Thomas Sweet Tillinghast

Thomas Tillinghast was early thrown upon his own resources, as he was but seven years of age when his father died. His educational opportunities were confined to the district schools. When a child he went to live with his brother Allen, in Sterling, Conn., and grew up in that town, giving his attention to farming and milling. The latter occupation pleased him best, and he became the owner of valuable mill properties in both Plainfield and Griswold, and carried on saw and grist milling for some thirty years. He united with the Baptist Church at an early age, and was always a zealous worker, becoming so earnest in his labors that he qualified as an ordained minister and preached for almost forty years. He had no special church, but his labors extended through eastern Connecticut. His death occurred Nov. 29, 1871, in Griswold, Connecticut.

Rev. Thomas Tillinghast was three times married; he reared a family of fourteen children. On Aug. 11, 1830, in West Greenwich, R.I., he married (first) Mary Howard, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Sabin) Howard, of Woodstock, Conn. She died Sept. 29, 1842, leaving five children, as follows: Harriet S., born June 23, 1831, in Woodstock, died June 2, 1875, she married (first) John Kegwin, of Griswold, and (second) George Segar, of Lebanon, Conn., and had three children by each union. Waldo is mentioned below. Henry S., born Nov. 25, 1835, at Killingly, Conn., married Catherine Crane, of New Jersey and had six children; during the Civil war he was a soldier in the Union army; he conducted a hotel business for a time, but is now a farmer at Flushing, L.I. Jared, born June 17, 1838, at Foster, R.I., died at the age of twenty-four years, on June 4, 1862, in Plainfield, Conn. Caleb Edward, born Nov. 24, 1840, at Plainfield, Conn., married, in Hope Valley, R.I., Mary A. Reynolds, and had six children, four of them still living; she died Nov. 1, 1901.

The second marriage of Rev. Thomas Tillinghast, in Voluntown, Conn., was to Laura Kinne, daughter of Avery Kinne, and to this union came the following children: Thomas Avery, born April 5, 1844, in Plainfield, Conn., is a farmer in Brooklyn, Conn.; he married Jane S., daughter of Charles A. Tillinghast, of Moosup, Conn. Laura Jane, born Oct. 22, 1845, married Dr. Raymond Eddy, of East Providence. Mary, born Dec. 2, 1846, in Plainfield, married (first) Clark Corey and (second) Myron Austin, and resides in Brooklyn, N.Y. Emily, born April 28, 1848, at Sterling, Conn., married Dr. Elmer Eddy, of Olneyville, R.I., and died in December, 1899, leaving one child. Fannie K., born June 6, 1850, in Sterling, Conn., married Henry Weaver and lives in St. Louis, Mo.; she has four children. Adaline, born April 22, 1852, married Alfred A. Esten, of Providence, later of New Jersey, where she died Nov. 22, 1887.

The third marriage of Rev. Thomas Tillinghast was to Sarah Dawley, of Griswold, Conn., and the children of this union were: Jared, born March 17, 1864, is a minister in the Methodist Church and at present stationed at Valley Stream, L.I. (he is unmarried); Jeanette, twin of Jared, married Calvin Videon, and resides in Tottenville, Staten Island, N.Y.; and Ernest, born Aug. 4, 1866, married Edith Edwards, and is a farmer of Prince’s Bay, New York.

Source: Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties, Connecticut"- Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative citizens and of many of the early settled families- Publisher: J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago; 1903. http://www.ctgenweb.org/county/cowindham/records/biographies/com_bi...