Ebenezer Seelye (1756 - 1837)

Born 27 Mar 1756 in Litchfield, Connecticut

Ancestors

Husband of Mehetable (Todd) Seelye — married 2 Jun 1779 in New Milford, Litchfield, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 23 Jun 1837 at age 81 in Knoxville, Tioga, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Ebenezer was a Friend (Quaker)

Private Ebenezer Seelye served with 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Ebenezer Seelye is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A101503.

Revolutionary War veteran and later Quaker Ebenezer Seeley was born 1756. He passed away 1837.

EBENEZER SEELYE was born in Connecticut, and served throughout the Revolutionary War in Sheldon's Light Horse, a Connecticut company, a portion of the time under Washington. He was married in Connecticut to Mehetabel Todd, and later removed with his family to Lindley, Steuben county, New York, where he improved a large tract of land. In March, 1799, they removed from New York to what is now Deerfield township, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, and settled immediately east of Academy Corners. Here Mr. Seelye erected a saw-mill in 1810, one of the first in the Cowanesque valley. He died June 23, 1837, in the eighty-second year of his age. His wife died May 27, 1839, in her eighty-third year. their children were as follows: Mehetable, Anna, Lucina, Laura, Julius, Elanson, Harvey, Eleazer, and Sally, who was born May 4, 1800, the first female child born in Deerfield township—and married Prince King. Mr. Seelye was a Quaker in religion, an upright man, and a good neighbor and citizen. Many of his descendants are among the leading people of Tioga county.^[1]

Ebenezer Seelye, a native of Connecticut, settled immediately east of Academy Corners in 1798, and resided there until his death, June 23, 1837, in the eighty second year of his age. He served throughout the Revolutionary War in Sheldon's Light Horse, a Connecticut company, and a portion of the time under Washington. Before coming to Tioga county he became a Quaker, and was a consistent adherent of that faith during the remainder of his life. He lies buried in the old Quaker burying ground at Knoxville.^[2]

Revolutionary War Service

Pvt in Captain Stanton's Company; served in Col. Elisha Sheldon's regiment of Light Dragoons; 2nd Regiment Continental Line. Attained rank of Captain, served under Washington including at Valley Forge.

Applied for pension May 5, 1826 ^[3]

Mrs. Owlett's Portrait of Ebenezer

Below are excerpts from a 1937 publication called "A Pioneer Family Being a History of the Family of Ebenezer Seelye & Mehitable [Todd] Who Came to Tioga County in 1799" by Mrs. E. H. OWLETT, Wellsboro, PA.^[4] Mrs. Owlett give a lot of fascinating details about locations, neighbors, and the life and times of the era that are omitted and replaced by ellipses (...) in the interest of brevity. The unabridged version is available here.

Ebenezer Seelye was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut, on the 26th day of May, 1756. He was probably the son of Justus Seelye, who fought in the French and Indian War, though this has not been authenticated. He was one of eight brothers, all of whom, according to tradition, were Revolution soldiers. Ebenezer Seelye enlisted in the Revolutionary Army at the age of nineteen, answering the first call for troops in April or May, 1775. According to his war record, obtained from the Adjutant General of the state of Connecticut, and also from the Pension Bureau of Washington, his term of service covered a period of nearly six years, including six enlistments. At the opening of the war he took part in the operations of the Northern Department, around Fort Ticonderoga. Later we find him in garrison at Fort Stanwix. He seems also to have been a member of the Eighth Regiment, which was raised January 1, 1777, for the New Continental Line, and recruited from Litchfield and other counties in Connecticut to serve throughout the war.

He must then have fought at the Battle of Germantown, Oct. 4, 1777, and taken part in the stubborn defense of Fort Mifflin, Mud Island, Pennsylvania, and Nov. 12th-18th, 1777 and endured the privations of winter quarters at Valley Forge. Later we find him a member of Sheldon’s famous dragoons, recruited largely in Litchfield County and said to have been the first regiment of cavalry to join the Revolutionary Army. It was commanded by Col. Elisha Sheldon, of Litchfield County, and its services at various times called forth the public thanks of Washington. One company of this Light Horse Brigade is described as presenting a superb appearance—all being mounted on dappled gray horses, with black straps and black bear skin covers. As this was a Litchfield company commanded by Major Talmadege, a Litchfield man, it seem probable that it may have been the one to which Ebenezer Seelye belonged. In the lists of recruits for Sheldon’s Dragoons Ebenezer Seelye is described as being five feet nine inches in height, with dark complexion, dark eyes and dark hair.

The spring of 1779 was a stirring time in Connecticut. General Tryon made three expeditions into that state, leaving devastation in his track. But probably no event of that year had so great an interest to Ebenezer Seelye, as one which took place in New Milford, Connecticut, where according to the records of the First Church, he was married on June 2nd 1779, to Mabel Todd of that place.

To the soldier boy of twenty-three and his young bride life could not have been all sunshine, but we can imagine that even amidst "war’s wild alarms" that June wedding day had its own peculiar brightness. Perhaps this is the best place to give what is known of the early life of Mehitable (or as she evidently preferred to be called), Mabel Todd Seelye.

[Here Mrs. Owlett digresses int a long description of Mabel Todd more appropriately placed on her page and omitted here.]

At sometime after their marriage, Ebenezer and Mehitable Seelye went to live in Litchfield, Connecticut, where, after the disbanding of the army, in 1783, it would seem that the sword was exchanged for the plow-share and the tumults of war for the quiet life of a New England rural community. From the records of Litchfield County, we learn that Ebenezer Seelye bought one lot of land in 1787 and another in 1790, also that he owned one-fourth part of a saw mill. This land was situated in the northwest corner of Litchfield Township.

The soil of Connecticut was never famed for its productiveness and we can well understand how alluring to the vigorous young New England farmers were the unclaimed western lands so widely advertised in every New England hamlet. We have already seen that a Connecticut man was one of the proprietors of the township in which Painted Post was situated; also that Captain John Seelye, brother of Ebenezer Seelye, and a native of Litchfield, was already settled there. These facts serve to explain why, in the spring of 1795, Ebenezer Seelye, like many of his friends and neighbors, probably in company with some of them, decided to take uplands in the vicinity of Painted Post.

... At the time they decided to make this venture, Ebenezer Seelye and his wife were in the prime of life, being about thirty-eight years old. Eight children had come into their home. Just what route was selected for the perilous journey can only be conjectured. No doubt they traveled in a company, as most of the immigrants found it prudent to do. Family tradition says they crossed the Hudson River on the ice. From that river to the Delaware fairly good roads were already in existence. ...

...A large tract of land was taken up and partially cleared by Ebenezer Seelye, near the present town of Lindley. But stories of the more fertile land in the valleys of the Tioga and the Cowanesque were not doubt often told around the evening fire; and when, in 1797, James Strawbridge (who, though compelled to leave his lands in the Cowanesque, had not abandoned title to them) offered Ebenezer Seelye a part of his claim, with improvement on it, for two dollars and fifty cents an acre, the offer was accepted.

Not caring to venture into the wilderness alone, Mr. Seelye offered the improvements to William Knox, if he would accompany him. (The Knox’s, it will be remembered, were among the first settlers of Painted Post). This offer was accepted by Mr. Knox and in the spring of 1798 he and his son William, caped upon and enlarged the Strawbridge clearing. They found their, as the "improvements" offered by Strawbridge, a log house, a partly cleared field enclosed with a log fence, and a nearly completed mill race. They remained all summer, returning to Painted Post for the winter. In the following spring, March 1799, the two families started for their new home in one of the most beautiful and fertile valleys of Pennsylvania.

Ebenezer Seelye had been four years upon his clearing at Painted Post, and one child, a son had been added to his family, making five girls and four boys, the eldest of the family, Betsey, being eighteen, the youngest, Eleazer, not yet four. William Knox had four children, three boys and one girl. The little company consisting of four adults and thirteen young people and children, proceeded with sleds drawn by oxen to what was then known as Beecher’s Island, now Nelson. The cows and other stock were driven with them. From Beecher’s Island they traveled on the ice up the Cowanesque to the Strawbridge clearing. For immediate use the log cabin was awaiting them. By starting in March they gained a long season in which to prepare for their first winter in so solitary a wilderness.

The Knox family located on the old Strawbridge clearing and the Seelye family about one mile east of what is now Academy Corners. Eleazer Seelye, the youngest of the family who came to Painted Post, says in a letter to the Agitator contributed in 1867; "My father erected a cabin of bark set against a large pine log and we lived in it for a year and a half. He then built a log house. In this we lived the first winter without a floor, there being no saw mill nearer than Painted Post." ...

...In the letter of Eleazer Seelye referred to above he says: ‘For a grist mill we used a stump hollowed out by fire for mortar, and a spring pestle. In this we pounded our samp for bread and puddings for two years." And there were ten growing children in the family! ...

...The first saw mill on the Cowanesque was built just above Knoxville, by Dr. Eddy Howland in 1804. In 1810 a second mill was built by Ebenezer Seelye and Emmer Bowen, about a mile east of Academy Corners. This mill was operated for nearly thirty years. It had a flutter wheel and a single upright saw. By diligence and good management one thousand feet of panel white pine could be cut in twelve hours....

...In March 1800, one year after their settlement on the Cowanesque, James Knox, the first male white child born in Deerfield township, was added to the family of William Knox; and in May of the same year a daughter was born to Ebenezer Seelye, Sally, the tenth and youngest child, she was the first female white child born in what is now Deerfield Township.

After 1800 settler began to come rapidly into the valley and it soon became necessary to provide a school for the children. The first schoolhouse in the Cowanesque Valley, if not the first in the county, was built in the summer of 1803. It was a log building 18 feet square and stood on what is now the old burying ground of the Loren Carpenter farm, at Academy Corners. The building was covered with a cobbed roof and floored with puncheons. The benches were split bass wood logs with legs. There was a fireplace of stone at one end. Among the list of children, we find mostly Seelye’s and Knox’s. There were Betsy, Anna, Lucina, Julius, Mehitable, Harvey, Laura and Elanson Seelye, and John, William and Betsy Know....

...The next step taken by the settlers on the Cowanesque was toward some religious organization. The first church building in Tioga County was the "Quaker Meeting House of hewn logs built by Benjamin W. Morris, in Wellsboro. The second church building in the county was the Quaker Meeting House erected in Knoxville, in 1812. "This was a log building through the middle of which ran a movable partition which was raised and lowered, with much noise, by means of chains. On one side of the partition sat the men, on the other the women. During the hour of worship the partition was removed, but when there was business to transact, the cumbrous machinery was put in motion and each held a separate business session. The rules of the meeting were to sit an hour; if anyone felt moved to speak he or she did so, otherwise the hour was sat out in silence and ended with a general hand-shaking. Among the first members were Ebenezer Seelye and Mehitable, his wife (she had begun to write her name Mehitable by this time) Julius Seelye, there eldest son, and Joanna, his wife; Joseph Colvin, and Ruth, his wife, Emmer Bowen, and Huldah, his wife; Martin Bowen and Freelove, his wife. Freelove Bowen, Julius Seelye and Eddy Howland are mentioned as the most frequent speakers." (Tioga Co. History). ...

...Eleazer Seelye says in his letter to the Agitator that it was six or seven years before his father began to raise wheat, rye and oats. In the meantime, the family dressed mostly in garments made of deer skins, wore coonskin caps, and moccasins of domestic manufacture. Yet prosperity attended their efforts and they were able at an early date to acquire possession of the land. A 1807, George Strawbridge, nephew of James Strawbridge and administrator of his uncle’s estate, came to Tioga County to attend to his duties. In Deed Book No. 2 of the Recorder’s Office of Tioga County, is recorded the deed by which one tract of the land belonging to Ebenezer Seelye is conveyed to him by James Strawbridge, through his administrator. He land is described entirely by water and trees, thus calling up a picture of its isolation and of its forest environment. "Beginning at a Water Beach on the bank of that branch of the Cowanesque called the Island Stream, thence so many perches north to A Chestnut Oak, thence, west so many perches to a White Oak, & etc., containing in all 266 acres, being a part of two tracts as surveyed to James Strawbridge by virtue and warrants Nos. 345 and 5,178. Consideration $666.00.

In 1818, we find another deed by which 88 acres, or one third of this tract, is conveyed by Ebenezer Seelye to his son, Julius Seelye, for $500.00. This deed indicates less isolation, as mention is made of Deerfield Township and the adjoining land of William Faulkner. But it, too, must still make use of stream and forest in describing the land. In succeeding wills and deeds we may trace this tract of land from Julius Seelye to Mary Seelye, great granddaughter of Ebenezer Seelye. At her death her administrator sold the farm to S. L. Ludlam, it having been for over a hundred years in possession of the Seelye family and the Seelye name. From other records we find that to each of his three remaining sons Ebenezer Seelye sold a farm, for an ample consideration. While to each of his six daughters, except the one that left the county, he gave a tract of land without any consideration whatsoever....

...Ebenezer Seelye is described by the few of his descendants still living who saw him as a quiet man, true to the principles of the Quaker faith which he professed. So much so, indeed, that he would never talk about the part he took in the Revolutionary War. To eager questions of children and grandchildren he would answer with a characteristic twinkle of his eye, "I am a Quaker, Quakers know nothing of war." It is because of this reticence that so little is known except from official records of the stirring scenes in which he must have taken part.

What influences in early or later life induced Ebenezer Seelye and his wife to adopt the Quaker Faith is not know. There were few Quakers in Litchfield County, Connecticut, and the Todd family are said to have been of the Church of England. Perhaps it was in part a reaction against those years of war and bloodshed that led him to choose the "Prince of Peace" as his commander.

In the Quaker cemetery at Knoxville lie the remains of Ebenezer Seelye and Mehitable, his wife. He died at the age of 81, she at the age of 83. Their 10 children grew to manhood and womanhood in Tioga County, married and gave to them 101 grandchildren, most of whom took an active part in the life of the community to which they belonged. Thus it is, perhaps, not an overstatement to say that the pioneer family of Ebenezer Seelye had somewhat to do with the development of Tioga County....

Ebenezer Seeley. ^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}

Born 26 June 1756. Litchfield County, Connecticut, USA. ^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]}

Died 23 June 1837. Deerfield Twp, Tioga, Pennsylvania. ^{[22][23][24][25][26]}

Residence 1790 Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States. ^[27]

Buried Knoxville, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, United States of America. ^[28]

Marriage Husband Ebenezer Seeley. Wife Mehitable Todd. Child: Elizabeth Betsy Seelye. Child: Ann Seelye. Child: Lucinda Seelye. Child: Laura Seelye. Child: Mehitable Seeley. Child: Harvey Seeley. Child: Elanson Seeley. Child: Lucinda Seeley. Child: Sally Jane King. Child: Elezer Seely. Marriage 02 Jun 1779. New Milford, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States. ^{[29][30][31][32][33][34]}

Husband Justus Seeley. Wife Phebe Bissell. Child: Rebecca Seelye. Child: Ebenezer Seeley. Child: Capt John Seelye. Child: Benjamin Seelye. Child: Lt Seth Seelye. Child: Elizabeth Seelye. Child: Nathaniel Seelye. Child: Samuel Seelye. Child: Phebe Seelye. Child: Hannah Seelye. Child: Isaiah Seelye. Marriage 17 Jul 1754. New Milford, Litchfield, Connecticut, The Colonies. ^[35]

Sources

1. ↑ History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, RC Browne, 1897, Chapter 61, pp 867-947 Complete book available here as of November 2018
2. ↑ History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, RC Browne, 1897, Chapter 14, page 206, -- Early Settlers Who Were Revolutionary Soldiers --
3. ↑ Pamphlet Accompanying Microcopy No. 531. "Letters of Application and Recommendation during the Administration of John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829." [1]
4. ↑ A Pioneer Family Being a History of the Family of Ebenezer Seelye & Mehitable [Todd] Who Came to Tioga County in 1799" by Mrs. E. H. OWLETT, Wellsboro, PA. 1937 Commercial Press, Elmira, N. Y. 2004 Reprinted & Published online by Joyce M. Tice - Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice
5. ↑ Source: #S1466627457
6. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 088 : 1911
7. ↑ Source: #S1466591606
8. ↑ Source: #S1466627471
9. ↑ Source: #S1466627471
10. ↑ Source: #S1466627476 Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots; Volume: 4; Serial: 11670; Volume: 3
11. ↑ Source: #S1466627481
12. ↑ Source: #S1466627517 Year: 1790; Census Place: Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut; Series: M637; Roll: 1; Page: 367; Image: 342; Family History Library Film: 0568141
13. ↑ Source: #S1466611346 Source number: 1770.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: PK2
14. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR Vol 079
15. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 088 : 1911
16. ↑ Source: #S1466591606
17. ↑ Source: #S1466627471
18. ↑ Source: #S1466627471
19. ↑ Source: #S1466627481
20. ↑ Source: #S1466611346 Source number: 1770.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: PK2
21. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR Vol 079
22. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 088 : 1911
23. ↑ Source: #S1466591606
24. ↑ Source: #S1466627471
25. ↑ Source: #S1466627471
26. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR Vol 079
27. ↑ Source: #S1466627517 Year: 1790; Census Place: Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut; Series: M637; Roll: 1; Page: 367; Image: 342; Family History Library Film: 0568141
28. ↑ Source: #S1466591606
29. ↑ Source: #S1466627457
30. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 088 : 1911
31. ↑ Source: #S1466611346 Source number: 1770.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: PK2
32. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 091 : 1912
33. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 109 : 1929
34. ↑ Source: #S1466606274 Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 088 : 1911
35. ↑ Source: #S1466611346 Source number: 1751.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: PK2

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