Benjamin Garfield Jr. (1718 - 1755)

Born 6 May 1718 in Marlborough, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Eunice (Cooley) Pratt — married 2 Sep 1752 in Spencer, Worcester, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 1755 at about age 36 in Hinsdale, Cheshire, New Hampshire

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Biography

Benjamin Garfield, son of Benjamin Garfield (abt.1751-) and Bethia How (1718-1755), was born 6 May 1718 in Marlborough, Massachusetts.^[1][2]

Death by Indian Attack:^[3]

In 1742 Orlando Bridgman had built a block-house on his farm, which stood within the then limits of Northfield, Mass. The fort was strongly built and well-picketed, and occupied by three families, those of Caleb How, Hilkiah Grout, and Benjamin Garfield.

On the morning of June 27, 1755, three years after the marriage of Benjamin Garfield and Eunice Cooley, these three men, with the two young sons of Caleb How, went to work in a meadow on the bank of the river a little above the fort. About sunset they started to return to the block-house. Mr. How and his sons were on horseback, and a little ahead of the others. Upon reaching the meadow hill north of the fort, they were fired upon from ambush. Caleb How was shot in the thigh and brought to the ground; he was then scalped by the Indians, and struck by a hatchet in the head and left for dead. His boys were taken alive. Grout and Garfield attempted to escape by crossing the river; Grout succeeded, but Benjamin Garfield was drowned.

Read the rest of the story on his wife's profile.

Sources

1. ↑ 'History of the town of Marlborough, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1657 to 1861; with a brief sketch of the town of Northborough, a genealogy of the families in Marlborough to 1800, and an account of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the incoporation of the town by Hudson, Charles, 1795-1881; Allen, Joseph, 1790-1873', 1862, pp 364, archive.org (accessed 22 December 2022)
2. ↑ Birth: "Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1700-1850"
   New England Historical Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vitals to 1850
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 61401 #1158845 (accessed 22 December 2022)
   Benjamin Garfield born 6 May 1718, son of Benjamin Garfield & Bathiah Garfield, in Marlborough, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA.
3. ↑ 'The Cooley Genealogy : the descendants of Ensign Benjamin Cooley, an early settler of Springfield and Longmeadow, Massachusetts; and other members of the family in America / by Mortimer Elwyn Cooley, in collaboration with Lyman Edgar Cooley and Ernest Linwood Cooley, compiled by Vivien Bulloch Keatley by Cooley, Mortimer E. (Mortimer Elwyn), 1855-1944', 1941, pp 468, archive.org (accessed 22 December 2022)

• http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Bridgman

• Mass. Vital Records, Marlborough Births, p75

• Hoyt, Epaphras. Antiquarian Researches, Comprising A History of The Indian Wars (Ansel Phelps, Greenfield, Mass., 1824) Page 269-70.