Phineas Stevens 2nd (abt. 1756 - 1829)

Born about 13 Jan 1756 in Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 17 Dec 1829 at about age 73 in Southport, Chemung County, New York

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Morgan Frazier [send private message] and Charles Oliver [send private message]

Biography

Excerpts from "The Making of a Man in Colonial America" by Morgan A. Hughes-Frazier

Phineas Parents have not been confirmed, but he was from the Plainfield Area of Connecticut. Personally, I have completed an exhaustive search in Connecticut and the surrounding areas tracing all Phineas Stevens' born around that time in that area of Connecticut and I have determined that Phineas Stevens the 2nd was the son of Willard and Deborah Stevens. Phineas Stevens was listed as the executor of his father's will.

Phineas Stevens 2nd is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A210135.

Private Phineas Stevens 2nd served with 4th Connecticut Regiment (1777), Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Phineas 2nd joined the Connecticut continentals on January 1st 1776 in Canterbury.He enlisted in Colonel John Durkee’s Regiment (4th Continental) under the direction of fellow Plainfield resident Captain Lemuel Clift. ^[1]Unfortunately the roll of soldiers for this regiment is incomplete in the records. From Phineas 2nd pension records it is clear that he served in this regiment along with Ebenezer Copp and Charles Justin and that he was one the soldiers that volunteered his service for an additional six weeks after the expiration of his term at the bequest of George Washington. After his discharge in New Jersey in early 1777 or Pennsylvania in late 1777 it does not appear that Phineas 2nd returned to Connecticut.

Phineas 2nd married into a very prestigious Connecticut family in Montgomery County, New York in 1788, that of Lebbeus Tubbs of Lyme, New London, Connecticut. Phineas 2nd wife Bathsheba Tubbs (Lebbeus Tubbs youngest daughter) was a fifth generation of Tubbs in America who descended from the immigrant William Tubbs originally of Sutton, Cambridgeshire, England. Lebbeus Tubbs was one of the settlers of Susquehanna Company settlement in Kingston, Westmoreland County, in the Wyoming Valley. Phineas most likely met Lebbeus son, Samuel Tubbs, while serving in Colonel John Durkee’s Company. Phineas and Samuel fought side-by-side in the battle of Germantown in October 1777 and wintered together. There is a strong likelihood that Phineas met his soon to be father in law in the Connecticut settlement in the Wyoming Valley after hearing of the settlement from Samuel.

Phineas Stevens 2nd, Lebbeus Tubbs, Lebbeus' son in law Lebbeus Hammond, and Samuel Tubbs all settled in the same area of New York where the Battle of Newtown was fought during Sullivan’s Expedition. Phineas Stevens 2nd, Samuel Tubbs, and Lebbeus Hammond are all listed as early settlers of this area of the Chemung Valley referred to then as Newtown. In the fall of 1787 a settler from the Wyoming Valley, John Breese was traveling through this area with his family. He camped on Samuel Tubbs land and it was Phineas 2nd, Samuel, and Lebbeus Hammond who came to Breese’s camp to greet them. John Breese had quite the possessions with him including a large quantity of tea and the men along with Mr. Breese’s wife had the first tea party in the Chemung Valley on the Breese family chest. Phineas and Bathsheba Tubbs married the following year in 1788.

Phineas 2nd moved north to the newly opened frontier lands of the Phelps and Gorman purchase after the birth of their first son, William in 1789 leaving Bathsheba and the two small children in the care of his father in law, Lebbeus Tubbs. Phineas 2nd purchased land in Seneca Township, Ontario County, New York from Benjamin Tuttle (a relation through marriage whom he met while living in Southport who also wanted to pioneer into the newly opened land of the Phelps & Gorham purchase). This is where he would raise his family.

Phineas 2nd was an independent manager of his family farm with his wife Bathsheba on the hundred and eighty-six acres he purchased from Benjamin Tuttle. He had no kind of secondary occupation since being a soldier was not needed any longer. Phineas 2nd and Bathsheba were blessed with the first child born in Seneca in 1792, Phineas Jr.; followed by Anne in 1794, Grant in 1796, and Morris in 1799. It is said in their grandson’s biography that these four all were born and raised in the same farmhouse one mile outside of the town of Geneva. Phineas 2nd was an educated man from his upbringing in Connecticut and having some forethought about the fate of his children in this new uncertain economy he returned to the old family tradition and granted all six children their own portion of his family farm in 1802. Financial tragedy would strike and Phineas 2nd was forced into bankruptcy in 1808, this did not include the land given to his children or sold to his dear friend and neighbor, Benjamin Tuttle. Fortunately later the same year Bathsheba's father's estate was finally settled and the couple received an inheritance.

After Phineas' wife passed away, Phineas 2nd first applied for his pension on May 25th with thousands of other applicants in 1818. After his initial declaration and an affidavit from his longtime friend and neighbor Benjamin Tuttle, his petition was rejected due to his discrepancies, lack of official discharge papers, lack of records of rolls for this regiment from Connecticut and he was forced to try and prove his service in the Continental Army. Phineas 2nd was educated and he wrote letters back home to Canterbury, Connecticut to his remaining family and friends in hopes he could find one or two soldiers with whom he served. It took four years for two men, Ebenezer Copp and Charles Justin, to both write letters in Phineas 2nd behalf. On February 19th,1823 before the court: Phineas has no personal property whatsoever but has the gratuitous use of a piece of land, he was a farmer but has lost the use of his hands and legs, he has 5 children Anne(28), William(32), Phineas(26), Morris(24) and Grant(22). Phineas 2nd pension was approved on March 1st, 1823 and he was awarded a semi-annual allowance of $49.13. Phineas 2nd was in dire financial need and moved south to live with his youngest son. He died just before Christmas on December 17th, 1829 at the old age of 73 in Southport, Tioga County, New York at his son Morris’s house surrounded by his young family.

DNA

New DNA samples have been gathered from descendants of Phineas Stevens which have proved that Phineas 2nd and Mary Esther (Stevens) Bemis (1764-1849) are indeed siblings. This proves that even without a birth record that Willard Stevens and Deborah (Case) Stevens (1735-) were indeed the parents of Phineas 2nd as the research conducted has surmised, therefore the connection to his parents has been marked as confident.

Sources

1. ↑ Connecticut in the Revolution, by Connecticut. Adjutant-General's Office; Johnston, Henry Phelps, 1842-1923, pp. 182, 183, 189

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