Wolcott History – Inter-family Marriages

Back before the completion of what is now Route 69 in 1935, the population of Wolcott was less than 1000 people. With so few people, and somewhat limited transportation options, anyone growing up in the area would have contact with a limited number of other families who lived in the area. Thus it was not uncommon for there to be a history of inter-marriages between these families. This blog is about a few of those family connections. I thought about trying to make a chart of these, but the number of interconnections became quite confusing, so I’ll use a narrative instead.

I’m going to start this narrative with my great*4 grandfather, Ezra Pierpont. Ezra was born in New Haven in 1757 and it was there that he married Mary Blakeslee. Mary was the daughter of Isaac Blakeslee and Lydia Alcott. Isaac’s mother was Mary Frost and his grandmother was Mary Tuttle. Lydia’s father was John Alcott who was one of the earliest settlers in Farmingbury in the 1730s. Ezra and Mary moved from New Haven to the eastern end of Waterbury in what is sometimes called the East Farms area.

Ezra and Mary’s family included two sons, Austin and Seabury. Austin married Sally Beecher, she being a cousin of the Beecher family after whom Beecher Road is named. Seabury married Clorana Hall from Cheshire (Clorana’s grandmother was Abigail Russell from Branford, a distant relative on my father’s side of the family, but that story will have to wait for another day.)

Austin and Sally had a son Charles who married Mary Ann Warner. Mary Ann’s mother was Mary Bronson. Mary was a 2^nd cousin to Amos Bronson Alcott of Wolcott and thus a second connection to the Alcott family. Charles and Mary had four children – Charles Jr, Austin, Wilson, and Mary. Wilson was my great-grandfather. Mary married Charles S Miller (more about him below). I’ll also continue Austin’s story in the next paragraph.

Austin’s brother Seabury and Clorana had a daughter Mary who married Joseph Welton and they had a daughter Lucy. Lucy married her second cousin, Austin Pierpont. So the two family lines beginning with Ezra were now merged.

One of Austin and Lucy’s sons was Morton. He married Jessie Garrigus. Jessie’s father had moved to the area from New Jersey a few decades earlier. They lived along Meriden Road near where Garrigus Court is today. It was here that he met and married Sophronia Upson. The Upson family lived a little farther east near what is now Hitchcock Lake. Sophronia’s great-great-grandfather was Thomas Upson and her great*3 grandfather was Stephen Upson, one of the other earlier settlers of Farmingbury. Thomas’ wife was Rachel Judd. One of Thomas’ grandsons married Martha Hitchcock.

Meanwhile, continuing the mention above of Mary Ann Warner, the wife of Charles Pierpont, Mary Ann’s father was Jared Warner and his grandmother was Elizabeth Bronson. Elizabeth Bronson’s mother was Elizabeth Upson, a sister to Thomas Upson. Also, Mary Ann’s great-grandmother was Anna Southmayd (the family name of Southmayd Avenue in Waterbury).

At this point, I’ve probably managed to confuse you with the multiple connections between these families. We’ve also seen the origins of Alcott School, Beecher Road, Upson Road, Garrigus Court and Hitchcock Lake in Wolcott as well as Frost Road, Pierpont Road and Southmayd Road in Waterbury. But the story is not yet finished.

Morton and Jessie’s son Ralph Beecher Pierpont (his middle name coming from his great-great-grandmother Sally Beecher) married Lois Gillette (also spelled Gillet in prior generations). That may seem disconnected, except that the Gillette family was significant in Connecticut history. One of her distant cousins was William Gillette, an actor and the builder of Gillette Castle along the Connecticut River. William’s father Francis was a US Senator from Connecticut in the 1850s. And another of Lois’ cousins was the first pastor of the church in Farmingbury as well as the Gillette family connections to the Frisbie/Rogers/Atkins families of Wolcott (I’ve given those details here http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/05/genealogy-story-josiah-atkins-house-in.html). Also, Lois Gillette’s mother was Iva Miller, a sister to Charles S Miller.

Morton Pierpont was the owner of the Maple Hill Dairy in Waterbury. Pierpont Road, which runs along the western side of what used to be the dairy, would have been the road over which he walked in order to court Jessie Garrigus. So the physical proximity of the Upson family, the Garrigus family, and the Pierpont family was what led to several of the above inter-family marriages. Mort’s sons, Lawrence Austin (middle name for his grandfather), and Ralph Beecher ran the farm after him.

When my mother was growing up, my grandfather (a son of Wilson Pierpont from above) was a milkman for the Maple Hill Dairy. Next door to him was the home of Ralph Pierpont. He was also a milkman for his father. Ralph had two sons, William Seabury (middle name for his great*3 grandfather) and James Gillette (middle name for his mother’s maiden name).

Finally, there are a number of connections here to the history of the Mattatuck Drum Band (see http://mattatuck.org/history.html). (Also see http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/06/wolcott-history-mattatuck-drum-band.html).

·         One of the early leaders of the band (in the late 1700s) was Nathan Gillet who an ancestor of Lois Gillette above.

·         In 1881, Charles S Miller moved the Wolcott Drum Band from Wolcott to Waterbury and renamed it the Mattatuck Drum Band. He was the leader of the band for the next 50 years and they practiced at his home at the corner of East Main St and Frost Rd. He served with the band for 65 years.

·         In 1931, the band moved its headquarters to Mort Pierpont’s dairy farm where they practiced in the barn. Both of Mort’s sons, Lawrence and Ralph, were also active in the Mattatuck Drum Band.

·         Finally, the current drum major is William (Billy) Seabury Pierpont. Billy has now been with the band for 67 years, continuing the tradition of his grandfather’s uncle (and of my grandfather’s uncle as well).

I’d like to close with a mention of the three murals that grace the walls of the Wolcott Library (see http://wolcottlibrary.org/friends/history-of-wolcott-mural/). Here you will find mentioned from above the names Alcott, Atkins, Bronson, Frisbie, Garrigus, Judd, Pierpont, Rogers, Tuttle, Upson and the Mattatuck Drum Band. So not only are all these names significant in Wolcott history, but they are also connected by marriage.