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Thursday, November 19, 2009

ELISHA HOUGHTON: 20 JUL 1746-18 NOV 1826

Yesterday, November 18th, was the 183 anniversary of my
5x great grandfather Elisha Houghton's death. He was born on
20 Jul 1746 in Lancaster, Worcester, Ma. and died on
18 Nov 1826(in perhaps Vt.)

Elisha is one of my Revolutionary War ancestors. He
enlisted at Harvard Ma as a Private in May of 1777 in the
Massachusetts militia and was at the Battles of Bunker Hill
and Stillwater. He then enlisted for three years in the infantry
company commanded by Captain Joshua Brown in Colonel
Timothy Bigelow's 15th Regiment of the Massachusetts line.
and took part in the Battles of Monmouth and Newport and
was at Valley Forge. He twice was promoted to Sergeant and
twice was busted back down to the ranks. I have a copy of
his pension request file and hope to eventually transcribe
and post it here.

On 30 Nov 1768 he married Meriah Peirce in Harvard, Worcester
Ma and they had four children. One of their grandaughters ,
Sally Houghton, married James Thomas Dunham, Jr., and that's how
I came to be related to Chris Dunham!

4 comments:

Kathleen O'Hara said...

You've received the Kreativ Blogger Award! Pick it up at http://whereyoucamefrom.blogspot.com/2009/11/very-grateful-post.html

Claudia said...

I am truly envious that people can trace their ancestors back that far. The earliest any of mine who came was in 1872 and the latest was 1926. I am chipping away at the brick wall in Europe. I may have to take a German Language class to help me in my quest.

Love your blog!!!!

Bill West said...

Katie,
Thank you for the award!
Bill

Bill West said...

Claudia,
My mom's side of the family
tree is pretty much bare. Both
sets of her grandparents came over
from Ireland in 1880 or so, so I still have a lot of work to do!

Keep digging and I will too!

Bill