The March 2016 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, March 10, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.
The following is the Treasurer's report for the month of March:
Do you have a family member that
is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership
in the Madison County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful
gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at [email protected],
about a gift membership.
On March 10, 2016, Milan Paddock
presented a program titled Sybil Ludington: Heroine of the
American Revolution. Milan has been doing genealogy for
over 50 years. He is a native Californian and worked for IBM from
college to retirement. IBM transferred him to St. Louis in 1971
and he has been here ever since. Milan is past president of the
St. Louis chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and was
state historian for the Missouri State Society of SAR. He has
two sons and a daughter and is the grandfather of two.
[This is partly the story of
Milan's ancestor and partly that of Sybil Ludington.]
Seth Paddock, Sr. (ancestor of Milan Paddock) was born in 13 March
1707 in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. He had a hard time with wives;
his first, Mercy Nickerson, was born in 1710, married Seth Sr.
on 13 April 1727. She bore him a son and a daughter. She died
in October of 1735. His second, Zerviah Storrs, was born on the
27 August 1712. She married Seth Sr. on 10 October 1735, (the
same month of the death of his first wife). Zerviah bore Seth
Sr. two daughters. She died 3 January 1738, five days after the
birth of her youngest daughter. Seth Sr. then found Ruth Arnold,
born 16 November 1720, and married her on 5 April 1746. Against
all odds, Ruth bore Seth Sr. three sons: Seth Jr., Stephan, and
Judah.
We need to understand the country in those days. The new Provincial
Congress of New York met in New York City Hall on 22 May 1775,
and adopted the following resolution: "that it is recommended
to every inhabitant of this colony who has neglected to sign the
General Association to do it with all convenient speed."
This compelled every inhabitant to align themselves with the colonists
or with Britain. If he signed the General Association, the British
could hold him as a traitor; or if he sided with British, the
colonists could seize all his belongings.
Seth Paddock Sr. was a farmer. Sometime after 1753, he moved his
family to Fredericksburg, New York, from Connecticut. In 1776,
when the American Revolution broke out, Seth Sr. was 71 years
old. The ages for Patriots called up were between 16 and 60. So
Seth Sr. had to stay behind and mind the farm. His three sons
aged 30, 26, and 23 were called up. All three were in Col. Ludington's
Regiment.
On the night of 25 April 1777, some 2,000 British regulars under
command of General Tryon landed from 20 transports and six warships
at the mouth of the Saugatuck River at Compo Beach, Westport,
Connecticut, just east of the present-day city of Norwalk. Their
objective was the destruction of Patriot supply houses at Danbury,
about 22 miles inland. That night they camped at Weston, eight
miles inland, and the next morning marched northward through Bethel
doing little or no damage to private property en route, arriving
in Danbury about 3 P.M. The enemy objective was to capture or
destroy the American supplies that, for security reasons, had
recently been transferred there from Peekskill.
The poorly defended storehouses were filled with great quantities
of salt, flour, rice, molasses, coffee, meat, and grain, and also
large stores of quartermaster supplies: hay, tents, hospital cots,
shoes and socks, uniforms, powder, shot, and muskets, along with
several-score hogsheads of rum. Rum was classed in Colonial times
as "medical supplies," and rum was exactly what the
British troops desired after their long march. The British soldiers
consumed the rum so enthusiastically that an all-time record for
Danbury was soon established. By four o'clock several army supply
houses and three private homes were in flames. The staggering
soldier's drunken howls, army songs, cursing, shouted insults,
and random firing was heard on every hand, rising above the roar
of flames and the screams of the terrorized women and children.
On 26 April 1777, at 4 P.M., four Colonial messengers were hastily
dispatched from Danbury in differing directions: one to Benedict
Arnold and General Wooster in New Haven, one to General Stillwater,
and one to Colonel Ludington in New York, to warn them that the
British were approaching.
Colonel Ludington was weary having just returned from a long and
arduous trip mustering supplies for his regiment and was looking
forward to a comfortable evening at home with his family. Around
nine o'clock, a loud and persistent pounding was heard at his
door. Upon opening the door, he saw a breathless, rain soaked,
mud spattered messenger bearing news of the burning and sacking
of Danbury. It is reported that the Colonel was "fighting
mad!"
A prompt decision and immediate action were critical. He must
gather his militiamen and prevent the enemy from passing through
this territory to the Hudson River. Danbury needed help at once.
The local families also had to be alerted to the danger of impending
attack, so they would have time to abandon their homes and flee
northward. The families needed time for the women and children
to pack. Their clothing and bedding needed to be loaded into horse-drawn
wagons or ox carts.
The messenger and his horse were spent; they could go no further
that night. Who was there to ride to spread the alarm and to muster
the 400 men of Colonel Ludington's command? "I'll go, Daddy,"
spoke up Sybil, his 16 year-old daughter. We can only imagine
what might have gone on in the Colonel's head before he granted
permission for his teen-aged daughter to undertake this hazardous
mission on such a dark and stormy night through enemy infested
territory. Some sources say that he "gave his consent with
great reluctance."
A large strapping yearling gelding, named Star, recently broken
to bit and saddle by Sybil, herself, (who it was said "was
a bit of a tomboy"), was led from his comfortable stall;
a man's saddle was thrown on his back, and Sybil, mounted astride,
seized the rope rein and in one swift move horse and rider vanished
into the night.
As she left her home, Sybil went
southward along a trail paralleling the middle branch of Croton
River. She then rode down Horse Pound Road to Carmel where, upon
her warning, "the village bell pealed forth its muster call."
Here, we are told, a horseback rider offered to accompany her,
but she asked him instead to spread the news eastward (toward
the present village of Brewster).
We can imagine the great joy-filled emotion that greeted her safe
return. The rain was slackening as a motley crowd of militiamen
began gathering at the Ludington farm, eventually becoming a force
of 200 men. Many of the minutemen were poorly clad and lacked
weapons and ammunition, but all were determined to avenge the
fate of their stricken countrymen across the state border.
At dawn, Colonel Ludington was ready to lead his men through Franklin
(now Paterson), and out the Haviland Hollow Road into Connecticut.
British General Tryon had planned to spend a restful Sabbath at
the scene of his arson and pillage. But soon after midnight, word
came that an American force of 700 men under General Wooster had
gathered at Bethel.
Fearing attacks from the west and the east, the British soldiers
resumed their work of destroying Danbury before the troops' morning
withdrawal. In all, 19 private homes, 20 stores and shops, a meeting
house, and several barns and other storage buildings were destroyed.
Outnumbered three to one, the gallant patriots, in true Minuteman
style, harassed the retreating British all the way back to their
ships on Long Island Sound, inflicting over 200 British casualties,
more than twice as many as the American Minutemen suffered.
After the close of the Revolution, Sybil Ludington married Edmund
Ogden, a lawyer from Catskill, New York, and bore him four sons
and two daughters. One of her sons, Major Edmund A. Ogden, born
in 1810, went on to become a distinguished military figure and
the founder of Fort Riley in the mid 1800's.
Sybil Ludington died at 77 years, 10 months, and 13 days old on
26 February 1839, and is buried in the Paterson Presbyterian Church
Cemetery, in Paterson, New York.
In 1935, the New York State Education Department placed a series
of roadside markers along Sybil's route. On 8 June 1961, the Bethel
County sculptor, Anne Hyatt, of Huntington, presented a statue
of Sybil Ludington riding her horse Star, to the care of the Carmel
(NY) chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. This
statue may be seen today on the shore of Lake Gleneida. On 25
March 1975 a postage stamp was issued by the US Postal service
commemorating Sybil's Ride for Independence.
Almost everyone knows about Paul Revere who rode 14 miles in two
hours in good weather; but most people do not know about young
Sybil Ludington who rode 40 miles in lousy weather.
This presentation was very well received and several questions
were asked.
