Daniel: BIRTH Born 18 August 1761, Goshen, Litchfield, Connecticut PARENTS Daniel I and Elizabeth Pond Cook DEATH: 14 August 1809, Goshen, Litchfield, Connecituct |
Elizabeth or Eliza Porter:
BIRTH unknown
DEATH: 1834
|
CHILDREN 1. Amasa born 26 April 1782, Goshen, Litchfield, Connecticut 2. Phineas born 12 Nov. 1786, Goshen, Litchfield, Connecticut
By the time Daniel was born in Goshen, Connecticut, the family had been there for three generations. He obtained the land originally owned by his father at the top of Town Hill in Goshen after several of his brothers left to live in Massachusetts and New York.
When the Revolutionary War broke out, Daniel was 15 years old. It is not known exactly when he enlisted, but he served through the difficult years of privation and hardship, eventually finding it necessary to leave his unit and go home for food to feed his comrades. For this he was court marshaled and sentenced to die. His family later reported that the sentence was revoked because everyone was starving and needed his pork.
After seven years of starvation, of sleeping out in snow and rain, of suffering uncounted hardships, the war ended; and he was released to go home. He bought land in Goshen, took over his father's homestead and farm, and tried to support his family. However, his service as a soldier had taken his health and he had difficulty working his farm. He died in 1809, recognized as a soldier but forgotten as a martyr to the cause of freedom.
Sometime during his last year as a soldier he married Elizabeth Porter. Their first child was born in Goshen in 1782, about the time he returned from the war. Elizabeth's home and parentage are unknown, though it is known she later married Benjamin Beach in Goshen and after he died she married Joseph Peters in Kent, Litchfield.
Joseph and Elizabeth moved in 1826 to Bloomfield, Ontario, New York, lived with his daughter and son-in-law Asaneth and Darius Carter for a year, and bought land in Darien, Genesee, New York where they lived out their lives near his son Joseph Jr. Joseph Sr. died in January of 1835 and is buried in the cemetery there. Elizabeth died in 1834 but her burial is unknown as is her birth.