Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

442 GE^•EALOGI0AIi NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
1795 ; 7, Nabby Thaeher, June 8, 1798, married Henry H. Allen ;
8, Benjamin, Feb. 6, 1800, a graduate of the military academy at
West Point, died unmarried ; 9, Mary Sturgis, now living, married
Thomas Gray, of Boston.
118. Nathaniel Gorham, son of John, was unlike any of the
family—he was eccentric in his habits, and in his manners, and
strenulously opposed any innovations of the customs of the
fathers. He drove his team with a long pole, because the first
settlers did so ; and for the same reason, he would never have a
tip-up-cart. In dress, he not only adhered to the fashions of his
ancestors ; but, in some particulars was an oddity. He wore his
shirt with the open part behind, and fastened at the back of the
neck with a loop and a nail. He lived on a very simple diet.
Salt meat broth, bread and milk, hasty pudding, and samp, were
his favorite dishes morning, noon, and night. He had a natural
aversion to spirituous liquors, and never drank any during his life.
If his sons had inherited that antipathy, they would have been
better men.
During the Revolution he manufactured salt at Sandy Neck
by boiling sea-water, a slow and toilsome process ; but not irksome
to him, because the first settlers, whom he venerated, had
been engaged in the same business. For several successive days
during the winter of 1780-1,^ he drove a four ox sled, loaded
with wood, on the ice across the harbor, from Sandy Neck to
Calves Pasture Point. Since that date the harbor has been frozen,
so that persons crossed on the ice, but at no time since suflSciently
to bear a team.
Notwithstanding his oddities, he was industrious, honest, and
prudent, an obliging neighbor, and a good citizen. He married
Oct. 30, 1751, Anna, daughter of George Lewis, and had 1,
Lewis, 11th Nov. 1753, and 2, George Lewis, 3d Oct. 1763. His
children were: 1, Anner, born 29th March, 1775, married Thos.
Harris of Boston, July 12, 1798 ; 2, David, 6th Aug. 1778, married
Hannah Nve ; 3, John, 16th July, 1781, married Ist, Martha
Cobb April 12| 1804, 2d, Lucy Cobb May 30, 181.3; 4, Henry,
8th Aug. 1785, married Polly Hoxie ; 5, Sarah, 12th May, 1793,
married Barnabas Hinckley.
Lewis Gorham* resided in the mansion-house of his father
and grandfather, at Coggins' Pond. He was a blacksmith by
trade, and for many years was a deputy sheriff. He married
April 14, 1774, Sarah, daughter of David Phinney. She died
Feb. 10, 1851, aged 97 years, 1 month, 6 days, and at her death
had living 5 children, 30 grand-children, 64 great grand-children,
and 4 great great grand-children.
ir This is the tradition and it is probably accurate, for the winter of 1780 is represented
as the coldest known.
* During the Revolution he took an actiye part in local proceedings in Barnstable, and
from him I obtained some information not acceptable to Mr. Freeman.