Lt. John Olmstead

John was the second son of Richard Olmstead and Elizabeth Haugh. Mary and John were wed on July 17, 1673 in Norwalk, Conn. and raised seven children. Mary died in about 1687 or 1688 and John then remarried, before 1690, to Elizabeth (Pardee) Gregory, widow of Thomas Gregory. Together, John and Elizabeth had five children. It is not known how he earned the rank of Lieutenant. Both marriages can be verified through the Collection of Conneticut Town Vital Records, Vol 1-55, Geneology Publishing Company and The Conneticut Town Marriage Records, pre-1870, Barbour Collection (Data Base on-line)

There is no record to show what John Olmstead's profession was, including being a Doctor!

John's father was Richard Olmstead, the son of Richard Olmstead and Frances Slany of Essex, England. John's father died after 1684 in Norwalk, Conn. John was christened on Dec. 30, 1649 in Hartford, Conn. and died in Dec. 22, 1704 at Hartford, Conn.

Phebe Barlow was born on February 27, 1650/1, at Fairfield [48].

She married James Olmstead on May 01, 1673, at Fairfield. [48] He was born before 1649 at Hartford, Connecticut, was a son of Captain Richard Olmstead of Norwalk, Connecticut, and he died in 1731.

Their children were:

James Olmstead, born on August 17, 1675, and died young

Joseph Olmstead

Nathan Olmstead

Samuel Olmstead, born on May 30, 1683, and died young

John Olmstead

Captain James Olmstead was the Town Clerk of Norwalk, Connecticut. He was also Select Man, Deputy General Court, Lieutenant.

from Genealogy of the Olmstead family in America

" . . . the family of our honored relative, James Olmsted, who, together with two sons, Nicholas and Nehemiah, two nephews, Richard and John, and a niece, Rebecca, arrived in New England, on the Lord's Day, Sept. 16,1632, in the ship Lyon, under Capt. Pierce, after a voyage of 12 weeks from Braintree, England. There were 123 passengers, of whom 50 were children.

" They settled first at Mount Wallaston, now Quincy, near Boston, but in the course of the year, 'by order of the Court,' they removed to Newtown, now Cambridge."

" The recent settlers of Newtown," says Holmes, "had, while in England, attended the ministry of the Reverend Thomas Hooker, who, to escape fines and imprisonment for his non-conformity, had now fled into Holland." So, as Mather, another contemporary, remarks, " immediately after their settlement at Newtown, they expressed their earnest desires to Mr. Hooker that he would come over into New England and take the pastoral charge of them. At their desire he left Holland, and, having obtained Mr. Samuel Stone .... as an assistant in the ministry, took his passage for America, and arrived at Boston, Sept. 4, 1633."

He proceeded at once to Newtown, to take up the duties of his pastorate. There the Braintree Colony, as it was termed, abode until the summer of 1636, when, dissatisfied by the form of government of the colony of Massachusetts and tempted by the charm of this pleasant Connecticut valley, of which they had heard reports,1 they "took their departure from Cambridge," and, in the words of Trumbull, " travelled more than a hundred miles through a hideous and trackless wilderness, to Hartford. They had no guide but their compass; made their way over mountains, through swamps, thickets, and rivers, which were not passable but with great difficulty. They had no cover but the heavens, nor any lodgings but those which simple nature afforded them. They drove with them a hundred and sixty head of cattle, and by the way, subsisted on the milk of their cows. Mrs. Hooker (who was ill) was borne through the wilderness upon a litter. The people generally carried their packs, arms, and some utensils. They were nearly a fortnight on their journey."

This brings us in our narration of the wanderings of our worthy family to the beautiful city, near which we have met today to do them honor. The family was soon to separate. Indeed, my own ancestor, Richard Olmsted, who was a youth of 20 when he arrived in America with his Uncle James, was now a young man of 24. That he was married by 1640 is more than probable, for we find that by that date he had quit his uncle's house, and was in possession of a home lot of his own. The records show that at a town meeting on the 11 th of January, 1640, a vote was passed, taking part of the lot of Richard Olmsted for a burial ground. " This is the ground in the rear of the First Church buildings on Main Street," as Walker tells us, "where so many of Hartford's early dead still repose." It contains a monument to the early settlers of this city, and is worthy of a pilgrimage, if any of you have not yet seen it. James Olmsted's lot was on Front street, not far from where the gas works now stand.

However, as I have said, the family was soon to part company. The wanderlust was upon them, and in 1651 Richard Olmsted, defying the dangers of wild beast and Indian, struck still deeper into the wilderness, and founded, with his family and with other friends, the town of Norwalk.