Abner CRAPO

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1820, Dartsmouth, Bristol Co., Massachusetts

Abial married Phebe DEVOLL on 30 Jun 1816 in Westport, Massachusetts. Phebe (daughter of Abner DEVOLL and Lydia MILK) was born in Feb 1792 in Westport, Massachusetts; died on 06 Nov 1862 in New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1790, Freetown, Bristol Co., Mass.
• Census: 1800, Dartsmouth, Bristol Co., Massachusetts
• Census: 1820, Dartsmouth, Bristol Co., Massachusetts
• Death: 10 Mar 1822, Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA

Notes:

Excerpt from "Certain Comeoverers": Peter Crapo, the second of the name, the son of John, the son of Peter, was born in 1743. He seems to have been a stirring sort of man of strong character, great energy and considerable achievement. There are many stories of his forceful methods and abounding vitality. When fifteen years of age it would appear that he volunteered from Rochester in the French and Indian War. At all events there was a Peter Crapo who was one of the company that met at Elijah Clapp's in Middleboro on the morning of May 29, 1758, and at a little afer sunrise commenced its march to and participated in the bloody and disastrous battle of Ticonderoga in which their General, Lord Howe, was slain. It certainly seems more probable that the Pter Crapo who wewnt on this expendition was this Peter, the son of John, born in 1743, rather than his uncle, the only other Peter then existant, who was born in 1709 and would consequently have been almost fifty years of age.
With such an experience in his boyhood it is not surprising that in the alarm of the nineteenth of April, 1775 (the battle of Lexington of which Paul Revere gave warning on the evening of the eighteenth), Peter Crapo as a private, and his brother Consider as Sergeant, marched under Captain Levi Rounseville from Freetown to the camp at Cambridge, as is set forth in the muster rolls at the State House in Boston. How long he served at this time I know not. It is possible, although not likely pehaps, that with Benedict Arnold he again traversed the road to Ticonderoga, leaving Cambridge May 3, and, joining Ethan Allen, assisted in the capture of the fortress on May 10. It is somewhat interesting that in response to this same alarm of April 19, 1775, men contains these two names in sequence, "William Crapo, corporal, Caleb Coombs, private." In the records of Rochester's quotas throughout the war the name of Crapo appears many times.
Peter again appears on the muster rolls as a private, his brother Consider as a sergeant, and his brother Joshua as a corporal, in Lieutenant Nathaniel Morton's company of militia from Freetown belonging to the regiment commanded by Edeard Pope, Esquire, which marched out on the alarm of December 8, 1776, "agreeable to the orders of the Honorable Council thereon." On this occasion Peter was given twenty days' pay, to wit: L2. 10s. 8d.
It was, however, as an active man of business that he has left his footsteps on the sands of time. You will remember that the first Peter was something of a lumberman, since he bound himself to deliver those "one thousand good merchantable rails at Acutshnet landing," and his grandson Peter's greatest effort in life was as a lumberman, logging the cedar and pine trees of Dartmouth and Freetown and sawing them at his mill at Babbitt's Forge at the head of the Quampanoag River. Afterwards his grandson, Henry H. Crapo, by a somewhat curious turn of fortune, became a lumberman and logged the pine forests of Michigan, sawing the lumber at Flint.
At what date Peter, the second, moved from Rochester to Freetown is not certain. I find a deed of land in Freetown from Bigford Spooner in 1770 to Peter's brother Joshua. This land was in the vicinity of the land which Peter later occupied. Joshua did not remain in Freetown. He is said to have imigrated to Maine. Peter and his brother Consider were settled in Freetown in 1773. They were engaged in the lumber business. In 1774 and for nearly twenty years thereafter Peter and Consider Crapo were actively engaged in logging and sawing as appears by the numerous recorded deeds to them. Their sawmill was "partly in Freetown and partly in Dartmouth" at the place called "Quampog where a forge formerly stood called Babbitt's Forge." At one time an Abraham Ashley and a Mereba Hathaway, a widow, were partners in their business. John Crapo, their father, conveyed several tracts of land to them and seems to have been interest with them in their business and may have lived with them for a time. He is always described, however, as "of Rochester." Some after 1790 Consider withdrew from the business and moved to Savoy, Massachusetts. The deeds of partition between the brothers are dated in 1797. Both brothers were owners of considerable tracts in Dartmouth, owning salt meadows on Sconticut in Troy, now Fall River. In 1793 Consider sold his homestead farm to Thomas Cottle of Tisbury, Dukes County, who removed thither. This was in the immediate vicinity of the sawmill since he reserved to his brother Peter a right of flowage appears to have taken in Richard Collins as a partner in the business. In 1793 the sawmill burned down but it apears to have been rebuilt. Down to the time of his death in 1822, Peter Crapo, as abundantly appears by the land and court records, was actively engaged in business.
Peter had a large family of children, fourteen in all, and it would seem that his manner of caring for them was distinctly patriarchal. As each child came of age and was about to be married, he summoned all the other children, the married and the unmarried, to undertake some special work whose profit might be devoted to settling the child to be married. In the case of a daughter with a dowry, in the case of a son with a homestead farm. It was in this way that by the united efforts of the whole family your great great grandfather Jesse was given his home and farm on the Rockadunda Road near the home of his wife's father, Henry Howland.
Peter kept the title of the various farms acquired for his sons in his own name, and when he died left them severally by his will, dated February 20, 1822, to their occupants, devising his own homestead fram, which, as appears by the inventory of his estate, was much the most valuable, to his youngest son Abiel, the baby of the family, on whom he placed the duty of caring for his widow. To his widow he also gave fifty dollars, one cow, and "the use and improvement of the south front room in my dwelling house with a privilege to pass and repass through the kitchen and porch and to the well to draw water, as well as a privilege in the cellar and the use and improvement of all the household furniture during her life." Considering her somewhat limited domain all the furniture may have been too liberal, but it is to be hoped that Abiel really did do his duty and made his mother comfortable. He gives to his "seven daughters" three hundred and fifty dollars each, and all of his household furniture after his widow's death. His estate was inventoried at something over $10,000, which was in those days a considerable estate.
Peter Crapo married Sarah West. The "intention of Marriage" is recorded in the Rochester town records, whereby it appears that Peter Crapo of Rochester and Sarah West of Dartmouth were "published" May ye 18th, 1766. They were married by Doctor Samuel West on NOvember 13, 1766, as appears by Doctor West's notes, which were found by the Rev. William J. Potter in an old attic in a house in Tiverton belonging to one of the famous old gentleman's descendants. It is not probable that Sarah West was related to Doctor West. She may have been an unrecorded daugher of one Charles West, originally of Middleboro, who doubtless descended from the Duxbury Wests. He lived in Bristol County at one time, and he was to some extent connected in business relations with the Crapos. Or, she may have belonged to one of the numberous Dartmouth Families of West, who were for the most part descended from Matthew West, who was in Lynn in 1636 and was subsequently of Portsmouth.. the fact that she was married by Doctor West leads me to suspect that she lived in that part of Dartmouth, now Acushnet, near the Rochester line. If so, she may have been a descentant of Stephen West who married one of John Cooke's daughters. When Sarah died, Peter married Content Hathaway of Dartmouth, and again the marriage ceremony was performed by Doctor West on October 13, 1789. At that time Peter was in Freetown and it may be that he chose for his second helpmeet a relative or friend of the the first. Many of the descendants of Stephen West and Arthur Hawthaway, both sons in law of John Cooke, lived in the northeasterly part of the town of Dartmouth not far from Rochester bounds. Sarah died May 6, 1789, in the forty-second year of her age. Her gravestone of grey slate with carved cherubims and a scriptural verse stands on the right side of Peter's stone. He died March 3, 1822, aged seventy-nine years. On his left is the stone of Content Hathaway, who died October 27, 1826, in the sixty-eighth year of her age. All three stones are well preserved and are placed in an old private burial ground, where many of Peter's descendants lie buried, in North Dartmouth, not far from Braley's Station, and near the dwelling house formerly of Malachi White.

Peter married Content PECKHAM on 13 Oct 1789 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts. Content (daughter of James PECKHAM and Deborah HAMMOND) was born in 1754 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; died on 27 Oct 1826; was buried in Crapo Cemetery, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Content Hathaway

Abner married Lydia MILK on 30 Jul 1786 in Westport, Massachusetts. Lydia was born in 1766 in Westport, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Death: Aft 16 May 1783, Rochester, Mass.

Notes:

Excerpt from Certain Comeoverers: He was born in 1711. In 1734 he married Sarah Clark, the daughter of a neighbor. In 1739 his father Peter conveyed to him twenty acres "by the orchard of Joseph Ashley" near Peter's Sniptuit holdings. It was here perhaps that he lived. In 1743 his father deeded to him additional land. In 1744 he purchased a large tract in the "gore." The consideration was L150. He is described in this deed as a "husbandman". I am of the impression that I somewhere found him described as a "blacksmith, " but I am unable to verify the statement. In 1762 he and his brothers, Peter and Hezekiah, made a partition of the land which they received as residuary legatees under their father's will, and to John was given the land which the first Peter purchased of Ebenezer Lewis not far from the Pond. There are several other records of land transfers to and from him. He was living as late as 1779 when he conveyed most of his lands to his son John, junior, having doubtless given his other sons their shares by helping them establish the lumber business in Freetown. His son Peter, of whom more anon, was the father of Jesse Crapo.

John married Sarah CLARK on 07 Nov 1734 in Rochester, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Sarah (daughter of John CLARK and Mary TOBEY) was born on 18 Mar 1714 in Rochester, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA; died on 24 Dec 1776 in Rochester, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts; was buried in First Parish Cemetery, Rochester, Plymouth Co, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

James married Deborah HAMMOND on 10 Nov 1739. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]