Asa Bement, Jr.

 Asa was born at Stockbridge, Berkshire County, MA, USA, on 10 June 1764.1 He married Abigail Brown at Stockbridge, Berkshire County, MA, on 19 January 1786.1 He married Lucy Bishop at Newark Valley, Tioga County, NY, USA, on 18 October 1815. Married by Rev. Jerimiah Osborn..1,2 Asa died on 21 April 1847 at Newark Valley, Tioga County, NY, at age 82.1 He was buried at Hope Cemetery, at Newark Valley, Tioga County, NY, USA. 

  *   Historical gazetteer of Tioga County, New York, 1785-1888 ;Author: Gay, W. B. (William Burton);Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : W.B. Gay & Co.

Town of Newark Valley

Asa Bement, b at Stockbridge, Mass.,in June, 1764, son of Asa and Ruth (Neal) Bement, was a blacksmith and farmer. He married 19 Jan 1786 with Abigail Brown, daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Burr) Brown, of Stockbridge, where she was born 31 July, 1762. He was one of the sixty associates who bought the ten townships, and in the grand division he drew lot 177. In the summer of 1792 he began to fit it up for a home, by clearing some land, building a log house, and sowing some wheat.

At the end of this second summer he returned to Stockbridge, feeling that his new home was ready for his family, so after spending most of the winter enjoying the privileges of settled society, he bought of John Brown another lot of boards for a Sleigh box, 4 Feb 1794. He soon started with his wife and four children for this sylvan paradise. The place on which he settled had natural beauties and advantages equal to any in the valley, and two of its beautiful maple groves yet grace the landscape. His wife died 14 Nov 1814. He married (2d), 18 Oct 1815, with Lucy Bishop, widow of Noah Lyman, and daughter of Judge Nathaniel and Ruth (Bartlett) Bishop, of Richmond, Mass., previously of Guilford, Conn., where she was born 4 Sep 1774. He died 21 April 1847. She died 19 July 1852. He had by his first wife, eight children, and by the second, one: Parthenia, Betsey, Frances, Abigail, William, Emily, Mary, Frederick, Jane.

Newark Valley Historical Society

Asa Bement Jr. was among the first settlers in Newark Valley. He brought his young family from Stockbridge, Massachusetts in the 1790's to settle here on the banks of the east branch of Owego Creek. His 350 acre farm included tilled fields, pastures, and woodlands. In addition to this home, Asa built a saw mill, a grist mill, a blacksmith shop, and barns on his property. The mills and blacksmith shop served the needs of neighboring farms as well as his own. The Bement farmstead was one of the most prosperous in Northern Tioga County.

When Asa built this house in the mid 1790's, it had a kitchen, ante-room, pantry, bedroom and a sleeping loft for his children. A formal parlor in the Federal style was added in the 1820's. Asa's son William extended the house to include a second story, new parlor and two more bedrooms on the first floor in 1843. These rooms and the exterior of the house reflect the Greek Revival style popular in the early to mid 1800's. In the I880's the summer kitchen was added to the north end of the house.

Over the years the property was owned by the Ford and later the Billings families. In 1977, Mrs. Myrtie Louise Billings Hills deeded the house to the Newark Valley Historical Society to be preserved as a living history museum. In 1997 she gave 90 acres of the original farm to the society. Today the house is furnished as it was in the early 1800s. Additional structures on the site include a reconstructed blacksmith shop, the threshing barn, a woodshop and carriage shed. Today on the farmstead, costumed interpreters demonstrate 19th century skills and trades such as blacksmithing, cooking, spinning and weaving and woodworking as they were done in Asa's day. The Bement-Billings House Museum is located at the Farmstead.

Blacksmith Shop

In the 1790's, Asa Bement and his young cousin John Rewey, built a log blacksmith shop as part of the Farmstead. Here they made and repaired iron implements such as sled runners, chains, kitchen utensils, household hardware, farm tools and horse shoes. Their shop served the needs of the surrounding area as well as the farmstead.

Children of Asa Bement and Abigail Brown:

Perthema Bement+ (17 Jan 1787 - 2 Jun 1847) Elizabeth (Betsey) Bement (28 Nov 1788 - ) Frances Bement (18 Dec 1790 - ) Abigail Bement (18 Jun 1793 - ) William Brown Bement+ (29 May 1796 - 21 Mar 1870) Emily Bement (23 Sep 1798 - ) Mary Bement (8 Mar 1801 - ) Frederick Burr Bement (14 Nov 1804 - 2 Sep 1884)

Child of Asa Bement and Lucy Bishop:

Jane Bement (14 Aug 1816 - 26 Mar 1892)

Source: Descendants of John Hotchkin of Guilford, Ct.

Link: http://hotchkinfamilyhistory.com/p23.htm

See information on museum at link below:

Link: http://www.vabeaver.com/nvhs/bementbillingsfarmstead.shtml

Note: Some sources state Asa is a Revolutionary War Veteran. Unable to find any supporting information. Asa Bement's father was a veteran of the war. See link below:

Link : http://www.bementfamily.com/bement%20militia.htm

Added by D. Glenn/2016