Brewster Facts
William Brewster
William Brewster left Cambridge
University in 1583 to be employed by the Court of England. His employer
was William Davidson. Davidson quickly rose in the Queen's favor and
this was a promotion for Brewster also. In 1586 Queen Elizabeth
appointed Davidson to a principal Secretary of State. This could have
been a tremendous boost in the career of Brewster but the Queen had
other plans for Davidson. It seems that the Queen needed a liaison
between herself and Mary Queen of Scotts who was imprisoned for plotting
Elizabeth's death. Elizabeth used Davidson for her innocence in the
death of her sister. Davidson witnessed the signing of the execution
warrant by the Queen and sent it on its' way to Fotheringhay Castle
where Mary was imprisoned. When the Queen learned of Mary’s' execution
she was furious at Davidson and said it was never her intention to have
her sister executed. Davidson was locked up in the Tower of London where
he remained for 3 years. Meanwhile Brewster returned home to Scrooby.
Brewster probably knew all about the lie the Queen had spun but was
helpless to protest lest he find a home in the Tower. Had these events
not happened the Mayflower might never have sailed.
The Pilgrims stayed in Leyden for 10 years while trying to obtain rights to passage to the New World. They were in correspondence with Sir Edwin Sandys who was a Puritan sympathizer and influential in financing the Virginia Colony. There were many trips from Leyden to England where Carver, Cushman, and Brewster negotiated with Sandys on getting a grant. Brewster had to keep in hiding since he was a wanted man. James was stubborn on the issue since he did not want to give the Pilgrims the right to their own form of worship. They eventually got their grant to colonize as a hunting and fishing colony with the profits going back to a joint stock company which put the money up to finance the voyage. They were now called the Adventurers, and since there were not enough people to fill the ship 80 people were recruited fill the need of the new colony. On July 21, 1620 William Brewster , his wife and children left the friendly city of Leyden on their great adventure.
Now that Christmas time is upon us I would like to relate to you what our Pilgrim fathers were going through on their first Christmas after they set sail. These dates are from November and December 1620. Nov. 19 First sighted Cape Cod. Nov. 21 Signed "The Compact" anchored in Cape Cod harbor. Went ashore. Nov. 23 Took the shallop ashore for repairs. Nov 25 First exploring party set out by land. Nov 26 Discovered Truro Springs, Pamet River, Cornhill. Dec 7 Second exploring party set out with the shallop. Dec 10 found the wigwams, graves,etc. Dec 16 Third exploring party set out with the shallop. Dec 18 First encounter with the Indians. Reached Clark's Island at night. Dec 20 Third exploring party spent the Sabbath on Clark's Island. Dec 21 Third exploring party landed on Plymouth Rock and explored west coast. Dec 25 The Mayflower set sail from Cape Cod for Plymouth but was driven back by wind. Dec 26 The Mayflower arrived at Plymouth harbor. Dec 27 First Sabbath passed by whole company in Plymouth harbor. Dec 28 A party landed and explored. Dec. 30 Decided to settle near what is now Burial Hill, Plymouth.
Colonel Isaac Allerton
Colonel Isaac Allerton
3 b. about 1630, Fear Brewster 2, William 1, married first Elizabeth ?
“As early as 1652 he had a wife Elizabeth.” (N.E/. Reg., xliv. 292);
married second in Virginia, about 1663, Elizabeth, daughter of Captain
Thomas and Margaret (Herbert) Willoughby, of Lower Norfolk, VA. and
widow of Major George Colclough. Isaac Allerton died between October 25
and December 30 1702.
Isaac lived many years with his grandfather, Elder William Brewster, by
whom he was being educated. After graduating from Harvard College in
1650, he became associated in business with his father, Isaac Allerton
Sr. at New Amsterdam, New Haven CT, Virginia, and elsewhere, and after
the death of the latter in 2659, Isaac Jr. settled in Virginia where he
became a wealthy and influential planter and was prominent in the civil
and military affairs of the colony. His plantation is laid down on
Hermann’s map of Virginia and Maryland, made in 1670.
He was a justice of Northumberland county, VA in 1663; was several times
a member of the House of Burgesses, and a member of the Governor’s
Council; was a major under Col. John Washington (great-grandfather of
President George Washington), in the expedition against the Indians in
1675; was appointed with Col. St. Leger Codd and Col. George Mason to
superintend the erection of a garrison or store-house on the Potomac
River in 1679; was lieutenant colonel of the Westmoreland Militia in
1683, and in 1699 was naval officer and receiver of the Virginia duties
in Westmoreland County, including Yeocomico River. His children were
from his first wife Elizabeth b. 9-27-1653 d. 11-17-1740, Isaac b.
6-11-1655, Second Wife Willoughby b. about 1665, Sarah b. about 1670,
Frances.
Deacon Wrestling Brewster
Deacon Wrestling
Brewster4, Wrestling3, Love2, William1, married July 12, 1722, Hannah,
daughter of James and Mary(Tilden) Thomas, of Duxbury, MA. She died at
Kingston, MA. August 20, 1788, “Aged 90 years wanting 21 days” The
inscription on his gravestone at Kingston reads: “In memory of Deacon
Wrestling Brewster who Decd Janry ye 1st 1767 aged 72 years 4 months and
28 days.
Deacon Wrestling Brewster lived at Pembroke MA from 1722 to 1741, when
he became the owner, through an exchange with Ephriam Holmes (son of
Lieutenant Holmes), of the homestead, now called “Woodside,” at
Kingston, which was built about 1696, by Major William Bradford (son of
Governor William Bradford of the Mayflower), for his daughter, who
married Lieutenant Holmes. Deacon Brewster built an addition to the
little Holmes house and, when it passed into the possession of his son,
Thomas Brewster, he again enlarged it by building a T. This homestead
passed to Thomas’ son Elisha, and now is occupied by the family of
Elisha Brewster (1900).
In 1780 a farm hand, employed at this homestead, conceived the idea of
attaching curved pieces of wood to the legs of a common high-back chair
for the comfort of the invalid lady of the house, the widow of Deacon
Wrestling Brewster. This, the first and now celebrated rocking-chair, is
still preserved at “Woodside.”
Wrestling Brewster was a farmer and cordwainer, and he served for many
years as a deacon of the church at Kingston. He is designated as
“:Wrestling Brewster 3rd” in the marriage certificate and court records.
Jabez Fitch
Lieutenant Jabez
Fitch6 b. 15 February, 1737, Jabez Fitch4, Mary Brewster5, Benjamin
Brewster3, Jonathan Brewster2, William1, married June 3, 1760, Hannah,
daughter of Jabez Perkins of Norwich, Conn. She died at Hyde Park, VT.
August 13, 1808, aged 74 years. He died at Hyde Park, 29 February 1812.
Jabez Fitch removed from Norwich, CT. to Vermont in 1780. He was one of
the first settlers and one of the committee of the proprietors of Hyde
Park, who attended the Legislature at Bennington and obtained a grant
for that town. He was a farmer, constable, and legal advisor, although
not a lawyer. Jabez Fitch served tow years in the French War. He
enlisted in the Revolutionary War in 1775; was lieutenant of the 8th
Company, 8th Connecticut Regiment; was taken prisoner at the battle of
Brooklyn Heights and held for eighteen months, and is known as the
“Prison Ship Sufferer.” He kept a diary for forty years, a part of which
has been published.
Elder Timothy
Brewster6 b. 12 September 1759, William5, Nathaniel4, William3, Love2,
William1, Married 5 July 1781, Temperance Andrus, born at Pawlet, VT.,
29 October 1759; died at Ellisburg, N.Y. 17 December 1831. He died at
Ellisburg, 28 June 1848.
Timothy Brewster settled at
Pawlet in 1784 and was licensed to preach by the Baptists of that town
in 1791. He removed to Ellisburg in 1813 and became the pastor of the
Baptist Church in that place. Later he joined the Disciples and
continued preaching, and was known as “Elder Timothy Brewster.” He was
also a farmer and owned land in Ellisburg near that of his son Ephriam,
who settled there in 1816, and his sons Elisha and William settled on
adjoining farms, which gave the vicinity the name of “Brewster
Settlement.” The cemetery there, in which he and his wife rest, was
presented by him to the community.
His son Ephriam narrated the
following story about regarding him. “In early youth, upon a Sabbath
afternoon, Timothy Brewster and a few ungodly friends were in an old
sugar-house engaged in playing cards, when suddenly the pasteboards
disappeared and the most careful search failed to find them. This was
thought to be the work of the devil and the young men were seized with
consternation, renounced their sinful lives and became good Christians,
and Timothy Brewster was eventually led to enter the ministry of the
Blessed Gospel.”
He was a selectman of Pawlet
in 1812-1813, and served tow short terms as private in the Revolutionary
war.
Timothy Brewster owned a
dictionary which, traditionally had belonged to his Ancestors, William5
Brewster, and Nathaniel4 Brewster, and probably William3 Brewster and
love2 Brewster. (Love Brewsters inventory included 3 dictionaries) The
last known Brewster heir to have this dictionary was Morris William
Brewster9 This dictionary has the autographs of four persons named
William Brewster, Nathaniel Brewster, Timothy Brewster and A.J. (W.A.J.)
Brewster The book is 8 inches high, 5 inches wide, and 2 ¾ inches
thick. The earliest date printed on it is A.C. 782 and the latest is
A.C. 1591. Morris resided in Milan WA in the late 1800s.
Zachary Taylor
General and President Zachary Taylor7, Richard Taylor6,Elizabeth Lee5, Sarah Allerton4, Isaac Allerton3, Fear Brewster2, William Brewster1, born Sept 24, 1784, married in 1810, Margaret, daughter of Walter Smith of Calvert County, MD. She was born in 1790, and died in Louisiana, August 18, 1852. He died in Washington DC July 9, 1850, and was buried near Louisville, KY. In 1808 Zachary Taylor was appointed a lieutenant of infantry and in 1810 promoted to captain. In 1812 he was appointed to the command of Fort Harrison, near the present city of Terre Haute, IN., which he defended with his troops from the attack of a large force of Indians, for which he was brevetted major. He served in the Black Hawk War of 1832, and in 1837 was given full command in Florida, where he defeated the Indians in the battle of Okechobee, thereby putting an end to the Indian War. In 1840 he was given command of the southwest. When Texas was annexed he marched to Corpus Cristi. In 1846 he was ordered to the Rio Grande, the Mexican invasion having already been planned. He established a camp opposite Matamoras. The Mexicans claimed that the Mueces was the actual Texas boundary, and the Mexican commander ordered Taylor to withdraw. Acting under orders form his government, he refused. Fearing his base of supplies at Point Isabel would be cut off, Taylor marched for that place. On the way he was attacked, and won two victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, on two successive days. Having been ordered to send his best troops to reinforce General Scott, he wan the victory of Buena Vista, nevertheless, in 1847, with a force much inferior to the enemy’s. This victory created the greatest enthusiasm, and General Taylor, popularly called “Old Rough and Ready,” was nominated in 1848, by the Whig party for the presidency, and triumphantly elected the twelfth President of the United States. He was inaugurated March 4, 1849, and died sixteen months later. One child Sarah Knox Taylor married Jefferson Davis who was subsequently President of the Confederate States of America. One son General Richard Taylor served under Stonewall Jackson in the Confederate Army and after the war was in the US army.
Honorable James Brewster
Honorable James7
Brewster (Joseph6, Simon5, Benjamin4, William3, Love2, William1) married
at New Haven Conn., September 18, 1810, Mary Hequembourg of New Haven,
whose father was a French Revolutionary soldier. She died at New Haven,
in 1867. He died at New Haven November 22, 1866, and he and his wife are
buried there.
Soon after the death of his father, James Brewster apprenticed himself
as a mechanic, and by his skill and high principle won the esteem of his
employer. In 1809 Mr. Brewster started for New York to seek his fortune,
but, while passing through New Haven, he strolled into a carriage shop,
accepted an engagement whish was offered him and thus, by an apparent
accident, began a career which, for more than a half century was
identified with the progress of the Elm City. He became, as was said at
his death, “the pioneer of the carriage business.”
Although Mr. Brewster had no schooling in his youth, save that of a
common school, he was always deeply interested in educational matters.
He founded the Mechanics’ Institute of New Haven, providing courses of
popular lectures on science, etc., by Professor Benjamin Silliman and
others of the faculty of Yale College. Thus he anticipated the
principles of modern “University Extension.” He also purchased and
presented to Yale College a Mineralogical Cabinet; built and endowed the
New Haven Orphan Asylum, at a cost of over $20,000, and moreover, he
made himself the personal friend of all the children in the institution.
When the Civil War broke out he was an ardent supporter of the Union and
fitted out, at his own expense, a company of volunteers. Mr. Brewster
furnished most of the funds for publishing the book Chief of the
Pilgrims, or Life and Times of William Brewster. He was one of the first
directors of the New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company and for its
success he risked nearly his entire fortune. He served one term as mayor
of New Haven.
During the hours of the funeral services of Mr. Brewster, places of
business were closed by common consent and citizens displayed their
flags at half-mast. The New Haven Palladium of November 26, 1866, at the
close of a long article upon his funeral obsequies, says: “Thus has gone
to rest one of the vest citizens of New Haven or any other city ever
had. ‘He, being dead, yet speaketh, his deeds do follow him.’ Hundreds
about our city called him blessed, and a hundred households are happier
and better today for his having lived. The public blessings, which he
was instrumental in obtaining, are lasting mementos to his worth-more
enduring than tablets of stone or graven memorials of ever-during
brass.”
Honorable Henry Brewster Stanton
Honorable Henry Brewster Stanton b. 6-27-1805 d. 1-14-1887 Susan
Brewster 7, Simon 6, Simon 5, Benjamin 4, William 3, Love 2, William 1)
married at Johnstown, N.Y. May 11, 1840, Elizabeth, daughter of
Honorable Daniel and Margaret (Livingston) Cady of New York State, born
12-11-1815; died at New York City 10-26-1902.
“A little red schoolhouse in Pachaug (Griswold) and a rickety academy in
Jewett City, Conn., furnished Mr. Stanton his education before he
entered public life...
“Henry Brewster Stanton was one of the early anti-slavery agitators and
won many honors in journalism. He became one of the most effective
platform orators who defended human rights in the great controversy
preceding the war, and in 1834, at the anniversary in this city (New
York) of the american Anti-Slavery Society, of which he was secretary,
he faced the first of the two hundred mobs he battled against in his
devotion to the cause of freedom. As a public speaker he was ranked with
Wendell Phillips, but his taste for politics early drew him into the
Liberty party. He took sides with the Democracy in New York local
contests at this period, but was an ardent Republican when the issue of
slavery and secession became paramount in National affairs. In the early
anti-slavery contest Mr. Stanton spoke for the relief of the oppressed
in the principal cities of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. He
was a member of the Free Soil party and served in the Massachusetts
Senate for two terms. He was also a member of the New York Senate in
1850. He helped to launch the Republican party in 1855, and took the
stump for Governor Seward. In 1847 he made his home at Seneca Falls, NY,
and being admitted to the bar there, soon acquired a reputation as a
successful lawyer in patent cases. He did a great deal of valuable work
on newspapers. He wrote for the Tribune when Mr. Greeley was its editor,
and subsequently for the Sun, with which he had a close connection up to
the time of his death. He published a book called “Sketches of Reforms
and Reformers in Great Britain and Ireland,” after his trip to Europe in
the forties. His autobiography was engaging his attention when his fatal
illness began.”_New York Tribune
Mr Stanton’s wife, Elizabeth (Cady) Stanton, was the celebrated lecturer
and president of the National Woman Suffrage Association. She was
co-author with Susan B. Anthony of “The History of Woman Suffrage or
History of the Progress of Women,” and was the author of other
publications. Her father was a distinguished lawyer, judge, and
congressman in New York State.
“If the intellect of Elizabeth Cady Stanton had been possessed by a man
he would have had a seat on the Supreme Bench or in the Senate of the
United States...In intellectual power she was a peer among men and
unequaled among women...In personal life Mrs. Stanton was the calmest,
sunniest, and most evenly poised of mortals, with an unfailing fund of
humor that made her a most delightful companion. She possessed a fine
philosophy, which enabled her to bear with fortitude the heaviest blows
and keenest disappointments.”_Ida Huster Harper
They had seven children all who went to prestigious colleges and went on
to become lawyers, judges, legislators, and authors.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Longfellow, Henry
Wadsworth9, Zilpah Wadsworth8, Peleg Wadsworth7, Susanna Sampson6,
Pricilla Bartlett5, Benjamin Bartlett4, Sarah Brewster3, Love Brewster2,
William Brewster1. (b.2-27-1807 d. 3-24-1882) The most popular of
American poets in the 19th Century. Longfellow attended private schools
and the Portland Academy. He graduated from the Bowdoin College in 1825.
At college he was attracted especially to Sir Walter Scott’s romances
and Washington Irving’s Sketch Book, and his verses appeared in national
magazines. He was so fluent in translating that on graduation he was
offered a professorship in modern languages provided that he would first
study in Europe.
On the Continent he learned French, Spanish, and Italian but refused to
settle down to a regimen of scholarship at any university. In 1829 he
returned to the United States to be a professor and librarian at Bowdoin.
He wrote and edited textbooks and translated poetry and prose, and wrote
essays on French, Spanish, and Italian literature, but he felt isolated.
When he was offered a professorship at Harvard, with another opportunity
to go abroad, he accepted and set forth to Germany in 1835. On this trip
he visited England, Sweden and The Netherlands. In 1835, saddened by the
death of his first wife, whom he had married in 1831, he settled at
Heidelberg, where he fell under the influence of German Romanticism.
In 1836 Longfellow returned to Harvard and settled in the famous Craigie
House, which was later given to him as a wedding present when he
remarried in 1843. His travel sketches, Outre-Mer (1835) did not
succeed. In 1839 he published Hyperion, a romantic novel, and Voices of
the Night, containing the poems “The Psalm of Life” and “The Light of
the Stars,” which became immediately popular. In 1842 Ballads and Other
Poems, containing “The Wreck of the Hesperus,” swept the nation, but his
Poems on Slavery (1842) were less successful. He was more at home in
Evangeline (1847), an idyll of the former French colony of Acadia.
After presiding over Harvard’s modern-language program for 18 years,
Longfellow left teaching in 1854. In 1855, using Henry Rowe
Schoolcraft’s two books on the Indian tribes of North America as a base
and the trochaic metrics of the Finnish epic Kalevala as his medium, he
fashioned The Song of Hiawatha. Its appeal was immediate.
The death in 1861 of his second wife after she accidentally set her
dress on fire plunged him into melancholy. Driven by the need for
spiritual relief, he translated the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri,
producing one of the most notable translations to that time, and wrote
six sonnets on Dante that are among his finest poems.
The Tales of a Wayside Inn, modeled roughly on Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales and published in 1863, reveals his narrative gift. The first poem,
“Paul Revere’s Ride,” became a national favorite. He published in 1872
what was intended to be his masterpiece, Christus: A Mystery, a trilogy
dealing with Christianity from its beginning, and followed this work
with two fragmentary dramatic poems, Judas Maccabaeus” and “Michael
Angelo.” But his genius was not dramatic, as he had demonstrated earlier
in The Spanish Student (1843). Long after his death in 1882, however,
these neglected later works were seen to contain some of his most
effective writing. There is a memorial to Longfellow in Westminster
Abbey. (Encyclopedia Britannica 1991)
Theron Daniel Brewster
Theron Daniel
Brewster8 b. 29 February 1812,Daniel7, Daniel6, John5, Daniel4,
Banjamin3, Jonathan2, William1, married first, at Peru, Ill. January 25,
1844, Phebe A Mann, born in Pennsylvania, and died at Peru, January 22,
1849; married second, at Peru, May 20, 1850, Margaret, daughter of Henry
and Arabella (Newman) Jones of Pittsburgh, PA., born there January 28,
1830. He died at Peru, March 2, 1897.
Theron D. Brewster attended the academy at Westfield, CT. In 1835 he
located at Peru, IL, commenced trading in real estate, and the same year
he laid out “Ninawa Addition” to the city of Peru. From 1843-46 he
engaged in mercantile business, and “then began dealing in grain, and
built a large warehouse on the bank of the Illinois River, where he
carried on an extensive business…. At the end of five years he rented
his warehouse and engaged in the dry-goods business for several years.
In 1856 he sank the Peru Coal shaft, which was owned by a stock company,
of which Mr. Brewster was President, and the shaft was worked about
seventeen years. He then became connected with the Peru Plow Company,
which he managed until 1882, when it was organized as a stock company,
and Mr. Brewster was one of the principal stockholders. After the
organization of this company he retired form active business.
“Mr. Brewster served as the first mayor of Peru, being elected in 1851,
and was re-elected in 1852 and 1854. He was treasurer of the School
Board for eight years and in 1838 was town trustee. He held the office
of president of the old Peru Bank during its entire existence from
1853-1880. He was one of the first directors of the Chicago, Rock Island
and Pacific Railroad Company, was a member of the executive committee
and one of the principal men in working up the enterprise.”
In 1841 Mr. Brewster presented a stone church to the Presbyterian
congregation at Peru, which, in 1853, changed to Congregational, and he
was a liberal supporter of that church.
What is known as the “Ninawa Addition,” upon which most of the business
part of Peru is now situated, was originally owned by Lyman D. Brewster7
(uncle of Theron D.), Theron D. Brewster, Pelatiah Brewster9, Calvin
Brewster9, and four others. He had 8 children.
Colonel James Monroe
Colonel James Monroe
Gere b. 11-15-1824 (Lovisa Brewster 8, Frederick 7, Stephen 6, Joseph 5,
Jonathan 4, Benjamin 3, Jonathan 2, William 1) married at Amboy, NY
October 8, 1856, Helen, daughter of Anson and Jerusha (Whitney) Hopkins
of Amboy, born there July 7, 1832.
They reside at Belle Isle, NY. James M. Gere has been a farmer, salt
manufacturer, civil engineer, and surveyor. He enlisted in the Civil
War, August, 1862, as captain of Co. H, 122d Regiment, New York
Volunteer Infantry. After an exciting experience in the field he was
captured in the battle of the Wilderness; was confined in several prison
camps; escaped twice and re-captured both times, once by the aid of
bloodhounds. The third attempt, at Columbia, SC, he was successful, and
after a journey of sixty days, mostly by night in the enemy’s country,
he reached the Union lines, rejoined his regiment and served to the end
of the war, when he was promoted to the rank of colonel. He was with the
Army of the Potomac from Antitam to Appomattox.
John M. Schofield
John M. Schofield (b.9-29-1831 d.3-4-1906)(Caroline McAllister 8, Sarah
Brewster 7, Elisha 6, Elisha 5, William 4, William 3, Love 2, William 1)
entered the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. June
1,1849, and was graduated July 1, 1853, in the class with McPherson,
Sill and Sheridan, who, like himself, afterwards became famous on the
Union side in the Civil War. In that class, too, was General Thomas M.
Vincent, his “beloved classmate,” afterwards the able and energetic
assistant to Secretary of War Stanton, while on the Confederate side the
class was represented by General John B. Hood, Schofield’s antagonist at
Franklin in 1864.
Cadet Schofield was appointed brevet second lieutenant and promoted to
second lieutenant and first lieutenant prior to the outbreak of the war.
While holding the rank of second lieutenant he was assigned to duty at
the Military Academy as assistant professor of Natural and Experimental
Philosophy, and on his promotion to first lieutenant was assigned as
principal assistant professor of Philosophy at the Academy until August
28, 1860, when he accepted the chair of Physics in Washington University
at St. Louis, MO.
In the Civil War, from beginning to end, General Schofield was at the
front, taking advantage of every opportunity that presented to preserve
the Union. He was chief of staff to General Lyon in the early operations
in Missouri and in the battle of Wilson’s Creek, august 10, 1861 (in
which General Lyon was killed), and was awarded a Medal of Honor for
conspicuous gallantry in the battle. He was appointed brigadier general
of Volunteers Nov. 21, 1861, and brigadier general of the Missouri
Militia on the same date, and was assigned to command the District of
Missouri Feb. 15. In September, 1862 he organized the Army of the
Frontier, driving Hindman out of SW Missouri and south of the Arkansas
River.
On May 2, 1864, General Schofield joined General Sherman, and his army
became the left wing of Sherman’s army, and in the long and brilliant
campaign that followed he was a trusted advisor of Sherman and possessed
his utmost confidence. He participated with his command and was
conspicuous in all the engagements and operations of that ever memorable
campaign ending in the capture of Atlanta.
When General Sherman started on his “March to the Sea” he left Schofield
with his command to help General Thomas “take care of Hood” in
Tennessee. General Schofield was then in immediate command of troops
opposed to Hood, Thomas being at Nashville organizing and concentrating
his command. When Hood crossed the Tennessee and advanced toward
Nashville, Schofield with a greatly inferior force retarded his advance
by skillful maneuvering from the 24th to the 30th of November, 1864,
when was fought the decisive battle of Franklin, in which Hood was badly
defeated. For this battle General Schofield was promoted to brigadier
general and to brevet major general in the Regular Army. On Dec. 15 and
16, having joined General Thomas, he commanded his corps in the battle
of Nashville and the subsequent pursuit of Hood.
In January, 1865, Schofield with his command was transferred to North
Carolina. On Feb. 28th he assumed command of the Department of North
Carolina and the Army of the Ohio. Operations were begun at once,
resulting in the capture of Fort Anderson Feb. 19th, Wilmington Feb.
23rd, battle of Kinston March 8-10th, and the march to Goldsboro, where
he united with General Sherman March 22nd, and was present with him in
the second interview with General Joseph E. Johnston, when he
surrendered at Durham Station N.C., General Schofield being entrusted
with the execution of the military convention of capitulation.
From June 1, 1868 to March 10, 1869, he was Secretary of War, under
President Johnson and President Grant, and was appointed major general,
U.S. Army, March 4, 1869, and commanded several important military
divisions and departments until August, 1888, when, in the death of
General Sheridan, he was appointed to command the Army of the United
States. He Was appointed lieutenant general of the U.S. Army Feb. 5,
1895, and having reached the age of 64, was retired Sept. 29, 1895. By
special act of Congress he was created a lieutenant general, being the
6th to hold the rank above major general--Washington, Scott, Grant,
Sherman, Sheridan, and Schofield.
General Schofield was noted as a teacher, a soldier, a diplomat, and a
statesman. His knowledge while varied was profound, and he patriotically
served his country with marked distinction for nearly half a century and
during a most momentous epoch. In 1897 he published his memoirs,
“Forty-six Years in the Army.”
William Cullen Brewster
William Cullen
Brewster, b. July 19, 1832 William7, Seabury6, Wrestling5, Wrestling4,
Wrestling3, Love2, William1, Married at Muscatine Iowa, June 23, 1857,
Georgiana, daughter of Judge Joseph and Mary Roget (Meason) Williams of
Muscatine, born at Chester, PA, April 17, 1838. He died at New York
City, May 30, 1900.
William C. Brewster was graduated from Yale College in 1853, and later
studied law at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was admitted to the bar. He
located at Muscatine, Iowa, in 1857, and became junior partner in the
banking firm of Isett and Brewster of that place. In 1867 he removed to
New York City, where he continued to reside. Mr. Brewster was one of the
founders of Plaza Bank of New York City and its first president, serving
until about 1895. Although he had retired from most of his active
business he was, at the time of his death, the president of the Fifth
Avenue Safe Deposit Company, a director of the Second National Bank, and
was connected with many other financial institutions in New York.
Mrs. Brewster’s father was a descendant of Roger Williams, a founder of
Providence, RI. Judge Williams was the first territorial judge of Iowa,
and the first chief justice of that State when admitted to the Union. He
met his future wife, Miss Meason, at a ball given at Pittsburg to
Marquis de Lafayette, upon his last visit to this country, when Miss
Meason was selected to open the ball with the distinguished guest.
George Thomas Brewster
George Thomas Brewster
(Altheus8, George7, Martin6, Wrestling5, Wrestling4, Wrestling3, Love2,
William1) b. 2-24-1862, married at New York City 8-17-1885 to Addie Lina
Margueritte De Courtney b. at Passy, near Paris France.
George T. Brewster is a sculptor in New York City. He attended the State
Normal Art School, Boston MA, 1877-81, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
Paris, France, 1881-84. While studying at the latter school he won the
first prize ever awarded an American by that institution. During the
third year he modeled a statue of “David before the Combat,” which was
shown in the Salon, and attracted the favorable attention of the artists
and critics. This “David” was in bronze at the Chicago World’s Fair. He
returned to this country in 1884, and during the first year worked with
Mr. J.Q.A. Ward of New York City, on his statue of President Garfield.
During his second year, Mr. Brewster became connected with the Art
Students’ League, and to him was given the important task of starting
the first modeling class in its history. In 1891 he received the
commission for the statue of Liberty for crowning the State Soldiers’
and Sailors’ monument at Indianapolis, IN, and in the competition for
the astragals on the same monument he won three. He was unanimously
chosen from among four competitors to build the Soldiers’ monument at
Malden MA, spent three years on the Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and
Sailors’ monument at Cleveland OH, designed and executed the Soldiers’
monument at Athens PA, and his work is famous throughout the country.
Honorable Charles Brewster Benedict
Honorable Charles
Brewster Benedict9, Sarah Brewster8, Joseph7, Joseph6, Joweph5,
Jonathan4, Benjamin3, Jonathan2, William1, married at Darien, Genesee
County, NY, August 4, 1853, Sophronia B., daughter of Hiram and Alvirna
Matteson of Darien, born there 6 January 1834; died at Attica, NY, 13
April 1902. He died at Attica, 3 October 1901.
Charles B. Benedict received an academic education, and in early life
taught school and worked a farm. In 1849 and later he traveled for an
insurance company, and was justice of the peace, 1853-60. He studied
law, was admitted to the bar in 1857, and in 1859 engaged in the banking
business, in which he continued for more than forty years. He organized
and was president of the Attica National Bank, also Bank of Attica and
the First National bank of Moorhead, MN.
Mr. Benedict served as a member of the Wyoming County Board of
Supervisors, 1869-76, part of which time he was chairman of the board;
was a member of the Democratic State Committee in 1875, a presidential
elector in 1876, and was elected a representative from New York to the
Forty-fifth Congress.
His land holdings in Minnesota and North Dakota were very extensive.
Clay County, MN, owes much to him for its present fine state of
cultivation, and he did much to develop Moorhead, the count seat. Many
of the finest farms in Clay County were worked by him, and he was known
as the largest wheat producer in the county.
Harriette Maria Arnold
Harriette Maria Arnold
(Harriet Wells, Lucy Brewster, Ichabod, Ichabod, William, William, Love,
William) married at New York City, November 14, 1866 Justice Rufus
William Peckham, son of Judge Rufus Wheeler Peckham and Isabella Peckham
of New York, born at Albany, November 8, 1838.
Rufus William Peckham was educated in the Albany Academy and in
Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. He served as a
district attorney of Albany County, N.Y. , for three years; was a
representative to the Democratic National Conventions of 1876 and 1880;
became corporation counsel of Albany in 1881; was justice of the New
York State Supreme Court from 1883-86, and while justice of the State
Court of Appeals in 1895, was appointed associate justice of the United
States Supreme Court, at Washington D.C. He was nominated to be Supreme
Court Justice by President Grover Cleveland and in January 1896 took
office. He served until his death in 1909. He was best known for the
majority opinion he wrote in Lochner v. New York (1905) where he upheld
that an employer could contract with employees longer than 10 hour
working days. This decision was overturned in the 1930s.
Even though Justice Peckham was not a descendant of William, He was
married to one and had children which are so we include him in our
family.