New Fairfield Historical District

Gideon Hubbell House

The Gideon Hubbell house is of interest because it is one of the oldest buildings in the area and a good example of Greek Revival architecture, and because when Gideon died in 1838 the probate of his will left a complete inventory of his personal property, from the family cow to the last pair of velvet trousers. This information enables the possible restoration of the house as a typical homestead of the beginning of the 19th century. Also, in its historical context, we have a record of the optimistic dispersal of Gideon’s family, which mirrored the vigorous westward expansion of his era.

Gideon's father, mother and stepmother

Gideon Hubbell (June 26, 1761 – April 11, 1838) was born in Danbury, Connecticut. Gideon’s father, Parruck Hubbell (January 22, 1731 – January 1819), moved with his family from Danbury to New Fairfield in 1771. After British troops burned Danbury in April, 1777, Parruck, age 46, was listed a few weeks later as an ensign in the 16th Regiment of the Connecticut Militia. After they reached age 16, Gideon and his older brother Ezra also served as militia men, mainly in the 16th Regiment. Parruck was the son of Andrew Hubbell (1706–1777) and Sarah Parruck (1709–1736) and a great-grandson of Richard Hubbell (1625–1699), who immigrated to Connecticut around 1640 from Worcestershire, England.

Sarah Barnum (c. 1736 – c. 1780), the first wife of Parruck Hubbell, was Gideon’s mother. She was the daughter of Samuel Barnum Sr. (1697–1764) and Rebeckah Cornell (c. 1697 – before 1757), and a great-granddaughter of Thomas Barnum (1625–1695), one of the original eight settlers of Danbury (in 1684) on land they purchased from the local Indians, which now includes all of Danbury, Bethel, New Fairfield, Redding, Ridgefield, and a portion of Derby. She was also a distant relative of the circus showman P.T. Barnum (1810–1891), who at age 71 eloquently described historical details of life around 1820 in the Danbury area of his childhood. Sarah Barnum Hubbell apparently died sometime between 1770 and 1780.

Sometime after 1772, Parruck married Lydia Beardsley (c. 1740 – c. 1794), who became stepmother to all his children. (Parruck Hubbell and Lydia Beardsley had no known children.) She was the daughter of John Beardsley Jr. (1704–1772) and Martha Odell (1708–1797). Parruck and Lydia were second cousins; their great-grandfather was Samuel Beardsley (c. 1636 – 1706), son of William Beardsley (1605–1661) of Derbyshire, England who was a founder of Stratford, Connecticut. After Lydia’s death, Parruck remarried again at about age 64; his third wife Abigail was admitted to the New Fairfield Congregational church on January 3, 1796. Both Parruck and Gideon were active in the Congregational church, serving on various committees over the years. Parruck Hubbell died in January, 1819; his widow Abigail Hubbell apparently died two or three years later.

Gideon's militia service in the American Revolutionary War

Shortly after his 16th birthday in 1777, Gideon Hubbell served in the Connecticut Militia, on loan for a month to the Horseneck garrison in Greenwich, as a Private in the Company commanded by Captain Turrell in Colonel Canfield's Regiment. From September to November, 1777, Gideon marched with his home Regiment along the Hudson River to oppose General Burgoyne's assault from Canada; this was in Captain Peter Penfield's Company of the 16th Regiment, which was commanded by Colonel Cook. (General Burgoyne surrendered his army at Saratoga, New York, before Gideon's Regiment could reach the scene.) In July, 1778, Gideon marched with the same Company and Regiment under the same command to the huge Fishkill Military Supply Depot in New York, a tour that lasted three weeks. In July, 1779, Gideon served two weeks with his home Regiment (by then under the command of Colonel Nehemiah Beardsley) in the defense of Fairfield and Norwalk, which were under attack by British General Tryon; Gideon was still in Captain Penfield's Company for this. In 1780 or 1781, Gideon served two months again on loan to the Horseneck garrison under the command of Colonel Mead and Captain Dean.

Gideon's sister and brothers

Gideon Hubbell had three brothers and a sister, all born in Danbury, Conecticut and moving as a family to New Fairfield in 1771. His oldest brother Ezra Hubbell (1756–1828) married Love Dibble (1764–1835); they first lived in Danbury, Connecticut and then settled in North Egremont, Massachusetts. His sister Sarah Hubbell (1763–1823) married Pvt. Elijah Beardsley (1760–1826) after which they lived in New Fairfield until about February, 1796, then moved to Delhi, New York, farming there until autumn 1811, when they moved to Ohio. They had fourteen children and in their later years they were reportedly innkeepers on the historic National Road at Springfield, Ohio. Gideon's brother Noah Hubbell (1767–1824) married Anna Hoyt Barnum (1764–1847) and they apparently spent their life in Danbury, Connecticut except for a farming period around 1800 at Middlefield, New York. Gideon's youngest brother Elijah Hubbell (1770–1847) married Hannah Fields (1764–1837) in 1792 and moved to Middlefield, New York where they spent the rest of their life farming.

Gideon's first and second wife

Gideon Hubbell married during the American Revolutionary War and settled with his wife Anne Bishop (1759 – c. 1795) in New Fairfield, where they had three children; Gilead, Billy, and Anna. Anne apparently died when her daughter Anna was still very young. Gideon’s second marriage, at age 37, on January 27, 1799, to Diantha Barnum age 34, lasted until her death in 1834. He was buried beside her four years later in the Town Center Cemetery. They had no known children. Diantha was the daughter of David Barnum (1733–1822) and Amie Towner (1734/35–1767), and a great-great-granddaughter of Danbury co-founder Thomas Barnum.

Gideon's children and grandchildren

Gilead Hubbell (also spelled Hubbel or Hubble), Gideon’s oldest child, was born about 1780. Apparently while still young and perhaps seeking adventure, he left the family, became a millwright’s apprentice, presumably found his way to Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, joined the pioneer traffic on the Great Wagon Road through the Shenandoah Valley, and continued south on the Carolina Wagon Road from present-day Roanoke, Virginia to Stokes County, North Carolina, where he met Sarah P. Boatright (1778 – c. 1855). They were married there on Feb 10, 1802. The couple lived in nearby Wilkes County until about 1812, when they traveled over the mountains to Rutherford County, Tennessee, near Nashville. Gilead was reported to be a captain in the militia there in 1818. The 1820 Rutherford County census listed him as engaged in manufacturing. Family tradition states that he was a millwright specializing in water wheels and that he died of pneumonia around 1822 while constructing a mill near Cape Girardeau, Missouri in bad weather. He left a widow, five sons and a daughter. His widow, Sarah Hubble, returned with her children from Missouri to Giles County in middle Tennessee where she settled with her mother Sally Boatright (c. 1750 – c. 1825) and her brother James G. Boatright Sr. (1769–1839) who had a large family there. Coincidentally, living nearby in 1850 was another widow back from Missouri named Sarah L. Hubble, a distant relative, who was a great-grandmother of the astronomer Edwin Hubble, namesake of the space telescope. For some reason, early Hubbells migrating south of the Mason–Dixon line tended to change the spelling of their name to Hubble. Gilead's children did so also, but his sons eventually reverted to the original spelling.

Gideon’s younger son, Billy B(ishop?) Hubbell (May 6, 1786 – January 20, 1885) was born in New Fairfield and married Sarah Bearss/Beers there around 1806. They lived near his father Gideon and grandfather Parruck until about 1810 when they moved to New York, where they had at least two daughters and sons. Billy became a farmer at Virgil, New York, in the Finger Lakes region, and lived there for the rest of his life. He was still listed in the Virgil census of 1880 at age 94. He had been named as a co-executor in Gideon’s will of 1830, but it is not known whether he was able to return from western New York to Connecticut to participate in the 1838 estate settlement.

Gideon’s daughter, Anna Hubbell (September 24, 1792 – May 1, 1883) married Joseph Thomas Bearss (February 23, 1790 – November 8, 1845), He was probably the son of Sgt. Joseph Bearss 2nd of New Fairfield, who served in the Revolutionary War and who lived next door to the young married couple in 1810. The two Josephs were descendants of Josiah Bearse Sr. who moved from Barnstable, Massachusetts to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1734 and then to New Fairfield in 1738, two years before the town was incorporated. He changed the spelling of his name to Bearss when he arrived in Connecticut. Josiah was a grandson of Augustine Bearse, who immigrated in 1638 at age 20 from Southampton, England to Plymouth aboard the “Confidence” and came to Barnstable with the first group in 1639. A fanciful tale of the Bearss family ancestry involving Gypsies and Indian princesses was published in the 1930s, but was later discredited by a professional genealogist. (Reasoned support for a kernel of truth in parts of the story still exists, however.) Anna and Joseph T. Bearss had four sons and eight daughters, all born in Connecticut between 1809 and 1832. Joseph T. Bearss served in the War of 1812 under Lieutenant Bellamy.

Gideon Hubbell’s will stipulated that the bulk of his estate was to be shared equally by his wife Diantha, son Billy, and daughter Anna, with a small amount reserved for the children of his deceased son Gilead. This led to an inventory of all his real and personal property after his death. As executor, it fell to Joseph T. Bearss to dispose of the assets and divide the proceeds among Billy, Anna, and “Diantha’s heirs”. He reportedly sold the house to Alpheus Martin Couch in 1841.

Anna and Joseph T. Bearss reportedly moved with eight of their children around 1841 to Catawba Island in Ottawa County, Ohio, on the edge of Lake Erie, where they planted extensive orchards. Joseph died there in 1845, but Anna lived on to the age of 90 in 1883. As a final note, their eldest son Gideon Hubbell Bearss (born 1815), who had apprenticed in 1831 as a shoemaker in Putnam County, New York, followed them in 1844 to Catawba Island, where he also became a prosperous land owner.

Continuing in the tradition of Gideon Hubbell’s three children long ago, his descendants continued to multiply and migrate across America from that time onward, each leaving a personal legacy radiating out from the old house in New Fairfield.

The Parsonage

Abel F. Beardsley took residence of The Parsonage as a manufacturer of lightning rods. Most of the town's records burned in a fire at the town clerk's home in 1867, so the exact date of the Beardsley house is unknown. Experts can place it somewhere around 1840 with parts of it being perhaps earlier. The property went through successive owners until Lavenia Jennings sold it to the Congregational Church of New Fairfield in 1903 for $1,000. It was then used as the pastor's home, The Parsonage, until the 1950s - half a century!

The Parsonage was also used as a meeting place for educational, charity and social events. According to the Danbury Evening News on September 9, 1908, "A number of ladies met at the Parsonage yesterday afternoon for the purpose of organizing a Ladies Aid Society." In the early 1900s, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) met in the parlor of The Parsonage. Years later, a woodworking club for boys was offered there with the pastor serving as instructor and shop steward. Girls in town would attend the Hobby Club. The building also served as an informal teen center in the 1940s and 1950s.