Zebina "Bine" Spalding

Zebina Spalding died at the age of 70 years. He married Abigail Spalding. Abigail was the daughter of Phineas Spalding and Bethiah Rich. Phineas Spalding was born on 15 March 1766 in Plainfield, Connecticut.

Zebina Spalding was the son of Abel Spalding Jr. and Elizabeth Chase. Zebina's paternal grandparents were Abel Spalding Sr. and Mary Anderson.

Abel Spalding Sr. was born on 10 July 1728 in Plainfield, Connecticut. He served in the Revolutionary War as a Lieutenant in Colonel Chase's Regiment. He joined the Continental Army and served under General Gates, near Saratoga, in 1777,

Zebina was a blacksmith. He was known as Bine. Bine and his wife lived and had a shop where the first house in Martinsville now stands (The brick house on the corner is the old Lamb school. The next house is newer and the one referred to here is the next, red house, right next to Lull Brook where Ruth and Roger Flanagan lived for so many years). He and his wife occupied an upper room reached by a ladder, and when he came home in a rather unsteady condition she would say sternly, "Right up the ladder, Mr. Spaulding".

Zebina Spaulding made shot guns and other fowling pieces, in his shop opposite Martins Mill, Lull Brook. He was fatally shot by the accidental discharge of an old Windsor revolver.

The children of Zebina Spalding and Abigail Spalding were:
1. Abigail Spalding (Abel Adams)
2. Zadoc Spalding
3. Arial Spalding (Sarah Abbott) (Eleanor Nichols)
4. Nancy Spalding (Gerry Thompson)
5. Betsey Spalding (1822- (Samuel Russell Stocker)
6. Sylvester Spalding (Amanda Crandall)
7. Worcester Spalding (1828-1855)
8. Amelia Spalding (Gustavus Cady)
9. Sewell Billings Spalding (1835- (Emma L. Brown)

Did you know about Bine, with the speckled dog?
Used to lead him by the for'ard paw;
Was a portly man with a baldish head,
And the bluest eye you ever saw.

Way under the hill he had a shop,
With a trip hammer and it's paddle wheel,
And its whack, whack, whack, and the stooping smith—
I can see him yet; I can hear it still.

He came to the village every night.
There were kindred spirits always there.
The journey up was a tiresome walk;
The going back was another affair.

One night we sat around the fire;
The smaller ones were snug in bed;
Aunt Rosaline rushed in through the door,
And Bine's in the brook " was all she said.

My! What a rumpus was abroad!
Sure, in the brook was where we found him,
Straight as a gun rod sitting up,
With the rushing waters all around him.

"The water's risin'! Lower a rope!"
That was the cry, more agonizing
With every breath of the summer air.
"Lower a rope! The water's risin'"

The action of that pretty brook
Took out the sand beneath his quarter,
And every wave that kissed his side
Left him a-struggling in the water.

Next morning in that little shop–
Since many years the grasses cover–
The anvil rang, the bellows breathed,
The mill-wheel flew; The farce was over. -Wilbur Sturtevant

Source: 1. Spalding Memorial. Chicago. 1897. pps. 107, 190 and 341. 2. Hartland Historical Society. www. hartland history .org. 3. U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications. Clement Edwin Cook, applicant. 1925.