Update from beyond

Interpretation of Gravestones at Glenwood Cemetery
Champlain, NY
Bill O’Halloran
May 21, 2008

On May 18, 2008, my son, Jeff, and I visited the Glenwood Cemetery in Champlain, NY, where we took photos of about 17 gravestones of the Dewey and Hamilton families. This memo attempts to show how our family is linked to these ancestors. I had been to this cemetery before, and I already had pictures of a couple of these stones, but most of these were new, and eight of them were people that I hadn’t yet entered into our family tree. Some of these stones were recently moved to this cemetery. I believe that many of them had been in storage for many years after the original Dewey Cemetery near the Dewey Tavern (Louis Bedard home) was plowed under. The names in bold capitals correspond to the gravestones we found in the Glenwood Cemetery.

I will start with the patriarch of this group, JOHN HAMILTON. John is my 4th great-grandfather. He was born in Brookfield, MA, the 3rd great-grandson of Resolved White, who came over on the Mayflower in 1620 with his father, William White. John Hamilton married SARAH STONE and had several children, including a daughter, Lovisa and a son, Elias. In 1790, Lovisa married Elias Dewey, who was born in Hebron, CT in 1768. Elias Dewey himself had quite a pedigree. He descended from John Drake on his father’s side, whom I have recently traced all the way back through the Royal Line of England to William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, Brian Boru, and Alfred the Great, just to name a few. Furthermore, on his mother’s side, Elias was the 3rd great-grandson of William Bradford of the Mayflower with his second wife (and childhood sweetheart), Alice Carpenter, who came to Plymouth in 1623 after his first wife, Dorothea May “accidentally” fell off the Mayflower and drowned off Cape Cod in December 1620. But that’s another story.

The following excerpt is from my family tree notes on Elias Dewey: “According to the Dewey Genealogy, he arrived from Wethersfield, CT in 1797/8, took up a large tract of land and became pioneer at Champlain, NY; felled trees to make a road for two miles from Rouses Point (now called Prospect Hill Road), where they erected a log cabin with a blanket for a door (until a better could be substituted), and commenced pioneer life, with its attendant hardships. The 1798 Tax Assessment showed, "Elias Dewy, 80 acres on the Highway adjoining James Deans Land. One Log house ($10). In abt. 1800, the rude log cabin was exchanged for a commodious 15 room public house. Until recently, the original home was a pig sty on the farm. This house, known as the Dewey Tavern, was the scene of great excitement, and of danger as well, during the War of 1812. It was in the path of many skirmishes, and both British and American officers quartered there during the war. Important war conferences were held there, including two for making prisoner-of-war treaties. More than half of the fourteen thousand British soldiers camped on the Dewey farm on their march to the Battle of Plattsburgh in September, 1814, and on their retreat, many of the wounded were brought here. The Dewey Tavern was on the direct road from Montreal to Albany (now Rte 276), and in 1815, a stage route was established from Montreal to Plattsburgh, with a stage coach stop at the Dewey place. The Deweys prospered as the Tavern prospered, and it was the favorite place sought for rest and refreshment by those who traveled the North Country. According to folklore, this house also later played a key role as the last stop on the Underground Railroad, harboring fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. The hidden passages and secret hiding places are still there today.”

I am descended directly from Elias and Lovisa Dewey. Their daughter, Samantha Dewey, married Oliver Odell. Their son, Joseph Dewey Odell, had 15 children by three wives. My grandmother, Lucinda Mabel Odell, was the youngest of the 15 children by Joseph’s third wife, Susanna Grimshaw. Lucinda’s half sister, Mary Odell, married her mother’s brother, William Grimshaw, so the family relationships got complicated after that. As a matter of fact, it was about ten years ago, when I tried to understand how these relationships worked, that I got started on this whole genealogy kick.

Elias Dewey was therefore my 3rd great-grandfather. Unfortunately, the gravestones of Elias and Lovisa have never been located, although they were reputed to have been buried in the same Dewey Cemetery near the Dewey Tavern where the other stones we saw at Glenwood were originally located. Joseph Dewey Odell is buried in the Jackson cemetery in Odelltown, across from the golf course, next to his first wife, Jane Teskey (!).

Other children of Elias and Lovisa Dewey buried at Glenwood are DRUSILLA DEWEY, who never married, and SILAS HAMILTON DEWEY. Silas married Caroline Clark, and they had a daughter, CAROLINE CLARK DEWEY, who died in infancy. Silas inherited the Dewey Tavern and was living there in 1880. As a side note, another daughter of Elias and Lovisa, Maria Dewey Moore, is also buried Glenwood Cemetery, but at a different location. She married Charles S. Moore, nephew of Pliny Moore, the original settler of Champlain. I will try to find their gravestones on another visit. That could be tough, since half the cemetery consists of the Moore family.

The Hamiltons and Deweys remained close. About the same time that the Deweys arrived, John and Sarah (Stone) Hamilton, along with their son, ELIAS HAMILTON, and his wife, DORCAS HAYFORD, also came to Champlain. John Hamilton’s tract of land (Refugee Lot 102), consisted of the land now occupied by both houses across from our farm (the Bullis farm), as well as the southwest portion of the current farm. Elias Hamilton built the old house on the hill next to the current Duda house around 1805, where my mother, Mabel Lucinda Bullis, was born.
Another daughter of John and Sarah Hamilton, Elizabeth, came to New York as well, along with her husband, DEACON SAMUEL NEWELL. Elizabeth remarried after Samuel’s death and is buried in Chazy, NY, but Samuel, along with two of their children, RUBY NEWELL and SULLIVAN S. NEWELL, are buried together at Glenwood.

All of the other gravestones we saw were children or grandchildren of Elias and Dorcas Hamilton. These include JOEL HAMILTON, SIDNEY HAMILTON, Sidney’s son, SYLVESTER HAMILTON, HILA HAYFORD HAMILTON, ELIAS S. HAMILTON, MERRITT HAMILTON, EDWARD HAMILTON, Edward’s wife, EMILY J. CANFIELD, and their infant daughter EMILY A. HAMILTON.

Many of these names were new to me, including Caroline Dewey, and all the children of Elias and Dorcas Hamilton, except for Sidney and Edward. So all in all, it was a worthwhile endeavor to track down these gravestones.