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SAMUEL
ABBOTT was one of the early settlers from Danbury. He
located in the East Street. He first erected a
log-house, and afterwards a large and commodious
residence a few rods southwest of the house of the late
Ebenezer Birdsey. This house was burned in the middle of
the day by the accidental ignition of dry flax, supposed
by means of a cat. This was before the existence of
insurance on buildings or their contents-all the
furniture and clothing of the family being in the house,
were, with it, totally consumed, which calamity at once
reduced Mr. Abbott from a state of affluence to poverty.
Mr.
Abbott was a very worthy citizen, and for several years
a deacon of the Congregational Church. His children were
Samuel, Abel, Nathan, Seeley, and Daniel, and a daughter
who married Jesse Jerrods, from Long Island. Samuel
Abbott, Jr., is said to have been regardless of religion
until he was more than eighty years old. He did not
attend public worship, but in 1811 he was in a
surprising manner changed in his views of religion. At
the time of a revival, he became under deep conviction,
which he struggled desperately to suppress. After a time
his heart yielded to the power of Divine Truth, and he
became a humble and earnest Christian, and united with
the Congregational Church in South Cornwall. He lived to
be eighty-six years old, and died in the full hope of a
glorious immortality.
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