Jehiel BEARDSLEY

Notes:

"The Descendants of William Beardsley and Mary Harvey" - Soon after their marriage they moved to Bennington, Vermont. Later they lived in Charlotte. Around 1791 they crossed Lake Champlain near the present town of Plattsburg. They settled in the area that became Peru, Clinton County, New York. A granddaughter wrote:

"The advent was one to be remembered. They had their household goods, provisions to last until others could be grown, horses, three cows, sheep and poultry and sixty slaves. They squatted on 200 acres of land (which when surveyed, was purchased of the Government at $1.25 per acre) near the Great Ansable Rive, but thirteen mles from the lake westward. There were no roads, no cleanings, nor dwellings of any kind in that country.
"they were among the first, if not the first, to enter the unbroken forest. A narrow path was cleared and their effects carried on horseback to the river banks, where a rude cabin was erected, which sheltered their warm and hopeful hearts, ground cleared and a crop put in that spring. Here he freed all his slaves as they came of age, providing for the old ones. Here he reared his large family to man and womanhood, and here he died in 1846, at the advanced age of 112 years, leaving a handsome property to his heirs.
"He was a firm believer in an all-wise and over-ruling Providence all the days of his life, and sank to rest in a golden old age."

He was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.

Jehiel married Hannah GIFFORD about 1760 in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut, USA. Hannah was born in 1736 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States; died about 1800 in Peru, Clinton, New York, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]