New name Mystic and Stonington, a Storied Past, CT Tales from my Ancestors,

Something has happened and I can no longer post pictures so I have  stopped this Blog and Blog at a new site. Thanks for reading what I have written and please switch to my new site. Jean

New name Mystic and Stonington, a Storied Past, CT Tales from my Ancestors,

http://mystoningtonancestors.wordpress.com

Stanton Brothers and Benedict Arnold

Something has happened and I can no longer post pictures so I am probably going to stop this Blog and Blog at a new site. Thanks for reading what I have written and please switch to my new site. Jean

New name Mystic and Stonington, a Storied Past, CT Tales from my Ancestors,
http://http//mystoningtonancestors.wordpress.com

“Memento: Here interred are the bodies of two brothers, sons of Capt. Phineas Stanton and Elizabeth, his wife, who fell with many of their friends , Sept. 6, 1781, while manfully fighting for the liberty of their Country and defense of Fort Griswold. The assailants were troops, commanded by that most despicable parricide, Benedict Arnold. (Lieut. Enoch Stanton being in his 36^th year of his age. Sergeant Daniel Stanton, being in ye 26^th year of his age.”

http://mystoningtonancestors.wordpress.com

On Wheeler Road near the Pequot Plant Farm, you can find one of 50 old family graveyards in Stonington. Located across the road from the dilapidated old Cronin farmhouse, it is now hidden behind trees and bushes. It sits about fifty feet in and is surrounded by an extremely beautiful stone wall.

I had visited this yard in the 1960’s when it was easily seen from the road. The stone I had gone to see, marked the grave of these Stanton brothers, who held a connection to the house I lived in at the time, the Wheeler Homestead, which my family had inherited.

In 1781 my ancestor, eighteen year old Esther Wheeler, also lived in this house. She had been engaged to Daniel Stanton, and was preparing for her wedding.

 Daniel had just returned from his Revolutionary War duty on the Stonington Privateer Minerva.  His ship had captured a British merchant ship, the Hannah. Daniels’s share of the bounty was a beautiful brocaded silk dress which he had given Esther for their upcoming wedding.

Only a few days after Daniel’s return from sea, he and his brother heard the alarm calling soldiers to Fort Griswold to defend it.  Unfortunately they were both killed as were many others on that fateful day. At their funeral, their father was quoted as saying, “Father in Heaven! This is a fearful sacrifice to make for liberty and my country, but it is cheerfully given.”

The two brothers were buried in a single grave with one large double head stone and a smaller sing foot stone.  In the 60’s I could read the stone but now weathering and age have made that impossible. Using Grace Denison Wheeler’s Old Homes in Stonington book I have been able to quote the above inscription.

The Denison Homestead has Wheeler’s book in their library. They also have Fred Burdick’s CD of Stonington Graves in their Gift Shop.

1735 Wheeler Homestead-Where It All Started!

Something has happened and I can no longer post pictures so I am probably going to stop this Blog and Blog at a new site. Thanks for reading what I have written and please switch to my new site. Jean

New Blog Site - Mystic and Stonington, a Storied Past, CT Tales from my Ancestors,
http://mystoningtonancestors.wordpress.com

When I was 10 years old my grandmother inherited The Wheeler Homestead in Stonington, CT also known as Maple Lawn Farm. This house, located at 343 Wheeler Road, had been in my family since 1735! A book had even been published about this house.

Today this 1735 historic house is in the process of being torn down and rebuilt. Over the old arched Victorian double doors the wooden plaque read, 

Richard A. Wheeler and Grace Denison Wheeler, my author ancestors,  published books that are still used today as major resources for local Stonington area history.( See the books listed in the plaque above) Their books tell the stories from the Indians and first settlers of this Stonington-Mystic area onward until the early 1900’s. They show old black and white photographs of many old houses and buildings  and relate their colorful history. One book explains what was transcribed on all the old gravestones in Stonington.

Using articles and books left to me, along with the book Grace Wheeler’s Memories, about this house, I hope to share with you some stories from the past but link them to the present!

This is what the house looked like when I lived there in the 60's and 70's. It had white clapboards and green shutters. Its official name was  Maple Lawn Farm since there had been many Maple trees lining the long stone driveway.

This is the same Wheeler Homestead in May, 2011. After 276 long Connecticut winters the house needs major restoration.  In this picture  the porch has been removed, the shutters are off and the ell in back has been completely rebuilt.

Can a house “reproduction” still tell the same stories of the past? 

Grace Denison Wheeler, Stonington, CT- A Woman Ahead of her Time!

Something has happened and I can no longer post pictures so I am probably going to stop this Blog and Blog at a new site. Thanks for reading what I have written and please switch to my new site. Jean

New BLOG- Mystic and Stonington, a Storied Past, CT Tales from my Ancestors,
http://www.mystoningtonancestors.wordpress.com/ 

Grace Denison Wheeler, Stonington, CT- A Woman Ahead of her Time!  (1858-1956)

Author and historian Grace Denison Wheeler is known by name by many residents, especially if one owns an old historic home. I grew up in her beloved 1735 Wheeler Homestead, also called Maple Lawn, and heard much about "Cousin Grace"!

Even though Grace Denison Wheeler was born in 1858, she did many things a woman of today would do. In her 98 years Miss Wheeler:

• Remained single and had a professional career as an author, lecturer, genealogist, and newspaper reporter in Mystic and Westerly.
• Raised 4 needy children of different backgrounds: one Pequot Indian girl, 2 black girls and one white child.
• Roamed the countryside visiting all 50 small graveyards in Stonington at age 72, transcribing engravings on every stone. Today, her inscriptions are the only way of reading the majority of gravestones due to damage by acid rain, weathering, age and vandalism.
• Actively volunteered, taught Sunday School at the Road Church, and created book clubs before they were popular
• Published 4 books: The Homes of Our Ancestors in Stonington, Old Homes in Stonington, Grace Wheeler’s Memories, A Stonington Love Story
• Researched history of numerous historic houses, before the age of Google, and hand typed pages of information on an old fashioned broken typewriter.



Grace taught Sunday School  at the Road Church, Picture from Denison Society

• Lived the last 20 years of her life, she died at age 98, alone in her beloved Homestead with no running water, using an outhouse and old hand pump!

Memories told of Grace Wheeler

Gladys Sebastian (adopted child):”Ma Grace” took me from the Stonington Town Farm when I was 3 and raised me. Everyone thought I was black, but as a young adult I learned that I was an Eastern Pequot Indian. Even though I was not always treated as an equal in the household, the happiest days of my life were spent with Ma Grace”

Chester J. Perkins (friend of everyone): Grace sent me letters all through World War II. Her letters were always typed with her 2 finger method on an old typewriter. She never set the right margin and every sentence had words missing.

Rudy J. Favretti (UCONN professor emeritus, author): Rudy visited ”Aunt Grace”, as she asked him to call her, when she was elderly and he was a teen. She would give him "a history lesson” and then he would play her piano, since her fingers were stiff with rheumatism. She would sing and twirl around the room!

 Grace Denison Wheeler was certainly a woman ahead of her time! 

Resources

My Friend Grace Denison Wheeler, Rudy J. Favretti, February,1992 ( Stonington Historical Society)

A JOLLY HOUR ON THE TROLLEY, By Grace Denison Wheeler

Denison Homestead, Grace's grandmother, Grace Billings Denison,(my great-great grandmother) was born in the Denison Homestead.


Grace Wheeler's Memories. Stonington: Pequot Press, 1948. Recollections of country life by a beloved chronicler of Stonington history, who died in 1956 at the age of 98. ( Denison Homestead has a copy in their Library)

An Old Fashion Stonington, Conn., Love Story by Grace Denison Wheeler The last book written by Grace Denison Wheeler who died in 1956 at the age of 98. The history of Stonington and that of her family were the primary interests in her life. 77 pages. (Denison Homestead Gift Shop)

Richard A. Wheeler, History of Stonington,CT

Something has happened and I can no longer post pictures so I am probably going to stop this Blog and Blog at a new site. Thanks for reading what I have written and please switch to my new site. Jean

New BLOG-Mystic and Stonington, a Storied Past, CT Tales from my Ancestors,

http://mystoningtonancestors.wordpress.com/

Today when you enter The Old Stonington Lighthouse Museum you will see a large plaque, hanging over the doorway, honoring Richard Ansom Wheeler.  It was placed there in 1910 to honor his service to Stonington history. The Woolworth Library also has a small framed picture of him.

 

Wheeler (1817-1904) wrote The History of the Town of Stonington, 1649-1900 with a Genealogical Register and The History of the First Congregational Church (Road Church).  Both are rare and valuable books and still major sources of early local area history. Both books tell about the early settlerment of Stonington: the Indians, the first settlers, slaves, wars, the founding of business, the building of roads, bridges, ferries, etc. 

Wheeler was the Judge of Probate and High Sheriff of New London County for many years. Apparently Richard never applied for the bar, but settled scores of estates and wrote over 650 wills, none of which were ever broken!

“Uncle Richard” was my grandmother’s uncle. My family inherited his home, the 1735 Wheeler Homestead at 343 Wheeler Road, in 1957. We kept his picture hanging in the “sitting room” with pictures of both of his two wives hanging on either side. Those same pictures still hang in the house today! My grandparents met at the house because they were both related to one of these women. (The first an Avery descendant who died, the second a Noyes descendant.)

Richard was a large man, over 6 feet tall, with red curly hair. It turned white prematurely and after that he always wore a full beard.

He became a captain in the CT Militia at 20. He was a town selectman for 15 years, a member of several Historical Societies and the New England Genealogical Society. He was President of Stonington Savings Bank and the Road Church Clerk for 65 years.

Richard descended from most of the families in Stonington. He was proud of his 1735 homestead and the fact that the property had been handed down from father to son until he passed it on to his daughter Grace, having no sons.  My family sold it for the first time out of the family in 1974, after 285 years!

Wheeler wrote about this  First Congregational Church(Road Church) located at 903 Pequot Trail. There is an old district school house located next to it.