George Dolbeare Avery

He engaged in mercantile pursuits in New London, and later in Ohio and Virginia. He was appointed ensign of 2d co., 3d reg't. May, 1794 ; captain of same company, May, 1795 (Ms. State Papers, Hartford). He was an inventor of great skill.

THE GROTON AVERY CLAN, Vol. I, by Elroy McKendree Avery and Catherine Hitchcock (Tilden) Avery, Cleveland, 1912. p 221, 353

George D. Avery was born at Groton, Conn., August 19, 1763, a colonial subject of George IV., and a witness of some of the exciting scenes of the American Revolution, among which was the burning of New London by the British. He was a pupil of Nathan DABOLL of arithmetic fame.

On the 8th of August, 1796, Mr. Avery took up his residence at Belleville, Va., after a toilsome journey of 800 miles, having in his train thirteen teams. He there undertook the arduous task of pioneer settlement, sawing his own timber and erecting houses, against the disadvantages of building in a new country. He was familiar with many of the stirring events of the early settlement of that locality, prominent among which were the romantic incidents in the life of Harman BLENNERHASSET; his island paradise in the Ohio, and the strange adventures of Aaron BURR connected therewith, of all of which he was personally cognizant. Adverse fortunes at Belleville induced Mr. Avery to remove to Georgetown, Va., about the year 1812, where he engaged in surveying for nearly twenty years. He surveyed and laid out Georgetown.

He was an observer of the important political events, being frequently in the society of public men of that period. In the year 1830, through the kindness of Benjamin BUTLER, who married his sister, he was induced to come to this place, where he resided until his death, April 26, 1860.

Mr. Avery first married on Apr 1, 1790 in Groton, Mary (Richards) Champlin. She was a widow of Lodowic Champlin, and a daughter of Guy Richards and Elizabeth (Harris) Richards. She was born on Dec 3, 1752 and died on Jan 28, 1799. Second, he married, on Jun 28, 1800 at Newport, RI, Mary Hurlbut. She was born on Mar 2, 1772, a daughter of Joseph Hurlbut and Elizabeth (Christophers) Hurlbut. She died on Nov 18, 1803.

Mr. Avery had long survived his children, one of whom was a midshipman in the U. S. Navy, with Commodores ROGERS and DECATUR, and died in 1815.

Mr. Avery voted at every election for president since the formation of the government, which act was performed by him with a religious sense of duty. When his life journey began, Napoleon and Wellington were yet to be; during his career the leaders of the English parliament and of the American Revolution, that race of Titans, have lived and died; the wars of Napoleon and the war of Independence have become historical, and a new republic, with a network of railroads and a web work of electric wires, have been extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The latter years of Mr. Avery's life were passed quietly. On Tuesday, November 9, 1859, at the age of 97, he deposited his last vote, and while he extended his feeble hand to present the ballot, there was manifest a solemn feeling, as if a contemporary of Washington had arisen from the tomb, appearing again in person upon the earth.