Daniel Douglass

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Captain Daniel Douglas (May 22, 1752 - September 27, 1823), son of Robert Douglass and Sarah Edgecombe, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was a descendant of William and Ann (Mattles/Mattie) Douglass, who came from the north of England, both born in the year 1610, and were the first of the family to come to America.

"Time by moments steals away": the 1848 journal of Ruth Douglass
By Robert L. Root, Ruth Douglass
Pg 47

Like Amasa Newberry, Columbus's(3) paternal grandfather, Daniel Douglass (1752-1821), attained the rank of captain during the Revolutionary War and wore the title to his death. On April 23, 1778, he married Lydia Douglass (1752-1811), his third cousin, like him born in New London; they had eight children while living in Connecticut and moved to Wallingford, Vermont, in 1797.

By the second decade of the new century several children of Captain Daniel and Lydia Douglass had established themselves in western New York State. The eldest of two daughters, Lydia Douglass (1780-1871) married the Honorable Jacob Houghton, a lawyer from Troy, New York, in January 1806. After 1811 they lived in Fredonia, near Lake Erie. Two of their sons became prominent in Michigan, Douglass Houghton and Jacob Houghton, Jr., and their daughter, Lydia, married Alvah Bradish, an artist principally remembered for his portrait and biography of Douglass Houghton.

Three of the Douglass brothers, Daniel, Gilbert, and Benjamin, also established themselves in Fredonia; Benjamin's sons, Samuel Townsend Douglass and Silas Hamilton Douglas, established their careers in Michigan, and collections of their papers at the Bently Historical Library at the University of Michigan are a rich repository of Douglass family history.

History of Walworth county, Wisconsin
By Albert Clayton Beckwith
Pg 1376-1379

One of this sterling band of a past generation in Walworth county was the late Carlos Lavalette Douglass, an early settler of the town of Walworth, who contributed much to its subsequent development. He was born in Cattaraugus county. New York, November 4. 1827. He was the son of Christopher and Phoebe (Douglass) Douglass. The father was born February 22, 1787, at New London, Connecticut, and the mother was born at Chelsea, Vermont, February 28, 1787.

Their ancestry has been traced in unbroken line to William and Ann (Mattles) Douglass, who came from the north of England, both born in the year 1610, and were the first of the family to come to America. Their first child was born in 1637, probably in New England, for it is known that they came to New London, Connecticut. One of their sons, Robert, had a son, Thomas, whose son, Robert, was the father of Capt. Daniel Douglass. The latter was born in 1752 and it is probable that he was with the New York troops in the Revolutionary war, but he may have been in the Vermont troops.

Captain Douglass married Lydia Douglass, who, like her husband, was in the fourth generation of descent from the original William Douglass that came to this country from England. Lydia was the daughter of William, whose father was Richard, the son of William, of the second generation, who was the son of William, the emigrant from England. Capt. Daniel Douglass' son, Christopher, who headed the family in Walworth county, Wisconsin, married Phoebe Douglass, daughter of Ivory, whose father, William, was a brother to the Lydia that was the wife of Capt. Daniel Douglass, and he was therefore a son of William, descended from the emigrant. Therefore Carlos Lavalette Douglass was descended in three ways from William, the emigrant.

Christopher Douglass, father of the subject of this memoir, was born in New London, Connecticut, February 22, 1787, and when a young man he moved with his parents to Vermont and was reared on a farm.  He obtained a common school education and returned to Connecticut, where he taught school, and while there he was united in marriage with Phoebe Douglass. They afterwards moved to New York.

Later he was a soldier in the war of 1812, then settled on a farm near Buffalo, then an almost unbroken wilderness. In the midst of the forest he cleared his land and developed a rich farm. His nearest neighbor was twenty miles away. In 1828 he moved to Macomb county, Michigan, and in the spring of 1837 he sold his farm in Michigan and for about six months rented land near Chicago. Leaving his family there, he came to Walworth county, Wisconsin, and began breaking land and preparing for a home to which he brought his family in the fall of that vear. Christopher Douglass broke a vast amount of wild prairie land in Walworth county in 1837 when they plowed furrows two and onehalf miles long on Big Foot Prairie. He entered a farm in section 28, which he sold, later settling on another which he purchased at a land sale. Here he farmed and in 1842 established a tavern at what was soon to be known all over this part of the country as Douglass' Corners, now called Walworth.

In 1857 he sold a part of his farm and bought land at the head of Lake Geneva where Fontana is now located. In 1839 Christopher Douglass was one of three county commissioners and he continued in that capacity nearly four years and served as chairman of the board He was one of the first judges of election in 1839 and was on the first grand jury in this county. He was a leader in local affairs and one of the best known and influential of the pioneers. His death occurred in 1866, at the age of eighty years, the community losing one of its best citizens at that time. His wife died at Fontana at the age of seventy-four years.

Their family consisted of ten children, of whom Carlos Lavalette(2). of this sketch, was the ninth in order of birth.

Daniel Douglass and Lydia Douglass are 3rd cousins. The have the same GG Grandparents William Douglass and Anne Mattles.

A collection of family records: with biographical sketches bearing the name Douglas
Charles Henry James Douglas
Pg 90-91

Capt. DANIEL DOUGLAS5 (Robert4, Thomas3, Robert2, William1), born in New London, Conn., May 22,
1752. He married, April 23, 1778, Lydia, daughter of William4 and Sarah (Denison) Douglas, of New London, [31. xi.] where she was born in 1752. This family removed, in 1797, to Wallingford, Vt. He had served as a captain in the Revolutionary war. She died in Wallingford, May 17, 1811. He died in Rutland, in September, 1821(1). Children, born in New London:GŠ???????`?v
 i. Edmund, b. March 11, 1779; m. 1st, Orilla Hyde, 2d, Mrs. Elizabeth (Rowley) Watkins.
 ii. Lydia, b. Dec. 10. 1780; m. Hon. Jacob Houghton.
 iii. Gilbert Denison, b. Jan. 22, 1783; m. Elizabeth Hamilton.
 iv. Benjamin, b. March 14, 1785; m. Lucy Townshend.
 v. Christopher, b. Feb. 22,1787; m. Phebe Douglas.
 vi. William, b. April 1, 1789; m. Anna Eddy.
vii. Sarah, b. April 14,1791; num.; res. ('77) Fredonia. N. Y.
 viii. Daniel Wetherel, b. April 14,1794; m. Hannah Fenner.

Daniel Douglass died on September 27, 1823(1) in Vermont, USA, he was 71 years old and is buried in Pleasant Street Cemetery, West Rutland, Rutland Co, Vermont


Note:
1.  Conflict over dates of death
2.  Carlos Lavalette Douglass (November 7, 1827 – January 6, 1898) was an American politician, farmer, and flour manufacturer. Douglass was born in Cattaraugus County, New York and went to the public schools. He moved with his family to Michigan. In 1837, Douglass moved with his family to the town of Walworth, Walworth County, Wisconsin Territory. Douglass was a farmer and flour manufacturer. He served on the Walworth County Board of Supervisors and as chairman of the Walworth Town Board. Douglass served a single one-year term as a Republican in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1873. Douglass died at his home in the town of Walworth, Wisconsin.
3. Presumably Courtney's father?

See also:
 Douglass House, Houghton



Sources

 

Sources for this article include:


• The Douglas Genealogy (Bath, Me.; Sentinal and Times Publishing, 1890) - J. Lufkin Douglas
• Time by moments steals away": the 1848 journal of Ruth Douglass By Robert L. Root, Ruth Douglass


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