December 1742, Connecticut

Israel Putnam birthplace

 

December 1742- The last wolf in Connecticut was killed. The story goes that Israel Putnam, who later became a hero of the Revolutionary War, led an effort, with the help of a group of farmers from Mortlake, to find and kill a marauding wolf that was savaging sheep flocks in the northeast part of the state.
The den where the wolf was found and cornered is in Mashamoquet Brook State Park. On the right of the den, is a plaque that reads, in part:
''Following her tracks through one day and night in the early snow of December 1742 to the Connecticut River and back, the early settlers of this region here discovered the den of the she wolf that had for years devastated their flocks.'' Putnam, then in his early 20's, was the only one willing to go in after the wolf.
''Israel Putnam, 70 of whose sheep had been slaughtered, at 10 o'clock at night, with a rope tied to his feet, first with a torch, again with a musket, entered this cave, and by the light of her angry eyes, shot and killed the marauder, and entering a third time, dragged forth the body of the last wolf in Connecticut.'' He emerged, according to one account, dragging the wolf by the ears to the acclaim of his companions.
The farmers thought killing all the wolves was necessary to safeguard their sheep and early settlements typically offered bounties on such predators.

December 9, 1742- Thomas Langton, son of Joseph Lankton & Rachael Cowles, marries Abigail Richards, daughter of Thomas Richards & Abigail Turner, in Farmington, Connecticut.

December 18, 1742- Samuel, son of Nathaniel Bacon & Esther Hubbard, dies at age 9 in Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut.

December 24, 1742- Christiana, daughter of Ebenezer Savage Wetmore & Elizabeth Cornwall, dies at the age of 7 in Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut.

(Samuel Bacon is my first cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Nathaniel Hubbard & Mary Earle and Nathaniel Bacon & Ann Miller and Deacon Thomas Wetmore.
Samuel Bacon and Christiana Wetmore are second cousins. Christiana Wetmore is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Deacon Thomas Wetmore & Sarah Hall and William Cornwall & Mary Bailey.
Abigail Richards is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Edward Turner & Mary Sanford.)

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October 1742, Connecticut

October 13, 1742- Nathaniel Bacon III, son of Nathaniel Bacon & Hannah Wetmore, marries Amy Sage Harrison, widow of Edmund Harrison, in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut.

October 14, 1742- A son, Oliver, is born to Daniel Doolittle & Elizabeth Dayton in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut.


Official seal of Middletown, Connecticut (


(Nathaniel Bacon is my first cousin 9 times removed. Our common ancestors are Nathaniel Bacon & Ann Miller and Deacon Thomas Wetmore.
Oliver Doolittle is my second cousin 9 times removed. Our common ancestors are Abraham Doolittle & Abigail Moss and John Cornwall & Martha Peck.)

MIDDLETOWN

Before Europeans arrived, the territory where Middletown now sits was held by the Wangunks on the east bank and the Mattabesetts on the west bank of the Connecticut River. These two peoples shared a common chief, Sowheag, at the time of the initial European settlement in 1650.
In 1650, the first English families arrived from Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor. The new community became officially a town the following year, adopting the name "Middletown" in 1653, a reference to its distance halfway between the mouth of the Connecticut River and Windsor.
The first Africans were brought from Barbados to Middletown as slaves eight years later in 1661. Slavery remained a part of Middletown life throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; by 1756, 218 slaves -- at the time the third largest African population in the colony-- lived among a population of approximately 5,44 Europeans.
Middletown and other Connecticut towns had their own militias, or train bands, and held regular training days. Colonial statute required Middletown to have a force consisting of at least eight armed men and a sergeant acting as guard at any assembly for public worship. The militia kept watch around the meeting house, a structure 20 feet square enclosed by a palisade.
During the fifty years before the guns of Lexington, Middletown merchants developed an extensive trade between New England and the West Indies. Middletown enjoyed booming times while the trade lasted. So closely was Middletown's economic life tied to the sea that, by the outbreak of the Revolution, one third of the population was engaged in maritime trade and merchant activities.
_The Society of Colonial Wars

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February 1742, Connecticut

Flag of City of New Haven

February 4, 1742- My seventh great grandaunt, Esther Hubbard, wife of Nathaniel Bacon, dies at the age of 39 in Middletown Middlesex, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Nathaniel Hubbard & Mary Earle.

February 5, 1742- A son, Theophilus, is born to Theophilus Doolittle & Sarah Dorchester in Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut.
 

(Theophilus Doolittle is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Abraham Doolittle & Abigail Moss.)

September 1741- Connecticut

English: John Humphrey House circa 1760 Simsbury CT USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

September 5, 1741- Michael Loomis is born to Josiah Loomis & Abigail Bacon in Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut.

(Michael Loomis is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Nathaniel Bacon & Ann Miller and Deacon Thomas Wetmore.)

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