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Individual Record for: Stephen [II] FARNSWORTH (male)

Notes:

This was the second generation named Stephen Farnsworth. His father is Stephen[I]3G, from Samuel2G, from Mathias1G of Groton. The father Stephen [I] of Groton MA married Eunice Hastings of Lunenburg MA and with his brothers Samual and David built Fort Number Four, Charlestown NH.
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Stephen?s birth is recorded in Saunderson?s "History of Charlestown NH" p342; Farnsworth & Nye "Farnsworth Memorial 2d ed." p 362, 363 & 365; H.S. Dana's Hist of Woodstock VT p133, 135-136; Geo. A. Cunningham?s "Genealogy of Lunenburg MA"; attest, Lunenburg MA town clerk, 31 Aug 1933; and family records. Stephen [II], born at Fort Number Four, was the youngest son of that marriage, and he first came to Woodstock VT in the 1770s on a exploratory trip with his brothers Oliver and Jonathan. All settled there (Stephen [II] in 1782) in the village area now known as SouthWoodstock.
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His marriage to Deborah is recorded in Woodstock VRs "Bk B, 1760- 1851", p83; in Saunderson?s "History of Charlestown NH" p342; in Farnsworth & Nye?s "Farnsworth Memorial 2d ed." p363; in Frank L. Hoisington's "Friends Who Have Crossed the River - Family Record"; & in Hamilton C. Ford?s "Ford Family Genealogy," v. 1 p515, 616 (Great Neck, NY, 1950) (9 volumes typescript) (copies at NEHGS, NY Public Library, Detroit Public Library,etc.).
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In 1809, SF [II] built the big brick house that later became the town farm. The house, though remodelled, still stands on the splendid hillside overlooking the Green Mountain Horse Association farm. He served as constable & twice as state representative.
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On 20 Jan 1823, Stephen Farnsworth [II] of Woodstock, sold "all the land owned by me in s[ai]d Woodstock" (including the farm on which he then lived, a portion of which was his 1782 homestead), and he purchased no more land in Woodstock during his lifetime. Fourteen months later, on 17 March 1824 in the deed referred to at the top, the father, Stephen Farnsworth [II], now identifying himself as being "of Hartland," purchased a Hartland farm from his son Stephen Farnsworth "Jr." [i.e., III] and his son-in-law Samuel Myrick Jr.
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(Another deed further demonstrates that Stephen Farnsworth [II] now of Hartland is the same person as Stephen Farnsworth [II] formerly of Woodstock: in a deed dated 7 Feb 1827, a Stephen Farnsworth "of Hartland" sold his pews in the South Parish Meeting House in Woodstock. (He, in 1800, as a resident of South Woodstock, had petitioned to have this meeting house constructed [petition in early town records, LDS film].)
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Stephen [II], kept the Hartland farm until 1827. It is not clear to me where he spent the last two years of his life, though I did find some evidence that that his 1829 death was at the home of his daughter Aurelia Farnsworth Demmon in Queche Village, HartFORD, Vermont, only a mile or two from his former HartLAND farm. (She probably married Roswell Demmon in the early 1820s:
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Death notice. In a death notice for Stephen Farnsworth [II], the newspaper "Woodstock [VT] Observer" of 21 April 1829 reported as follows: "DIED...At the seat of R. Demmon of Pomfret, on the 16th inst. STEPHEN FARNSWORTH, Esq. aged 64. Mr. S. was one of the first settlers of this town--and served it many years as a faithful & impartial magistrate--and representative in the Legislature." This was the first source I have found specifiying a place of death, and I think it is wrong, for Pomfret VT town records show d/r and no Demmon owning property in Pomfret at this time. But there was a Demmon who owned property just across the Pomfret town line in HARTFORD VT (near Queeche Village), and I think he was married to Stephen [II]?s daughter Aurelia. So I think this death notice was actually reporting Stephen Farnsworth [II]'s death in HARTFORD VT. (See under Aurelia for discussion of link to her.)
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His death is also recorded in a state abstract of Woodstock VR (prob. a cem. record); Farnsworth & Nye "Farnsworth Memorial 2d ed" (date only); the 21 Apr 1829 obit in Woodstock Observer; the gravestone in the Morgan-Farnsworth Cem., S. Woodstock VT; his grave stone (date only) at Morgan-Farnsworth Cem., S. Woodstock VT; and family records.
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Stephen [II] was buried with his mother, brother(s), and some of his children in the Morgan-Farnsworth Cemetery, 200 yds north of Fletcher Hill Road outside South Woodstock village.
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To avoid confusion I should note that the Farnsworth Memorial II [doc 6.4] erroneously added two children to the list of Stephen and Deborah's children: FM II p366 now shows a new "Sarah Bennet Farnsworth," who was allegedly born with a birth date identical to Terah's. Probably the editors were misled by an erroneous state abstract of the town record that misreads the "Te" of Terah as "Sa." But FM II's editors, thank goodness, did not also delete the original Terah from their book. The Woodstock original record is clear: Terah Bennet Farnsworth was the only child born on 12 Apr 1792, and Sarah Bennet Farnsworth does not appear here or in any other original record [Woodstock VT town record book "Births Marriages, Book B 1760-1851" p83; doc 6.3 herein)].
----(The FM II editors compounded their error by misreading an ambiguous state abstract to create a second erroneous child "Asa," in addition to the original record's "Ora," b. 28 Mar1794.)

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