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Fourth Generation.
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new house for himself on the same spot. Tradition says that when he settled there he had only a foot-path to his house, that deer were not yet very plenty, and that he often exchanged a pair of shoes for a bushel of wheat. They were members, and he was chosen a deacon, of the Congregational Church of Middlesex, now Darien. She joined by letter, 7 Oct. 1744.
He was appointed society's collector, 21 Jan. 1744-5; a committee, 16 Jan. 1748; was allowed "four pounds old tenor," 30 Jan. 1754, for "to sweep ye meeting House as often as needful for ye ensuing year," and was committee of the society from 1755 to 1760, inclusive. He was also school committee on the Stamford side, in 1756, and from that time to 1763. His ear-mark was entered in the Stamford records, 19 Jan. 1764. He was a man of great vigor, and retained his activity till near the close of his life, so that, when nearly one hundred years old, he would go to the woods to chop wood.
He was one of those who were taken prisoner, in the Middlesex church, on Sunday 22 July 1781, during public worship, by a party of British and refugees, and taken to Long Island. Some of the prisoners never returned; but he, more fortunate, found some acquaintances, through whose influence he was released and allowed to return. He and his wife lived together nearly seventy years, sixty-three of which were passed under one roof, and her death was the first that took place in the house. She died 4 Jan. 1814, aged 91 years, 4 months and 6 days, having then living (according to an obituary written at Stamford, 13 Jan. 1814) 7 children, 47 grandchildren, 83 great-grandchildren, and 6 gerat-great-grandchildren. He died in Darien, 17 May 1817, aged 100 years, 3 months, and 3 days, allowing for change of style. A white stone, erected to their memory, was found in 1867, lying flat on the ground, in a field in Darien.
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III. Eliakim Whitney, b. at Ridgefield, Conn., 13 Nov. 1718; a tanner, currier, and shoemaker; married, 10 May 1744, at Stamford, Conn., "by ye worshipfull Samll Hait, Esquier, one of his majesties Justices of ye peace for ye County of Fairfield," to Mary Beachgood, dau. of John and Hannah Beachgood, of Stamford, where she was born 18 Nov. 1721. They owned the covenant in the Congregational Church at Middlesex, now Darien, Conn., 30 June 1745. His ear-mark, "a slit in ye near ear, and a half-penny under the same," was recorded at Stamford, 29 May 1760. It is possible that she died at Stamford; for Eliakim Whitney, "of Stamford," married (2d), 15 Jan. 1775, in the P. E. Church, Mary Choram or Gorum, of Stamford. They probably left Stamford at the close of the Revolutionary war; and deeds show that he lived at Saratoga, N.Y., in 1785 and 1786. He afterward lived in Milton, or Malta, N.Y., (perhaps in each), where his son Samuel went to see him in Oct. 1810, at which date he was called 93 years old, though only 92. He died about 1811 or 1812, in Malta, and was buried there.
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