Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1909-07-10
NORWICH RICH
IN FAMOUS MEN.
Norwich Has Direct LineaI connec-
tions With Six Presidents.


Perhaps no other place in the coun-
| try has direct lineal connections with
six presidents. as has Norwich. These
are Presidents Willard Fillmore,
Ulysses is. Grant, Ruthrford B. Hays
James A. Garfield, Grover Cleveland
and Theodore Roosevelt, and only in
the last case is the connection other
than through the blood flowing in the
veins of the president himself. In
President Roosevelt's case the connec-
ton is made through Mrs. Roosevelt,
who is a direct lineal descendant, and
not far removed from a Norwich hero
of two wars.
In the late 1770's a Captain John
Fillmore, who had been living in Ips-
witch, Mass, removed his household
goods and chattels by the overland
route used in those days, to Norwich,
and settled in the Rose of New Eng
land. as it has since come to be called.
History relates that after a time the
into New York state and therefore the
thirteenth president of the United
States did not have the fortune to be
born in Norwich, as was his father,
Nathaniel, I'd, grandson Of Captain
John.
President Grants family tree finds
its main root on his mothers side in
that Huntington family whose, name
has been connected with the history
of the town since Christopher Hunt
ington was the first male child born
in Norwich and whose sons and daugh-
tiers have gone into a multitude of
activities in this and other lands. A
later Christopher's daughter married
Noah GranNof Tolland and she was
Ulysses Grants grandmother several
times removed. No less direct is the
~, osf, %
comes down from that John Orchard
whence his middle name is derived
and who was one of the original thir-
ty-five prpprietors of Norwich. George
Hayes settled in Windsor, in-16s2, and
his grandson, Rutherford, mar
ried Sophia Orchard
The blood of both the Mason and
Fitch families was in that of Presi-
dent Garfield
put into print in Connecticut anti
slavery sentiments, was the ancestor
of the Deacon William Cleveland, the
Norwich silversmith, whose spoons are
treasured by those who collect such
antiques, and this Deacon Cleveland
was Grover Cleveland's grandfather.
His son got the fever which possessed
so many people from hits section to
go over into the rich lands in central
~NCW VI n, anu that 10 Lie T6dSOn
why Grover Cleveland wasn't born in
Norwich. In speaking at an old
home week in Norwich in 1901, the
ex-president said that his earliest re-
membranes were of hearing tales of
Norwich and Deacon William, and of
how he drew down upon himself the
condemnation of an old gentleman
who had known the latter. when he
spoke disparagingly of his ancestor to
draw the other out.
Mrs. Roosevelts connection with
Norwich is direct enough to give the
city the right to claim her husband.
Gen. Daniel Tyler, who commanded
the first regiment raised in Connecticut
in 1861, and had previously made his
record in the regular army, was her
grandfather.
From the first days of the settle
ment, the project to establish which
Norwich has had sons and daughters
in whom to take pride. Mason was
a captain when in 1859 he and the
Rev. James Fitch led the band of 35
first settlers through the wilderness to
the final encampment on the Chelsea
plain where historical tableaux on the
NTH Of July portrayed the purchase for
~ pounds the nine square miles of ter
ritory from Uncas, OWaneco and Alta
Manhood. Michigan chiefs. Among
those first proprietors are found the
names OF Rackua, Calkins GrisWold,
Hyde, LerfingWell, Huntington, Rey-
nolds, Royce, Tracy, eager, Allyn,
Baldwin, Bradford and others whose
posterity was destined to become ia
nous. The labors of the Rev Mr..
Fitch to Christianize the Indians and
those of Capt John Mason to subdue
the unruly. Pequots and Narragansetts
are well known OF those Indian wars
AorwicE was much OF the time the