, the head master (in the name of
the scholars) presented him with a long pipe! There
was no end of interest and curiosity in Dresden when it
was noised about that "an American boy had arrived at

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 145

the school ;" but their disgust was great when they saw
him. "Pshaw," they said, "he is no American! He
wears neither blanket nor feathers. He is only an
English boy!" There were a few English boys in the
school, but they were in the higher forms, so father
found his friends among the French and German lads
of his own age. His dearest friend was an old soldier,
who, because of his scars and medals, had been given
the guardianship of the city bridge. In a tiny (round)
tower, at the bridge's edge, this old guard sat all day
long. He wore a smock frock, a night cap, sat in his
stocking feet and had big round ear rings in his ears.
Thus attired, he busily applied a set of knitting needles ;
but whenever he chanced to spy through the small
window, the great barouche, and the white horses of
the King of Saxony crawling along in the distance,
he took off his frock, and put on all" his soldier gar-
ments, shouldered his musket and stood attention, until
Royalty had crossed over and passed out of sight. This
old soldier had wonderful tales to tell his American
friend (the little stranger lad, with grave sweet blue
eyes and golden brown curly head, who sat on a stool
beside his knee) of battle and victory, of brave fighting
and braver dying for the Father-land, and to his life's
close, our father always cherished in tender remem-
brance this leaf from his past. I have a letter that was
written to father while he was at school at Lutznitz
Grund.

"Dear Dayton.

Saunders has left school, and has gone to live with
his grandfather near Washington. Bostwick has left
off going to fires and has joined a boat club, for big

146 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

boys and young men to belong to. There are two of
these clubs, named the White Hallers and the Jersey
Blues. They had a boat race, in which (much to the
mortification of us Gothamites) the Jersey Blues were
victorious. They used two oar boats, and the race was
contested not on the rough shore of the Bay, or near
the Battery, but on the Jersey shore ! and lots of the
time the Jersey Blues used paddles ! and not oars ! I
send you a card from St. Feliece. Santo has gone to
Portirico. George Porter has left school to study
law. Write me often, tell me about your studies, and
how you spend your days and what games you have.
Jules and I are room-mates and we are allowed to have
a light every night, as long as we choose, and we sit
up and read novels. Have you any cronies ?
Good-bye dear Dayton.
"Believe me to be yours till death,

Bob W. Howland.
Care G. G. Howland, New York City, U. S. A."

While father was in Germany, his father used to
come over from America every spring and take his son
to England, or to France. Father often visited rel-
atives in Kent. When he was in London or Paris, he
had rather a lonely time of it, as his father left him to
amuse himself as best he could while he (grandfather)
was at his clubs. One year at Paris when he and his
father were stopping at the Grand Hotel, father wan-
dred down into the kitchens and the Chef, being a
kindly culinary magnate, offered to teach the "Ameri-
can young gentleman" how to dress salads and to carve.
Tn connection with this father used to tell a funny story.
He said that when he came back to live in New York,

^

^

FROM AN OIL PORTRAIT BY N]

DAYTON AND TUMLINSON. 147

and had established himself in a suite of bachelor apart-
ments at the City Hotel, he asked that the dinner hour
be changed from noon to three o'clock (the then fashion-
able dinner hour abroad), and it was readily agreed to.
At father's table were several rich old widowers and a
number of prominent old bachelors. One day, making
more dressing for himself than he needed, father di-
rected a servant to offer it to the others at the table,
and forever after this the group in question made it
apparent, that they considered it father's duty to repeat
the courtesy. When father had finished at Dresden,
he went to Berlin and took special studies but before
leaving he gave to the Museum at Dresden, a com-
plete set of American coins and he also gave his love's
youngest dream, to the daughter of Herr Professor.
When I was a little girl a letter came to father from
Germany. It was from a lady who asked the return to-
iler of a miniature. Of course father complied, and
then there came back to him a miniature of himself
which is reproduced in this book. From Berlin father
went to Paris where he lived for four years taking a
complete medical course, simply for love of it, and with-
out any thought of making it a profession. I recall his
relating to me all the details of his Court presentation
and I used to think what a charming picture he must
have made in his "white satin knee breeches, his coat all
embroidered in gold bullion, his powdered hair, pink sa-
tin vest, white silk stockings and tight shoes." He used
to say "damned tight shoes" in describing them, and
perhaps that is the reason why I, as a child, always sup-
posed that they were a bright red color. When father
came back to New York, the principal tailors and hat-
ters called upon him, and begged permission to see his

148 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

wardrobe. I have heard mother say that he brought
home fifty-three colored waistcoats. I have three of
them now, one is of cloth of silver, another is white
satin with embroidered leaves and blossoms, and a third
is embroidered velvet. Among father's belongings
at this time was a dressing gown, smoking cap and
slippers made from the bed curtains of Marie Antoin-
ette. I have the cap and slippers still. One great coat
I have been told, was a green broad cloth, lined with
quilted white satin, each quilt being finished with a
little silken bow and tassel. In his book, "The last
Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York," edited
by my eldest brother, dedicated to your grandma and
published by Geo. P. Putnam's Sons "Knickerbocker
Press" in 1896, father gives a perfect description
of the life of this new city in his youth and
early manhood.

Of father himself it is hard to speak, because it is im-
possible to find words with which to convey the charm
of manner, the graciousness, and the mental brilliancy
of his makeup. He knew Greek, Latin, Spanish, French,
Italian and German. He had read much, and with keen
and clever appreciation. He had a wonderful memory
stored full of the best and noblest thoughts of the
world. He was a fine horseman, a graceful dancer, a
witty and charming conversationalist. He had not
to my knowledge a single enemy. Dogs made friends
with him at once, and children nestled close to him and
loved him ; and, I do not believe that in his whole life of
fifty-nine years, he ever said a discourteous thing to a
woman. What he did lack was an ability to battle for
existence and this was no fault of his, since during his
youth and early manhood there was no need for busi-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 149

ness effort. When the hard time did come, he made no
moan, and to the best of his ability met adverse fate
and tried to conquer it. For several years he engaged
in literary work, was editor of "Porter's Spirit of the
Times," and subsequently was a member of the New
York Stock Exchange. At no time was he a laggard.
Never did he fail to keep every engagement. When
he died he "owed no man anything." What he lacked
was that dominant force which impels and compels
financial success — that material money getting power
— that thrift, which saves while pleasure waits, or is
denied. Such qualities as those however would "have
chilled the genial current of his soul." They were not
born in him, nor would he, nor could he, cultivate
them. His memory is dearer and lovelier for the lack
of them. No one ever heard him complain that "the way
was rough." No one ever heard him express a wish
"for a return of the past;" and when it came to be.
that the time for the answering to his name drew close
at hand, his nearest and dearest felt as never before,
all the beauty of his soul and mind. In those last
days, — in the going out of a certain summer time, — the
many young people in his family circle seemed to be
drawn nearer and nearer to him, his room was the
gathering place, his invalid chair the centre from which
brightness and happiness evolved. On the day
he died, a friend (the daughter of one of his old
Light Guard Comrades) brought to him from her
father's cellar, one of the remaining bottles of Madeira
that had been hidden away from the light for a hundred
and odd years. Father was greatly pleased with the at-
tention, and when the guest made her adieu, he insisted
on rising from his chair (feeble and wan though he

150 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

was) and taking her upon his arm to the door of his
room, there he paused, lifted her hand to his lips and
said softly "Good-bye." Amid her tears, this friend
said to a member of the household, "He takes with him
the last days of Knickerbocker life. He is one of the
last gentlemen of the old school."

In the early part of 1866 father went to Atchison,
Kansas, on an important business mission. Here is, a
letter he wrote from there to his oldest son Charles
Willoughby Dayton.

Atchison, Kansas,
March 30th, 1866.
Dear Charlie.

I was glad to receive your letter and should have re-
plied, but, that I write your mother all the news I have
to communicate, and it would have been mere repeti-
tion. As regards your change of location, I can only
say look before you leap, as a step in the wrong di-
rection now, might be one which would cause regret
for many a long day. Having made many mistakes
myself, makes me perhaps over-anxious to have you
avoid similar pitfalls. Stick to one thing, and let well
enough alone, are old fashioned rules; but still safe
rules to go by. I am glad that Davey Tomlinson is
gaining ground, and that he was so successful in the
intercollegiate contest at Wallack's. Congratulate
him for me. Your kind attentions to your mother dur-
ing my absence are deeply appreciated and will be re-
paid in sure, but perhaps mysterious ways. I am
pleased that you enjoy the society of virtuous women,
it is not only a safe guard, but one of the best schools
of refinement and manly dignity in which a young
man can be reared. I do not think that the west would

From a portrait about 1848.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 151

suit you at present and for this reason, you have many
friends in New York, who are influential, and if you
study to keep the favor already gained, it will supply
the place of capital. While out here you would lack
both.

Write often.

Yours affectionately,

Abram C. Dayton."

Father died suddenly August 3rd, 1877, and is
buried beside his father in Greenwood cemetery, Long
Island.

CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON.

Charles Willoughby Dayton was born in the
old city of Brooklyn, now a part of Greater New York,
October 3rd, 1846, but has lived all his life on Man-
hattan Island. He received his education in the Public
Schools and entered the college in the city of New York
in 1 86 1. Before completing his college course, he
entered a law office and Columbia Law school
graduating in 1868; since which time he has
pursued the practice of his profession. He early
took an active interest in politics and has al-
ways been a member of the Democratic party.
He supported the candidacy of General George B.
McClellan, in 1864. In 1861, our family moved to
Harlem, a section of the city where my brother has
ever since resided. In 1874 he married Miss Laura A.
Newman, only daughter of the late John B. Newman,
M. D., and Rebecca San ford. They have three living
children. My brother's residence is No. 13 Mt.
Morris Park (west). He organized and is coun-
sel for the Twelfth Ward Bank and the Em-
pire City Savings Bank. He is director in the
Seventh National Bank, The United States Life
Insurance Company and the Fort Lee Ferry Company.
He has served as trustee of the Church of the Puritans
and of the Harlem Library. He is a member of the
Down Town association, the Democratic club, Saga-
more, Harlem Democratic, Players, and Harlem clubs.

CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON.
From photo, 1901.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 153

is one of the governors of the Manhattan club, a mem-
ber of the New England society, the New York Histor-
ical society, the Sons of the Revolution and of F. and
A. M. He is also a member of the New York city Bar
association, and one of the Vice Presidents of the
Xew York State Bar association.

In 1 88 1 he was elected to the Legislature and
served on the Judiciary committee and was an
advocate of Municipal reform, and of the primary Elec-
tion Laws of that year. In 1882 he organized the
Harlem Democratic club and also became Secretary
of the Citizens' Reform movement. He has served as
delegate to several Democratic conventions and in 1884
he was one of the Presidential electors and Secretary of
the College which cast the vote of the state for Grover
Cleveland and Hendricks. In 1892 he was President
of the Board for the improvement of Park Avenue.
In 1893 he was elected a delegate to the Constitutional
Convention of the State of New York. On June the
5th, 1893, he was appointed postmaster at the city of
New York by President Cleveland — the first democrat
since John A. Dix (i860) to hold office. President
Cleveland's appointment of my brother as Postmaster,
was received by the Press everywhere, with unusual
favor and commendation. This extract, taken from
the Elmira (New York) Gazette of June 6th, 1893,
expresses the general comment made.

"The appointee is a man of personal, professional
and political standing. It is clearly an appointment of
Cleveland's own making. Dayton was not an applicant
and was not mentioned as a possibility. The character
and ability of the appointee cannot be questioned. It

154 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

is a case of office lighting on an unsuspecting, and not
at all anxious man. One significance which may be
drawn is, the President is bound to impress men of
character and ability into the service of the Government,
even though they have not applied for the place."

The Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, — an
opposition paper — said :

"President Cleveland seems to have made a hit in his
appointment of Charles W. Dayton as Postmaster."

These are but the echoes of the majority of American
Journalism in commenting upon the appointment, and
the consensus of public opinion may be summed up in
the following lines, copied from a representative New
York city paper:

"By his business like methods, coupled with his high
character and intellectual attainments, Mr. Dayton has
proved the wisdom of the President, in selecting him
to supervise and direct the Postal system of New York
city, and he justly deserves the name of a model Post-
master."

But the best tribute came to my brother through
and by the affection felt for him by all Postal
employees, not in New York alone, but throughout the
United States.

It was near the close of his term of office that
our mother died, and upon the appearance of the notice
of her death, from all over the country, came tele-
graphed messages of sympathy, but most touching,
were the flowers, ordered from New York florists by
the Postmen and Postal Clerks from New York to the

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 155

Pacific Coast, east, north, south and west, had a fra-
grant word of sympathy for the sorrow of the Postal
employe's friend. While in office he applied himself to
bringing about a revitalization of the service. With
this purpose, in 1894, he went to England and was re-
ceived by the leading officials of the Postal service
there, investigated the Postal system thoroughly
and made public the results obtained. He requested of
the Department at Washington, a more liberal and
generous recognition of the New York Post office, and
he succeeded in securing marked improvements in
the Federal Building which greatly added to the health
and comfort of the hundreds of employees and he light-
ened their burdens by enforcing complete system, and
shorter hours of duty.

When he resigned in 1897 and a new administration
had placed a Republican Postmaster at New York,
the fifteen hundred city letter carriers honored
their ex- Postmaster with a banquet at the Grand Cen-
tral Palace, and I take the following description of
this reception, from an account given of it, in one of the
New York papers :

"The regard which Charles W. Dayton, in his term
of Postmaster in this city, has succeeded in winning
from the rank and file of the service, (irrespective of
political affiliations) was demonstrated when fifteen
hundred letter carriers entertained him at a dinner at
the Grand Central Palace. In point of numbers this
dinner was the largest that has ever taken place in this
city. Mr. Delancy Nicol (ex- District Attorney) said
'I do not believe that there ever has been such a ban-
quet/ The toast master of the occasion was Charles

156 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

A. Tyler, the oldest letter carrier in the United States,
who now carries the mail between the Produce Ex-
change and Gevernor's Island. John N. Parsons, Pres-
ident of the New York Letter Carriers, and the Nation-
al Association of Letter Carriers presented to Mr.
Dayton an Album, handsomely bound, in which were
engrossed the following Resolutions, and signed by
one thousand five hundred letter carriers.

Whereas, We have learned with extreme regret of
the severance of the official relation that for the past
four years, have existed between Charles W. Dayton,
Postmaster, and the letter carriers of the City of New
York, and

Whereas, We have recognized in these harmonious
relations, his cordial co-operation, with the Letter Car-
riers in the aims and objects of their organization, his
ever ready sympathy with them, in their arduous labors,
and the marked impartiality with which he has ad-
ministered the affairs of his important office. These are
the qualities which have always commanded our loyal
support, and endeared him closely to our affections.

Therefore be it resolved, That we, the Letter Car-
riers of New York city, in congress assembled take this
means of testifying, our affectionate regard for one,
who at the close of his official term as Postmaster of
this great city, leaves behind him an unsullied record
of magnificent administrative ability, of correct en-
forcements, of strict discipline, of humane and thought-
ful consideration of the Letter Carriers under his juris-
diction.

Resolved that we earnestly express the hope, that
his future career may be marked with that prosperity

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 157

and success he so well deserves, and we all assure him,
that the harmonious relations which have always ex-
isted between us, will be among our most pleasant
recollections; and although officially separated, noth-
ing can separate our loyal esteem for one who has fur-
nished a complete exemplification of a model Post-
master, and one who has contributed his share, toward
making the New York Post Office , what it ought to be,
the best managed Post Office in the civilized world.

Resolved that a copy of these Resolutions suitably
engrossed, be presented to our retiring Postmaster."

President Parsons in making his speech, said :

"I am reminded that we are here to-night, to honor
the man who took up the work and extended it to the
point of perfection, that it occupies to-day. Endowed,
as he is, with a high order of executive ability, clothed
with all the attributes of a gentleman and gifted by
the training of his profession, his confidence in his fel-
lowmen, was the secret of his success. We are here
to bear testimony of a man who can discharge a high
public trust, while considering the happiness and com-
fort of those upon whose shoulders the burden of that
trust has been borne and whose solicitation for the
humblest in his charge, has been of as much concern as
the welfare of the greater problems that usually
absorb the consideration and time of men burdened
with the cares of official life. We wish to honor the
man who considered his official time well spent, when
it was given in council to the lowliest, to such a man
all honor is due, and while our meeting here to-night,
is limited to those who wear the Letter Carriers' uni-

158 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

form, we know that in spirit we have with us the large
army of struggling toilers, who join their voices with
us in saying to our guest, "You are a credit to your
Country and upon such men as you alone will depend
the success of our American Government."

In the Post Office building in New York City, on
the wall of the office of the Postmaster (which is at
the south end of the building) is a bronze life-sized
bust of Postmaster Dayton, the cost of which was de-
frayed by subscriptions of postal employees not exceed-
ing fifty cents each. A bronze tablet set into the
ledge has this inscription :

"Charles Willoughby Dayton, Postmaster at N. Y.

Appointed by President Cleveland June 3rd, 1893.

Erected February 1897, by the employees of the New
York Post Office who desire to perpetuate Mr. Dayton's
record of efficiency, discipline, justice and kindness."

This letter from Mr. Cleveland should be regarded
as a family treasure.

"Westland, Princeton, New Jersey,
May 24th, 1897.
"Hon. Charles W. Dayton.
My Dear Sir.

In reply to your letter written upon your retire-
ment from the Postmastership of the city of New York,
and expressing your appreciation of the honor con-
ferred by your appointment, I beg to assure you, that
the faithful and efficient service you have rendered the
Government and your fellow citizens during your term
of office, entitles you to an acknowledgement of my
personal obligation for the credit thus reflected upon

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 159

the appointing power. Hoping that prosperity and con-
tentment await you in all your future undertakings,
I am

Very truly yours,

Grover Cleveland.''

The name of "ex-Postmaster Dayton," was promi-
nently before the people of New York as one of the
candidates of the Democratic party for the first Mayor
of Greater New York in the Fall of 1897.

No higher tribute could be paid to a man than that
of St. Clair McKelway, the distinguished scholar and
Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle. In an editorial in that
newspaper in its issue of August 16, 1897, he said:

"The Sun this morning makes the announcement
that Charles W. Dayton has been agreed upon as the
Democratic candidate for mayor of the Greater New*
York. * * * * Few men have a better under-
standing of the principles of government on which con-
solidation is based and of how the interests of the
different localities should be provided for without ex-
posing the City, on the one hand, to grave financial
danger by reason of extravagant appropriations, and
without depriving those localities, on the other, of the
advantages which are to be reasonably expected from
the consolidation experiment. All this is aside from
his administration of the Post Office in New York City.
Mr. Dayton has made the best postmaster New York
ever had and it has had among its postmasters John
A. Dix, Thomas L. James and Henry G. Pearson.
The statement that he has made the best postmaster,
without exception, must be taken deliberately and when
put against the character of the administrations sup-

160 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

plied by the men we have named must be seen to carry
with it the highest measure of praise. It was an admin-
istration conspicuously notable for its adherence to civil
service reform, for its protection of deserving employees
against the rapacity of the spoilsmen and first and
foremost, for its determination to supply the people
with the best and quickest service. Not one of these
things was neglected by him. * * * .

Mr. Dayton has been frequently spoken of for judge
of the Supreme Court, which shows the estimate of his
leg'al abilities entertained by the bench and the bar,
and he has repeatedly omitted to press his claims, be-
cause older men were in front of him on the bench
and because he indorsed the proposition that competent
judges ought, as a rule, to be retained in their places.
His character, his capacity, his intellectual independ-
ence are equal to the same qualities in Seth Low.
His knowledge of public affairs is also equal to that
of Mr. Low, while his familiarity with administration
and local affairs is superior to that of the Columbia
College president. No man who calls himself a dem-
ocrat would hesitate for a moment to vote for Mr.
Dayton. No man who calls himself a Democratic
leader would think for a moment of trying to bend or
control him. Should such a thing be tried it would
be found that Mr. Dayton is himself a leader and that
he can meet with leaders and treat with leaders on
equal terms of dignity and advantage.

The suggestion of his name for the mayoralty re-
flects a desire to lift the whole party upward and
carry it forward to the achievement of excellent pur-
poses as a factor in government. Mr. Dayton believes
that the most successful way to make his party strong

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 161

is to make creditable the administration for which
it is responsible, and should he be nominated and
elected, there is not the slightest doubt that he would
bend all his energies to this end."

It will be interesting to you (our future kinsmen
and kinswomen), to know something of the one
man power, that was then assumed and submitted
to, and as this book is intended for purely private
circulation one may discuss in one's own drawing
room, much that would be inadmissible, if written for
the public. So in order that the children's children's
children may know, I want to show my brother's stand-
ing in New York, by quoting from a few of the daily
papers of his home city immediately after the Demo-
cratic convention was held.

"Now that the Democratic convention is a thing of
the past, it may prove interesting to our readers, to
learn how the name of ex-Postmaster Dayton was re-
ceived."

Tribune (Republican).

"The first name was Robert Van Wyck, it was fol-
lowed by moderate applause, intermingled with hisses.
At the name of Hugh J. Grant a cheer went up solid
and prolonged; but when Mr. McGoldrick brought
out Charles W. Dayton's name, a tremendous shout
followed that fairly shook the building and it was
taken up and repeated again and again. Dayton was
unquestionably the popular favorite."

Press (Republican).
"When Dayton's name, which was the last on the
list, was reached, the first genuine spontaneous outburst
of the evening swept through the hall. From gallery

162 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

to gallery his name was called, until this and the re-
peated cheers, made the Leaders anxious."

Journal ( Democratic ) .

Small applause greeted the leaders in the list, but
at the mention of C. W. Dayton the crowd exhibited
the first real enthusiasm of the evening. Cheer after
cheer went up for him and the outburst lasted for
seventy seconds. The cry of "Dayton, give us Day-
ton !" went up again and again, and the contingent
in the delegation shifted uneasily in their chairs."

The Sun (Democratic).

"The names were pre-arranged by the Secretary of
the convention, so that ex-Postmaster Dayton's name
should come last, then there was a tremendous cheer
in which a great many of the Brooklyn delegates took
part."

The Times (Democratic).

"When the name of Charles W. Dayton was reached,
the audience broke into a tremendous roar of cheers.
The Secretary could not continue his reading. The
Chairman rapped in vain for order. This cheering
was the first spontaneous outburst on the part of the
audience during the evening, and it startled those who
feared it might be a stampede for Dayton."

In commenting upon this matter, another leading
paper said, "The wave of enthusiasm for Air. Day-
ton, which kept Mr. Dayton's name before the
convention for a long time, was a tribute of which
any citizen might be proud. We doubt whether any
similar scene, was ever witnessed, under like circum-

CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON, JR.
From photo when at Harvard College, 1895.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 163

stances, in any previous city convention, for it was
known by delegates and spectators, that the one man
power had elected for the office of Mayor of
Greater New York, another than Mr. Dayton, but in
spite of this, when the name of Charles W. Dayton was
mentioned, almost the entire audience rose, as if moved
by a common purpose to impress upon the leader, that
here was the man desired by rank and file to be the
Democratic champion and lead the party in its great
contest. It was a dramatic situation, of more than
passing significance and it indicated the popularity and
strength of a Democrat, the mention of whose honor-
able name evoked a tumult of enthusiasm, that no one
man power could hush into silence."

The New York Herald of October i, 1897, in its
account of the Democratic convention says :

"When the name of Dayton was read the biggest
demonstration of the convention took place.

"The scene that followed the mention of Dayton's
name was dramatic in the extreme. From the main
floor, where the delegates were seated, there came
tremendous cheers for Dayton. The spirit was infec-
tious. It quickly spread to the boxes and to the gal-
leries. Within half a minute scores of men sitting on
the platform had taken it up.

" 'Dayton ! Dayton ! Dayton P shouted the dele-
gates and spectators.

" 'What's the matter with Dayton !' shouted one
of the men sitting in the delegation from Borough of
Manhattan.

" 'Hurrah for Dayton Y came back from the section
of the building where sat the Brooklyn delegates.

"Men jumped to their feet, shouting and waving

164 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

their hats and canes. The chairman pounded wildly
with his gavel in an effort to restore order. It was of
no avail. The Dayton enthusiasm became more and
more pronounced. The smashing of the machine slate
and a stampede of the Convention to the former Post-
master was threatened.

"The leaders were at a loss what to do. The dele-
gates seated about John C. Sheehan were shouting
with the rest. A counter demonstration for some one
else was the only resource, and this was adopted.

"The friends of William Sohmer, encouraged by the
effectiveness of the Dayton boom, attempted to start a
stampede for Sohmer. They created some stir, but as
the Sohmer storm spent its force the Dayton boom
again broke loose, gathering volume with every effort
of the Dayton men to stampede the convention.

"The enthusiasm of the Dayton men swept back-
ward and forward through the Convention hall, carry-
ing everything and everybody before it. John C.
Sheehan looked worried and pleased by turns. The
two men for whose nomination he had contended in
the conference of leaders, clearly were the favorites of
the gathering. Yet Mr. Sheehan had pledged the ma-
chine to put the slate through, and he could then brook
no change in the programme.

"No one realized the crisis more genuinely than did
Chairman Jenks. Time and again he struck the table
with his gavel, upsetting glasses and nearly jarring
the big water pitcher, that stood on the table, off onto
the floor. The Chairman finally succeeded in restoring
order, but he did it only by refusing to recognize any
of the several delegates who stood on the floor shout-
ing for recognition. If any of the Dayton men had

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 165

been given an opportunity to place him in nomination
but one thing seemed possible. That was the stamped-
ing of the convention from Van Wyck to Dayton, and
the smashing of the slate."

The action of the convention aroused great indig-
nation, but its decision was absolute.

Meanwhile Henry George, the renowned Publicist
and Political Economist, had been nominated for
Mayor by the Democracy of Thomas Jeffersom

The newspapers of that day will show, a wide spread
demand that the Republican "Boss" Piatt and the Dem-
ocratic "Boss" Croker should both be gotten rid of.

Seth Low, the President of Columbia College, had
been nominated for Mayor by the Citizens' Union.

Benjamin F. Tracy, a distinguished lawyer, and
former Secretary of the Navy, had been nominated
for Mayor by the Republicans. By a sort of common
consent, my brother's name, was on everybody's lips,
as the strongest man to be associated with Henry
George, in the battle of Democrats against the
"Bosses." My brother was urged to allow the use of
his name as a candidate, for Comptroller on the George
ticket. He resisted the appeal, he said he was not iden-
tified with all the philosophy of Henry George. Reply
was made that Mr. George was fighting only for good
government, freedom in party management and the
destruction of the "Boss" system. The appeal pre-
vailed, and my brother took the nomination for Comp-
troller as will be seen by his letter of acceptance.

166 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

MR. DAYTON ACCEPTS NOMINATION FOR
COMPTROLLER.

New York, October 15, 1897.
Willis J. Abbot, Esq., Chairman.

My Dear Sir : Your letter notifying me of my nom-
ination by the Democracy of Thomas Jefferson for
the office of Comptroller of Greater New York is re-
ceived. Its sentiments regarding the public service and
party obligations to the people have my sincere con-
currence.

The administration of the office of Comptroller of
the second city of the world is one which necessarily
affects the interests of the poorest as well as the richest
citizen. It will involve a system of finance not only of
enormous magnitude, but of infinite detail, requiring
industry, vigilance and executive arrangement of the
highest obtainable kind. More than this, the Comp-
troller must stand between plunderous attacks upon the
city treasury and the welfare of the citizens who pay
taxes in any form. To the adminstration of that office
along the lines here indicated I will, if elected, give
my undivided energies and such abilities as I possess.

Agreeing, as I do, with many of the principles set
forth in the platform of the Democracy of Thomas
Jefferson, I deem the main issue in the municipal cam-
paign now confronting the people to be, whether Crok-
erism shall for the next four years rule our greater
city. By Crokerism I mean an imperious government
in the hands of one man, who administers a principality
solely through the agency of personal favorites, sub-
serviency to his will, wishes and purposes being the
essentia] test of fitness for office.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 167

Until the people shall decide otherwise, I refuse to
believe that this magnificent city, with all its attrac-
tions, its great future, its affairs and its treasury, will
be placed in the hands of any self constituted ruler.
Every instinct of manhood, self respect, patriotism,
civic pride and true Democracy rebels against such a
prospect.

At all events, I rejoice at the opportunity which
your nomination offers to take a stand against such a
humiliation.

The issue of personal rule in party affairs is funda-
mental to the cause of popular government. If one
man can control the action of a great party from the
primaries to conventions, and thus secure practical own-
ership of men elected to office, we no longer have a
government "of the people, for the people, and by the
people," but instead, have a government of the people
by a despot, for his own purposes, whatever they may
be. If this despotism shall be permitted, laudable pol-
itical ambition will be stilled, political interest must
suffer, popular government must cease, and vassalage
will take the place of personal liberty.

The coming of Mr. Croker and his assumption of
complete control of the Democratic party of Greater
New York, the autocratic methods pursued by him, the
utter absence of any voice but his in the actions of the
conventions of the party, the stifling of even the right
to be heard on the floor of the conventions — all this
seems to me to raise a doubt as to whether or not we
are living in a land of freemen.

I believe the political organizations, but when an
organization becomes the property of one man it ceases
to be democratic.

168 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

My first vote was cast for Horatio Seymour. I
have never failed in loyalty to the Democratic party,
and in this campaign, I stand heartily with my fellow
Democrats for the election of our superior State can-
didate, the Hon. Alton B. Parker.

The acceptance of your nomination in a campaign
to be waged for good government and for the estab-
lishment of the doctrine that equal rights shall pre-
vail in the councils of the Democratic party places me
upon impregnable Democratic ground.

With assurance of my earnest efforts in the work of
the campaign,

I am, yours very truly,

Charles W. Dayton.

The New York Herald (and other papers of October
1 6th, 1897,) has an interview with Mr. George in which
he says, "It makes no difference that Mr. Dayton is
not a single taxer. Important above all other things in
this campaign, in my opinion is the destruction of Crok-
erism. Mr. Dayton's letter defines the main issue. My
platform is secondary to it. I never met Mr. Dayton
until this campaign began, and in the few hours we
have been together I have learned to admire him. His
revolt must bring us the strength of victors.

My brother opened the campaign by a speech which T
insert here.

JOHN NEWMAN DAYTON.
From photo, 1901.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 169

SPEECH OF CHARLES W. DAYTON,

Terrace Garden, October 18th, 1897.

From the New York Times of October 19, 1897.

"It has been said by my good friends in Tammany
that my position in this campaign is one of sorrow;
that I am disgruntled and disappointed. They had
built up for me, they say, a splendid career, if I would
only bow down to Crokerism. (Hisses). That I have
never done, and will never do. (Cheers). My rec-
ognition of the true duties of citizenship and my rever-
ence for the Almighty would never have permitted it.
(Long applause).

'The real problem before you is, Who shall win?
Who shall rule this great city? The magnitude of the
interests involved in the problem has never been equal-
led by any similar crisis in any other great city.

"As a Democrat, I naturally love Democratic prin-
ciples; and it was my heart's desire and earnest hope
that this campaign should be conducted on Democratic
principles under the nomination by a true Democratic
convention; of a Democrat worthy such a nom-
ination. ( Applause ) .

"At one time there was a good prospect that that
would happen. But the man who, in the evil hour of
the Democratic party, fled to other shores, came back,
looking after something more for himself. (Hisses).
In this campaign I do not intend to say a single word
against any man's private character. 'Beneath the
critic's cloak I wear no knife to stab the character of
private life,' but in a great metropolis like this, any

170 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

man who seeks to sway the destinies of his party
yields himself to all just criticism. (Applause).

"I say, as a believer in Jeffersonian Democracy, that
the convention of the Democratic party should have
been a free and open convention. (Applause).

"I tell you, what you already know, that to call the
convention that met in Grand Central Palace a Demo-
cratic convention is ridiculous. (Applause). In the
dark recesses of silent chambers, with two or three pres-
ent at most, was given out the mandate of a single man,
That was the method of the nomination of every candi-
date. (Applause).

"And when these 600 delegates, with their 600 alter-
nates, met in Grand Central Palace to vote, they did
not know who was to be their candidate, until they
heard his name from those to whom the mandate had
been given. (Long applause). When one confiding
citizen from Kings sought to question the right of the
leader to vote for him, with the swiftness of well-
trained soldiers they silenced his voice, as if he had
been an enemy instead of a friend. (Applause).

"I shall say nothing against those candidates; but
were they as pure as angels who had never visited this
earth before, I should denounce their candidacy as an
outrage upon human rights, inasmuch as they were
placed before the people in that manner. (Long Ap-
plause). I must argue from the manner of their can-
didacy that be they ever so pure, they will be none the
less the creatures of the organization after they are
elected than they were before. (Long applause).

"It is said that the distinguished Mr. Croker (hisses)
asked a gentleman this question. This gentleman had
called upon Mr. Croker to suggest the name of a candi-

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 171

date for councilman. Mr. Croker, after looking upon
this suppliant with becoming severity, said : 'Sir, in
whom would you place most confidence, the man who
suggested the nomination or the man from whom the
suggestion came?' 'Why,' replied the humble petition-
er, 'the man who really suggests the nomination would
probably secure the friendship of the man nominated.'
Mr. Croker said, 'You are quite right, sir ; good after-
noon.' (Laughter).

"The system of Tammany Hall, under the admin-
istration of Mr. Croker, is based upon the system sug-
gested by Mr. Croker himself, so that when committees
and conventions meet they simply record the will of
that gentleman. (Hisses). You heard the amusing
story just told before the convention that Mr. Croker
had yielded his powers to Sheehan, who would hence-
forth govern Tammany Hall. Sheehan, though sus-
tained by a number of delegates in that convention,
simply quailed before the glaring eye of Croker and
was powerless. He and the other leaders were simply
overcome and carried out the wishes of Crok-
er. (Hisses).

"I mention these facts merely because they are perti-
nent to what I have to say. This city is soon to be
governed under its new charter, and we should care-
fully consider whether or not it should be turned over
to a man like that. (Long hissing and cries of
"Never!") In fact, the Mayor and the Comptroller,
acting together, will hold in their hands for four years
the destiny of this City, so far as its credit and finan-
cial honor are concerned. Now, I think I know Henry
George (Long cheering), and I think I understand
myself. (Applause). I say here, in all sincerity, that

172 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

the personal ambitions of Mr. George and of myself
are utterly lost sight of in this campaign. (Long and
tumultuous cheering).

"When my friends in Tammany Hall speak of me as
a disgruntled candidate, let me say that the charge
passes by me as the idle wind. Nothing can be said
against me by these men that will provoke from me
a single retort. From this moment I appeal to Demo-
crats and good citizens everywhere to stand between
their City Government and Crokerism. (Applause).

"If the Labor vote of New York, shall help to place
Crokerism in power in the Greater New York, let me
say that, slaves as the laborers now are to the dis-
trict leaders, they will be doubly slaves then. (Long
cheering).

"There are hundreds of men in this hall to-night
who know I speak the truth (cheers) when I say that
on the surface railroads, laborers can get employment
only by bending the knee to the district leader. (Cries
of True, True!' 'That's so!') Place Crokerism in
power and you place a chain about the neck of the lab-
orer from which he cannot escape, if he should dare
to attempt to assert his independence and manhood.

"I appeal to you as American citizens to resist this
thralldom of Croker. Resist it in the interest of your
freedom and of your manhood and of the privilege to
earn your daily bread. (Tremendous applause and
cheering).

"Thomas Jefferson expressed the spirit of the revol-
utionists when he wrote the Declaration of Independ-
ence, and placed among the protests against the usurp-
ation of the King, that the King had altered the funda-
mental forms of our government. I want to ask you

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 173

if Crokerism is not seeking to alter the forms of our
government? Where will our liberties be if, in party
conventions, the voice of the citizen is stifled? Shall
it continue in the Greater New York as it has started
in the Democratic party — where one man can rise
in a convention and cast the votes of 2,000,000 people ?
What will become of the liberties of the people if that
is allowed to go on?

"It is for this that I appeal to you in the spirit of
patriotism and of civic pride. As you love your homes
and hope to enjoy liberty in this city, which is to be
great and splendid, will you not avoid the shame and
the sorrow of turning over this city to Crokerism or
anything like it (Long applause and cries of 'yes,
yes')."

"I take my stand in liberty. The great corporations
of this city are afraid of Croker. There are hundreds
of business men who fear Croker. In the hearts of
these corporations and of these men there is an under-
lying resistance and hate of Crokerism, but fear for-
bids them to speak out. Is it not a shame that in this
nineteenth century such a statement can be truly made ?
When so humble a man as myself takes this stand,
some of my friends shrug their shoulders, and say,
'Don't go into that terrible war against that terrible
man.'

"But I appeal to the people of my native city, and
say to men of all political faiths, that every particle
of my being, every fibre of my body, every motion of
my intellect, is devoted to what I regard as the holy
cause of the liberty of the individual in matters of
political rights." (Long applause).

Together Mr. George and my brother made a cam-

174 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

paign such as was not known before. They spoke night
after night to immense audiences, travelling from place
to place, all over Greater New York as rapidly as car-
riages or cars could take them. The newspapers were
filled with accounts of these wonderful meetings, and
the receptions given to my brother were, to quote from
language then used, ' 'fervid and tumultuous." The bat-
tle attracted the attention of the whole country. When
it was at its very height and the "Bosses" had begun
seriously to fear defeat there came to pass, a disaster,
which appalled the world ! On October 29th, scarcely
more than a week before election day, Henry George
died. The work and excitement of the campaign, had
proved too much for his weakened health and he yield-
ed a great life, on the altar of pure citizenship. I
wish that I had space to quote for your benefit, descrip-
tions of his funeral. The streets of the great city were
lined on both sides of the wTay for miles, with masses of
people, with men and women whose sad faces paid
tribute to the passing of a great soul. Mr. George
was gone, but the Demacracy of Thomas Jefferson re-
solved to go on, and my brother in a speech at this
time said,

"Our gathering to-night is under circumstances, such
as have rarely happened, in this or any other country.
In the midst of an earnest and important campaign, one
of our greatest and purest men has fallen with the
banner clasped in his hand. He was engaged in a con-
test for the rights of the people, as against the encroach-
ments of a modern aristocracy. When victory seemed
almost assured, and when only last night he was in
the field, cheering the hearts of his fellows, he was
stricken down. To-day he lies cold and still. Ad-

*1» A~-

LAURA ADAMS DAYTON.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 175

mired, revered, and honored wherever the light of civ-
ilization shines, the loftiest and the lowliest alike are
lifting up their voices to heaven in grief for his death
and in thanksgiving, that Henry George has lived.
And so we must not bow our heads and fold our hands,
but in answer to a voice from another world, set our
faces forward in the name of Henry George and for all
that he stood for. The ranks have closed again. If our
enemies are rejoicing in the death of our leader, let
them know, that they are to meet an army which knows
no fear, and falters not in disaster ; our banner has been
taken up again, and will be carried in the fore front
of battle."

The effect of Mr. George's death, could not be over-
come. The substitution of his son to head the
ticket, could not in the nature of things, answer the
requirements of the occasion. Henry George's place
could not be filled and so disintegration followed, Van
Wyck was elected and the cause was temporarily lost.

It is significant however, and a striking illustration
of my brother's strength before the people, that not-
withstanding the crushing blow, nearly forty thousand
voters cast their ballot for him, though each of these
voters knew he could not be elected ; but still gave him
their votes, to express their esteem for him, and the
principles he represented. Of course the "Bosses"
triumphed. The angel of death was their all powerful
ally, but when you of to-morow read the story, you will
find no defeat for your kinsman. You will be proud
of such courage and you will honor the man who en-
tered upon, and then remained in such a struggle.
You will realize what a prominent man may have sacri-
ficed in taking this stand against corruption and oppres-

176 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

sion, a fortune and high civic honors had he chosen
to stoop to the will of the temporary oppressor. How
this may have been I cannot say, but I do know that he
never complained, but went sturdily back to his profes-
sion. As I have said before I see no reason why /_, who
write this biography should be denied the privilege of
saying from the depths of a loving heart what I believe
the future is entitled to know from me, so in my
father's, my mother's and my own name, I am com-
pelled to add, that a more unselfish, devoted, helpful
son and brother, has never lived ; and who should know
this better than the only sister, who has always from
baby days, until now, held him as her ideal man. Some
day when he and the writer of these lines, shall have
passed on, others will add their quota, upon the white
pages left for the recording of the rest of his life's
story and we pause until then.

w^1 \

™+K

^^H^ mm

M\ ' I

wmL # t

' /

Nflf f

■< ^^W^

WILLIAM ADAMS DAYTON, M. D.
From photo, by Moreno, 1891.

ELIZABETH SMALLWOOD DAYTON and
WILLIAM ADAMS DAYTON, Jr.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 177

WILLIAM ADAMS DAYTON, M. D.

William Adams Dayton, second son of Abram
Child Dayton and Maria Annis Tomlinson was born in
New York City May 29th, 1858. He attended the
Public schools and received the degree of M. D., from
the Medical department of Columbia College, New
York, in 1880. On December 25th, 1880, he married
Emma Samson, eldest daughter of the Rev. George
Whitfield Samson, D. D., one of the most distinguished
classical scholars of the past century. Since 1885 my
brother has been recognized as a specialist in diseases
of the ear and throat. He has held positions of honor
and importance in connection with the clinics and hos-
pitals in New York city, where he has always practiced
his profession. His children are Elizabeth Smallwood
Dayton, born January nth, 1882, and William Adams
Dayton, Jr., born December 14th, 1885. In 1890, Dr.
and Mrs. Dayton established their home at North
Tarrytown. Westchester county, New York, and here
the possibilities of home instruction have been carried
out amid the delights of rural environment.

178 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

HAROLD CHILD DAYTON.

Harold Child Dayton,, third son of Abram Child
Dayton and Maria Annis Tomlinson, was born in New
York City, February 18th, 1861. He attended the
Public Schools and determined to adopt a commercial
life. In 1884 he went to Burlington, Iowa, to take
charge of a grain Elevator property and in June, 1888,
married Margaret E., daughter of William F. Hayden
of Burlington, Iowa. At the end of six years my
brother returned to the city of his birth and established
himself in the railway supply business with a large
house, and in the course of one and a half years out-
grew his position, and went into business for himself.
He has one living child, Hayden Child Dayton, born
in New York city, August 12th, 1894. My brother re-
sides at Nyack, New York. He is a member of the
benevolent and Protective order of Elks; F. & A. M.
Lodge of Nyack; Tappan-Zee yacht club, Nyack
rowing club, and the Sagamore. In Politics he is a
Democrat.

THE FESSENDEN CHILDREN AND THEIR MOTHER.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 179

LAURA CANFIELD SPENCER DAYTON
FESSENDEN.

No one has offered to write my autobiography ; and
I am faced with the pleasing alternative of doing it
myself, or keeping out of the list of father's and moth-
er's children. It does not in the least matter where I
come in. A woman's age, is not at all an interesting
topic with her, and so it will suffice that I was born
after the oldest, and some time before the youngest
child of my parents. I was born in old New York on the
29th of a certain December, and my memories ot child-
hood are full to overflowing of peace and happiness;
whatever shadows may have darkened the sky of father
and mother we children dwelt in perpetual sunlight ;
whatever deprivations our elders sustained, we children
had enough of the good things of life and to spare.
Thus I passed from childhood into girlhood, and en-
tered St. Mary's Hall, Burlington, New Jersey. Soon
after leaving school my mother's eldest sister, Mrs.
Harvey N. Weed, who had always been very dear to
me, persuaded my mother to let me spend most of my
time with her, and as she was fond of travel, I had
several years of wandering hither and yon. In 1880 I
married Benjamin Arthur Fessenden, of Boston, Mas-
sachusetts, and we made our first home in Manitou, Col-
orado. There our oldest child, Aymar, was born.
In 1883 we removed to Chicago, and our home is in the
suburb of Highland Park, on Lake Michigan. Real-
izing with Mrs. Browning, that all the birds will sing,
I have never felt impelled to quench the spark of lit-
erary impulse that longs to express itself ; not so much

180 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

that any may hear, as to have the personal joy of writ-
ing, so I have written some books that have been pub-
lished, and some songs that have been sung. I belong
to some women's clubs and have been regent of the
North Shore Chapter of the Daughters of the Ameri-
can Revolution, and am one of the Charter members of
the Chicago chapter D. A. R. The children are Alice,
Dorothy, Aymar and Ben.

ALICE HYDE FESSENDEN.
From photo 1901.

DOROTHY DAYTON FESSENDEN.
From photo 1901.

AY MAR CHILD FESSENDEN.
From photo 1901.

BENJAMIN HURD FESSENDEN.
From photo 1894.

ALICE, DOROTHY AND BEN FESSENDEN.
From photo 1901.

LAURA AUGUSTA (NEWMAN) DAYTON.
From Photo 1877.

LAURA AUGUSTA (NEWMAN) DAYTON.
From Photo 1901.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 181

LAURA AUGUSTA (NEWMAN) DAYTON.

Laura Augusta Dayton, was born in New York
City. Her father, John B. Newman, received
his diploma as Doctor of Medicine from the New York
University in 1843. A brilliant mind was placed in a
frail body, and unable to live and practice his profession
in his native city, Doctor Newman accepted the Presi-
dency of the Woman's College at Harrodsburg, Ken-
tucky. There he remained until his political views on
the Slavery question, made the place so obnoxious to
him that in spite of much urging, he came north and
for the remainder of his short life devoted himself
to Literature. He published several volumes and his
work on Botany attracted special attention.

My sister-in-law is a member of the Daughters of the
Revolution and of the Woman's New England Society :
(On her mother's side through her Webb ancestry in
Connecticut.) She was a very beautiful girl, and she
is now a handsome, forceful, representative, gentle-
woman. "Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also praiseth her."

182 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

BENJAMIN ARTHUR FESSENDEN.

Benjamin Arthur Fessenden, son of Charles
Bucknam Fessenden of Boston, and Susan Elizabeth
(Skinner) Fessenden, of Charlestown, was born in
Boston, August 2nd, 1848. He was for six years a
pupil at Frank Sanborn's and the Public school in Con-
cord, Mass. Here an ideal boyhood was passed; he
tramped through the woods with Henry Thoreau, had
private theatricals at the Alcott's, slid down the mossy
roof of the Old Manse, played with the Hawthorne
children, and was a visitor at the Emerson home.

Here he saw John Brown, and here too he watched
the old Concord regiment start for the war. A regi-
ment lineally descended from those "embattled Farm-
ers" who in the dawn time of our American Revolu-
tion "had fired the shot" that was "heard round the
world." During the Civil war the Fessenden family
removed from Boston to New York City, buying a
home on 38th street, just west of Fifth avenue. He
entered the College of the City of New York, but in
the second year was forced by ill health, to give up
study. He then went to sea, making a trip twice
around the world in one of his father's ships. Shortly
after returning to New York he decided to go West
and after some cowboy experience entered the em-
ploy of the Kansas and Missouri R. R. He was
afterwards associated with the Chicago and Alton
and the C. B. & Q. and Texas & Pacific. In
1880 he took a position as Assistant Manager in the
lumber interests of Doctor W. A. Bell of Manitou, Col-
orado, where, he met the author and whom he

BENJAMIN A. FESSENDEN.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 183

subsequently married March i, 1881 ; and in
1882 he came to Chicago and soon after es-
tablished himself as a Real Estate Negotiator. He
was partner and then successor to the late H. C. Morey,
one of the oldest and most prominent Real Estate men
of Chicago. My husband is a member of the Union
League Club, the New England Society, the Real Es-
tate Board and the Sons of the American Revolution.
His family both on his father's and mother's side hav-
ing been prominently representative people since early
colonial days in the state of Massachusetts. Need it
be added that he is a Republican.

CHILD.

Innumerable books on the Child family have been
written so that it is not my intention to go into detail
but simply to trace our line down to the present and
we will begin with.

(1) William Le Childe,

Who was living at Northwich, England, in 1300.

(2) William Le Childe,
Northwich, 1350.

(3) Thomas Le Childe,

Who was a freeman in 1389 and whose name will
be found in the History of Worcestershire.

(4) Thomas Le Childe,
of Worcestershire, 1426.

184 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

(5) William Le Childe,
son of Thomas (4).

(6) Henry Le Childe.

(7) Edward Le Childe,

Son of Henry (6) who was High Sheriff of Worces-
ter, in 1426. In 1585 he married Annie Hanks,
a daughter of Thomas Hanks. This strain would
seem to connect us with that of President Abra-
ham Lincoln, whose mother was Nancy or Anne Hanks.

(8) William Le Childe,

Son of Edward (7) was also High Sheriff of Wor-
cester. He married a daughter of Jeffery and they had

(9) William Le Childe,

Of Northwich, and who was a Justice of the Peace.
He married Elizabeth, a daughter of Sir William Bab-
bington (Knight.) This William Childe was private
Secretary to Lord Burleigh the Prime Minister to
Queen Elizabeth. He lived to be Eighty years old.
dying on the 9th of December, 1633.

(10) William Child,

Son of William (9) lived in Northwich. He was a
justice of Peace and married a daughter of Thomas
Coventry whose name was Kathrine, and whose home
was Combe Dalbot in the County of Worcester.

(11) Thomas Child,

Son of William (10) was a justice of Peace in 1660.
He married Anne Mary a daughter of Sir Robert
Jenkinson of Walcott County, Oxford. Sir Roberc
was a Baronet and is the ancestor of the Earls of Liver-
pool. Mr. Child died February the nth, 1659.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 185

(12) Robert Child,

Son of Thomas (n) went to London and settled in
the Parish of St. Clementu Danes, before his father's
death in 1655. He was a cloth merchant. He married
in 1640 Elizabeth a daughter of Francis Vasby of Bury
St. Edmonds, Suffolk. It would seem that it was
through this Francis Vasby that the name Francis
became so popular in our branch of the Child Family.

(13) Francis Child,

Son of Robert Child was born at Heddington in
1643, so that he was twelve or thirteen years old when
his father removed to London. In the March of 1656,
he was apprenticed to William Hall a goldsmith of
London and served him for eight years. When his
term of apprenticeship had expired he was received
into the Goldsmith's Fraternity. This was March
24th, 1664. A month later in the same year he was
made a freeman of London. On page 195 of the
Marriage book of the Vicar of Canterbury is this
entry "October 2nd, 1671. Francis Child a citizen
and Goldsmith of St. Clement Danes (28) and Eliza-
beth Wheeler spinster (21) ". This Elizabeth Wheel-
er was the direct ancestor of a long line of Goldsmiths.
John Wheeler, 1575. John, 1609. William 1643. Wil-
liam, 1663. When William Wheeler last named died
his widow the mother of Elizabeth married another
Goldsmith named Robert Blanchard and he was a very
good step-father to Elizabeth Wheeler and when she
married Francis Child he took his step-daughter's hus-
band into partnership. The firm of Blanchard and
Child gradually extended their business to the loaning
of money, and then to Banking, and in time they became

186 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

the founders of the famous house of Child and Company.
In 1 68 1 Robert Blanchard died, and Francis Child
became his sole heir and he then took John Rogers
a silversmith as a partner. On the 6th of January,
1681, Francis Child was elected a member of the Lon-
don Common Council from St. Dunston Farringdon
ward. In October of the same year he was Knighted
by William the III. He was elected High Sheriff of
London in September, 1690, and on September 29th,
1698, he was made Lord Mayor of London. The
inauguration was on the 29th of October and was an
occasion of unusual magnificence. A description of
this event was published by the Goldsmith's company.
It is profusely illustrated, and on the title page is the
following superscription. "Glorys Ressurection Being
the Triumph of London revived, for the Inauguration
of the Rt. Honorable Francis Child, Knight, Lord
Mayor of the City of London." This publication is
exceedingly rare. There is a copy owned by the Guild
Hall Library in London. Sir Francis Child in 1692
advanced to the Crown (with Sir J. Hearne and Sir
J. Evans) Fifty Thousand pounds. In 1650 he was
a member of the Honorable Artillery company. In
1694 Colonel of one of the city Train bands. He was
a member of Parliament for the city of London 1705,
1708 and 1 710. He was for several years President
of the board of Managers of Christ Church Hospital
and at his own expense he built in 1705 the ward over
the east cloister. One portrait of Sir Francis Child
hangs in the hall of Christ Church Hospital. One
taken in his robes of office as Lord Mayor and taken in
1699 hangs in the Library at Osterly Park. Sir Fran-
cis Child had a town house at Fullham, called East

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 187

End House. He purchased Osterly Park in 1711.
He died at Fullham on October 4th, 171 3 and Lady
Child died in 1720. They had twelve sons and two
daughters but most of them died in infancy or early
youth.

(14) Thomas Child,

Son of Francis Child (13) was born in 1678. In
1698 he married Elizabeth Rogers the daughter of
his father's partner. He decided to leave England
and make his home in the new world and shortly after
1700 he came with his wife and infant children to New
York city and "bought a considerable property". He
lived on Water street and when he died he left pro-
perty on Chatham near Pearl, and "a house and lot in
Brooklands (Brooklyn) near the ferry". He was a
member of the Dutch Reformed church and he had a
number of sons and daughters.

(15) Francis Child,

Son of Thomas Child (14) was born in London in
1699. On the first of January, 1719, he married Cor-
nelia Vele a daughter of Garret and Cathrine (Van
Dusen) Vele. Mr. Child owned property on Fresh
Water Hill (now Chatham street). In 1736 he was
admitted a freeman. He does not appear to have been
a successful man. He made many business ventures
and died intestate in 1750 leaving a widow and eight
children.

(16) Francis Child,

Son of Francis Child (15) was baptised in the

Dutch Church July 29th, 1 724. He married Kathrine

Tomlinson a daughter of John Tomlinson. He left
one son.

188 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

(17) Francis Child.

Son of Francis Child (16) was born in 1749. In
1785 he founded and edited The Daily Advertiser.
He married Jane Delano the daughter of Abram De-
lano. Mr. Child resided on Water street in winter
and had a country place at Tarrytown on the Hudson.
He had also property on Chatham street. He died in
1808.

(18) Abram Delano Child,

Son of Francis Child was born in 1772. He was
a tin merchant at 10 Water street and was in Partner-
ship with a relative John Bruce. In 1792 he married
Francis Moffitt, a daughter of John Moffitt and Char-
lotte (Aymar) Moffitt of New York city. He was
an elder in the old Dutch church and was beloved and
honored by all who knew him. He died a rich man
and left a widow and the following children.

Francis who married Abbie James of

Virginia.

Charlotte who married Noah Pike of

New York.

Eliza Delano who married Samuel Montmorenci
Freeman of New Orleans, La.

Jane Raveau who married Charles Willoughby Day-
ton of New York.

Amelia who married a Mr. White of Phil-
adelphia.

(19) Jane Raveau Child.

Daughter of Abram Child (18) was born in New
York city. She married Charles W. Dayton of New

ABRAM DELANO CHILD.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 189

York and was the mother of our father Abram Child
Dayton. I have a mourning pendant resembling a
small open faced watch. It is of dull gold set with bril-
liantly polished black onyx. On a golden line between
the first and second rows is this inscription "Jane Day-
ton, Obit 14th January, 1829, aged 33 years two months
and 27 days. This grandmother had been so long
an invalid, that her son (our father) had no re-
membrance of her save as bolstered up among her pil-
lows and in a shaded room. He used to say that he
had no recollection of her face but if he shut his eyes
he could always see her small, beautiful hands stretched
out to him, and he seemed to hear again her sweet voice.

(20) Abram Child Dayton.

(21) Charles Willoughby Dayton.
Laura Dayton Fessenden.
William Adams Dayton.
Harold Child Dayton.

(22) Charles Willoughby Dayton, Jr.
Aymar Child Fessenden.
Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton.
John Newman Dayton.

Alice Hyde Fessenden.
Laura Adams Dayton.
William Adams Dayton, Jr.
Ben Hurd Fessenden.
Dorothy Dayton Fessenden.
Haydon Child Dayton.

190 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

ELIZA DELANO CHILD.

Eliza Delano Child although not a direct ancestor
was the daughter of Abram Child and Fannie Moffitt
Child, and is our great aunt. Her first husband was
Thomas Van Cortland Parcells being on his maternal
side related to the Van Cortlands for whom the park
in New York city is named. There were two daugh-
ters by this marriage Francis Van Cortland, and Anne
Delano both of whom are dead. The second husband
of Eliza Delano Child Parcells was Samuel Montmor-
enci Freeman a gentleman from New Orleans, Louis-
iana. By this marriage there were three daughters.
Edwin who died in infancy, Kathrine Aymar and
Charlotte Louise. Kathrine is Mrs. Roberts, and
Louise is Mrs. Whitehead.

Mrs. Whitehead has two sons and two daughters.
Mrs. Roberts has six children

Franklin Van Cortland Parcells.

Grace Von Braam.

Charles Henry Von Braam;

Owen Freeman.

Irving Bruce.

Thornton.

ELIZA DELANO (CHILD) FREEMAN.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 191

DELANO.

We go back to one Phillip de Lannay a French
Huguenot who was the son of Jean and Marie de la
Lanny who fled from France into Holland, where our
Phillip was born in 1602 (Leyden being his birth
place.) Phillip came to Bridgewater Massachusetts
and there married Mary Pontious of Duxbury.
This is another line that has been faithfully written up
and I shall merely give the connecting link and leave
blank pages for any who desire to trace out the links
which come down to Abram Delano of Tarrytown who
married Rachael Martling and whose daughter Jane
married Abram Child (18).

AYMAR,

Again we are confronted with books galore on the
Aymar story, so I will say in prelude that the Aymars
are an old and prominent French family with a strong
intermingling of English blood in which "a half
brothership to King John" is said to figure; this half
brother "is entombed in Westminster Abbey, and his
Tomb chronicles the fact that he was one of the found-
ers of Oxford College." Our American ancestor Jean
Aymar came to America in 1731 and settled in New
York city. He was an elder of the French church,
King, now Pine street, and he died in 1755. In his will
he mentions his children, John, David, James, Daniel,
Judith, Magdalen, Lucrice, Charlotte, Marie and Jean,

192 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

also his wife Francis Belon. I fancy that the Aymars
must have been West India merchants from the first,
for Walter Barret in his "Merchants of Old New York"
speaks on page 72 of Aymar and Company, in 1809,
and says they were doing an enormous business in the
West Indies. He says that W. B. Todd was in the
firm and Robert H. Stewart. Now, Mrs. John M.
Bruce (whom my father called "cousin") was a grand-
daughter of W. B. Todd, and I have always heard that
Robert Stewart who married Margaret Thebout, was a
cousin too. This leads me to think that Jean, or John
Aymar was a West India Merchant.

CHARLOTTE AYMAR.

Charlotte Aymar, daughter of. Jean Aymar and
Francis (Belon) Aymar was married in New York
city, October 27th, 1765, to John Mofrltt. From the
register of the French church I give a translation of the
entry of this marriage.

"To-day, October 27th, 1765, there has been hal-
lowed by a minister of God, the marriage ceremony of
John Mofntt and Charlotte Aymar. Also by Law has
this marriage been ratified, by His Honor the Lieu-
tenant Governor, on the 24th day of this same month.
The religious ceremony was held at the residence of
the gentleman grandfather Many. There were present
many young people, also the mother, brothers and
sisters of the bride, also the parents of the bride-groom
who signed the deed. The said ceremony occurred in
New York city this day, October 27th, 1765.

J. P. Tetard, Pastor."

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 193

I find that in 1756 Daniel Aymar, son of Jean Aymar
( 1 ) , married Anne Magdalen Many, and that in 1749
Madaline Aymar, a daughter of Jean had married
Francois Many. I think this "Gentleman grandfather"
referred to by the Reverend Mr. Tetard, must have
been the father-in-law of Daniel and Madaline Aymar,
and that he must have invited the fatherless young girl
to be married from his home.

( 1 ) Jean Aymar,

(2) Charlotte Aymar,

(3) Fannie Aymar Moffitt,

(4) Jane Raveau Child,

(5) Abram Child Dayton,

(6) Charles Willoughby Dayton,
Laura Dayton Fessenden,
William Adams Dayton,
Harold Child Dayton,

(7) Charles Willoughby Dayton, Jr.
Aymar Child Fessenden,
Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton,
John Newman Dayton,

Alice Hyde Fessenden,
Laura Adams Dayton,
Williams Adams Dayton, Jr.,
Ben Hurd Fessenden,
Dorothy Dayton Fessenden,
Haydon Child Dayton.

194 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

MOFFITT.

I know nothing at all of this line except that our
great, great grandmother, Charlotte Aymar was the
daughter of John Aymar and married John Moffitt of
New York city, and that they had two children, John
and Francis, for in his will John Moffitt mentions his
wife, Charlotte Aymar, his son and daughter, John and
Francis, his brother-in-law, John Aymar and his dear
friend Augustus Van Cortland.

FRANCIS AYMAR MOFFITT.

Francis Aymar Moffitt, or Fannie Aymar, as she
is always spoken of in our family, was married to
Abram Child, on the 12th of April, 1792. In the his-
tory of every family there are always those whose in-
dividuality and charm predominate above all the others
of their day and generation. Our great grand-
mother Child has come down to us as a precious legacy
as something rare, delicate and sweet, and yet with
all forceful and eminently independent. She was tiny
and dainty, and although she lived far beyond her three
score years and ten she never grew old, and she never
was feeble or ill. After her husband's death she gave
up her home on St. John's Park, and lived with her
children or as she was pleased to name it, "visited"
them, staying at each house in turn as long as she will-
ed, and then taking up her abode with another. Every
Sabbath morning under the plate of her son, her son-in-
law or favorite nephew (John Bruce) would be found
a ten dollar gold piece and no comment of any sort was

FANNIE AYMAR (MOFFITT) CHILD.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 195

permitted. As I have said she was an unusually gentle
little lady but this attitude did not prevent her having
an undaunted spirit as the following story shows:

When our father (Abram Child Dayton) came back
from his college days in Europe, he had a suite of bach-
elor apartments at the City hotel and one night about
nine o'clock he received this note from his grandmother.

"My Dear Grandson.

I am at your Aunt Charlotte's. I wish to go to John
Bruce's. Bring a coach for I wish to have my box
taken too.

Your grandmother, Fannie Aymar Child/'

Greatly puzzled, father hurried to his Aunt Char-
lotte's to find that relative (a dear good woman) liter-
ally bathed in tears, but she made the mystery deeper
by offering no explanation, so he went up to his grand-
mother's room and there sat the dear old lady on her
small horsehair brass studded trunk, her bonnet and
cloak on and her umbrella and band box beside her.
When they were safely out of the house and en route
for John Bruce's, she said very quietly. "I never per-
sonally approved of Noah (he was aunt Charlotte's
husband) but that is a matter of taste. Well, Abram,
to-night Noah read a chapter in the Bible, and made a
long prayer and we all went up stairs to bed. You
know, Abram, how fond I am of oysters. Well, after
I had put on my night cap and bed gown, I distinctly
realized that there were oysters roasting in the house,
and I went right down as I was and there if you will
believe me, Abram, in the dining room sat my daughter
and my son-in-law at supper ! That is all, Abram, and

196 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

we will now change the subject," but for all that she
never spent another night under poor aunt Charlotte's
roof, as long as she lived. When she had passed her
eightieth year, she laid her down to take her usual
nap, in seemingly perfect health. It was always her
custom to be roused half an hour before noon by her
maid, who brought her a small cup of black coffee to
take before she dressed for dinner (which was then
served at noon), and the maid found that in the midst
of sweet dreams Grandma Child had gone her way
into the great Unknown.

(i) John Moffitt,

(2) Fannie Aymar Child,

(3) Jane Child Dayton,

(4) Abram Child Dayton,

(5) Charles Willoughby Dayton,
Laura Dayton Fessenden,

William Adams Dayton,
Harold Child Dayton,
(6) Charles Willoughby Dayton, Jr.,
Aymar Child Fessenden,
Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton,
John Newman Dayton,
Alice Hyde Fessenden,
Laura Adams Dayton,
William Adams Dayton, Jr.,
Ben Hurd Fessenden,
Dorothy Dayton Fessenden,
Haydon Child Dayton.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 197

WILLOUCHBY.

I could sit me down and write delightful chapters
about this Willoughby link, but all my knowledge is
founded upon tradition, and so I leave the absolute
working out of this strand and all its unravelment to
some one else; my father told me that we could date
back to Robert Willoughby afterwards Lord Willough-
by d'Ersby, who was knighted in the battlefield of
Claverock, by King Edward the ist, in the December
of 1299. He said that we had a touch of Spanish blood,
through Mary Saline, one of the ladies in waiting upon
Queen Kathrine (Mary Saline married Richard
Bertie Lord Willoughby D'Ersby). There were
Willoughbys that came to New England in the early
Colonial days and undoubtedly they are our kindred;
but our father always insisted that his great grand-
father was the first of our line to come to America.
I have been fortunate in being able to have correspond-
ence with several people of advanced years related to
the Dayton family and from them all the story I am
about to relate is vouched for. They all saying that
they had heard in substance the same legend in their
childhood from very old people, who were witnesses
of the events. My father told me that his great grand-
father Willoughby, was an officer in the British army,
that he fought a duel and killed his antagonist. That
at this time duelling was severely punished, and that
because of his father's high official and social position,
he was enabled to escape. He was a widower with one
child, a daughter, scarcely more than a girl. She refused
to leave her father in his peril and made her way to

198 A GENEALOGICAL STORY.

America with him. Her name was Elizabeth and she
was called Pollie. Under assumed names they reached
the port of New Haven, Connecticut, only to find that
the story of their flight had arrived before them.
Through the help of Willoughby relatives, they found
a hiding place in a woodman's hut in a forest, close
to the village of Stratford, Connecticut. The noble
fugitive fell ill in his hiding place, and on hi? death
bed gave the hand of his daughter Elizabeth, in
marriage to Brewster Dayton. She had two children,
Elizabeth and Charles Willoughby, and died when the
latter was born.

In speaking of her, father used to quote Whittier's
lines :

"An exile from a far off land found refuge here and

rest,
And was of all the village maids the fairest and the

best.
She rests in quiet on the hill beneath the locusts' bloom,
She sleeps as sweetly and as still as though with pomp

entombed."

When Pollie (Willoughby) Dayton died, her two
little children were taken from their father's home, the
girl into the family of the village lawyer, the boy
(our grandfather) became a member of the family
of the Reverend Nathan Birdsey of Roanoke, Connecti-
cut. This fact is positive as it was told my father by
Miss Nabby Birdsey, a maiden sister of the Rev.
Nathan, who kept house for him. She (Miss Nabby)
lived to be an old, old woman, and our grandfather
felt the tenderest love and reverence for her. Until her
death he used to visit her at stated intervals and on

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 199

one of these occasions took his little son, our father,
to whom Miss Nabby told the story I have just related.
Our grandfather as I have stated in his story, lived
with Mr. Birdsey until he began his business life.

(i) Elizabeth Willoughby,

(2) Charles Willoughby Dayton,

(3) Abram Child Dayton,

(4) Charles Willoughby Dayton,
Laura Dayton Fessenden,
William Adams Dayton,
Harold Child Dayton.

(5) Charles Willoughby Dayton,
Aymar Child Fessenden,
Elizabeth Smallwood Dayton,
John Newman Dayton.
Alice Hyde Fessenden,
William Adams Dayton, Jr.,
Ben Hurd Fessenden,
Dorothy Dayton Fessenden,
Haydon Child Dayton.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 200

DE MORTON.

Through Robert de Morton, silk merchant, 1400,
whose daughter Joan married William de Deighton.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 201

DE DUFFIELD.

From Robert De Duffield, who was a silk merchant
in 1380 and whose daughter Isabel married John De
Deighton, we go back to Richard De Duffield who
was a freeman in 1293, William (2) 1211 William
(3) 1334 and (4) John 1354 all freemen and all silk-
merchants of York.

DAYTON AND TOML1NSON. 202

STAPLETON.

From Sir John Stapleton whose daughter Margaret
married John Copeleyand whose daughter Elizabeth
married Robert Deighton.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 203

VAN DUSEN.

Through, Kathrine VanDusen (Vele) whose
daughter, Kathrine married Francis Child.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 204

BELON.

Through Francois Belon, who married Jean Aymar.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 205

TOMLINSON.

Through John Tomlinson, whose daughter Kathrine
married Francis Child.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 206

REED.

From Johannah Reed wife of William Green, whose
daughter married William Deighton, in 1584.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 207

COPELEYAND.

Through John Copeleyand, whose daughter Eliza-
beth married Robert de Deighton in 1550.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 208

VELE.

From Garret Vele, whose daughter Cornelia married
Francis Child.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 209

ROGERS.

From John Rogers, whose daughter Elizabeth
married Thomas Child.

DAYTON AND TOML1NSON. 210

WHEELER.

From Elizabeth Wheeler who married Francis Child
in London, 1671.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 211

GREEN.

From Ralph Green, whose daughter Agnes married
William Deighton in 1584.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 212

POOL.

From Henry Pool of St. Martin's, London, whose
daughter Agnes married Ralph Dayton.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 213

VASBY.

From Francis Vasbv of Suffolk, whose dausrhter

&a

Elizabeth, married Thomas Child.

DAYTON AND TOML1NSON. 214

JENKINSON.

From Sir Robert Jenkinson, whose daughter Anne
Mary married Thomas Child.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 215

COVENTRY.

From Thomas Coventry, whose daughter Kathrine
married William Child (see date in Child record.)

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 216

BABBINCTON

From Sir William Babbington, whose daughter mar-
ried William Child during Queen Elizabeth's reign.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 217

HANKS.

From Thomas Hanks, whose daughter Anne mar-

ied Edward Child in 1566.

DAYTON AND TOML1NSON. 218

BREWSTER.

From Sarah Brewster, daughter of Daniel Brewster
of Brookhaven, Connecticut, who married Samuel Day-
ton early in 1700.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 219

WOODRUFF.

From John Woodruff of Southhampton, Long Is-
land, whose daughter Elizabeth married Robert Dayton
in 1652.

DAYTON AND TOMLINSON. 220

Blank pages for other lines or for the setting down
of incidents of historical or family interest or for the
inserting of printed Biographical notices of now living
members of the family or for personal autobiography.

3 9999 06439 672 2