DIY Driveway Exension

Some things I do myself. Some things I hire somebody to do. Some things that I would hire somebody to do at my own house, I get roped into doing for my dad. The (cue ominous music) driveway extension project is one of those things.

It all started when my folks got a notice from the city that their trailer did not comply with code, since it wasn't parked on pavement. Following their initial indignation, since the trailer had been parked on a driveway extension of bricks and pavers, my folks could see how someone might have thought the area wasn't paved. When the plumbers had fixed the sewer (digging a trench through the driveway), they had tossed the spoil dirt under the trailer on top of the pavers. So my mother called the city and got a month to fix the problem - the hottest month of the year, it turned out - instead of the five days originally allotted.

Daddy decided that the gray pavers and fired bricks weren't sufficiently visible, since they were essentially dirt-color, so he bought red pavers to add to the extent of the paved area. He began work with the trailer still in place, using jacks to lift the tires to slide bricks underneath. Mother and I finally persuaded him to move the trailer using the Jeep truck, which is underpowered but still managed to get the trailer moved to the main driveway so that the work area was clear.

This is what it looked like right after we moved the trailer.

Then we got to work. The pavers and bricks were different thicknesses, making it particularly difficult to line up the tops when the bricks needed to be buried deeper. Laying in the borders first was not the best idea, either, since we then had to piece in the middle part; it would have been better to start at a corner and worked our way outward.

The best I can say about the finished project is that it does the job, and it looks better than it did. It's also done.


This looks like fields in the midwest when you fly over them, doesn't it?

Yesterday when I went to Lancaster, the only thing left for me to do on the driveway project was take pictures and guide my dad in re-parking the trailer. This was a good thing, since I had a lot of other stuff to do, including downloading Norton Antivirus 2006 via dialup (and installing it, but that was no biggie) and taking my dad to buy the dishwasher my mother wanted.

My Mother, the Guinea Pig...er, case study

Mother has a low grade endometrial adenocarcinoma, but she is not currently physically strong enough for surgery. Furthermore, because of her history of strokes, she can't have the hormone therapy (Megace) normally called for in such a case. In an effort to do something to make her feel better, possibly even well enough to undergo surgery, her gynecological oncologist suggested an experimental use of the Mirena IUD, This is a small, progesterone-laced plastic T that is implanted into the uterus where it delivers small, localized, constant doses of hormone. Theoretically, anyway, the Coumadin should be sufficient to overcome any tendency of the hormone to cause clotting, since very little of the progesterone should get into her system.

Daddy, Cheyenne and I took Mother to USC Norris Cancer Center yesterday and stayed with her while she had the IUD placed. As recommended by the nurse, she had taken Vicodin and Benedryl to help ease the pain and help her relax, but it was still a painful process. I wonder if, at less than a month shy of 75, Mother is the oldest woman to ever get an IUD. I think the women can probably sympathize. Fortunately, it didn't take long, though I'm sure it seemed longer on the table than it did from my vantage point, and the cramping settled down fairly quickly.

We had an uneventful trip back to my house, and after an hour or so, Mother felt like having some supper. This is a good sign. Let's all keep good thoughts on her behalf.

Quaker Wild Oats

Most people don't know that Daniel Boone was born a Quaker, since his Indian-fighting lifestyle wasn't consistent with the pacifistic beliefs of the Friends. The Boones were Quakers, however. Squire Boone, the father of Daniel and our distant great-grandmother Sarah Boone Wilcoxson, was born in Bradninch, Devonshire, England on December 6, 1696. He came to America as a young man and married Sarah Morgan of Berks Co., Pennsylvania, on September 23, 1720. According to some accounts, the marriage of their daughter Sarah to a non-Quaker helped prompt the Boone's decision to move away from Pennsylvania.

Sarah, Daniel's eldest sister, had fallen in love with a young man named Wilcoxen, and in 1742 married him though he was not a Quaker. She was promptly censured by the Exeter Meeting for "marrying out," as were her mother and father for allowing it, and all three expressed contrition. But Squire Boone said, "that he was in a great streight in not knowing what to do, seeing he was somewhat Sensible that they had been too Conversant before."

That Sarah and her young man had been "too Conversant" was already a community rumor and, if true, a transgression the Meeting could hardly overlook. A committee of Quaker ladies was appointed to look into the question and counting backward, "found the truth of a former suspicion vis., that Sarah Wilcoxen, daughter of Squire Boone, was with child before she was married." The ladies listened solemnly to the paper Sarah "produced to this Meeting condemning the said action," then they expelled her.

It was a trying time for Squire Boone and his wife. Exeter, a small settlement with little enough for diversion, kept few secrets. Nor was Sarah's their only disgrace. "The Boones were active for good," the Meeting book notes around this time, "but sometimes overcome with evil. Strong drink, so common, overcame one or more who had to be dealt with." Squire began thinking about leaving Pennsylvania. And though trouble with the Friends prodded him, it was not the only reason. His free spirit, his wanderlust, was at large again. He wanted to be where the forest was outside his front door.

Obviously Squire and Sarah placed their love for their daughter, their daughter's happiness and her love for John Willcockson, above their formal connection with religion. It was a difficult situation, but they seem to have put family first and rallied together to survive against oppression. The guides at the (now) Berks County, Pennsylvania, homestead of Squire Boone point out that the affair of John Willcockson and Sarah Boone was one of the events that drove the Boones from the Society of Friends. It was part of their narration in 1980 to relate that, when Squire finally made up his mind to leave Pennsylvania, he was so embittered by his neighbors' attitudes that, on the day that he left, he made a pile of all of his belongings, which wouldn't fit into the wagons, and burned them, rather than let his neighbors have them.

John and Sarah Boone Willcockson apparently accompanied her family to North Carolina, where John appears on the first known tax list that was compiled in 1759.
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/chester/history/family/will0002.txt BillScroggins@classic.msn.com

The child Sarah carried when she and John Wilcoxson married was our William Butler Freeman's maternal grandfather, David Wilcoxson.

Except for the Boones and the allied Morgans, I haven't found any other Quakers in the family. We do have the Peffleys (and on Lee's side, the Troxels) who, as Swiss Dunkers, were welcomed into Pennsylvania by the Quakers, since their beliefs and style of worship were compatible.

The Peffley--Peffly--Pefley Families in America and Allied Families 1729-1938. Being a historical and genealogical record. Compiled, edited and published by May M. Frost and Earl C. Frost. 793 Eighteenth St. San Bernardino, Cal. 1938.

Nicholas and Barbara arrived at Philadelphia Aug. 19th, 1729, in company with 74 other families of Palatinates on the Ship Mortenhouse, James Coultas, Master, from Rotterdam, Holland. Nicholas took the Oath of Allegiance in the Courthouse at Philadelphia on the day he arrived.
March 2nd, 1737, Nicholas had 150 acres of land in Bethel Township, Lancaster County, (after 1785 Dauphin Co., after 1818, Lebanon Co.) Penna., at a place called the "Hole among the Hills." Here he spent the rest of his life. It is said that he was killed by Indians in 1748. Before his death ... he acquired 320 acres more in the vicinity. Purchase of the property was completed by his heirs in 1749. Nicholas Peffley was not a member of the Church of the Brethren. For some reason his wife's name is not mentioned in the land transaction referred to above, but the name "Widow Peffley" appears on the earliest assessment list that exists for Bethel Township, 1751. No further record of her has been found.

Their son Jacob was born about 1724 in Germany and died in 1786 at the family homestead near Bethel Township, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania. I visited the farm a few years ago when the original log house was being dismantled to move. It is a beautiful location.

from Brent Rodes:

Johannes Peter Trachsel was born Lenk, Canton Bern, Switzerland 11/6/1691. Johannes died 4/16/1766 Frederick Co., MD, at 74 years of age.

He married Anna Juliana Catherina ( Trautheger ?) Frauhuger Switzerland, ca. 1721. Anna was born Canton Bern, Switzerland ca. 1703. Anna was the daughter of Johannes Frauhuger and Barbara Jaggi. Anna died 4/16/1795 Frederick Co., MD ?, at 91 years of age. Anna immigrated, 8/17/1733. Immigrated on ship "Samuel" with husband Johannes Peter Trachsel on 8/17/1733.

[His son]Christian Troxell was born Egypt, PA 3/17/1738 or 39. Christian died after 1813 Kentucky.

The Troxell-Steckel House, which is furnished in the old way and is open to visitors, was built by Christian Troxel's first cousin, the son of his father Johannes Peter's brother Johannes Nicholas. As you can imagine, with the repetition of names, it can be difficult to keep track of who's who.

John Peter Troxell built the Troxell-Steckel House in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

The house was built in 1756 by Johann Peter Troxell. He had been born in the Palatinate region of Germany in 1719 and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1727. Johann Peter's father Johann bought 250 acres in Egypt, PA; Johann Peter later secured the land. Johann Peter and his first wife Anna Barbara Saeger had two children before she died. His second wife was Catherine Maria Magdalena Schreiber; the couple had three children while living in this house. The family later moved to Gwynedd Township and eventually to Frederick County, Maryland.

Interestingly enough, Grandpa Irvin Peffley discovered that Nicholas Peffley, like the Trachsels, orignated in Canton Bern, Switzerland, but in the Signau District rather than Lenk.

Cavaliers in the Woodpile....Maybe

Daddy's black sheep great-grandfather B.J. Stubbs, who abandoned his wife and young daughter in a lawless county in Texas around 1890, was descended from an early Virginia family.

In 1620 a Mr. STUBBS bought two shares of stock in the Virginia Company of London for 25 pounds. A (John) STUBBS immigrated to America and settled in Gloucester County, Virginia about 1652. There is a difference in the interpretation of records in the biographies as to whether Mr. STUBBS is John STUBBS the immigrant or if John STUBBS was his son.

A much less direct ancestor of B.J.'s, Walter Chiles, Jr., was born in 1607 or '08 in Wrighton, Somerset County, England, and died in 1653 in Prince George County, Virginia. He married Elizabeth Saunders(?) on June 30, 1630 at Bristol Cathedral, Somerset County, England. Their son Henry Chiles was born about 1640 at the Kemp House in Jamestown, James City County, Virginia.

Many of the early Virginia colonists were younger sons of nobles and gentlemen along with the indentured servants who would help them maintain their customary stratified way of life. The Stubbs family, as stockholders, were obviously not indentured servants, nor were they nobility. Perhaps they were fortune-seekers, and if so, they did reasonably well in the New World. I do not know what station in life the Chiles family held in England.

On Mother's side of the family, the Bryans were a prominent Virginia family. According to some accounts, the family in America originated with William Smith Bryan of County Down, Ireland.

(Some of this is from "Colonial Families of U.S., Vol VI, By MacKinzie, pages 104 through 106. "Records of Agusta Co., VA 1745-1800 by Chalkley, pages 61, 151, 371, 428, 436" "Notable Southern Families'-by Armstrong and "The Bryans of Ballyroney" by Winfred Bryan Cole, reprinted from the bulletin of the "MO Historical Soc." , Apr. 1960.)
1. WILLIAM SMITH BRYAN - was deported from IR in Circa 1630 by Lord Oliver Cromwell as a "troublesome subject". He lost not only his title but his lands. Together with 11 sons and a shipload of chattels, including horses and other live-stock, he landed at Gloucester Beach Virginia.(Thoroughbred records credits him with being among the first to bring horses to America.) his sons and Grandsons (supposedly a total of 21) settled Gloucester Co. the wife of William Smith Bryan is unknown. His eldest son was Francis Bryan III.
2. Francis Bryan III - Was b. in IR Circa 1630. He returned to IR from VA and tried to regain the Co. Clare estates left by his Great Grandmother Lady Joan (Fitz-Gerald) Bryan. He was persecuted by the government and was obliged to seek refuge in Denmark. He was permitted to return to IR about 1638, and it is said to have been standard bearer to William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne.
He married Sarah Brinker(Bunker?), a cousin to the Princess of Orange. Francis Bryan died in Belfast, IR in 1694. He had two sons Morgan b. 1671 Denmark d. 1763 m. Martha Strode And WILLIAM BRYAN b.1685 Co. Down, IR. d. 1789 m. Margaret_______?
3. William Bryan - b. 1685 was 104 when he died near Salem, VA or Roanoke City. William and wife Margaret lived at Ballyroney Co. Down, IR. They were Presbyterians and when they left for America they carried with them a document from their church dated 17 April 1718. STORY - William and Margaret Bryan sent their son, John Andrew into the woods to cut a stick to make a handle for a hook used in weaving, and he was arrested for poaching. After much trouble and espense, his father got him clear, and immediately sailed for America, where, as he said, "timber was free and there were no constables". (from" Notable Southern Families", p. 40)
It is not known for certain how many children were born in IR and made the sailing with their parents. For sure John Andrew Bryan was born in IR sometime before 1717.
William and Margaret first settled in Pennsylvania, then West New Jersey and later moved to VA. William Bryan is listed many times in deed , Records, etc. in Agusta Co. VA. Records, including disposition of land to his sons.

Our descent from William Bryan through John Andrew Bryan is fairly solid. I'd dearly love to see the research that prompted the above improbable scenario, however. Whether cavaliers or rednecks (Presbyterians), our Bryans were a prosperous and prominent family. Grandma Grace Currin's great grandfather, Thomas Ross Bryan, owned numerous slaves at the outbreak of the Civil War, as did many of his relatives.

Lee's maternal grandmother's first American ancestor, Jacob (Jacques) Remy, was a French Huguenot who came to Virginia in 1654 as an indentured servant.

From The Remy Family in America 1650-1942 Compiled by Bonnelle William Rhamy, M.D., Fort Wayne Indiana 1942

Jacob Remy was a French Huguenot who fled to England. He came to Virginia in 1654 under the indenture system bound to Nicolas Spencer, Esq., who was appointed Secretary of the colony of Va., during the pleasure of King Charles II (1606-1702).

His first wife was Francoise, daughter to Antoine Haldat II, Seigneur de Bonnet and his wife Madelaine Marchand. She apparently died on the passage to Virginia, where she was to be indentured to John Drayton, 1654.

He became a landowner in 1671 and married Mary Miles. In 1680, he became a naturalized citizen.

According to some sources, Mary Miles' father Marmaduke Miles was born in 1624 in Virginia, but I have been unable to document that. Lee and I have a bit of a competition going about whose ancestors got here first, not counting Indians. So far, I have found no solid evidence of any Native American ancestry on either side in spite of several possibles. As long as our families have been here, there's almost bound to be some somewhere.

Fruits of Albion's Seed Part I: Puritans

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: a cultural history) by David Hackett Fischer

Book Description
This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

Review From Library Journal
This cultural history explains the European settlement of the United States as voluntary migrations from four English cultural centers. Families of zealous, literate Puritan yeomen and artisans from urbanized East Anglia established a religious community in Massachusetts (1629-40); royalist cavaliers headed by Sir William Berkeley and young, male indentured servants from the south and west of England built a highly stratified agrarian way of life in Virginia (1640-70); egalitarian Quakers of modest social standing from the North Midlands resettled in the Delaware Valley and promoted a social pluralism (1675-1715); and, in by far the largest migration (1717-75), poor borderland families of English, Scots, and Irish fled a violent environment to seek a better life in a similarly uncertain American backcountry. These four cultures, reflected in regional patterns of language, architecture, literacy, dress, sport, social structure, religious beliefs, and familial ways, persisted in the American settlements. The final chapter shows the significance of these regional cultures for American history up to the present. - David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Our family has representatives of each of the four prominent early folkways among our ancestors, plus a few extras for good measure. Daddy’s matrilineal great-grandmother, Estella Marie Hobbs, was descended from several long-established Puritan families of Massachusetts. Her Hobbs forebears came over in 1671.

From the Genealogy of the Hobbs Family of Massachusetts written byGeorge Hobbs, Esq. and published in 1855, the following information is ascertained:

Josiah was an emigrant who left England on the Arabella (Richard Sprague, Master) on May 27, 1671 and arrived in Boston in July 1671. He resided in Boston for the next 18 years. He moved his family to Lexington (then the west precinct of Cambridge) in 1690, where lived through the rest of his days, with the exception of a two-year residence in the westerly part of Woburn (now Burlington). In 1691, he contributed to the building of the First Meeting House in Lexington. In 1692 and 1693 he contributed to the support of the first minister of Lexington, Rev. Mr. Easterbrooks.In church records kept by Rev. Easterbrooks the following is noted: "August 1699 - Baptized Josiah Hobbs and his wife Tabitha, and received them into the church in full communion. Sept. 17th, 1699, baptized Josiah, Tabitha and Mary Hobbs. Oct., 1700, baptized Matthew and Susanna Hobbs. The elder Hobbs, according to the representations given, was of a slight figure and somewhat below the medium size. He died at age 92.

According to the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, published in 1906, Josiah Hobbs was in Capt. Joseph Sill's Company in the King Phillip's War, 1675, and a Narragansett grantee.

Estella's Hastings ancestors arrived even sooner.

From the book, Hastings Family Record

DEACON THOMAS HASTINGS, OF WATERTOWN, MASS.
Thomas Hastings, aged 29, and his wife Susanna, aged 34, embarked at Ipswich, England, April 10, 1634, in the "Elizabeth," William Andrews, Master, for New England, and settled in Watertown, Mass, then known as the "Massachusetts Bay Colony." Here he was admitted freeman, May 6, 1635.

He "laid down" a lot in Dedham in 1635 or 1636, but never lived there.
He was Selectman of Watertown from 1638 to 1643, and again from 1650 to 1671; Town Clerk, 1671, 1677, 1680; Representative, 1673; and he long held the office of deacon. His wife, Susanna, died childless, February 2, 1650, and he married, April 2, 1651, Margaret Cheney, daughter of William and Martha Cheney, of Roxbury, Mass. She was the mother of all his children. He died in 1685, aged 80 years. According to an inventory, dated September 9, 1685, his real estate amounted to £421. He owned two farms, and as many as fifteen other lots. He was grantee for seven lots, the remainder he purchased.

The west side of School Street, then called Hill Street, was always his residence. His homestead passed to his son Samuel. In his will, dated March 12, 1682-83, proved September 7, 1685, he gave to his oldest son Thomas, who received a professional education, only £5, saying: "I have been at great expense to bring him up a scholar, and I have given him above three-score pounds to begin the world with." To his sons John, Joseph, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Samuel,and to his daughter, Hepzibah Bond, he gave each £40. To his granddaughter Margaret (eldest daughter of his son Thomas) he gave £5, and to her sister Hannah £3, and the remainder to his wife Margaret. He had eight children.

Eliphalet Hastings, Estella’s great-great-grandfather and Thomas’s great-grandson, was a Revolutionary War veteran who participated as a private in the battle of Lexington and Concord and in 1778 was commissioned lieutenant.

Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, 17 Vols.

Hastings, Eliphalet, Waltham. Private, Capt. Abraham Peirce's (Waltham) co., which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, to Concord and Lexington; service, 3 days; company called out by Col. Thomas Gardner and served as guards until Saturday, the fourth day after the fight at Concord.

Hastings, Eliphalet, Waltham. Sergeant, Capt. Abijah Childs's co., Col. Thomas Gardner's regt.; muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; enlisted April 25, 1775; service, 98 days; also, Capt. Childs's co., Lieut. Col. William Bond's (late Col. Gardner's) regt.; order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money dated Prospect Hill, Dec. 20, 1775.

Hastings, Eliphalet. Private, Capt. Abraham Peirce's (Waltham) co., Col. Samuel Thatcher's regt.; rations allowed from March 4 to March 8, 1776; credited with 5 days allowance; company marched at request of Gen. Washington at the time of taking Dorchester Heights.

Hastings, Eliphalet, Waltham. Sergeant; order on Capt. Jonathan Brown, Commissary, dated Waltham, June 23, 1775, signed by Col. Jonathan Brewer, for provisions for 14 days due said Hastings; also, Capt. Blake's co., Col. Brewer's regt.; receipt for advance pay, given to Eben. Bridge, signed by said Hastings; said Hastings reported as having taken the oath in Middlesex Co. July 4, 1775, required by Congress to be taken by the Mass. army; also, Ensign, Capt. Edward Blake's co., Col. Jonathan Brewer's regt.; muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; engaged June 17, 1775; service, 1 mo. 15 days; also, Capt. Moses Harvey's co., Col. Brewer's regt.; company return [probably Oct., 1775]; also, 1st Lieutenant; list of officers of Middlesex Co. militia; commissioned June 5, 1778; company raised for service at Peekskill; also, Lieutenant, Capt. Caleb Moulton's co. commanded by said Hastings subsequent to Oct. 11, 1778, Col. Thomas Poor's regt.; entered service May 5, 1778; discharged Feb. 24, 1779; service, 10 mos., at North river, including 11 days (220 miles) travel home; also, Lieutenant, Capt. Moulton's co., Col. Poor's regt.; pay rolls for May-Aug., 1778; also, same co. and regt.; pay roll for Sept., 1778, dated Fort Clinton; also, Lieutenant, in command of a company, Col. Poor's regt.; pay roll for Nov., 1778; also, same co. and regt.; pay roll for Dec., 1778, dated King's Ferry; also, 1st Lieutenant; list of officers appointed to command men detached from militia to reinforce the Continental Army for 3 months, agreeable to resolve of June 22, 1780; commissioned Aug. 4, 1780; reported detached from Middlesex Co. militia; also, Lieutenant, Capt. Zaccheus Wright's co., Col. Cyprian Howe's regt.; appointed June 30, 1780; discharged Oct. 30, 1780; service, 4 mos. 4 days.

Estella Marie Hobbs herself earned a bachelor’s degree in music in 1877, then a most unusual accomplishment for a woman. Considering the Puritan emphasis on education for women as well as men, this becomes less surprising, even if by then the family was firmly Methodist.

Coming up eventually: Cavaliers (Bryan, Stubbs), Quakers & Germanic Pietists (Boone, Peffley), and Borderers (Young, who were actually Ulster weavers, and numerous others).

Interesting Uncles

I think everyone in the family knows about our connection to Daniel Boone on the Freeman side, and that our ancestor John Wilcoxson married Daniel Boone's oldest sister Sarah.

We also must remember Mother's uncle Elba Peffley, who was killed on a French battlefield in 1918 shortly before the end of World War I.

Daddy also likes to talk about an ancestor of his mother's who participated in the Boston Tea Party, and I have finally located an uncle, Samuel Hobbs, who is on the official list of participants.

I had already eliminated the Freeman side of the family from consideration, because they either did not arrive until after the Revolution or were in the South at the time. The Guys didn't come over until the 1840's or so. The Hobbs connection seemed the most likely, since they were in Massachusetts at the right time, but I hadn't pursued that line of inquiry very thoroughly.

Today I finished reading Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer, and among numerous appenidices I found names of Boston Tea Party Participants, including that of Samuel Hobbs. A couple of hours of cross-referencing files at Rootsweb and Family Search, and I determined that Samuel Hobbs the tanner was, indeed, our great (something) uncle. He would have been Iva Guy's maternal grandfather's patrilineal second great uncle.

Our Great (etc.) Grandfather Elisha Hobbs had other brothers, Isaac and Matthew, who participated in the battle of Lexington and Concord:

Database: Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, 17 Vols.
Volume 8

page 18
Hobbs, Isaac, Weston.Private, Capt. Samuel Lamson's co., which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, 3 days.

page 19
Hobbs, Matthew, Weston.2d Lieutenant, Capt. Samuel Lamson's co., which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, 3 days; also, 1st Lieutenant, Capt. Jonathan Fisk's (2d) co., 3d Middlesex Co. regt. of Mass. militia; list of officers; commissioned March 27, 1776; also, Lieutenant, Capt. Charles Miles's co., Col. Jonathan Reed's regt.; rations allowed said Hobbs from July 12, 1776, to Nov. 30, 1776; credited with 142 days allowance; also, same co. and regt.; pay abstract for travel allowance, etc., from Ticonderoga, sworn to Feb. 16, 1777; 185 miles travel allowed said Hobbs; service with Northern army; also, Captain, 2d co., 3d Middlesex Co. regt. of Mass. militia; list of officers; commissioned Sept. 22, 1778.

So...what was Grampa Elisha up to during the war? He moved to Princeton, Massachusetts before the war, so he was not so close to the action of April 19, 1775 as his brothers were. He was a deacon of the church there, a position of some prominence.