Dea. John Hurlbut

He was a member of the committee for Groton, just before the war. He bought a right in the Susquehanna company and, in 1778, emigrated to that country. He was a deputy to the Connecticut assembly from Westmoreland, 1779, 1780, 1781 {Conn. State Rec, 2:251). He and his sons, Christopher, John, and Naphtali, were all members of Capt. John Franklin's company of militia (American Monthly Magazine, 19 :265) . He was deacon of the church and, in absence of the clergyman at Wyoming, frequently read the sermon.

THE GROTON AVERY CLAN, Vol. I, by Elroy McKendree Avery and Catherine Hitchcock (Tilden) Avery, Cleveland, 1912. p. 275-6

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Dea. John Hurlbut was the son of John, who was the son of Stephen, who was a descendant, in the third generation, of Thomas Hurlbut, the first of the name in this region who came to Saybrook in 1635. Stephen Hurlbut, the grandfather of Dea. John, settled in New London soon after 1690. John, his father, settled at Gale's Ferry, and died there May 5, 1761. The subject of this sketch was born at Gale's Ferry, March 13, 1730. About 1757 he was married to Abigail, daughter of Dea. John Avery, of Preston, by whom he had eight children—four sons and four daughters. After their marriage they lived for several years in the north-east part of North Groton (Ledyard), on what has been known as the Phineas Holdridge place. In the movements which immediately preceded the Revolution, Mr. Hurlbut was associated with Col. Ledyard, Robert Allyn and Phineas Bill, and others in town as a committee of coirrespondence. As early as 1773 he visited the Susquehanna Valley, having bought a right in the Connecticut Susquehanna Company. Selling his farm in Groton in the summer of 1777, he, in the spring of 1778, with his wife and children, with two wagons, horses, cattle, sheep and swine, left his home in New England for the Connecticut colony on the Susquehanna. Detained on the way by sickness they reached their destination in November, 1779. Dea. Hurlbut was a member of the General Assembly of Connecticut for three years.

While living in Pennsylvania, the family occasionally visited their friends in Connecticut, and generally made the journey on horse-back. In one instance Mrs. H., hearing that her father was very sick, and fearing that it might be his last sickness, started promptly for the home of her childhood by the usual mode of travel, with a baby in her arms, and one of her little boys, some ten years old, on a pillion behind her. As she approached the Honsatonic river late in the afternoon, she halted at a country tavern, where she had been accustomed to stop on previous trips, with the expectation of spending the night there.

To her great disappointment she was told that the house was occupied with a great crowd of people, gathered for a social entertainment, and that they could not accommodate her. She was told, however, that she could find a good stopping-place a few miles further on, just over the river. So she pushed on. As she came to the place where she supposed the bridge ought to be it was so dark that she could see nothing distinctly, but could hear the water rushing by with great violence, the result of a recent storm. Presently, her horse came to a full stop. She urged it to go forward, and it did so, though with slow and measured step. Pretty soon she came to the tavern to which she had been directed, and, upon inquiring if they could keep her over night, was glad to receive an affirmative answer. "But," said the keeper of the tavern, "How did you get over the river?" "Why," she replied, "I rode over on the bridge, I suppose." "But," said he, "the bridge was swept away with the flood a few hours ago." Here the matter rested for the night. And in the morning it was found upon examination that the faithful horse, with his precious burden, had walked over the boiling flood on one of the stringers of the bridge which the swollen river had not displaced. Dea. Hurlbut died March lo, 1782, aged 52. Mrs. Hurlbut lived on into the following century, dying March 29, 1805, at the age of 70. She is said to have been a woman of great personal worth, and withal a very devoted Christian. "There is evidence, too, that her patriotism was no less than that of her husband, for it is told that she first proposed to send their two oldest sons—one aged 19 and the other 16—to aid in their country's necessities."

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEDYARD 1650-1900, by Rev. John Avery, published by Noyes & Davis: Press, Norwich, Connecticut, 1901, p. 211-212