| Notes |
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From ROSTER OF REVOLUTIONARY ANCESTORS, p. 121:
Clark, Benjamin, b. 1747, Tolland, Conn., died 9 aug., 1834, Ulster Pa., m. 1769, (1) Nabbe (Abigail) Clark, b. 1753, d. 12 March 1777, (2) Mrs. Silas Gore (Keziah Y.) of Ulster, Pa. SERVICE: Enlisted at Wyoming, PA, 6 Sept. 1776 and served as pvt. in Capt. Robert Durkee's Independent Co. In Sept. 1777, the company was attached to Col. John Durkee's Conn. Reg. In Feb. 1778, he was Corp in same Co. then commaned by Capt. Simon Spalding in same regt. In summer of 1779, the Co. was attached to Col. Hubley's Expedition against the Indians, and in Feb. or March, 1781, the co. was restored to Col. John Durkee's Conn. Regt. and he later served in Cols. Thomas Grosvenor and Zebulon Butler's Conn. Regt. and was discharged 7 June 1783. CHILDREN: John Theophilus Clark, b. 8 July 1770, m. Cynthia Campbell; Polly (Mary) Clark, b. 3 March 1774; m. ? Blanchard; Sally and Milly CLark, b. 5-3-1777. Above children are from first marriage to Nabbe Clark. Lucinda Clark, m. Nathaniel Hovey; Ursula Clark, m. Samuel Treadway; William, m. Sylvia Niles, daugh of Ezra; Julia Ann, m. John Overton (1 mar.) Niles Passmore (2 mar.). Last 4 children are of Benjamin Clark and Keziah Yarrington.
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From the Baker Family Tree, Chapter 17, The Clarke Family:
http://bakerfamilytree.blogspot.com/2008/02/chapter-17-clarke-family_27.html
Retreived Jan. 15, 2011
THE FIFTH GENERATION: Benjamin Clark (1750-1834)
Benjamin did not remember his father; his father had died when he was only five years old. When Benjamin was twelve years old his mother remarried a Mr. Walden but Mr. Walden died suddenly after less than four years of marriage. His mother again remarried less than a year following her second husband’s death and this time she moved with her new husband to Norwick, Connecticut leaving behind Benjamin and his brothers in Ashford. Benjamin, then seventeen, went to work and live at his uncle Theophilus’ tavern on Ashford Green in the village of Ashford. Benjamin Clark met his future wife “Nabbe” from the nearby community of Tolland, shortly before his nineteenth birthday. When they married in early 1769 Nabbe was only sixteen and Benjamin had just turned nineteen. [“Nabbe” and Benjamin are our daughter-in-law’s 6th great grandparents. Unfortunately, we know little about the background of Nabbe. It is believed that her proper name was Abigail but her surname is not known. A number of sources give her name as Abigail Hunt which would be very exciting because Abigail Hunt’s great-great grandfather, Thomas Loring, was the sister of Welthean Loring who is our son’s 11th great grandmother. This, if it were true, would mean that our son and his wife, our daughter-in-law, share common ancestors, the parents of Thomas and Welthean Loring. It is also exciting because Abigail Hunt is a descendant of a Mayflower passenger. As is often the case, information found on Ancestry.com is often bogus and after some research I believe that it is unlikely that it was Abigail Hunt who married Benjamin Clark. For one thing she was born and died in a town in Massachusetts that is not located anywhere near where Benjamin lived. Furthermore, the date of her death does not match the known date of Nabbe’s death. New note added December, 2008: Based on reasearch provided by Paula Hart, a distant cousin of my daughter-in-law's and a Clark descendant, she determined that Abigail Hart actually married a cousin of Benjamin Clark's who also was named Benjamin Clark. Their fathers were brothers. This helps explain why some of the genealogists using Ancestry.com confused the names.
In Chapter 8 of our family’s history we write about two of our ancestor families, the Hammonds and the Tubbs. Both families relocated in the early 1770s from New London, Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley (along the Susquehanna River near the present day city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania). The background for this move to the Wyoming Valley was described as follows: “In 1753, an association was formed in Connecticut, called the Susquehanna (Land) Company, the object of which was to plant a colony in the Wyoming Valley, a region claimed by Connecticut by virtue of an ancient but somewhat questionable Charter granted to it by the English Crown in the 1600s. . . In February 1769, the Susquehanna Company finally sent its first group of forty Connecticut settlers into the Wyoming Valley. They were followed in the spring of 1769 by another two hundred families . . . .” [More information about this new colony and its history in the Revolutionary War is described in Chapter 8]. The tempting offer of inexpensive and fertile farm land was enough to entice not only my ancestors, the Hammond and Tubbs families, to relocate but also Benjamin and his brother Samuel and their families, who in early 1770 made the long overland trip to this new community in the Wyoming Valley. Despite the fact that hundreds of Connecticut Yankees moved to this new community in northeastern Pennsylvania over the next four or five years, it is likely that the Clarks (our daughter-in-law’s ancestors) and the Hammonds and Tubbs (our son’s ancestors) were neighbors and well acquainted. In fact, in August of 1776 both Benjamin Clark and Samuel Tubbs enlisted together as privates in the Wyoming Company that was formed to join forces with the army of George Washington. Their Company marched to New Jersey and joined with Washington’s Continental Army on January 1, 1777. Nabbe was pregnant when Benjamin left with his regiment.
Benjamin and Nabbe Clark’s first son, John Theophilus Clark, was born on July 8, 1770 in their newly built two room log home constructed shortly after their arrival in the Wyoming Valley. In 1772, a second child, a daughter, was born to the couple and in 1774 the couple was blessed with a third child. On March 5, 1777, Nabbe gave birth to twin daughters, however the births of the twins did not go well, and her new babies died. The complications from the births were too much for Nabbe. Her husband was away at the war when she finally surrendered her life on March 12, 1777. She was just 24 years old. Benjamin was devastated when he learned a month later of his young wife’s death.
Benjamin Clark and the Connecticut Regiment from the Wyoming Valley played a very active role in the Revolutionary War. In 1777, they were engaged in actions at Milstone River and Bound Brook in New Jersey [home of another Revolutionary War patriot, our ancestor, Peter Harpending] and in battles at Brandywine and Germantown, before joining Washington’s army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78. In the spring of 1778, some of their regiment having heard rumors of a threatened attack upon their community in the Wyoming Valley, returned home to assist in the protection of their homes. Benjamin however, elected to stay with the Continental Army and was not present at the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778. [See Chapter 8 for more details]. In June of 1778, Benjamin’s regiment was engaged in the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey. Shortly after the battle his troops were ordered to return to Wyoming however they failed to arrive before the Indian attack and the massacre of so many of their friends. Benjamin was discharged from duty on July 5, 1778. In the summer of 1779, Benjamin joined Sullivan’s expedition against the western Indians which took him as far north as Seneca Lake in Central New York. Further military records indicate that Benjamin served in the army from March 1781 through June 1783. In 1818 at the age of sixty-nine years old, Benjamin Clark then residing in the Township of Ulster in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, applied for and was awarded a pension for his service in the Revolutionary War. In his application for the pension he noted that his discharge papers from the military were lost in February 1793 when “his home was consumed by fire together with all his effects . . “ [Chapter 9 describes Peter Harpending’s involvement in the Battle of Monmouth, Chapter 12 has a section describing the Sullivan Expedition, and Chapter 15 outlines many of our ancestors who fought alongside Benjamin Clark in the American War for Independence. If only we could go back in time to see how often the Clark family and our family crossed paths in the course of our country’s early history. It would be a fascinating adventure.]
Somehow, between the time he was discharged in July of 1778 and the time he re-enlisted in the summer of 1779, Benjamin Clarke managed to get remarried. His new wife was 28 year old Keziah Yarrington. Keziah had lost her first husband, Silas Gore, the previous year at the Battle of Wyoming. Together they had four children born between the years 1781 and 1787. In the late 1780s, the Clark family including Benjamin’s brother and his family, moved north up the Susquehanna River to settle a new community in Ulster in present day Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Joining them was Benjamin’s oldest son, John Theophilus Clark, and John’s future bride, Cynthia Campbell. Benjamin lived to the ripe old age of 87 and he is buried alongside his second wife in Ulster. Their gravesite in Ulster is located about 67 miles south of our cottage on Seneca.
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- Westmoreland's Independent Companies
(Wyoming Independent Companies)
Authorized 23 August 1776 in the Continental Army as the 1st and 2d Independent Westmoreland Companies.
Organized 26 August-21 September 1776 in Westmoreland County, Connecticut, Captains Robert Durkee and Samuel Ransom commanding, and assigned to the Middle Department.
Relieved 12 December 1776 from the Middle Department and assigned to the Main Army.
Relieved 15 June 1778 from the Main Army and assigned to the Western Department. Consolidated 23 June 1778 and consolidated unit redesignated as the WyomingIndependent Company, Captain Simon Spaulding commanding.
.
Disbanded 1 January 1781 at Fort Wyoming, Connecticut.
Engagements
Northern New Jersey
Defense of Philadelphia
Philadelphia-Monmouth
Iroquois 1778
Iroquois 1779
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From https://revolutionarywar.us/continental-army/connecticut/
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From Ulster Township History (Tri-Counties site):
About the same time (if not together, from Wyoming) that Colonel Spalding and others went to Sheshequin in 1783 and 1784, settlers came into Ulster. Of these may be mentioned as one of the pioneers, Captain Benjamin Clark, who was among the very first to build a house on the "town-plot," of Wilkes-Barre, having emigrated from Tolland County, Connecticut. He was a Corporal in the First Independent Company of Wyoming, under Captain Robert Darkee, and served seven years in the Revolutionary war. In the battle of Mud Fort, the man in front of him had his head shot off by a cannon ball. He was one of the detachment sent for the relief of the citizens of Wilkes-Barre, and was only a day too late--to save the inhabitants from the fate of the tomahawk, and the fiendish tortures of the red men. He was in the army of General Sullivan, which devastated the Indian country in 1779. In connection with General Sullivan’s expedition, Mr. Clark gave the following among his recollections: "At the battle of Newtown, (near where Elmira now is) after the engagement had actively opened, and the Indians were being hard pressed, they knocked down a cow which they had in their possession, cut her up in pieces without skinning her, then took to their heels and made their escape. This they would not have accomplished had General Poore completed his circuit in closing the circle surrounding them. However, the Indians were easily tracked, from the blood which dropped from the cow’s flesh. They were very wrathful at their defeat, and to express it they withed together young hickories."
Mr. Clark received for his services a pension of $96 per year. Subsequently he was appointed captain of militia, and was known by the old settlers as "Captain Clark." After peace, Captain Clark remained in Wyoming one year. In the spring of 1784 he moved to the place now called Frenchtown, (Bradford County) and in the year after came up to Ulster, built a log house on the bank of the river on what is known as the "Watkins place," and moved his family into it in the spring of 1785. It will be remembered that an unusually severe rain fell in October, 1786, causing an unusual rise in the river, called the "pumpkin freshet," from the large quantity of that vegetable that floated down the river. Captain Clark’s house stood on the low flat near the river. The water began to rise rapidly, the family became alarmed and fled to the hills and Mr. Clark commenced moving his goods from the house; and so rapidly did the water rise that across a low place between his house and the hillside, where was dry ground when he went for his last load of goods, he was compelled to swim his oxen on the return. The water came up to the eaves of the house, but the building resisted the force of the current, and after the flood subsided the family moved back into it.
The winter before the great ice freshet (1784) Mr. Clark was at Sheshequin, and in company with Sergeant Thomas Baldwin, went down to Wilkes-Barre in a canoe. There had been a thaw accompanied with rain, and the river was bank full when the weather became suddenly cold. It was with great effort, the two men could keep from freezing. The reached Wilkes-Barre that same day, but so intensely cold had the weather become that, high as the river was, it froze over that night.
Like other Connecticut settlers, Captain Clark took up his farm in Ulster under the Connecticut title, but this proving worthless, he purchased the State title through Thomas Overton. Mr. Clark occupied what is now known as the "Watkins place" until 1816, when he moved to other lands of his, now included in the farm of Benjamin Ross. Here in 1817, he erected a frame dwelling which is yet standing; and our esteemed friend, Rev. S. C. Hovey, a grandson of Mr. Clark, who kindly pointed out the old land-marks for us--rode the horse when a boy nine years old that was hitched in front of the ox-team that drew the logs to the mill for this building. here Mr. Clark lived until the time of his death, which occurred in August, 1834, at the age of eighty-seven years.
Captain Clark was an ardent Federalist and a member of the Methodist church. His house was a place of entertainment for travelers, and the home of the Methodist itinerant for many years, and in it the first preaching was held in Sheshequin. Here in 1810 the preaching of Rev. Loring Grant, H. B. Bascom, late Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was converted and received into the Church. It may be said that Mr. Clark kept the first hotel in Ulster.
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From message-board posting on Ancestry.com
( https://www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/thread.aspx?m=932&p=surnames.clark&dc=25 )
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Their children were Lucinda, Ursula, William and Julia Ann.
Lucinda married Nathaniel Hovey and stayed in Luzerne/Bradford Co.
Ursula was born 10 Jun 1781. She married Samuel Treadway. She died 4 Oct 1845 in Denison Twp, Lawrence Co., Ill.
Julia Ann (?-?) married (1) John Overton & (2) Joseph Passmore, his second marriage. They moved to Lawrence Co with their combined children.
William Clark was born 5 Sep 1789. He married Sylvia Niles 6 May 1810. William moved to Lawrence Co, about 1818.
Children were:
Charles Wesley b. 26 Jun 1811 mar. Mary Neal
Fidelia (twin) b. 13 Dec 1813 mar. John Lukin
Croelia(?Celia) (twin) b. 13 Dec 1813
William Asbury b. 20 Apr 1816 mar. Mrs. Mary Ann French
Sylvia Ann b. 6 Aug 1818 mar. (1) Chauncy P. Durkee (2)--Simons
Keziah b. 6 Sep 1820 mar. Charles Passmore
Hester Ann b. 12 Apr 1823 mar. ?William Mieure
Mary b. 15 Nov 1825
Margaret Curry b. 17 Feb 1828 mar. ?James s. Barbee
Benjamin H.C. b. 8 Oct 1830 mar. ? Martha M. -----
John Fletcher b. 9 Feb 1833 mar. Margaret McMahan (this is my line)
Emily J. b. 6 Jul 1835 mar. (1)William True (2)Joseph H. Bertrand
Sylvia Niles Clark died after 1850. Benjamin married 27 August 1853, Jane (Adams) Lemmons. He died after 1770 and before 1879. Jane died 3 Mar 1879, a widow at that time.
Lemmons is spelled Lemmon, Limon, Lyman, etc. Not sure what the spelling was meant to be of Janes first husband Samuel.
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From ROSTER OF REVOLUTIONARY ANCESTORS, p. 121:
Clark, Benjamin, b. 1747, Tolland, Conn., died 9 aug., 1834, Ulster Pa., m. 1769, (1) Nabbe (Abigail) Clark, b. 1753, d. 12 March 1777, (2) Mrs. Silas Gore (Keziah Y.) of Ulster, Pa. SERVICE: Enlisted at Wyoming, PA, 6 Sept. 1776 and served as pvt. in Capt. Robert Durkee's Independent Co. In Sept. 1777, the company was attached to Col. John Durkee's Conn. Reg. In Feb. 1778, he was Corp in same Co. then commaned by Capt. Simon Spalding in same regt. In summer of 1779, the Co. was attached to Col. Hubley's Expedition against the Indians, and in Feb. or March, 1781, the co. was restored to Col. John Durkee's Conn. Regt. and he later served in Cols. Thomas Grosvenor and Zebulon Butler's Conn. Regt. and was discharged 7 June 1783. CHILDREN: John Theophilus Clark, b. 8 July 1770, m. Cynthia Campbell; Polly (Mary) Clark, b. 3 March 1774; m. ? Blanchard; Sally and Milly CLark, b. 5-3-1777. Above children are from first marriage to Nabbe Clark. Lucinda Clark, m. Nathaniel Hovey; Ursula Clark, m. Samuel Treadway; William, m. Sylvia Niles, daugh of Ezra; Julia Ann, m. John Overton (1 mar.) Niles Passmore (2 mar.). Last 4 children are of Benjamin Clark and Keziah Yarrington.
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- From Bradford Reporter, October 18, 1883
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Captain [Benjamin] Clark was twice married. In the Westmoreland town records are the following entries: Births of the children of Benjamin Clark and Nabbie his wife, John Theophilus, born July 8, 1770; Poly, born February 24, 1772; Nabby, born March 3, 1774; Sally and Milly (twins) born March 5, 1777, Nabbie, wife of Benjamin Clark departed this life March 12, 1777, in the twenty-fourth year of her age.
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Bradford Reporter, Towanda, Pa.,
October 18, 1883, ULSTER TOWNSHIP
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What is now Ulster township was originally a part of Sheshequin, but the latter town was soon of such importance that it was deemed best for Ulster to separate which it early did. It was settled about 1784, and among the settlers of early date may be mentioned Captain Benjamin Clark, Nathaniel Hovey, Adrial Simons, Solomon Tracy, Eli Holcomb, Isaac Cash, Abram Parmeter, Chester Bingham, Thomas Overton, Elijah Granger, Leonard Westbrook, and Joseph C. Powell. Nearly all of these men, if not all have descendants now living in Bradford County.
Among the descendants of settlers of "ye olden time" are S. C. Hovey, a descendant of Benjamin Clarke, the third settler at Ulster, who came with General Sullivan in his famous march.
About the same time (if not together, from Wyoming) that Colonel Spalding and others went to Sheshequin in 1783 and 1784, settlers came into Ulster. Of these may be mentioned as one of the pioneers, Captain Benjamin Clark, who was among the very first to build a house on the "town-plot," of Wilkes-Barre, having emigrated from Tolland County, Connecticut. He was a Corporal in the First Independent Company of Wyoming, under Captain Robert Darkee, and served seven years in the Revolutionary war. In the battle of Mud Fort, the man in front of him had his head shot off by a cannon ball. He was one of the detachment sent for the relief of the citizens of Wilkes-Barre, and was only a day too late--to save the inhabitants from the fate of the tomahawk, and the fiendish tortures of the red men. He was in the army of General Sullivan, which devastated the Indian country in 1779. In connection with General Sullivan’s expedition, Mr. Clark gave the following among his recollections: "At the battle of Newtown, (near where Elmira now is) after the engagement had actively opened, and the Indians were being hard pressed, they knocked down a cow which they had in their possession, cut her up in pieces without skinning her, then took to their heels and made their escape. This they would not have accomplished had General Poore completed his circuit in closing the circle surrounding them. However, the Indians were easily tracked, from the blood which dropped from the cow’s flesh. They were very wrathful at their defeat, and to express it they withed together young hickories."
Mr. Clark received for his services a pension of $96 per year. Subsequently he was appointed captain of militia, and was known by the old settlers as "Captain Clark." After peace, Captain Clark remained in Wyoming one year. In the spring of 1784 he moved to the place now called Frenchtown, (Bradford County) and in the year after came up to Ulster, built a log house on the bank of the river on what is known as the "Watkins place," and moved his family into it in the spring of 1785. It will be remembered that an unusually severe rain fell in October, 1786, causing an unusual rise in the river, called the "pumpkin freshet," from the large quantity of that vegetable that floated down the river. Captain Clark’s house stood on the low flat near the river. The water began to rise rapidly, the family became alarmed and fled to the hills and Mr. Clark commenced moving his goods from the house; and so rapidly did the water rise that across a low place between his house and the hillside, where was dry ground when he went for his last load of goods, he was compelled to swim his oxen on the return. The water came up to the eaves of the house, but the building resisted the force of the current, and after the flood subsided the family moved back into it.
The winter before the great ice freshet (1784) Mr. Clark was at Sheshequin, and in company with Sergeant Thomas Baldwin, went down to Wilkes-Barre in a canoe. There had been a thaw accompanied with rain, and the river was bank full when the weather became suddenly cold. It was with great effort, the two men could keep from freezing. The reached Wilkes-Barre that same day, but so intensely cold had the weather become that, high as the river was, it froze over that night.
Like other Connecticut settlers, Captain Clark took up his farm in Ulster under the Connecticut title, but this proving worthless, he purchased the State title through Thomas Overton. Mr. Clark occupied what is now known as the "Watkins place" until 1816, when he moved to other lands of his, now included in the farm of Benjamin Ross. Here in 1817, he erected a frame dwelling which is yet standing; and our esteemed friend, Rev. S. C. Hovey, a grandson of Mr. Clark, who kindly pointed out the old land-marks for us--rode the horse when a boy nine years old that was hitched in front of the ox-team that drew the logs to the mill for this building. here Mr. Clark lived until the time of his death, which occurred in August, 1834, at the age of eighty-seven years.
Captain Clark was an ardent Federalist and a member of the Methodist church. His house was a place of entertainment for travelers, and the home of the Methodist itinerant for many years, and in it the first preaching was held in Sheshequin. Here in 1810 the preaching of Rev. Loring Grant, H. B. Bascom, late Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was converted and received into the Church. It may be said that Mr. Clark kept the first hotel in Ulster. - **********************************************************
From the Baker Family Tree, Chapter 17, The Clarke Family:
http://bakerfamilytree.blogspot.com/2008/02/chapter-17-clarke-family_27.html
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THE FIFTH GENERATION: Benjamin Clark (1750-1834)
Benjamin did not remember his father; his father had died when he was only five years old. When Benjamin was twelve years old his mother remarried a Mr. Walden but Mr. Walden died suddenly after less than four years of marriage. His mother again remarried less than a year following her second husband’s death and this time she moved with her new husband to Norwick, Connecticut leaving behind Benjamin and his brothers in Ashford. Benjamin, then seventeen, went to work and live at his uncle Theophilus’ tavern on Ashford Green in the village of Ashford. Benjamin Clark met his future wife “Nabbe” from the nearby community of Tolland, shortly before his nineteenth birthday. When they married in early 1769 Nabbe was only sixteen and Benjamin had just turned nineteen. [“Nabbe” and Benjamin are our daughter-in-law’s 6th great grandparents. Unfortunately, we know little about the background of Nabbe. It is believed that her proper name was Abigail but her surname is not known. A number of sources give her name as Abigail Hunt which would be very exciting because Abigail Hunt’s great-great grandfather, Thomas Loring, was the sister of Welthean Loring who is our son’s 11th great grandmother. This, if it were true, would mean that our son and his wife, our daughter-in-law, share common ancestors, the parents of Thomas and Welthean Loring. It is also exciting because Abigail Hunt is a descendant of a Mayflower passenger. As is often the case, information found on Ancestry.com is often bogus and after some research I believe that it is unlikely that it was Abigail Hunt who married Benjamin Clark. For one thing she was born and died in a town in Massachusetts that is not located anywhere near where Benjamin lived. Furthermore, the date of her death does not match the known date of Nabbe’s death. New note added December, 2008: Based on reasearch provided by Paula Hart, a distant cousin of my daughter-in-law's and a Clark descendant, she determined that Abigail Hart actually married a cousin of Benjamin Clark's who also was named Benjamin Clark. Their fathers were brothers. This helps explain why some of the genealogists using Ancestry.com confused the names.
In Chapter 8 of our family’s history we write about two of our ancestor families, the Hammonds and the Tubbs. Both families relocated in the early 1770s from New London, Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley (along the Susquehanna River near the present day city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania). The background for this move to the Wyoming Valley was described as follows: “In 1753, an association was formed in Connecticut, called the Susquehanna (Land) Company, the object of which was to plant a colony in the Wyoming Valley, a region claimed by Connecticut by virtue of an ancient but somewhat questionable Charter granted to it by the English Crown in the 1600s. . . In February 1769, the Susquehanna Company finally sent its first group of forty Connecticut settlers into the Wyoming Valley. They were followed in the spring of 1769 by another two hundred families . . . .” [More information about this new colony and its history in the Revolutionary War is described in Chapter 8]. The tempting offer of inexpensive and fertile farm land was enough to entice not only my ancestors, the Hammond and Tubbs families, to relocate but also Benjamin and his brother Samuel and their families, who in early 1770 made the long overland trip to this new community in the Wyoming Valley. Despite the fact that hundreds of Connecticut Yankees moved to this new community in northeastern Pennsylvania over the next four or five years, it is likely that the Clarks (our daughter-in-law’s ancestors) and the Hammonds and Tubbs (our son’s ancestors) were neighbors and well acquainted. In fact, in August of 1776 both Benjamin Clark and Samuel Tubbs enlisted together as privates in the Wyoming Company that was formed to join forces with the army of George Washington. Their Company marched to New Jersey and joined with Washington’s Continental Army on January 1, 1777. Nabbe was pregnant when Benjamin left with his regiment.
Benjamin and Nabbe Clark’s first son, John Theophilus Clark, was born on July 8, 1770 in their newly built two room log home constructed shortly after their arrival in the Wyoming Valley. In 1772, a second child, a daughter, was born to the couple and in 1774 the couple was blessed with a third child. On March 5, 1777, Nabbe gave birth to twin daughters, however the births of the twins did not go well, and her new babies died. The complications from the births were too much for Nabbe. Her husband was away at the war when she finally surrendered her life on March 12, 1777. She was just 24 years old. Benjamin was devastated when he learned a month later of his young wife’s death.
Benjamin Clark and the Connecticut Regiment from the Wyoming Valley played a very active role in the Revolutionary War. In 1777, they were engaged in actions at Milstone River and Bound Brook in New Jersey [home of another Revolutionary War patriot, our ancestor, Peter Harpending] and in battles at Brandywine and Germantown, before joining Washington’s army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78. In the spring of 1778, some of their regiment having heard rumors of a threatened attack upon their community in the Wyoming Valley, returned home to assist in the protection of their homes. Benjamin however, elected to stay with the Continental Army and was not present at the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778. [See Chapter 8 for more details]. In June of 1778, Benjamin’s regiment was engaged in the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey. Shortly after the battle his troops were ordered to return to Wyoming however they failed to arrive before the Indian attack and the massacre of so many of their friends. Benjamin was discharged from duty on July 5, 1778. In the summer of 1779, Benjamin joined Sullivan’s expedition against the western Indians which took him as far north as Seneca Lake in Central New York. Further military records indicate that Benjamin served in the army from March 1781 through June 1783. In 1818 at the age of sixty-nine years old, Benjamin Clark then residing in the Township of Ulster in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, applied for and was awarded a pension for his service in the Revolutionary War. In his application for the pension he noted that his discharge papers from the military were lost in February 1793 when “his home was consumed by fire together with all his effects . . “ [Chapter 9 describes Peter Harpending’s involvement in the Battle of Monmouth, Chapter 12 has a section describing the Sullivan Expedition, and Chapter 15 outlines many of our ancestors who fought alongside Benjamin Clark in the American War for Independence. If only we could go back in time to see how often the Clark family and our family crossed paths in the course of our country’s early history. It would be a fascinating adventure.]
Somehow, between the time he was discharged in July of 1778 and the time he re-enlisted in the summer of 1779, Benjamin Clarke managed to get remarried. His new wife was 28 year old Keziah Yarrington. Keziah had lost her first husband, Silas Gore, the previous year at the Battle of Wyoming. Together they had four children born between the years 1781 and 1787. In the late 1780s, the Clark family including Benjamin’s brother and his family, moved north up the Susquehanna River to settle a new community in Ulster in present day Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Joining them was Benjamin’s oldest son, John Theophilus Clark, and John’s future bride, Cynthia Campbell. Benjamin lived to the ripe old age of 87 and he is buried alongside his second wife in Ulster. Their gravesite in Ulster is located about 67 miles south of our cottage on Seneca.
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Born 1747 at Tolland Co., Connecticut, died aug 9, 1834 at Ulster, Bradford Co., Pennsylvania, 86 or 87 years, buried at Ulster Cemetery, Ulster, Bradford Co., Pennsylvania
Benjamin Clark, a native of Tolland, Connecticut, removed to the Wyoming Valley, and was among the very first to build a house on the town-plat of Wilkes-Barre. He was a corporal in the First Independent Company of Wyoming, under Capt. Robert Durkee, and served seven years in the Revolutionary War. He was one of the detachment sent for the relief of Wyoming after the fatal battle, and was in the army of General Sullivan against the Indians. For his services he received a pension of $96 per year. Subsequently, he was appointed a captain of militia, and was known by the older settlers as "Captain Clark." In 1784 he removed from Wyoming to Asylum, and the next year settled in Ulster on what is known as the Ross farm. His house was a place of entertainment for travelers and a home of the Methodist itinerant for many years, and in it the first preaching was held in "Old Sheshequin." Captain Clark was an ardent Federalist and a member of the Methodist church. He took an active interest in public affairs, and for years filled the most important local offices. He died at Ulster, August 9, 1834, aged 87 years.
Captain Clark was twice married. The Westmoreland town records contain the following: "Births of the children of Benjamin Clark and Nabbe, his wife--John Theophilus, born July 8, 1770; Polly, born March 3, 1774; Sally and Milly (twins), born March 5, 1777. Nabbe, wife of Benjamin Clark, departed this life, March 12, 1777, in the 24th year of her age." Their children selected partners as follows:
John T. married Cynthia, daughter of James Campbell, and settled in Burlington, where he died. They had 12 children who married as follows: Billings to Charlotte Nichols; James to Sally Simons; Cephas to Sally Wilcox; Benjamin died, aged 19, from being kicked by a horse; Sally to Timothy C. Wheeler; Betsey to Abraham Reeves; Ursula to Earl Nichols; Celestia to Harry L. Ross; Polly, first to Amos Alexander, second to Zepheniah Lane; Jane died unmarried; Cynthia to Eliphalet Gustin; Melissa to Mortimer Knapp.
Polly (Mary) married a Mr. Blanchard.
Nabby (Abigail) married George Culver and moved to the Lake country.
For his second wife, Captain Clark married Keziah Yarrington, widow of Silas Gore, who was slain at the battle of Wyoming. She died August 12, 1837, aged 91 years, and lies beside her husband in the Ulster cemetery. Their four children, who married as follows, were:
Lucinda, to Nathaniel Hovey, an officer in the War of 1812, who died at Sackett's Harbor in 1814.
Ursula, to Samuel Treadway and removed to Illinois.
William, to Sylvia, daughter of Ezra Niles and removed to Cairo, Illinois.
Julia Ann, first to John Overton, and after his death to a Mr. Passmore, with whom she moved West.
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History and geography of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 1615-1924
Chapter XVIII. Ulster Township Page 209
Benjamin Clark, a native of Tolland, Connecticut, removed to the Wyoming Valley and was among the first to build a house on the town-plot of Wilkes-Barre. He was a Corporal in the first Independent Company of Wyoming under Capt Robert Durkee and served seven years in the Revolutionary War. He was one of the detachment sent for the relief of Wyoming after the fatal battle and was in the army of General Sullivan against the Indians.
In 1784, he removed from Wyoming to Asylum, and the next year, settled in Ulster on what is known as the Ross Farm. His house was the place of entertainment for travelers and the home of Methodist itinerants who held religious meetings there.
He was an ardent Federalist, captain of militia and popularly known as Captain Clark.
By his first wife, Nabbe, he had children:
John T, Polly (Mrs Blanchard) and Abigail (Mrs George Culver).
He married second, Keziah Yarrington, widow of Silas Gore, who was slain at the Battle of Wyoming, and had children:
Lucinda (Mrs Nathaniel Hovey), Urusula (Mrs Samuel Treadway), William and Julia Ann (1st Mrs John Overton, 2nd Mrs Joseph Passmore).
Captain Clark died, 1834, aged 87 years.
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From Genealogy Message Board - 2007 (user = nabbe68:
Benjamin Clark was born 15 Jun 1750 in Ashford, Bradford Co, Conn. His parents were Theophilus Clark (1722-?1754) and Bethiah Billings (1727-17--, don't have that with me right now).
Benjamin married about 1769, Nabby ????. They had five children, the last two twin girls born 5 Mar 1777. Nabby died 12 Mar 1777 in the Wyoming Valley,Pennsylvania.(The place is a long story). Benjamin became a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
Keziah Yarrington was born 24 Jun 1751 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut. She married Silas Gore (1747 -1778). They had three daughters. Silas was killed at the Battle of Wyoming in July, 1778.
It is not clear when Benjamin and Keziah married. Probably 1783 after Benjamin was released from the army.
Their children were Lucinda, Ursula, William and Julia Ann.
Lucinda married Nathaniel Hovey and stayed in Luzerne/Bradford Co.
Ursula was born 10 Jun 1781. She married Samuel Treadway. She died 4 Oct 1845 in Denison Twp, Lawrence Co., Ill.
Julia Ann (?-?) married (1) John Overton & (2) Joseph Passmore, his second marriage. They moved to Lawrence Co with their combined children.
William Clark was born 5 Sep 1789. He married Sylvia Niles 6 May 1810. William moved to Lawrence Co, about 1818.
Children were:
Charles Wesley b. 26 Jun 1811 mar. Mary Neal
Fidelia (twin) b. 13 Dec 1813 mar. John Lukin
Croelia(?Celia) (twin) b. 13 Dec 1813
William Asbury b. 20 Apr 1816 mar. Mrs. Mary Ann French
Sylvia Ann b. 6 Aug 1818 mar. (1) Chauncy P. Durkee (2)--Simons
Keziah b. 6 Sep 1820 mar. Charles Passmore
Hester Ann b. 12 Apr 1823 mar. ?William Mieure
Mary b. 15 Nov 1825
Margaret Curry b. 17 Feb 1828 mar. ?James s. Barbee
Benjamin H.C. b. 8 Oct 1830 mar. ? Martha M. -----
John Fletcher b. 9 Feb 1833 mar. Margaret McMahan (this is my line)
Emily J. b. 6 Jul 1835 mar. (1)William True (2)Joseph H. Bertrand
Sylvia Niles Clark died after 1850. Benjamin married 27 August 1853, Jane (Adams) Lemmons. He died after 1770 and before 1879. Jane died 3 Mar 1879, a widow at that time.
Lemmons is spelled Lemmon, Limon, Lyman, etc. Not sure what the spelling was meant to be of Janes first husband Samuel.
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1747 - 1834 (86 years)
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