Col. Elisha Bostwick

Biographical Sketch of Elisha Bostwick (1748-1834), on pp. 582-585 in "History of the Towns of NEW MILFORD and BRIDGEWATER, CONNECTICUT, 1703-1882," by Samuel Orcutt, Published in Hartford, CT: Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1882.

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Col. Elisha Bostwick, son of Samuel Bostwick, was born in 1748, on his grandfather's, Major John Bostwick, homestead, where now Mr. John R. Bostwick resides. This homestead therefore has been in the same family over 170 years, and so far as appears is the only piece of land in the town that has remained so long in the same family name.

Elisha Bostwick was not educated at college as were his brothers Jared and Samuel, but he received a good education, and was a much better scholar in spelling than many graduates of colleges of that day. His fine penmanship has never been surpassed, nor half equaled by any town clerk in New Milford. In this respect the author of this book, as well as the whole town of New Milford, owes him a debt of immense gratitude; but it is gratifying to know, through several town votes, that the town was not slow to express its gratitude while Mr. Bostwick was living and serving it in his noble, efficient, and most complete manner. He filled with his quill pens 21 volumes of land records, besides doing all the other writing as a town clerk, during the service of 55 successive years. He wrote an index of Grantees in a separate book for the first twelve books of laijd records, and also an index of both grantees and grantors for each of the first 35 volumes of land records. He planned and wrote an index of all the highways in this large town that were made before his resignation, which is of great value, and is continued to be kept in complete form at the present time.

For these services he received at various times certain considerations of value from the town and also from individuals. His allowance for recording a deed was one shilling, and in the absence of ready money he received a due bill for this amount. After his decease something like one thousand of these bills it is.said were found, still unpaid.

He was justice of the peace many years, and the list of marriages he attended, as such, is still preserved—the first date being in 1799 and the last in 1819, the whole number being 92. It is related that in performing one of these ceremonies he had to go to the lower part of the Neck, a distance of six or seven miles, on a very cold day in winter, the snow being very deep and still falling, and for this journey and service he received only the sum of twenty-five cents; but he afterward enjoyed telling the story so much that probably no wedding service ever afforded him so much pay by way of amusement as this one.

He was a soldier in the Revolution, and was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the militia in 1793, and afterwards Colonel. Col. Bostwick married Betty Ferriss, May 14, 1786, when in the thirty-eighth year of his age. When he was in his twentieth year, he heard that a daughter was born to David Ferris, who resided across the river near the old Quaker burying-ground, and he went over and called to see the baby. While looking at it in the cradle he said to the mother, " It is a very nice baby; keep her until she is grown up and I will marry her." "All right," said the mother [Abigail Comstock], "you shall have her." And so, when the Colonel had been through the war of the Revolution, and was securely settled in his home, and the young lady was eighteen years of age, lacking eleven days, they were married. She was a beautiful young lady, as represented by the family portrait, having charming black eyes, dark brown hair, and a complexion clear and as beautiful as the sunlight.

Col. Bostwick was a fine appearing man, a full, manly form, with somewhat of a military bearing, intelligent and benevolent in the expression of his countenance, religious and noble in his character; a man in whom all the people of the town took much honor and delight; and when, after fifty-five years of service as town clerk, he declined a further election, there was a most affecting scene at the town meeting.

He wrote his letter of resignation and placed it in the hands of Judge D. Sherman Boardman, a life-long and intimate friend, to read in the meeting, Mr. Boardman being then 66 years of age, and only eighteen years younger than Col. Bostwick. This letter Judge Boardman began to read, but was so much overcome with emotion that he handed it to the clerk of the meeting, took his seat, and with great effort restrained a further expression of the pathetic feelings which were induced by a sense of the final separation between the town and a long-tried, faithful and cheerful servant, while the entire audience was in the same state of mind with the Judge.

Col. Elisha Bostwick's Letter.

"TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF NEW MILFORD IN ANNUAL TOWN MEETING THIS DAY ASSEMBLED.

Gentlemen:—The time I think has now arrived which in course of Divine Providence renders it proper that some other person should be appointed to the office of Town Clerk; the failure of my eye-sight compels me to make this statement.

I am now in the 84th year of my age. You, Gentlemen, and your venerable fathers (now no more) having appointed me to that office for 55 years in succession; and I have in that time filled 21 volumes of land records; and now, borne down as I am with old age, and with afflictions, and with sorrows, I deem it my duty to decline a further appointment.

And now, alas! where shall I find words to express my gratitude and thankfulness to the Town for all their past favors, and above all, to my God for all his mercies: so that my present feelings, and the tender emotions of my mind are such that I lose the power of utteranceI I add no more, and must close abruptly.

New Milford, 1st Monday of October, 1832. EL1SHA BOSTWICK."

Upon the presentation of this letter, the town meeting caused the following record to be made:—

"At an Annual Town Meeting of the inhabitants of the town of New Milford, legally warned and held at the Town house in said New Milford on the 1st Monday of October, 1832; Nathaniel Perry chosen moderator, Oliver W. Pickett clerk pro tem.

Voted that the thanks of the Town be presented to Col. Elisha Bostwick for his long and faithful services in the office of Town Clerk, and that his communication this day made to this meeting declining a reappointment be recorded upon the Record Book of the Town."

Colonel Bostwick was Representative from the town of New Milford to the Assembly fourteen sessions, and served his native town in many ways, quite to the satisfaction of the people. He was surveyor of lands, and did so much service in that capacity that he was familiar with the boundaries of nearly every farm and locality in the town, and by reason of which he was of great service to the inhabitants, and saved them much expense.

One of the most beautiful transactions in the life of this good man and public servant of the people took place in 1833, when he was eighty-five years of age. At that time the new Congregational meeting-house was just opened for worship where it now stands, and on the morning that Anan Hine was to commence tearing down the old meeting-house, which stood in the middle of the green, Col. Bostwick went into the old house, took his usual seat, looked around on the seats where his kindred and neighbors had sat for worship during eighty years of his own memory; then rising with the hymn-book in his hands, he sang a hymn, knelt and offered the last prayer in the old house, then arose and departed in peace to his own home. In the next year, on Dec. 11, 1834, when eighty-six years of age, he departed from his own "earthly tabernacle," and the spirit returned to God who gave it. His faithful and honored wife had departed just six months before him.

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