Sarah (Garfield) Bemis (1723 - 1797)

Born 15 Jul 1723 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Wife of Henry Bright — married 15 Mar 1743 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay

Wife of Benjamin Bemis — married 1 Sep 1748 in Waltham, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died 1 Oct 1797 at age 74 in Cornish City, Sullivan, New Hampshire, United States

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Biography

Sarah was born in 1723 in Watertown, Massachusetts Colony. She was the daughter of Samuel Garfield and Mary Bowman. She married 1st Henry Bright, died in 1745, and 2nd Benjamin Bemis, married Sep. 1748. The Bemis family were among the first to move to the Spencer, MA area; Benjamin’s uncle, Samuel, was the first permanent settler of that town. After her marriage to Benjamin in Sep. 1748 it appears that they moved to Spencer, because their daughter Mary was born there in 1749. Later in life they settled in the Cornish, New Hampshire area, where they are buried.

Page 68, item 627— IX. of the book "History of the Bemis Family in America" published 1900, states that she and Benjamin had a daughter, Mary, born in Spencer, MA, May 16, 1749.[1] [2] They had other children (who are listed on Find A Grave and elsewhere), but the 1900 Bemis genealogy does not mention them. According to their gravestones, her children in order of birth are: Henery Bright, son of Henry Bright II, born 1744 in Watertown and died 1774 in Spencer, MA; Mary Bemis Edminster, born 1749 in Spencer, married Zebedee Edminster Sr., died 1818 in Cornish, NH; Catherine Bemis Harbach, born in 1751 in Spencer, died in 1820 in Sutton, MA (Note: Sarah's headstone in Cornish says that she is buried with her daughter Catherine Bemis, who died the day after Sarah died, on October 2, 1797); Tabitha Bemis Chase, born 1754 in Spencer and died 1831 in Cornish, NH, who married Caleb Prince Chase (1755-1843), son of Caleb Chase and Sarah Prince^[1]—the Chase family were early residents of the Cornish, NH area; Caleb Prince Chase's uncle Moses Chase had been living there since at least 1765 and obtained a land grant there in 1772 (see "History of the Town of Cornish with Genealogical Record" pages 10 and 11 for information on Moses Chase's land grant from NH Governor John Wentworth, successor of Benning Wentworth); Persis Bemis, 1757-1795?^[2]; Benjamin Bowman Bemis, born 1763 in ?Vermont, died 1830 in Cornish, NH; and Hulda Bemis Tuxbury, born 1785 in Cornish, died 1870 in Windsor, VT (this parentage seems in doubt, as Sarah would have been 62 when she was born; perhaps she was adopted, if she was in this family at all).

Along with her eldest daughter Mary, who lived in Cornish, NH with her husband, Zebedee Edminster, it appears that many other children of Benjamin and Sarah lived in Cornish and are buried there, with the younger children born in Cornish some time after their move there in the 1760s-70s, around the time of the New Hampshire land grants of Governor Benning Wentworth and his successor John Wentworth. Sarah died in 1797 and was interred at the Trinity Cemetery, Cornish, NH with her daughter Catherine, who according to her headstone (conflicting info elsewhere) died the day after she did, and near her husband Benjamin. Find A Grave mentions that the carver of their headstones, Jonas Stewart Sr, of Claremont, NH, was the carver of choice of the Chase family.

Sources

1. ↑ see familysearch profile for Caleb Prince Chase
2. ↑ Info only found on FamilySearch profile for Tabitha Bemis Chase

• Find A Grave: Memorial #72431669
• "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," FamilySearch database, Benjamin Bemis and Sarah Bright, 01 Sep 1748; citing Marriage, Waltham, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004198966.
• "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," FamilySearch database, Sarah Garfield, 15 Jul 1723; citing Birth, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007009514.
• "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCQP-7M4 : 9 February 2018), Henry Bright and Sarah Garfield, 15 Mar 1743; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 0928191 IT 2.
• Draper, T.W. The Bemis History and Genealogy, published 1900. Pages 55, 64, 68, 210.[3] (https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G000372.pdf)
• Child, William Henry. History of the Town of Cornish, New Hampshire, With Genealogical Record, 1763-1910, vols I & II, 1910. (https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=history_and_genealogy) (https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.historyoftownofc01child/?st=grid)
• FamilySearch profile for Sarah Garfield Bright Bowman
• FamilySearch profile for Tabitha Bemis Chase
• FamilySearch profile for Caleb Prince Chase.