Captain David Starr

Recently at the retirement activity center there was a display for Daughter’s of the American Revolution which got me thinking about my 6x great grandfather in the Starr line, Captain David Starr.

David Starr was the only son of Thankful Griswold Starr and Thomas Starr, born 21 Mar 1738 in Salisbury, Connecticut. This is the same year the town was dubbed Salisbury, prior to 1738 it had been known as Weatogue.

Just a side note here- Meryl Streep raised her family in Salisbury and still owns a home there.

By 1731, a large deposit of iron ore was discovered in Salisbury and settlement of the area by people of English heritage increased dramatically. In 1737 the Hartford Colony surveyed the land and auctioned it off to the first proprietors. In 1739 Thomas deeded his land to the town for a highway and then in 1741 he deeded land to his little brother Nathaniel. A town charter was granted in 1741 by the Hartford Colony Assembly, conferring civil and religious privileges to Salisbury that were equal to other towns in the colony. The first town meeting convened on November 9, 1741. Thomas was likely at that first meeting. In 1762, long after Thomas had died, Ethan Allen and his partner built the first blast furnace in the area, known as the Salisbury Furnace, which during the Revolutionary war produced cannon and other armaments of war and became known as the Arsenal of the Revolution.

Thomas’s father, Joseph was a tailor, a trade passed down to his son Joseph Jr. in Middletown, Connecticut. Most colonial Americans bought their clothes. Almost everybody in eighteenth-century Virginia from slaves to merchants to royal governors required a tailor.

Salisbury is about sixty miles north west of Middletown. The Starr family came to Middletown Connecticut in 1674 from Massachusetts. My 9x great grandfather, Comfort Starr who was born in the Plymouth colony moved there at the age of 29 and my 8x great grandfather was Joseph became a tailor there and his children also learned the trade.

It’s likely Thomas also was a tailor and had need to move to another town that needed a tailor. Joseph had 7 sons that grew up in Middletown. The only other record of Thomas’s life in Middletown notes that he died in “Cape Boilon”. It’s unclear where this is, likely a regional name lost to history, but in 1746 at just 40 years of age Thomas died. David was baptized, in Middletown, at the age of 8 years old just 10 days before his father’s death which may indicate that his death was due to a lingering illness which prompted Thankful to return to Middletown from Salisbury with David. There was an epidemic of yellow fever recorded in two places on the coast of Connecticut that year.

Thankful remarried just four years later to John Ward Jr. and they had three children together and so in his teen years David lived with his new stepfather and toddler half siblings in Middletown.

In 1759 at the age of 21, his first daughter, Patty, was born in Middletown to 17 year old Ruth Moore, the daughter of Yale graduate, Doctor Abijah Moore, who died just a week later of smallpox. David and Ruth married, officially, in February of 1760 in Middletown. They had at least ten children together, including my 5x great grandfather, Thomas. Oct 12, 1774, David Starr deeded property of his father in Salisbury and New Milford. He was surveyor of highways in Middletown for five years, and a member of the First church. At the age of 39 he joined the Revolutionary army in the War for Independence, going into camp at Peekskill New York in the summer of 1777.

“David Starr was commissioned 1st Lieutenant January 1, 1777; Lieut. April 19, 1779; Capt. October 1780; Col. in 1781 in 6th regiment Connecticut Line.”

One notable military accomplishment is detailed here: “Captain David Starr was under the command of Lieutenant Col. Jonathan Meigs when on May 23, 1777 he led a force against the British stronghold at Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York. This attack was prepared and carried out by the members of the newly organized 6th Connecticut Regiment. The regiment recently raised in New Haven Connecticut was given the task of destroying the British stores at Sag Harbor as well as capturing all the enemies that they could. It was an amazing adventure, covering some 45 to 60 miles over water and land, meeting a brave and determined enemy, and returning to Connecticut. The attack left Guilford, Connecticut with 13 whaleboats, 2 small armed sloops and a determination to succeed. Traveling some 10 miles across Long Island Sound and landing at Southhold on the north fork of Long Island, the whaleboats were portaged across the dunes and then put in again in Peconic Bay for the final travel, 7 miles by water, to Long beach, just some 3 miles from the center of the Village of Sag Harbor.

The raid was a complete surprise to the British. It was highly successful, with 12 British ships burned to the water line at the docks of Long Wharf, some 90 prisoners taken (the entire British garrison), as well as tons of hay and rum burned and destroyed. The invading force then returned to the Connecticut shore with all of the prisoners.

All this was accomplished within 25 hours, and without the loss of a single American soldier. The action earned the mission commander, Lt. Col. Meigs, a Congressional sword, one of only 15 given for action during the American Revolution. A stone was placed on the site on May 23, 1902, commemorating the battle.”

He served: “Formation of 1777-1781, Col. William Douglass Rand’s Regiment, to continue through the War. Recruited mainly in New Haven, Connecticut. Served in August and October on the Hudson under General Putnam and engaged in all maneuvers made in consequence of the enemy’s move against Fort Montgomery.

Wintered, 1777-1778 at West Point. In the summer of 1778 encamped with the main army under Washington at White Plains.

Wintered 1778-1779 at Redding. (see https://www.putnampark.org/1778-79-encampment/)

Starr’s Regiment of Light Horse, is listed under Revolutionary War units from Connecticut in 1779.  The regiment was part of the 2nd Connecticut Brigade until May 1, 1779, when it was reassigned to the Highland’s Department. It was re-organized into nine companies on July 11, 1779, and later reassigned to the Main Continental Army in November of that year.

Winter of 1779-1780 at Morristown, N.J. The winter of 1779-1780 in Morristown, N.J., was an exceptionally harsh one known as the “Hard Winter,” where the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, endured severe cold, supply shortages, and starvation in their encampment at Jockey Hollow. The army faced over twenty snowfalls, depleted food and clothing, and near-worthless currency, leading to suffering, a lack of shelter in log huts, and even the threat of mutiny. https://journeywithmurphy.com/2021/12/morristown-winter-encampment-1779-1780/ 

His townsmen were concerned for his family in his absence, Middletown records show on Dec. 7, 1778, also in 1779 and 1781, “John Ward (his mother’s husband) was especially appointed by the town to provide for the family of Capt. David Starr, a soldier at the war.”

David must have had leave to visit his family at times as Ruth delivered two more daughters while David was serving in the war, Thankful in Dec of 1779 and Abigail in 1782, followed by one more son, Oliver in 1784 after the war had ended. His first born daughter, Patty died in 1781 or 1782 at the age of 25. Her grave is in the Old Farm Hill Cemetery in Middletown.

On January 1 1781 the regiment was merged with the 9th Connecticut Regiment, reorganized and re-designated as the 3rd Connecticut Regiment of the 1st Connecticut Brigade. On 15 June 1783 the regiment was furloughed and then disbanded on 15 November 1783.

David’s wife, Ruth, died in 1786 at the age of 44. She died on the same day as her brother, William Moore – 30 July which would suggest an accident or a shared illness.

Shortly after the death of his wife, David remarried to Hannah Goodwin and in Nov of 1789 he applied for a War Pension Bouny-Land Warrant. Then sometime after the summer of 1790, and before 1800 David left Middletown, Connecticut with his family and emigrated to Steuben, Oneida Co., N. Y., on a farm that still bears the name of “Starr’s Hill,” about half a mile from the monument erected in 1871 to Baron Steuben.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was a Prussian Baron who came to America, after some controversy in Prussia related to his homosexual lifestyle, at the invitation of Ben Franklin to help train American soldiers, arriving in 1777 at Valley Forge. In 1778, Congress, on Washington’s recommendation, commissioned Steuben to the position of Inspector General with the rank of major general. He served the remainder of the war as Washington’s chief of staff and one of his most trusted advisors.

After the war, Steuben was made a U.S. citizen and granted a large estate in New York in reward for his service. He leased a bit of that land to David Starr. The following is from the annals of Oneida Co.: “Starr’s Hill, the most elevated point of the Steuben range, is the highest land in the county. The view is very beautiful and extensive, taking in part of the Oneida Lake, and portions of seven counties are distinctly seen. It received its name from Capt. David Starr, one of the earliest settlers in the town, who chose for his home this elevated ground. Capt. Starr held a commission in the Continental army, and served seven years. A portion of this elevated locality is now devoted as a place of sepulture for the dead.”

From Oneida.nygenweb.net “As the town of Rome was embraced originally in Steuben, the first town meeting was held at Fort Stanwix, “at the house lately occupied by Seth Ranney, on the first Tuesday of April, 1793”, as given in the town records. There the following officers were chosen, the list including several of the pioneers of what is now Steuben, though most of them were from near Fort Stanwix:

      Supervisor, Roswell Fellows; town clerk, Jedediah Phelps; assessors, Abijah Putnam, Henry Wager, David I. Andrus, Samuel Sizer, Abel French; commissioners of roads, Hezekiah Wells, Daniel W. Knight, Ebenezer Weeks; overseers of the poor, Thomas Wright, Reuben Beckwith; constables, Samuel Dickinson, Edward S. Salisbury, Jasper French; collector for the west side of Mohawk River, Samuel Dickenson; collector for east side of same, Edward S. Salisbury; path masters, Clark Putnam, Benjamin Gifford, Alpheus Wheelock, Abiel Kinyon, Lemuel Beckwith, Stephen Sheldon, Frederick Sprague, William Walsworth, James Ranney, William West, Joseph Biam, Thomas Parker, Ebenezer Bacon; Samuel J. Curtis, Charles McLen, Simeon Woodruff, David Starr, Isaac Lathrop; fence viewers, Jonathan Waldo, Bill Smith, Asa Beckwith, Abraham Brooks, Ephraim Potter; pound master, Thomas Wright.”

“David Starr, also a Revolutionary soldier, settled on the hill which bears his name, having taken a durable lease from Baron Steuben. Several of the early settlers had borne arms under Steuben and they naturally sought homes near his own.

      Capt. Joseph Ingham came from the Bermuda Islands and settled in Steuben in 1800. The remains of his wife (*Sarah Starr Ingham, David’s 5th born child) are buried on the top of Starr’s Hill, where lie also the remains of William Davies and his wife. Daniel Barnes came to the town in 1794, from Middletown, Conn., built a house and made other improvements on the farm owned in recent years by John Griffiths on Starr’s Hill; he then went back for his family, returning to his settlement in the spring of 1795. He was a Revolutionary soldier. Among other settlers in the neighborhood of Starr’s Hill were Noadiah Fairchild, and Joel and Samuel Hubbard, from Middletown, Conn. In 1793 Noadiah Hubbard took the contract for constructing the canal locks for the Western Inland Navigation Company at Little Falls. He had first settled at Whitestown in 1791, where he made the first brick and the first lime. He located in Steuben about 1792, and removed to what is now Jefferson county in 1798. Elisha Crowell was also an early settler in the Starr’s Hill neighborhood.”

” Religious and educational institutions were founded early in this town, as would be expected from the well known character of the pioneers. A school was taught before 1800 in the Starr’s Hill neighborhood by Dr. Earl Bill, who lived afterwards in Remsen village; he taught only one winter. About 1807 a young man named Smith taught in the same neighborhood.”‘

Doctor Daniel Roberts was also an early inhabitant of Starr Hill. He and his wife Jane were reportedly suspected of witchcraft at the time. He died in 1820 after being thrown from his horse. Legend says you can still see him moving through the fields with a lantern on dark stormy nights as reported here.

A History of the Starr Family of New England claims after the death of Baron Steuben his executor, Colonel Walker, pressed him for the rent and David “became so irritated to think that one of his old companions in arms should distress him for that which he had not the means of paying, that he gave the Col. a verbal challenge to meet him at the grave of the Baron, with sword and pistol and there settle the matter. The suit, however, proceeded no further, and the Capt. h ad more lenity shown him…About 1809 he gave up the garm, removed to Lee Centre, Oneida Co., and died August 11, 1813, while on a visit to Adams, Jefferson Co.,” where his son David Jr lived. It’s believed he is buried there, but where is not known.

My 5x great grandfather, Thomas, was David’s eldest son and farmed with his father, first on the hill and then down in Lee Center. After he died the farm passed to his son, Asa.

The 2nd oldest daughter, Ruth, had married in Middletown to John Crowell Jr in 1784 and remained there.

The fourth born, Samuel married Abigail Rockwell in Middletown in 1792 and then joined his family in Stueben by 1794 when his daughter, Fanny, was born. Samuel had served in his father’s company in the war according to his headstone application. He would have only been 14 when David had his own company. He was buried in Chardon, Ohio at the age of 78 on June 24, 1844.

Sarah married Bermuda native Captain Joseph Ingham in 1789 back in Connecticut and they came to Starr Hill by 1794 and Sarah died there at the age of 36.

Chloe married William Alverson in Utica, NY in 1790 and they had 6 children there before she died at the age of 42.

Betsy married William Crosby in Middletown in 1788 at the age of just 18. They raised four children in Portland, Connecticut until her death at the age of 45.

Diana married John Waterman in 1791 in Middletown and they had two children together before she died in Portland, CT in 1797 at the age of just 26.

Mary married Samuel Marsh in Steuban, NY in 1794. They raised eight children in Lee Center, NY. She died there in 1842 at the age of 68.

David Starr Jr married Maria Hotchkiss and they had two children together in Jefferson County, NY. After Maria died he married Hannah Ward and had three more. He died in Jefferson County, NY the same place as his father.

Thankful married George Page in 1795 in Steuben. They raised three children there and in Smyrna, Chenango County, NY where she died at the age of 34.

Abigail’s birth is listed in the Barbour Collection but there is no other record of her.

Oliver, the youngest of the 13, married Sally Cornish in 1803 and they raised four children farming in Lee Center. After Sally died he married Lorain Ives and they had four more children. He served in the War of 1812. He died in Ellery, Chautauqua County, NY in 1860 at the age of 76.