Mary Webster

Mary (Wilson) Webster

• b: Jan 1827 (Barkhamsted, CT) d: Dec 24, 1901 (Silverton?)
• Daughter of William Preston Wilson & Harriette West
• m: Solomon Marsh Webster on Oct 06, 1850 in Southington, Hartford, Connecticut, USA

Notes

From "The Old Lighthouse and the Strange Tribe of Barkhamsted, Only Two Mournful Survivors of it." The Connecticut Courant, Hartford Connecticut Jan 24, 1900

... "There are now living, however, near the village of Riverton, a mile from the Lighthouse site, old Sol Webster and his wife, the only survivors of the tribe in that section. Their poverty is extreme. The man says he is about 80 years of age; he may be much older. The women is several years younger. Both are lineal descendants of Changham's daughters but do not seem able to untangle their genealogies. However, the old man has recollections of many traditions of the tribe. He replies promptly when asked about his ancestor, that his grandfather told him that "Changham was an Indian who came from England with Columbus when he discovered America." He is so persistent upon this point that a theory has been formed that the statement may have some basis of fact and that the mysterious Changham was of Spanish-Indian extraction ..."

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From "Outcasts" Build Their Own Village in 18th-Century Barkhamsted connecticuthistory.org accessed 30 March 2018

Around 1740, tradition holds that Mary Barber (also known as Molly), a white woman from Wethersfield, Connecticut, made the decision to marry a Narragansett Indian from Block Island named James Chaugham. To escape her disapproving father, Mary and James took to the woods of northwestern Connecticut; they eventually settled along the Farmington River in what became the town of Barkhamsted. While some details of the story (such as Mary's Wethersfield origins) have not been conclusively proven, church and town records along with archaeological evidence document the growth of a small community where the Chaughams made their new home. ...
... James Chaugham died in 1790, but Molly, who historians speculate lived to be well over 100, survived him for approximately another 30 years. Despite the deaths of the Chaughams, the Lighthouse community continued to survive, albeit largely in poverty, until the middle of the 19th century. By then, economic and social factors facilitated the slow abandonment of the property as families moved away in search of work, land, and other opportunities.
What the Lighthouse people left behind, however, was over a century of archaeological evidence, including tools, ceramics, clay pipes, iron nails, and food remains. Recognizing its archaeological and historical significance, the Connecticut Historic Preservation Council designated the area a State Archaeological Preserve in 2008, placing it under the care of the State Department of Environmental Protection. Also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the few small cellar holes and gravestones that remain act as a reminder of what it meant to live life on the outside of the dominant forms of Anglo-European colonial society during Connecticut formative years.

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Sources

• Mary Webster's death notice "died at home in Silverton due to old age" November 7, 2016. By Coni Dubois, "Ever Widening Circle." accessed 30 March 2018
  • The Daily morning journal and courier. (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, December 25, 1901, Image 1 Image provided by Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT
• Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 30 March 2018), memorial page for Mary Wilson Webster (Jan 1827 to 24 Dec 1901), Find A Grave Memorial no. 85391486, citing Barkhamsted Lighthouse Cemetery, Barkhamsted, Litchfield County, Connecticut, USA ; Maintained by Sherry Carsten (contributor 46504709) .link

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