Pioneer Families - POST
Extracted From
Chapter XVII
Early history of the town of Hopkinton :
history of East Village (Nicholville) and vicinity,
diaries of Elisha Risdon and Artemas Kent,
soldiers of the Civil War,
genealogical record of sixty of the pioneer families
Carlton E. Sanford
Boston: Bartlett Press, 1903
[Transcribed by Dave Swerdfeger]
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IN this chapter is given the genealogical records of many of the pioneers of the town, of all that I have been able to gather sufficient data and information to make a fairly full record. The preparation of these records has required much time, labor, correspondence, persistence and patience. Had I had in the beginning a full comprehension of the tedious labor required, I now feel sure I should not have undertaken it. That there are some errors in dates and possibly a few in names I am quite satisfied, since considerable of my information came from elderly people who wrote feebly and indistinctly. I think it will be readily understood, if the reader will bear in mind that it is in continuous order; that the first, second, third and fourth generations are each carried slightly to the right, and that each generation always has the same indentation. REUBEN POST(6) (Lieutenant Roswell(5), Lieutenant and Deacon Abraham(4), Lieutenant and Deacon Abraham(3), Lieutenant Abraham(2), and Stephen(1), of Cambridge, Hartford and Saybrook, and Mehitable (Jones) Post), b. October 25, 1759; d. August 2, 1815; m. Esther Harmon, b. 1759; d. September 14, 1839. The records in the War Department at Washington, D.C., show that Reuben Post was a member of Captain Isaac Clarke's company of Vermont militia from March 2, 1778, to May 2, 1778, when he was discharged; also that he was a first corporal in Captain Samuel Allen's company from October 13, 1780, to November 4, 1780, when he was discharged, and also that he served as sergeant in Captain George Sexton's company of Colonel Ebenezer Walbridge's regiment, and further that he served from September 1 to November 20, 1781. He came from Dorset in 1804, and his wife and family very soon after. He bought a strip of timber land with its southwest corner near where Chittenden's store now stands and extending east on present road to Nicholvine one hundred and sixty rods, and in depth north about twenty rods, being known as No. 8 of Mechanic's lots. On this he built a log house and resided. He early took up one hundred acres directly back of the Eliphalet Brush farm. In 1808 he purchased the present Truman E. Post farm from Joseph Armstrong, and with it a narrow strip off the west end of Mr. Hopkins's farm (adjoining Elisha Risdon's on the east), connecting the farm with the Potsdam road. The Turnpike road had not then been cut. Mr. Armstrong had previously built a log cabin on the north end of the strip next to the road. The ruins of the old fireplace and cellar may still be seen over the road fence in Mr. Hopkins's pasture. The Turnpike was cut out in 1809, and Mr. Post, wishing to have his home on the main part of the farm, very soon after built a small frame house, which, dressed over and enlarged, is still in use as the farm tenant house, and may be seen in the cut of Mr. Post's residence in the rear. His grandson, Truman E., is very confident that Mr. Post continued to live in his cabin in the village till he had his frame house built. Mr. Risdon married the daughter of Mr. Post in 1811, and at once moved into the log house on the Potsdam road. Mrs. Post by letter from Dorset joined the Fist Congregational Society of Hopkinton on its organization of nine members, September 6, 1808. At the first town meeting held March 4, 1806, Mr. Post was elected an assessor, and also one of three commissioners of highways. In 1810 forty-five persons having subscribed $115 for a library, he was elected one of eight trustees. In 1815 he was one of the three trustees who built the stone schoolhouse. He was a mason by trade and assisted on the building. As it was nearing completion, a staging gave way and he with others fell to the ground. His skull was fractured by the fall from which he soon died. Had seven children.
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