596327

[phelps.FTW]

[2812.ftw]

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 4, Ed. 1, Tree #2812, Date of Import: Nov 11, 1998]

FIFTH GENERATION

Sylvanus Owen [5] (Josiah III [4], Josiah II [3], Josiah [2], John [1]), only son of Josiah III and Hanna (White) Owen, was born August 19, 1746 at Hebron, CT. His Mother died when he was two years of age, and his Father died when he was ten. He was raised by his stepmother, Zerviah Hartshorn Owen. He was named after his mothers uncle, Sylvanus White. Through his mother, Hannah White, he was descended from William White, a signer of the Mayflower Compact.
Sylvanus married on May 4, 1768, in the First Church of Coventry, EUNICE ROBERTS. (Coventry lies in Tolland County about ten miles north of Hebron.)
Eunice was born March 1, 1747 at Killingly, Windham County, CT. daughter of John and Lois (Waters) Roberts. She was an orphan, like Sylvanus, for her mother had died in 1750 and her father in 1762.
Sylvanus and Eunice lived at Hebron for three years or more. Here were born their two older children - Andrew on April 22, 1769, and Lois on March 31, 1771. After that time they joined the stream of pioneers who moved into the territory then known as "New Connecticut", now Vermont. They drove their ox-team northward along the shore of the Connecticut River about 150 miles to the junction of the Connecticut and the White Rivers. There they turned to the left and followed the White River for a distance of about thirty miles. Most of the settlers in this region were from Windsor, Connecticut, and so they called the county Windsor County.
Sylvanus served in the War of Independence. In June 1775 he enlisted in Colonel Timothy Bedel's regiment of Rangers and served in Canada, at St. John's. He next enlisted in Captain Charles Nelson's company (47 men in the company), and served at Quebec under Major John Brown, Colonel Ethan Allen and General Benedict Arnold.
In August 1776 he enlisted in Captain Joe Hatch's company, in Colonel Bedel's regiment. In September 1776 they were at Crown Point (Essex County, New York, on Lake Champlain, five miles north of Fort Ticonderoga, which Colonel Ethan Allen had captured in May 1775).
On August 16, 1777 he participated in the battle at Bennington, VT.
In February, 1778 he enlisted as corporal - Captain Joseph Taylor's Company of Rangers - for an expedition into Canada.
In October 1780, Sylvanus served once more under Captain Timothy Bush and Colonel Peter Olcott, Royalton, Vermont. Royalton is about ten miles from Bethel, VT, both on the White River.
Whether he is settled on his Bethel-Gilead land in 1772 is doubtful. There were very few people at Bethel even in 1779. In 1870 a fort was buildt there. When the Indians from Canada made their raid in 1780, the people took refuge in the fort. Since he enlisted from Fairlee, Windsor County, VT, he may have lived there for some years. But there is no land record.
Mrs Eunice Owen died in 1795; he survived her nearly twenty years. They lie buried in a neglected, little graveyard, three miles north of the village of Bethel. It lies down on the southeast slope of a hill, a few rods from the northbound road. In 1912 the tombstones had sunk badly and the inscriptions were not very legible.

Mr. Sylvanus Owen
died December
aged 68 years
In Memory of
Eunice Owen
Consort of
Sylvanus Owen,
who lived in Respect
and died in hope of
a glorious Resurrection
October 3, 1795
Aged 48 years

The Bethel Town-records make frequent mention of Sylvanus Owen.
"April 19, 1790, Sylvanus Owen bought off Lavan Gates a parcel of five acres on which the five-penny state tax had not been paid for 1789. He paid six shillings, one penny plus costs." Vol. I, p. 189
Sylvanus Owen sold land to Richard Adams. The deed begins thus: "To all People to whom these presents shall come Greeting, know ye that I, Sylvanus Owen, of Bethel, in the county of Windsor and State of Vermont, Yeoman, for the consideration of Five pounds lawful money received to my full satisfaction of Richard Adams of Bethel aforesaid, and by these presents do give, grant, bargain, sell, and confirm to said Richard Adams his heirs and assigns forever . . ."
The Town Records, Vol. III, P. 166:
On February 22, 1799 Andrew Owen gave to his father a mortgage on a certain piece of land in Bethel - one half of lot number seven in the 2d range west of the 3d branch, a part of the original right of Samuel Webster. It was given a security for a loan of $100 payable in ten years with interest. The mortgage was officially acknowledge March 3, 1806.
On March 4, 1809, Sylvanus Owen transfered the loan to Lodkick Owen through the following mortgage:
"Know all men by these Presents that I, Sylvanus Owen of Bethel, in the county of Windsor and the State of Vermont do for and in consideration of the sum of five hundred dollars paid to my full satisfaction by Lodrick Owen of Woodstock in the County and State aforesaid, have and hereby do freely give, grant, sell, and confirm unto said Lodrick Owen, his heirs and assigns forever, a certain piece of land in Bethel aforesaid, described as follows - one half of a lot number seven in 2d range west of the 3d branch and is a part of the original right of Samual Webster. . ."
"To secure a loan of $100.00 Payable in ten years with interest, March 4, 1809." Sylvanus Owen (seal)
Payment of the mortfage received by Joseph Bufform for Lodrick Owen November 28, 1822.
On the third Wednesday in August 1815, Washington Granger sold the aforesaid piece of land as administrator of the estate of Sylvanus Owen, deceased, to Timothy Fisher for $180.00.
Fisher was Sylvanus Owen's son-in-law. He also bought the Owen homestead, and his descendants owned it in 1910.