Wolcott History – First Selectmen

I recently came across a file that contained the names of a number of the First Selectmen of Wolcott (http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/CT/ofc/wolcott.html). While this is an incomplete list, many of the surnames looked familiar and were part of my extended family tree. So I thought I’d see how many of them, like other people in Wolcott’s history, were related to me. Here are my findings:

Frederik M. Upson – 1888 – 4^th cousin, 4 times removed

Benjamin L. Bronson – 1896 – 4^th cousin, 4 times removed

Charles S. Tuttle – 1897 – 5^th cousin, 3 times removed

Henry B. Carter – 1899 – 4^th cousin, 4 times removed

Francis E. Cole – 1904 – 4^th cousin, 4 times removed

Charles J. Minor – 1908-1909 – 5^th cousin, 3 times removed

John W. Norton – 1910-1911 – see note below

Charles C. Rogers – 1920-1921 – 4^th cousin, 4 times removed

Robert A. Wakelee – 1922-1927 and 1947-1957 – 4^th cousin, 3 times removed

The reason why nearly all of these men are either 4^th cousins, 4 times removed or 5^th cousins, 3 times removed is that my connection to them is nearly always through one of my great*7 grandfathers. For the above list, most are connected to me through Stephen Upson (1655-1735). The Bronson, Tuttle, Carter, and Cole families were all married into the Upson family. One very interesting indication of this is that in the 1850 census there were members of the Upson, Bronson, Tuttle, and Carter families living in consecutive houses in Wolcott! So the First Selectmen for the period from 1888 to 1904 might be called an Upson dynasty where they just kept passing the baton from one cousin to another!

Note: John W. Norton is not a relative, as best as I have been able to determine. John W. was the grandfather of Edgar Norton who lived on Beecher Road and it appears that John was the original owner of that farm. There seem to be three different Norton families in Wolcott history and I have not [yet!] been able to connect them.

            Edgar (1906-1976) <- John Franklin (1882-) <- John Winfield (1854-1938)

            Linus (1842-1929) [he was a member of the Mattatuck Drum Band]

            Rufus (1890-1933) (related to me through his wife Ellen Beecher), lived next door to Edgar. I’ve traced his ancestry back five generations in Wolcott to David Norton (1730-1802) who moved to Wolcott from Guilford CT in the late 1700s, then several more back to the early 1600s when Thomas Norton (1609-1648) came to Connecticut from England)