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History of the Denio Family The ancestors of the Denios came to the New World from England and France during the 17th Century. This was a tumultuous time, with the epic military struggles between France, Spain and England influenced by the religious controversy and reformation within the Roman Catholic Church. It was a time also of exploration and exploitation of the New World by the European powers. 16th and 17th Century England 16th Century England was embroiled in controversy. Henry VIII had effectively isolated England from the complete domination of the Pope in seeking the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (Spain) so he could marry Anne Boleyn. He had 5 wives in all. Henry VIII died in 1547 after a reign of 37 years. Edward VI, a ten year-old boy, succeeded Henry VIII; he was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife. He died in 1553 and was succeeded by Mary, who was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Queen Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, begun her reign when her half-sister, Queen Mary (Bloody Mary to many), died in November, 1558. Her reign, which was to last until 1603, began in what might be the darkest period of English history. She would establish the pre-eminence of England in international affairs and especially at sea. She was Protestant, although two-thirds to three-quarters of Englishmen were Catholic. This tempestuous period, during which the Reformation’s bitter battles raged, would seal the future of England’s religious future, away from the Roman Catholic Church. In February, 1587, Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots or the Fairy Queen, was beheaded after years of imprisonment. In 1588, the Spanish Armada was defeated in the English Channel. The naval war between England and Spain dragged on for 10 more years, until Spain’s King Phillip died in 1598. Queen Elizabeth lived for 5 more years, passing away in 1603. King James VI of Scotland, son of Queen Mary, succeeded her as King James I of England and reigned from 1603-1625. James I was a tolerant dogmatist, balancing the interests of the Puritans against those of the Roman Catholics (and the Jesuits). Early in his reign (1605) he was confronted with the unsuccessful attempt by Guy Fawkes and accomplices to blow up Parliament. After this incident, Parliament felt justified in intensifying the statutes against Catholics. Writer/philosopher of the period included Ben Johnson and James Donne. Sir Walter Raleigh was executed on October 29, 1618 after disobeying King James I order forbidding him to interfere with "Christian communities anywhere, particularly the Spanish." The King James version of the Bible was published under his reign (1611). During this period of time, Puritanism was gaining strength. James I died in 1625 and was succeeded by his son, Charles I. His reign was tumultuous as Parliament increasingly showed its independence. As a result of this conflict, Parliament did not assemble for 11 years (1629-1640). When Parliament was assembled again in 1640, it was dominated by Puritan interests and it issued a number of ultimatum to Charles I. These he rejected, and the Civil Wars began (1642-1646). Charles I was beheaded on January 30, 1649 by Oliver Cromwell’s agents. The Great Rebellion (by Cromwell) corresponded to the Huguenot uprising in 16th century France in many respects. 16th and 17th Century France Religious wars between the Huguenots and the Catholics embroiled France in the late 16th Century. Henry of Navarre became King of France and Henry IV with the assassination of Henry III in August 1589. Despite the support he had received from the Huguenots, he became a Catholic in May 1593. He brought an end to that strife by signing the Edict of Nantes in April, 1598. However, his Huguenot past would not be forgotten, and in May, 1610 he was assassinated by Francois Ravaillac, an ardent Catholic, who thought he was performing an act of God and saving France from Protestant doom. Henry IV’s heir was Louis XIII, a boy of only eight years old. He was the son of the union between Henry IV and Marie de Medicis. Power struggles among nobles occurred with regularity until, at the age of 16, he took matters into his own hands. He was an ardent Catholic and took measures to restrict the Huguenots’ power established during his father’s reign. Cardinal Richelieu became very powerful in the reign of Louis XIII. Although he had a number of conflicts with the Huguenots, he recognized the immense economic value of the Huguenots to France. Richelieu died in December, 1642; Louis XIII survived his Cardinal by only five months. Louis XIV, a boy of only five years old, succeeded him. His prime minister, Jules Mazarin, effectively ruled in his stead until 1661. He governed France from 1661 to 1715. France during the period after Louis XIII died was in tremendous turmoil. There was a significant effort in France to duplicate the efforts of the English in limiting the royal authority by establishing parliamentary power over the King. In addition, France made an effort to send colonists to the New World to establish a French colony along the Saint Lawrence River. Our French forefathers were among these early settlers. English Ancestors The earliest records I have discovered so far are of our English ancestors. Some genealogical information I have reviewed indicate that the Stebbins family may have an ancestry to Charlemagne, Emperor of the Franks and Romans (742- 814); however, I have not been able to confirm this. Another record indicates the Stebbins family descended from Normans, traceable to Alfred the Great and Harald Blaatand, King of Denmark (940-985). The extended Stebbins family apparently inherited or was given substantial lands in the environs of Essex County, England and settled the town of Stebbing, England. Essex County is located northeast of London. William Stebbing, Sr. (Stebbins?)—(wife unknown) William Stebbing, Sr. was born about 1521 in Essex County, England. His wife is unknown. He died on May 25, 1561 in Bocking Parish, Essex County, England. William Stebbins was buried May 28, 1561 (?) at Braintree, Essex County, England. His son was William Stebbing, Jr. William Stebbing, Jr. (Stebbins, Stebinge?)--(wife unknown) William Stebbins, Jr. (Stebbins, Stebinge?) was born in Bocking Parish, Essex County, England about 1540. He was the son of William Stebbing, Sr. His wife’s name is unknown but his son is thought to be Thomas Stebbins, born in 1565 or 1566. Thomas Stebbins (Stebbing?) and Ellen (last name unknown) Thomas Stebbins (Stebbing?) was born in Bocking Parish, Essex County, England in about 1565 or 1566. He was married in 1591 to Ellen _____, who was born about 1570 in Bocking Parish, Essex County, England. They had three children: Dennis (born and died in 1590 and was buried November 6, 1590); Rowland (born in 1592) and Martin (born April 28, 1594) in St. Mary’s, Bocking Parish, Essex County, England. Thomas died January 21, 1602/04, Black Notley, Essex County, England. Ellen died about 1612 at Bocking Parish. John Smith and (wife unknown) John Smith was born in 1539 in Chelsworth, Suffolk, England. His wife, whose name is unknown, was born about 1543 in Chelsworth. Their daughter, Sarah Smith, was born in 1569. John Whiting and Sarah Smith John Whiting was born in 1565 at Boston, Lincolnshire County, England. He married (in 1589/90) Sarah Smith, who was born in 1569 at Bocking Parish, Essex County, England. They had a daughter, Sarah Whiting, who was born in 1590/1591. John Whiting died in 1647. Rowland Stebbins and Sarah Whiting Rowland Stebbins was born in 1592 at Stebbing (English parish-Bocking), Essex County, England, of a "family of great antiquity." He was baptized on November 5, 1592 at St. Mary’s Church in Bocking. He was the son of Thomas (Francis?) Stebbins. He married Sarah Whiting in Bocking on November 30, 1618. In 1634, with his wife and four children (Thomas-14, Sarah-11, Elizabeth-6, and John-8) and a Mary Winch (possibly a niece), Rowland Stebbins sailed in the ship "Francis" from Ipswich, England. Rowland Stebbins and his family first settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1635, he moved to Agawam, Massachusetts (afterward named Springfield), which was a colony founded by William Pyncheon. His wife, Sarah, died Oct. 4, 1649 at Springfield, Hamdon County, Massachusetts, aged 58 years. Rowland is reported to have been assigned a sitting in the first seat of the church along with four other men. He was a freeman in 1664. Between 1664 and 1669, Rowland moved to Northampton, Massachusetts and was one of the first settlers there. Twenty-four male petitioners founded Northampton in 1653. A 1661 church covenant shows seventy-five men and women in town. By 1674, Northampton held 108 men and the total town population stood at close to 500 persons. Rowland Stebbins died Dec. 14, 1671 at Northampton. His burial place was found at Northampton in 1850 and marked. His will is recorded in the Will Book of Springfield, dated the first day of the first month of 1669-70. Thomas Munson and Susan---------- Thomas Munson was born in England in 1612. He came to the American colonies at an unknown date, and was first heard of at New Haven , Connecticut in 1637. He signed the original Fundamental Agreement of all the freeholders of that place. He owned land in Hartford, Connecticut in 1639, moved there in 1641, but returned to New Haven in 1642. He was a lieutenant in command of the New Haven troops sent in September, 1675 to Norwottuck "up the river" to protect the plantation against the Indians. He died in 1685, 73 years old. Susan -------- was the wife of Thomas Munson. She was twenty-five years old when she came in the ship "Elizabeth" to Boston in 1634. They had a daughter, Ann Munson. John Stebbins, Sr. and Ann Bartlett(?) Munson John Stebbins, Sr. was the fourth child of Rowland Stebbins and Sarah Whiting Stebbins. He was born in England in 1626 and immigrated with his parents and siblings to Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1634. He married Ann (or Anne) Mundon (nee Munson or Bartlett ?), widow of Abraham Mundon at Springfield, Mass., March 14, 1646. He was a farmer. Ann Mundon, the first wife of John Stebbins, Sr. was the daughter of Thomas and Susan Munson. She married Abraham Mundon on May 16, 1644. Abraham was drowned October 29, 1645 "in ye greate river at ye falls" [at Holyoke, Mass.?] together with William and Jesse Munden. John Stebbins, Sr. died in Northampton in 1678 (March 7, 1679). The manner of his death was regarded as mysterious, in some way connected with witchcraft, but nothing was proved. Ann Stebbins died in Springfield, 1656. John Alexander, Sr. and wife (unknown) John Alexander, Sr. came from Stirling, Scotland to Windsor, Connecticut about 1640. His wife’s name is unknown. He died before 1690. He had two children, George and John, Jr. John Alexander, Jr. and Beatrice --------- John Alexander, Jr. was the son of John Alexander, Sr. He married Beatrice -------. They had several children, the second of who was Dorothy, who was born about 1660. John Alexander, Jr. was one of the earliest settlers in Deerfield, moved to Northampton in 1675. He took the oath of allegiance by order of "Our General Court" in 1676. He signed a petition against imposts in 1668 and returned to Newton, Mass. in 1678. He died in Newton on December 11, 1696. John Stebbins, Jr. and Dorothy Alexander John Stebbins, Jr. was born at Springfield on January 28, 1646-47. He was a carpenter by trade. In 1667, it is reported that in Northampton John Stebbins, Jr. had been sentenced to ten lashes, or a forty-shilling fine (his father paid the fine) for complicity in a burglary/runaway attempt by three local youths while townspeople were in church. In 1674 he was embroiled in another case as five people accused him of "lascivious carriage." He served at Springfield under Captain Lathrop and was the only known unwounded survivor of the Bloody Brook Massacre on September 18, 1675. The second day after the massacre he enlisted under Capt. Samuel Mosely and served to the close of the war (1675-76.) He took the oath of Allegiance at Northampton on February 8, 1678. He lived for a time in the vicinity of Boston, then moved to Deerfield at its permanent settlement in 1682. On January 4, 1680 (Greenlee--1683?) he married at Boston Dorothy Alexander, who was then about 22 or 23 years old, the daughter of John and Beatrice Alexander. They later returned to Deerfield and lived there on lot # 35. They had six children: Abigail, John, Samuel, Thankful, Ebenezer, and Joseph. John Stebbins, Jr. at different dates received land grants at Deerfield and held various town offices. At the town meeting of Deerfield on May 30, 1689, John Stebbins, Jr. was chosen one of three haywards for the ensuing year. His daughter, Abigail, married Jacques de Noyon of Trois Rivieres (Three Rivers), Quebec (Canada) in Deerfield in during the winter of 1703/4. At the time of the Deerfield massacre (February 1704), the house of John Stebbins, Jr. was burned down; he his wife and his five young children, along with Abigail, his married daughter and her husband, Jacques de Noyon, were captured and taken to Canada. John Stebbins, Jr., his wife Dorothy and their oldest son John III were later redeemed and returned to New England. His son, Samuel, returned in 1723. The other children all remained in Canada. John Stebbins, Jr., died at Deerfield, Dec. 19, 1724. His will was dated July 31, 1723. Dorothy was reported still living at Newton, Mass. in 1733, nearly 10 years after the death of her husband. The date of her death is not known. French Ancestors Jean de Noyon, Sr. and Jeanne Franchard Jean de Noyon (Desnoyers?), Sr. was born in France. He married Jeanne Franchard (Francfort?). She, at least, had belonged to St. Pierre, bishopric of Rouen, France. They had a daughter, Susan de Noyon, baptized April 3, 1626 in St. Pierre du Chatel church, Rouen, France, and two sons, one Jean de Noyon, Jr. baptized in Saint Pierre-du-Chatel church in Rouen, Normandy, France on August 30, 1635 (some records indicate that he was baptized at Trois-Rivieres, P.Q. in 1642) and another son Guillame. Marin Bonne and Isabella Borie Marin Bonne and Isabella Borie were both of Normandy, France. They had a daughter, Gilette Ban. Marin Chauvin (dit La Fortune) and Gilette Ban Marin Chauvin (dit La Fortune) was a native of France. He married Gilette Ban , also a native of France. Marin died before 1653. They had only one daughter, Marie Chauvin, who was born at Trois-Rivieres on September 8, 1650, baptized December 8, 1650. Gilette was left a widow before 1653 for Gilette married Jacques Bertrault on July 21, 1653. They had six children, one of whom, Elizabeth married a Julien La Touche. La Touche was a soldier, but apparently a drunk and an abuser. The Betraults tried to poison the drunkard and when that didn’t work, killed him with hand tools. Arrested and convicted of jurder, they were condemned to be executed in Quebec. The sentence was carried out on June 9, 1672; the Betraults were the first couple to die together for murder. Gilette was the first "white" female to be executed in New France. Jean de Noyon, Jr. and Marie Chauvin Jean de Noyon, Jr. was the son of Jean de Noyon, Sr. and Jeanne Franchard. He was baptized in Saint Pierre-du-Chatel church in Rouen, Normandy, France on August 30, 1635. (Some records indicate that he was baptized at Trois-Rivieres, P.Q. in 1642. He was in Canada as early as 1658, for on May 7, 1659 he left Trois-Rivieres with Father Lemoine, S.J., on an embassy to the Onneiouts. On the 26th of October, 1659, he returned to France on Captain Poulet’s ship as servant of Father Barthelemi Vimont, S. J. His return to Canada is unknown, but was probably during the navigation season on the St. Lawrence River in 1660 or 1661. On June 29th and July 11th, 1662, and again on October 15th, 1663, he bought land within the walls of Trois-Rivieres according to deeds drawn up by the notary Ameau. He had the notary Ameau again draw up official receipts for him on December 7th and 23rd, 1663 and on July 13, 1664. He married Marie Chauvin on July 20, 1665. Marie Chauvin was the widow of Rolin Langlois, whom she married Nov. 25, 1664 (marriage contract drawn up by notary Ameau on September 21, 1664). Rolin Langlois died January 23, 1665. The same notary drew up the marriage contract of de Noyon-Chauvin on March 17, 1665 Jean de Noyon, Jr. and Marie Chauvin had 10 children, the eldest of whom was Jacques de Noyon, baptized February 12, 1668 at Trois-Rivieres. In both the 1666 and 1667 censuses for Trois-Rivieres, Jean de Noyon, Jr. is said to be a locksmith, armorer and edge tool maker. Being illiterate, he drew as his signature the outline of a key. The couple was recorded as living at Trois-Rivieres in the census of 1666. Jean’s brother, Guillame, resided with them. The 1667 census for Trois-Rivieres mentions Jean and his wife, but not Guillame. The family moved from Trois Rivieres to Boucherville not later than 1670 or the first part of 1671, because on February 2, 1671 their second-born child, Marie, was baptized in Boucherville. On June 6, 1671, records indicate a bailment of a cow by Jean de Noyon to Jacques Glinel. On April 4, 1673, Pierre Boucher granted him in Boucherville a building lot of one-half by two arpents; and on the same day, a farm of 50 arpents (an arpent is about 5/6ths of an acre). Jean de Noyon, Jr. died at Boucherville and was buried on March 10, 1692. Marie Chauvin later returned to her old town, Trois-Rivieres, and was buried there on March 31, 1723. French Canada At the time Jacques de Noyon was growing up, disorders from the fur trade were at their height. The government in New France tried to regulate or control the traffic in pelts. Licenses were granted and annual fairs established, but these efforts were to little or no avail. Hundreds of young men took to the woods, carrying goods and brandy to exchange with the Indians for pelts at their own price, to sell again for large profits. The youth and vigor of the colony was absorbed in this irregular trade. Men could not be found to till the seignior’s acres and farms ran wild again. Agriculture languished and population diminished. A year or two of this free life in the wilderness made men adverse to labor and loathe to marry. Severe edicts from the King were followed by generous amnesties. The lawless vagabonds cared no more for one than the other. Neither threats of branding, whipping, hard labor at the galleys, nor promise of the king’s grace and bounty could induce this army of coureurs de bois to return to the duties and obligations of civilized life. So general was this outlawry, that at one time the intendent writes to the minister that "There is not a family of any condition or quality soever that has not children, brothers, uncles or nephews among them,: and he expresses the fear that if absolute pardon is not offered them "the may be drawn to pass over to the English, which would be a general loss to the country." He writes, "The coureurs de bois not only act openly, but they carry their pelts to the English and try to drive the Indian trade thither." There is plenty of evidence that the English took advantage of the situation, paid the coureurs de bois twice as much for their beaver skins as the Canadian merchants and sold them merchandise at much cheaper rates. Jacques de Noyon and Abigail Stebbins Jacques de Noyon, the eldest child of Jean de Noyon and Marie Chauvin, was baptized on February 12, 1668 at Trois-Rivieres. Two or three years later he came with his parents to Boucherville. His father may have spoken to his son or in his presence of his journeys beyond the frontiers, because Jacques was certainly never of a sedentary nature, and very early revealed a strong inclination to travel and explore. In 1688, at the age of twenty, he and three companions traveled to the Canadian West, crossed Lake Superior, reached Grand Portage, entered the Kaministikwia River near the present city of Fort Williams, explored Dog Lake, Mille Lacs Lake, and by the Rainy River, discovered Lake of the Woods. He spent the winter of 1688-89 on the Ouchichig River (Winnipeg) at its entrance to Lake of the Woods. On the return trip in 1689, one of Jacques’ companions who was named Lacroix, drowned in storm while crossing the Lac des Chasseurs ( later named Lake La Croix) in a canoe with two companions. His report of this trip has been lost, but a summary of it is contained in a letter of Vaudreuil and de Begon to the Conseil de Marine dated November 12, 1716. Some have said that this report was of use to de la Verendrye in his own exploration of the West. To pay for his equipment and for the trade goods, de Noyon had signed a bond on May 13, 1688 (notary Adhemar) to the Montreal merchant, the "sieur de Couagne." De Noyon continued his trading trips, giving bonds for equipment and trade goods: on January 22, 1690, to Francois Charon, for 153 livres (notary Mague); on February 12, 1691, to Jacques Perrot Desroches (notary Basset); on May 21, 1692, to Etienne Volant (notary Basset); the next day with two others, "being on the point of travelling," to Jean Petit de Boismorel (notary Maugue). (There is much other information contained in the summary for Jacques de Noyon in the Genealogical Review.) At the end of October 1700, de Noyon was in New York where, with Louis Gosselin, he petitioned Governor Bellomont. Between then and 1704, it is thought that de Noyon and comrades were in New England despite the breaking out of Queen Anne’s war (known in France as the War of the Spanish Succession) in 1702. The war lasted until the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. At the time of the attack on Deerfield in February, 1704, de Noyon and two other Frenchmen had been living in Deerfield, long enough for de Noyon to court and marry Abigail Stebbins, age 20 years, and the daughter of John Stebbins and Dorothy Alexander, pioneers of Deerfield. According to a later petition of Marguerite Stebbins, wife of Jacques de Noyon, dated July 9, 1708, he claimed at the time to be well established and quite wealthy in Canada. Jacques de Noyon and Abigail Stebbins were married in Deerfield on February 3, 1703/4 by the local minister, Reverend John Williams. (For a very interesting account of the history, customs and life of Deerfield residents during the 17th and 18th centuries, you should read New England Outpost, by Richard I. Melvoin.) The French and Indian attack on Deerfield came before daybreak on February 29, 1703/4. De Noyon, his wife, her family and many others were taken as captives by the raiding party and taken to Canada where they arrived in Chambly by the end of March. The Stebbins remained in Chambly under the protection of the Hertels; de Noyon and his wife came to live with his widowed mother at Boucherville. It is in that village that they spent the rest of their lives (Jacques continued to travel) that their children were born (with one exception) and that they died and were buried. Their eldest son was born December 26, 1704, and baptized December 28, 1704 at Boucherville, Quebec. His godparents were Jean and Marie Boucher, children of Pierre Boucher. Abigail (now Marie Gabrielle after she was baptized at Montreal on May 28, 1708) found Jacques de Noyon’s promises not true. She was compelled to do manual labor and to accept charity. On July 9, 1708, according to a petition she made to Pierre Raimbault, Esquire, the King’s counselor and attorney in Canada, she prayed that the joint estate of herself and her husband be dissolved; and that she be authorized to buy in her own name a certain farm in Boucherville. She avers that her husband gives her no support whatsoever; that he is heavily in debt; that she has strong hopes to be able to support herself and her children from the produce of the farm, and to pay of the purchase price by her own efforts, by help she expects to receive from her parents after the war, and by the King’s bounty. This petition was approved the same day. Jacques de Noyon was at that time a sergeant in the marine troops, in the company of Captain de Tonty. Abigail and Jacques de Noyon had 15 children. During Father Rasle’s war (1722-25) Jacques de Noyon was seen at Northfield, Province of Massachusetts Bay, in the fall of 1723. De Noyon was apparently well known in New England. Abigail Stebbins, after apparently learning of the death of her father on December 19, 1724, petitioned the Governor General of Canada on July 26, 1725 to travel to visit her kinfolk in Deerfield and to bring back her eldest son. The Governor granted her permission on July 6, 1725 to travel the two hundred miles to Deerfield by canoe with Nicolas Binet and Rene Lebeaux. She stayed in Deerfield for a time, giving birth to a daughter, Marie-Anne, on February 27, 1726. Her daughter was baptized at Boucherville only on November 5, 1726, so Abigail and the child must have returned to Canada in the late summer or fall. Jacques-Rene (Aaron) remained in Deerfield. Abigail was buried in Boucherville on November 5, 1740. Jacques was buried at Boucherville on May 12, 1745. (A very interesting account of Jacques de Noyon is contained in the French Canadian and Acadian Genealogical Review, Volume III, No. 1, Spring 1971.) John Coombs and Elizabeth (last name unknown) All that is known of Anna Coombs’ ancestry is that she was the tenth of the twelve children of John and Elizabeth Coombs of Northampton, Mass. John Coombs was a fuller and cloth dresser who came to Northampton about 1695.(To be researched and completed) Aaron Denio (Jacques-Rene de Noyon) and Anna Coombs Jacques-Rene de Noyon[1] was the first-born son of Jacques de Noyon and Abigail Stebbins. He was born on December 26, 1704 in Boucherville, Quebec. After the treaty of Utrecht ended the war in 1713, he accompanied in 1714 or 1715 a hunting party of Canadians and Indians to visit his maternal grandparents, who by now had been redeemed to the English colonies from French custody and had returned to Deerfield. He apparently acquired a strong liking for life in Deerfield and a great affection for his grandfather, for when the party was ready to return to Canada, he could not be found. The party returned without him. Jacques-Rene stayed with his grandparents and grew up in Deerfield known as Aaron Denio. (An account of Aaron’s life is found in the Denio Genealogy.) Aaron married Anna Coombs on July 8, 1730. She was born February 11 (or 17), 1711 at Northampton, Mass. and died at Greenfield, Mass. April 5, 1774. Aaron Denio and Anna Coombs had 12 children.
Aaron Denio died at Greenfield, April 5, 1774. Solomon Denio [13] and Esther Pennell Solomon Denio was the youngest of the12 children born to Aaron Denio and Anna Coombs. His father’s residence became Greenfield on the organization of the town in December 1753. Solomon saw extensive service during the Revolutionary War and during Shay’s Rebellion in 1787 (See Denio Genealogy). Solomon married Esther Pennell of Colrain, Mass on December 18, 1777. She was born December 24, 1752, and was the daughter of Archibald and Esther (McCrellis) Pennell of Colrain. The Pennell family came from Westborough (Southborough) Mass to Colrain and were undoubtedly of the Scotch-Irish who were among the earliest settlers of Colrain. It is not definitely known where Solomon and his family lived. A plan of the village of Greenfield of 1774 places the name of Solomon with a house on a lot of land adjoining that on which his father’s house stood. His son, Isaac, told his own son Dexter of living in Colrain, Deerfield and in Cazenovia, N. Y. Solomon is thought to have died in Cazenovia, New York, but that has not been established. A great grandson of Solomon said in 1921 that "Solomon at one time lived in Cherry Valley, N. Y., but I do not know the dates." In 1888, Dexter Denio, son of Isaac Denio, expressed his belief that both Solomon and his wife died before 1810 when Isaac Denio married just after settling in Newstead, N. Y. The place of birth of their children is unknown. Town records of Colrain were destroyed by fire before 1888. Solomon Denio and Esther Pennell had nine children.
Isaac Denio [73] and Rhoda Warner Isaac Denio was born to Solomon Denio and Esther Pennell on October 17, 1784, possibly at Colrain, Mass. He was a farmer and lived his early life in Massachusetts. He moved to Cazenovia, Madison County. N. Y. while still young and then, about 1808, he moved to Erie County, N. Y. Elijah Knight, the first mayor of Akron, indicates that a Denio and others, old neighbors, came from Madison County, N. Y in the winter of 1808 and 1809. Isaac Denio was reported as among new settlers in the Town of Newstead in 1809. He was a soldier in the war of 1812.
Isaac obtained and occupied government land at Akron, Erie County. N. Y. which his son, Dexter, still owned in 1889. Isaac died October 20 (November 22?) 1868 at Akron, N. Y. Rhoda died January 9, 1867 at Akron. Josiah Atkins and Mary Wheeler John Atkins and Elizabeth Jerome
Samuel Atkins and Anna Jones Samuel Atkins was born in 1760/62 in New Hampshire. He was the son of John and Elizabeth (Jerome) Atkins of Claremont, New Hampshire. He first married Olive Cady, who died soon after their marriage, leaving no children. His second wife was Anna Jones. They had eleven children. Their son was Israel Atkins, born June 22, 1791 at Claremont, New Hampshire. Samuel died December 5, 1812 at Buffalo, N.Y. Israel Gardner "Atkins and Fanny Knight Israel Atkins was born June 22, 1791 at Claremont, New Hampshire. He was married January 4, 1815 at Clarence, Erie County, N.Y. to Fanny Knight. He died January 20, 1842 at London, Ontario, Canada, while enroute to Michigan. Israel and Fanny Atkins had a daughter, Lucia O. Atkins. William W. Denio [362] and Lucia O. Atkins William W. Denio was born on March 24, 1819 at Akron, N. Y. He lived his early life in Akron, N.Y. He is said to have lived next door to his brother Dexter in the town of Newstead.On January 2, 1842 he married Lucia O. Atkins at Elba, Genesee County, N. Y. Lucia was born in 1824 at Erie, Erie County, N.Y. William and his wife probably migrated to Michigan with his wife’s family, the Atkins, in 1842 or soon thereafter. He apparently settled in Perry, Shiawassee County first, before purchasing land in Section 3 of Locke Township from his brother, James C. Denio, on July 15, 1844. He later acquired property in Section 4 of Locke Township as well. He appeared on the Locke tax roll for both sections through 1879. Locke Township is in Ingham County, north east of what is now Lansing, Michigan. He was a pioneer in Ingham County clearing "a farm in the oak openings" and giving "years of the most arduous effort to the improvement of the homestead." They had five children.
Ingham County census records for 1850 show that as of June, 1850, William was a farmer and owned real estate valued at $500. His wife Lucia O., son George D., daughters Anna Lucinda and Martha Jane are also listed on the census record. William W. Denio moved to Ottawa County, Kansas in 1882 and was residing in Bennington, Kansas in 1889. Land records indicate that he and his wife owned several properties in and around Bennington. William W. Denio developed consumption (T.B.) in the last four years of his life. He died while visiting his son, George Dexter, at Pleasant Hill, Missouri on March 16, 1897 and was buried at the Bennington Cemetery. His wife, Lucia O. Atkins, moved to Bakersfield, Kern County, California after her husband’s death. She died on May 1, 1905 in Bakersfield and is buried in the Union Cemetery in Bakersfield. |