Genealogy of the Olmsted family in America : embracing the ...

6 Olmsted Family Genealogy
William Spencer, which five according to the order of Court (shall) survey
the town lands and enter the same in a Book appointed for that purpose.
It is further ordered that these five men (shall) meet every first Monday in
the month at the Constable's house in the forenoon at the ringing of the
bell."
The Braintree Colony, as they were called, after estabUshing themselves
at Cambridge, wrote to Rev. Mr. Hooker in Holland, expressing their earnest
desire that he would come over and take the pastoral charge of them. He,
in compliance, came, landing in Boston Sept. 4, 1633, bringing with him as
assistant Samuel Stone, and on the 1 1th of October he became their pastor.
" Being straightened for room they decided to move, and in the summer
of 1634 twelve men from the town in the Bay were despatched to examine
the lands on the Conn. River, then called the Fresh River. They were called
adventurers, and were the earliest immigrants to Hartford." James Olmsted
was one of the company.
Their report being favorable, " they resolved to begin several plantations
there. On the 15th of Oct., 1635, about 60 men, women and children went
by land towards Connecticut with their cows, horses and swine. They arrived
on the banks of the river at Hartford, October 29, 1635, O. S., Nov. 9, N. S.
Scarcely had they reached the place of their destination before the winter
was upon them in great severity. Their Vessels in which they had embarked
their furniture and provisions had either been wrecked on the coast, or were
frozen in at the mouth of the river. Soon famine began to stare them in the
face, and to save their lives the greater part of the settlers were obliged, in
the depth of winter, to make their way through the wilderness, or around the
coast by water to Massachusetts. The sufferings of the few that remained
were extreme. The winter was one of great severity, and after all they could
obtain by hunting, and from the Indians, they were obliged to subsist on
acorns, malt and grains."
On the 31st of May, 1636, Thomas Hooker and his entire flock of about
100 souls took their departure from Newtown. They were a fortnight on the
way through the wilderness.
James Olmsted was one of the original proprietors of Hartford, and in
the Land distribution of June, 1639, he received 70 acres. That he was a
man highly considered in the community in which he lived is evident from
the prominence that his name occupies in the old list of the " Original and
early members (1633-1639)" of the first church of Hartford, in which list his
name comes twelfth, and in such illustrious company as follows: Gov. John
Haynes, Gov. George Wyllys, Gov. Edward Hopkins, Gov. Thomas Wells,
Gov. John Webster, Rev. Thomas Hooker, Rev. Samuel Stone, Elder William
Goodwin, Major William Whiting, Hon. Matthew Allyn, Hon. John Talcott,
James Olmsted.
In the Town Records, Mar. 25, 1640, " it is further ordered that James
Olmsted and William Wadsworth shall view the place Nathaniel Richards
desires for to set on; and if they see cause, to sett out a place for him."
James Olmsted's house lot was on the road from Little River to the North
Meadow. It was the main road from Windsor to Wethersfield, now Front
street. The house which James or his son Nicholas built on this lot was
standing until about 1835. There are now three brick houses on the lot,
not far from the gas works. He d. in Sept. or Oct., 1640, in Hartford.