American Revolution:

Service:

NEW YORK Rank: PATRIOTIC SERVICE

Birth:

11-10-1708 NEW MILFORD NEW HAVEN CO CONNECTICUT

Death:

6-5-1792 QUAKER HILL DUTCHESS CO NEW YORK

Service Source:

PUB PAPERS OF GEORGE CLINTON, VOL 3, P 358; VOL 4, P 465

Service Description:

1) RENDERED MATERIAL AID, QUAKER HILL

Benjamin, son of Zachariah (2) Ferris, was a settler of "Quaker Hill" near Pawling, Dutchess county, New York. He became a Quaker preacher and went to New Milford. "Quaker Hill" was so called from the early settlement by the Quakers of the range of hills lying east of Pawling station, bordering on the state of Connecticut. In 1742 the first meeting was established at New Milford, the second at Oblong. In a "List of Heads of Families" in Oblong Monthly Meeting, 1761, is found "Benjamin Ferris and wife."

THE ASSEMBLING OF THE QUAKERS.

The social mind of the Quaker Hill population was formed,[16] at the settlement of the place, in a common response to common stimuli. The population was congregated from Long Island and Massachusetts settlements, by the tidings of the opening of this fertile land of the Oblong for settlement in 1731. I infer from the fact that settlements were previously made on both sides, at Fredericksburgh on one side, and at New Milford on the other,—at New Milford there was a Quaker Meeting established in 1729, fifteen years before Quaker Hill—that the value of the lands in the Oblong was well advertised. From the fact noted by James Wood (The Purchase Meeting, p. 10) that "the first settlement in any considerable numbers was upon Quaker Hill in the Oblong," I infer that the uncommon promise of this hill land had been made known to the Quakers then assembling at this "Purchase in the Rye Woods," and that Quaker Hill was settled in response to the stimulus of valuable, fertile lands offered for occupation and ownership.

It seems to have been the desire of the first settlers to form a community where they could live apart, maintain their form of religion and possess land fertile and rich. The Quakers are always shrewd as to economic affairs, and the business motive is never lost sight of in the spiritual inner light. In choosing Quaker Hill soil they selected ground which after one hundred and sixty-seven years is the richest in the region, sustains the best dairies, and is able longer than any other in the neighborhood in time of drought to afford abundant green grass and verdure.

To this place thus secluded, came Benjamin Ferriss in[17] 1728, and Nathan Birdsall. They settled upon the sites marked 31 and 39; which are 1,200 and 1,100 feet above the sea, and very near the highest ground for many miles. There was at this time, 1729, a meeting of Friends at New Milford, nine miles away; but these two men came from Purchase Meeting in the town of Rye, forty miles directly to the South. There soon followed others, bearing the names, Irish, Wing, Briggs, Toffey, Akin, Taber, Russell, Osborn, Merritt, Dakin, Hoag. In ten years the tide of settlement was flowing full. In forty years the little community was filled with as many as could profitably find a living.

The record of these years, on the pages of the clerk's minute-book, are a disappointment. One searches in vain for even the slightest trace of the presence in the Meeting House of the troops. There is no record of the presence in the Meet[57]ing House of the "Tories" or guerrillas of the Revolution; and not a word about the makers of the rifle-ports in the gables of this building which the present writer discovered there, unless it be the unruffled and serene utterance, under date of 8th Month, 9th, 1781, the very period at which the "Tories" must have been at their worst: "Samuel Hoag is appointed to take care of the Meeting House, and to keep the door locked and windows fastened, and to nail up the hole that goes up into the Garratt." The "Tories" robbed the store on Site 28. They had hidden for that purpose in the loft of the Meeting House and were discovered by some young Quakers who were skylarking in the Meeting House under pretense of cleaning it. The story is that one of the young men, being dared—of course by a maiden—to open the trap-door into the garret, and look for the Tories, found them hiding there. The bandits, being discovered, tumbled down the hole from the garret, and compelled their discoverers to go with them to the store; and proceeded at once to plunder it, relying no doubt on the non-resistant character of the people of the Hill. They stacked their arms at the door and went about their business in a thorough manner. But there was that in the blood of some Quakers there that could not contain itself within the bounds of non-resistance, and one of them, Benjamin Ferris, cried out, "Seize the rascals." In the scrimmage that resulted from the excitement of this remark, the leader of the Tories was recognized by the young lady who had by her challenge to the young man discovered them, and being taunted by her was so incensed that he stabbed her. It is only said in closing the story that the blood of both the fair and adventurous young Quakeress whose abounding spirit brought on all the trouble, and that of the leader of the "Tories," flows in the veins, of some who live on the Hill in the twentieth century.

A letter of great interest to the student of those times was written to the Governor of the State of New York, Hon. George Clinton,[28] by Dr. James Fallon, physician in charge of the sick which were left on Quaker Hill, in the Meeting House, after the departure of the Continental army. He could get no one to draw wood for his hospital in the dead of winter, till finally "old Mr. Russell, an excellent and open Whig, tho' a Quaker," hired him a wagon and ox team. He could buy no milk without paying in Continental money, six for one. He declared that "Old Ferris, the Quaker, pulpiteer of this place, old Russell and his son, old Mr. Chace and his family, and Thomas Worth and his family, are the only Quakers on or about this Hill, the public stands indebted to." The two pioneers of the Hill, the preacher and the builder, were patriots as well. He denounces the rest as Tories all, the "Meriths," Akins, Wings, Kellys, Samuel Walker, the schoolmaster, and Samuel Downing, whom he declared a spurious Quaker and [61]agent of the enemy; also the preacher, Lancaster, "the Widow Irish;" and many he called "half-Quakers," who were probably more zealous, and certainly more violent for Quaker and Tory principles than the Quakers themselves.

The common mind has been formed to a great degree by[118] strong personalities; for the common mind has held an ideal of perfection in a person. The force which at the beginning assembled its elements was personal. The type represented by George Fox, as interpreted by Barclay, embodied this influence. In all the history of the place response to strong personality has been immediate and general. The past is a history of names. William Russell led the community in erecting a Meeting House, and then a second one—which still stands. Ferriss, the early settler, located the meeting house on his land, as later Osborn located the Orthodox Meeting House, at the Division, on his land. Judge Daniel Akin, in the early Nineteenth Century, was a leader of the economic activities of this Quaker community, then differentiating themselves from the religious. So, too, his nephew, Albert Akin, in the last half of that century was a leader, gathering up the money of the wealthy farmers to invest in railroads, founding the Pawling Bank, the Mizzen-Top Hotel, and launching Akin Hall, with its literary and religious basis.

From Ferris Chronicles:

Benjamin was a Quaker preacher of prominence in the Meeting. He was described as "the old puppeteer of the place" by Governor Linton, when in Pawling, and praised him and his family for their loyalty and help to the American cause, in spite of difficulities and opposition of other Quakers. He and his famil wer among the few Quakers who were zealous friends of the American cause in the Revolutionary War. Despite the pacifist beliefs of the Quakers, he contributed largely to the American cause. he also differed from the quaker line in smaller respects. A story has come down through the years that, in his old age, when his son, Zebulon's store was robbed by "cowboys" (Tories), during the Revolutionary War, Benjamin shouted out "Seize the rascals".

 Many of Benjamins descendants did not use the double "s" in the spelling their name.  Where the dates of birth are shown for his children, another source indicates the months are off by two months, as an example, Zebuon was born either 20 May 1729 or 20 March 1729.  The reason for this is unknown. 

 He united, with his two sons, Reed and Zebulon, and their families, with the First Church in November, 1726, with 17 others at the same; nine of them were young men.  In 1741, when resideing in Dutchess County, NY, in deeding a piece of land in New Milford, he reserved a certain portion for the Friends'Buryin gPlace, where the first Quaker meeting house was built the same year.  (From Chapter VII The Quakers)).

 He probably married again as the marriage of Benjamin Ferris to the widow Ann Mott was recorded in 1776 (the intention was published 2, 9 mo., 1775), and on the 20th of the same month, a committee of Friends was appointed to enquire as to the settlement of her former husbands estate.

 He moved to New Milford, Connecticut, to the Oblong some time before 1741, and settled on Quaker Hill, Dutchess County, NY.  In 1772, he gave ground to the Oblong Society of Friends also, for a burial place.

Benjamin Ferriss (son of Zachariah Ferriss, Jr. and Sarah Reed) was born 10 Nov 1708 in Stratfield, Connecticut, and died 1795 in New York. He married Phoebe Beecher on 06 Nov 1728, daughter of Eleazer Beecher and Elizabeth Peck.

Includes NotesNotes for Benjamin Ferriss:

About 1732, Benjamin and Phebe moved to Oblong, Dutchess Co., New York, and settled in a place now called Quaker Hill. Benjamin was a Quaker preacher of prominence in the Meeting. He and his family were among the few Quakers who were zealous friends of the American cause in the Revolutionary War.

More About Benjamin Ferriss and Phoebe Beecher: Marriage: 06 Nov 1728

Children of Benjamin Ferriss and Phoebe Beecher are:

  1. Zebulon Ferriss, b. 19 Mar 1729, New Milford, Connecticut, d. date unknown.
  2. +Reed Ferriss, b. 16 Aug 1730, New Milford, Connecticut, d. 18 Mar 1804, Pawling, New York.
  3. Phebe Ferriss, d. Sep 1734.
  4. Susannah Ferriss, b. 08 Sep 1732, Oblong, Dutchess Co., New York, d. date unknown.
  5. Lillias Ferriss, b. 09 Jul 1736, Oblong, Dutchess Co., New York, d. date unknown.
  6. Benjamin Ferriss, b. 25 Sep 1738, Oblong, Dutchess Co., New York, d. date unknown.
  7. Gilbert Ferriss, b. 15 Mar 1740, Oblong, Dutchess Co., New York, d. 1741, Oblong, Dutchess Co., New York.
  8. Edmond Ferriss, b. 04 Jul 1748, Oblong, Dutchess Co., New York, d. 29 May 1750.