Sylvanus Snow

Sylvanus Snow was the father of John O Dirlam's first wife, Sarah. Sarah's grandfather moved to Ashford in Windham County, Connecticut in 1725 and played an active role in village life. Five more children were born there, including Sylvanus, born on March 17, 1732. By 1775 Ashford had 2231 inhabitants including 13 slaves, one of whom belonged to Sylvanus' brother, Samuel Snow. And Sylvanus had served repeatedly in the Militia during the French and Indian War:

• 1758 - Sylvanus Snow, age 26, served 10 April to 5 November in Colonel Eleazer Fitch's Third Regiment (Captain Jedediah Fay's Tenth Company recruited in Ashford) *
• 1759 - Savanus Snow, age 27, served in General Phineas Lyman's First Regiment, based in Sheffield (Major John Slapp's Third Company recruited in Mansfield)
• 1762 - Silvanus Snow, age 30, served 18 March to 3 December in General Phineas Lyman's First Regiment, based in Sheffield (Captain Hugh Ledlie's Tenth Company)

Mansfield is just 8 miles down the road from Ashford, but Sheffield (the base of Snow's third enlistment) is 75 miles farther west in the southwest corner of Massachusetts. Why was Snow stationed there? Connecticut Colony worked cooperatively with it's neighbors, supporting New York on the northern frontier around Albany and leading the defense of western Massachusetts (where Sheffield is located).

During the struggle over taxes in the run-up to the Revolutionary War, Boston was a center of protest, and 4000 British troops were in occupation. There was a great deal of public sympathy, both generally in Connecticut, and specifically in Ashford, and in 1769 the legislature passed the Non-importation Agreement. An Ashford town meeting appointed brother Samuel Snow and two other men to a committee, "To see that no merchants, shop-keepers, nor peddlers import, put off, or traffick in Ashford, any goods, wares, or merchanize that are imported contrary to the Non-importation Agreement."

A few days after the fighting at Lexington and Concord, near Boston, in April of 1775, the Connecticut Assembly called for a 6000 man militia, and Sylvanus Snow enlisted again. Aged 43, he served May 1 to September 11 in General Putnam's Third Regiment, recruited in Windham County (specifically Captain Knowlton's Fifth Company recruited in Ashford). Two 1000-man regiments raised in the northeast, and therefore closest, raced to Boston to try to keep the British garrison there from traveling out into the countryside again. Thomas Knowlton, elected Captain, led 200 of his neighbors, mostly farmers armed with shotguns. June 17, they fought along the fence at Breed's Hill, and Knowlton was promoted to Major by Congress. Our ancestor, Private Sylvanus Snow, was mentioned in an officer's report as having lost his gun in the fight. **

These enlistments were for the "fighting season" only, because in the 18th Century it was too difficult to fight during the winter months when average temperatures were below freezing, and too expensive to support men in camps.

When did Sylvanus Snow move his wife and 8 surviving children to Becket, Berkshire County, Massachusetts? Perhaps after 1775, the date of his final enlistment, and before 1781, when his oldest daughter married John O Dirlam in Becket?

Update: Sylvanus Snow first bought land in Becket in 1788. His son Levi, brother Timothy, and nephews all bought first, starting in 1782.

He lived out the rest of his life in Becket, where he appears on the rolls of the first three census. He doesn't appear on the 1820 census, but he and his wife may included with the men and women over 45 listed with their son Levi. Sylvanus died January 19, 1828, two years after his wife, and they are buried together at the old Congregational Church graveyard in Becket. ***

Sources:

1. Rolls of Connecticut Men in the French and Indian War, 1755-1762, edited by Albert C. Bates, 1903
   
2. Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution, compiled by authority of the General Assembly, Hartford, 1889
3. Personal visit April 2008