The Scoville Family

     Among the early settlers, though not original proprietors, were three brothers - Samuel, Stephen, and Timothy Scoville - spelt in the early records, Scovel, from Saybrook.
    Samuel settled where Henry Rogers now lives, building a house, probably of logs, just east of the present dwelling.
    Stephen settled where Sylvester Scoville now lives.
    Timothy settled just above the Mills place, north of Frank Reed's. These three lived and died where they settled, and are buried in South Cornwall cemetery.
    From Stephen descended Levi, who was deaf and dumb; and Sylvester, his son, who still occupies the old homestead. Levi was a good farmer, a man of remarkable intelligence for a deaf and dumb, before they had any of the modern advantages of education. He had no difficulty in communicating with his neighbors by natural signs so apt that all could understand. He was a regular attendant at church, and, it was said, well knew what the minister had to say.
    Timothy's children - Ira and Ithamar - moved West.
    Samuel had a large family:  two sons by his first wife, Samuel and Jacob, familiarly known as "Uncle Jake." Both were Revolutionary soldiers, and were taken prisoners at the battle of Long Island, and confined in the terrible prison-ships, and eventually dismissed on parole. When they came home, their clothes were so infested with vermin that they had to bury them.
    Samuel settled on the Cobble, and it is said that when engaged in piling up the stone walls which still stand there, talking to his four yoke of oxen, he could be heard at Cornwall Center and down on Cornwall Plain.
    A sketch of "Uncle Jake" is given among the Heroes of the Revolution. Many stories of him are still extant. One time, while watching a redoubt, a British soldier, being in the habit of coming out and slapping a portion of his person in contempt, he was appointed, as the best shot in the company, to put a stop to the performance. He watched his opportunity, and had the satisfaction of seeing the soldier keel off the parapet before the slapping process was half accomplished.
    At one time he bet a gallon of rum that he could out jump the company (the ------- Connecticut), and won it by clearing thirty- six feet at two hops and a jump.
    By his second wife Samuel S., Sen., had sons, Joseph, Daniel, Jonah, Ezra, Stephen, and Jonathan.
    Joseph first settled and built the house where Frank Reed now lives; afterwards moved to Greene, Chenango County, N. Y.; was run over by his team of horses and killed. His son Jesse built the house lately occupied by Deacon Nettleton, and moved with his father to Greene, and built the first permanent bridge across the Chenango river at that place.
    Daniel and Ezra moved to Vermont. Jonah went to New Connecticut, O. Stephen lived in Cornwall, and died from the bite of a mad cat. Jonathan remained on the old homestead and took care of the old folks.
    Daughters of Samuel S., Sen., were Lois, married Dilly Howe, brother to Ichabod, and lived on Sharon Mountain; Eunice, married Richard Wickwire, brother of Daniel W., and father of Mrs. James Reed; Ruth, married Mr. Dibble, and moved West; Sallie, married Mr. Brown, and moved West; Samuel was a bachelor, and died in 1877; John, married Eleanor Fletcher. Is now a successful practitioner of medicine at Ashley Falls, Mass.
    Jonathan had children, Jacob and Samuel, twins; John, Ethan, and Daniel, Sarah, and Mary Ann.
    Jacob married Martha Ingersoll of Bethlehem, and settled near, and, occupied a part of, the old homestead, now owned by his son, Ralph I. Scoville. He died in 1876. Jacob and his son Ralph have represented the town in the Legislature. Samuel, second son, graduated at Yale, 1857. Is a Congregational minister at Norwich, N. Y.; married Hattie, daughter of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and has four children. Eliza, only daughter, married William Rogers of Cornwall; moved to Kentucky, where he died. Mrs. R. returned to Cornwall, and lives on the old property of "Uncle Jacob." Her eldest daughter, Belle, married Eugene Wickwire, and lives in Cornwall.
    Ethan died in New Haven, unmarried. Daniel married Betsey Gray. Only one son, Eugene, survives. A daughter, Belle, married David O. Cain of Sharon. Sarah married Riley M. Rexford. Another Scoville, Elias, a blacksmith, came from Middlebury, having resided in Goshen for a time, about 1838, and had a shop near North Cornwall church, where, in connection with Mr. Studley of Sharon, they made wagons, and also did general blacksmithing. His shop was afterwards removed to the neighborhood of Gold's mill, where he bought the house of Wm. Smith, formerly the old Baptist church, where he now resides. He is a genial man and a good mechanic; but had rather tell a story than shoe a horse, even when the joke rests on himself. As the owner of a Bolles' rock-puller, with improvements of his own, he has helped to make the rough places of Cornwall smooth. His oldest son, Niles, follows his trade at the same place, and represented the town in the Legislature in 1871.