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Yeomans O. York

4 Mar 1770 – 23 May 1861

Birth4 Mar 1770
Death23 May 1861
CemeteryLarkin Cemetery
Brookfield , Madison County , New York , USA
Added byJRebecca on 13 Jan 2023
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21300080

Gravesite details

s/o Bell & Ruth (Main) York; also h/o Prudence Chapman, h/o Amy Rogers

Bio

North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 Yeomans O. York 1) m. 1st Prudence Chapman who died in 1792. No issue. 2) m. 2nd in 1794- Amy Rogers (1773-1877) of Thomas (1741-1815) and Elizabeth Hoxie (1740-1785). Only child of this union is son Thomas Hoxie York 1795-1840. 3) m. 3rd Catherine Collins in 1814 with whom he had all his remaining children. Contributor: Sherry Roberts (49192712) -------- The Brookfield Courier, Brookfield, N. Y., Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1926, Volume 50, Number 35, page 1 EARLY SETTLERS OF THE TOWN OF BROOKFIELD AND THEIR LIFE First Permanent Settlement Made By Capt. Daniel Brown in 1791 ―Babcock, Frink and York Among Names of Pioneers We are indebted to Ervine Denison York, of Glendale, Calif., for the following interesting facts concerning the history of the York family and the life of the early settlers in the town of Brookfield. Mr. York has been working since 1870 on "The York Book," a history of the York family, and now has ten generations listed. Anyone interested in the histories of the York and Denison families may communicate with Mr. York at 1105 North Central Ave., Glendale, Calif. The following is from the York Book: Yeomans York was born March 14, 1770, in Stonington, Conn., was probably the first one of the name to settle in the Town of Brookfield, N. Y., in 1791, in the great exodus from Connecticut to Central New York. He came in the spring of 1793 permanently, and helped to raise the first frame house in Brookfield, where he lived and died. He first located about a mile and a half east of the village, of what was then called Clarksville, but later made a permanent home near the "York schoolhouse," about four miles west of the village. This country school, known far and wide by that name, is at the four corners among the hills on the generally travelled road to the west, and the neighborhood continued after more than a century to be the dwelling place of York families. The old schoolhouse was after many years rebuilt and was a famous place for that region. The reason the Yeomans York gave for selling his farm and moving to the new location showed his keen sense of humor―for he said on the first one the sun seemed to him to always rise in the west and set in the east, and he would not spend his life in any such fool way. Capt. Daniel Brown, with his family and a company of a few friends from Stonington, made the first permanent settlement in the Town of Brookfield, July 4, 1791. Of this company, all except Brown and family returned to Connecticut the following fall, to reappear the next spring in greater numbers. During the year 1792 a number of buildings were erected, affording homes for many families, and provision for their comfort was made by mills and stores in the eastern part of the Town, where most of the first settlements were made. Local history states that… "Asa Frink, Ethan Babcock, Oliver Babcock and Yeomans York were soon added to the settlement. Ethan Babcock with David Gates made the first settlement in the Beaver Creek Valley, a little east of the village of Brookfield, in the spring of 1793, in whose company was Yeomans York, settling on the hill further east, called Beaver Hill." Yeomans was married three times: (1) in R. I., June 9, 1791, to Prudence Chapman, who died May 9, 1792, in Stonington, before he migrated to New York State. They do not appear to have had any children. The story of his life at this time is told in graphic fashion by his son, Lodowick C. York: "When my father, Yeomans York, was 21 years of age, he married Prudence Chapman, in 1791, and soon left, going alone, for Central New York, to create a home, which he did, cleared a spot and built a small log house on a hill east of Brookfield village, about one mile. Then he started back for his wife, but on reaching the old home learned to his deep sorrow that his wife was dead and buried some days before. This fixes the time of his return about the end of May, 1792." Then he went back to Brookfield, where he worked for a year for Mr. James Rogers, and April 15, 1794, he married the daughter, Amy Rogers. They had one child and then she went away with one James Larkin to the western part of the state, leaving the husband with a baby boy in the cradle. Some time later he secured a divorce, but it was more than ten years before Yeomans married again, and the divorce is said to have been the first one granted in New York State. Yeomans married April 13, 1814, the daughter of a near neighbor, familiar with all the facts as to his unfortunate marriages, Catherine Collins, daughter of Hezekiah and Mary (Hoxie) Collins, of Hopkinton, R. I., who was born Jan. 24, 1789, on Connecticut, and died in Brookfield on the old home farm near the York schoolhouse, Aug. 7, 1877. They lived happily together until they were parted by death. She was the eldest of ten children, her parents having been married Sept. 20, 1787. She was in the seventh generation from Henry Collins, who came from England in 1635. Yeomans died May 23, 1861, aged 91 years, in his old homestead, which he had established just south of the York schoolhouse. In 1907 it was still standing, near the home of his daughter-in-law, Mary Lewis (Brown) York, widow of his son Lelan York. The family were Quakers and many of that faith lived in that vicinity. About a mile south was known as Quaker Hill, a settlement where Meeting was observed. In a letter from Lodowick C. York, his son, (1906) we get a more familiar glimpse of this early pioneer and seem to get in closer touch with that primitive time: "I have heard my father say that there never was a corpse in his house. He sold the first farm he bought because he said the sun persisted in rising in the west and setting in the east, at least to him, and he would not spend his life in that way. "I have a trammel that my father used in the house when I was born, and a tea-kettle from my great-grandfather's house, which is more than a hundred years old. "The house where I was born consisted of eight bents of 10 by 12 inches, hardwood, used to nail the chamber floor to, with wrought nails. The chimney, built of stone, at first large enough easily to take in a log six feet long and two feet through; and with proper top-log and forestick, with proper small stuff, would last twenty-four hours without much attention. "The trammel, of which my granddaughter has made a drawing, hung in the center of the fireplace, on a pole about seven feet high. Most of the cooking was done in kettles hung on that. The oven and jambs were built later. "Again, I remember very distinctly when the postmaster sent word to my father that there was a letter in the Post Office for him, postage 25 cents, from Stonington, Conn. He had no 25 cents, but he went to the forest and cut a smooth birch pole, about four inches through, and made two splint brooms. These he sold for 15 cents each and then sent and got the letter―which now would cost but two cents. "When I left the trundle-bed and slept in the chamber, with my two older brothers, I could make snow-pictures on top of the bed quilt over me after a windy night in winter." Contributor: SDB history (50438450)

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age 91 yrs, 2 mos, 19 days; h/o Catherine

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