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.