(Dyer, Jonathan, Benjamin, Elkanah, Edward)

died aged 86y 8m 16ds; widowed; farmer

son of Dyer Babbitt &
Jane (Johnson) Babbitt

m. 1) Polly Manley 2 Dec 1819
at Castleton, Vermont

m. 2) Margaret Hodgson 15 Sep 1875
at Castleton, Vermont

children w/1st wife Polly:
Amos Phillips b. Nov 1823 d. 1 Nov 1882
William D 1826 - 1840
Mary Jane 1828 - 1840
Lyman J 1830 - 1840
Luthera M 1833 - 1840
Dyer W b. 7 Jan 1836 d. 3 July 1851
Oscar L b. 3 June 1838
Valorus M b. 7 Mar 1839/40 d. 29 Dec 1915 m. Maria Smith
Zeruah Jane b. 10 Jan 1843 m. Weston B Arnold
Luthera b. 1 June 1846 d. 6 Nov 1931 m. Seneca Field Jr. & Daniel T Johnson

When he was sixteen years old he was "bound out" or apprenticed to Capt. Fisher of Castleton, Vt. until he was twenty-one, at which time he received two suits of clothes and a colt. He married Polly Manley two years later and settled in Castleton. In 1840 he started for Illinois to take up land, travelling by way of the canal from Whitehall, N.Y. He was overtaken by Fort Ann by a neighbor on horseback with the news that his house and four children had been burned. Returning he bought a farm in Hubbardton and after living there five years he bought the farm on which he served his apprenticeship. He afterwards bought the adjoining farms until he was one of the largest landowners in Castleton. He was a member of the Congregational Church until the Methodist Church was organized in Castleton when he asked for a letter to join this church. This was against the rules of the church but he was "dismissed and turned over to the buffetings of Satan." Married (1st) Polly Manley of Easton, Mass. Dec. 2, 1819...Married (2nd) Margaret Hodgson.

FIRE AND LOSS OF LIFE
The house of Mr Dyer Babbitt of Castleton, was burnt on the night of the 17th inst. The wife of Mr Babbitt and 7 children were in the house at the time, but the fire had made such progress before they were awaked, that only Mrs Babbitt and 3 children were able to make their escape from the house, and the remaining four children perished in the flames - two girls 6 and 12 years of age and two boys 9 and 14 years of age. How the fire originated we are not informed. Mr Babbitt had left home the day before the accident for Illinois.-The Rutland Herald
[published Tuesday, October 6, 1840, Caledonian, St.Johnsbury, Vt. - the story was carried in newspapers in New York, NY, Philadeliphia PA, Baltimore MD, Boston MA, Newark NJ and perhaps other locales]

[Babbitt family history by William Bradford Browne, Taunton, Ms, 1912, pg 296-298]