Cousin P. Anne Seely Smouther this week mailed me tons of stuff including lots
of photos. Among the items were some typewriter transcriptions of newspaper
clippings. I don't know who retyped them or when.
Here are two of them that will interest our members who are Hazlett descendants.
Fist is one that begins with a notation about the news clipping - "No date given
paper old and torn. Mr. Archibald Hazlett of Middlebury died in the home of
his daughter, Mrs. Abner Sweet, 23rd ___ ____. Mr. Hazlett was born in Lancaster
County, Pa., in 1803 and came to Nelson in 1811 with his parents. In 1826 he
married Cynthia Hammond and moved to Middlebury where he resided the rest of
his life. He leaves a large family of adult children. In 1875 he joined the
Baptist Curch of Middlebury."
It's certainly frustrating that the month and date of his death are missing.
He was postmaster of Middlebury Center from 1877 to 1881, so we know he didn't
die before 1881. Do any of you have a death date for Archibald or Cynthia?
According to the 1897 History of Tioga County, he was the first settler of
Middlebury Center. As many of you know, Mrs. Abner Sweet was Elsie (1852 -
1906), acording to my data the youngest of his 11 children.
On to sister Sarah.
"Mrs. Sarah Fowler, widow of the late Albert Fowler of Nelson died at the home
of Mrs. Ada Crandall 1st Jan She was the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Campbell
Hazlett, and was born in Nelson 11th Feb 1817. She married Albert Fowler 7th
Jun 1841. Two children born to them died in early childhood. Mr. Fowler died
30th Aug 1865. She is survived by her eldest sieter: Mrs. Jane Andrews of South
New Berlin, Chenango County, N.Y. The burial was in the old family plot of
the Hazletts and Cambells who were among the earliest settlers of that place."
Do any of you have a death date for Sarah? I have 1899, but that is not verified
and could be wrong. Sister Jane (Hazlett) Ellison Andrews died in 1901, so
we have that as a limit. This is the first reference I have seen to children
for Sarah and Albert. Does anyone have their names and/or sex?
As many of you know, that burial plot was on the land that Samuel Hazlett bought
from Daniel Strait before coming to Nelson, near the farmhouse that was built
to replace Mr. Straight's log shelter. The farm passed to brother John Hazlett,
then to son-in-law Wm. Merritt and his son, Charles Fowler Merritt. Jane Campbell
Tubbs wrote about it at the turn of the century. Our cousin, Clifford Merritt,
Jr., was born there. It was sometimes called the Paul Bennett Cemetery, after
the last owner. Although well above the water level, the graves, and some tombstones,
were removed to the Nelson Cemetery as part of the Cowanesque Lake project.
They are in the N.W. corner of the cem., but are easy to miss because the stones
were laid flat. Marylyn Adams and I and others removed the grass that had grown
over some of them so we could read them, but I suspect it will keep growing
back, obscuring the graves.
Why did Sarah die at Ada Campbell (Seely) Crandall's? There is a double connection.
Ada's mother, Mary Ann (Campbell) Seely was a 1st cousin of Sarah. In addition,
Ada's husband, Truman Crandall was a grand nephew of Sarah. Truman's mother
was Sally Ellison, dau. of the Jane (Hazlett) Ellison Andrews mentioned in the
obit.
And for those of you who like to see the intertwined brances of family trees,
Truman's step-mother, Elizabeth Selling/Sellen, later became the 2nd wife of
Robert Campbell (1827 - 1898). Robert was a 1st cousin of Mary Ann and Jane.
Diagramming that might require a 4 dimensional family tree. The web certainly
gets tangled. Some of Robert's descendants are members of our mail list.