The Scattering of the Family

Samuel and Lydia (Davis) Naramore, who had come from Boston to what is now the town of Thompson in northeastern Connecticut, were the parents of six children (five survived to adulthood) who were born there between 1730 and 1744.  None of them remained in Connecticut.  One son, Joseph, settled in New Hampshire, while the remaining children - Samuel, John, Joshua and Mehitable - set off one by one for western Massachusetts.  By the time of Samuel's death in 1789, his grandchildren were in four states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and what would soon become Vermont) and were poised to take their part in the great westward migrations that were about to be unleashed by the opening up of the frontiers.

John (b. 1735) was the first to leave the nest, followed closely by his younger brother Joshua (b. 1743), the two of them playing a sort of game of leapfrog through the Connecticut River Valley and the Berkshires.  Although listed as being "of Woodstock" at the time of his marriage in 1760, John was in Northampton the following year and in what would later become the town of Goshen by 1764.  By this time, it seems, younger brother Joshua was in Pittsfield, although he had probably spent some time in Northampton as well, since records of the First Church in Northampton show that returned there to marry Hannah Bridgman in March of 1765.  In any event, the brothers were soon reunited:  after a short stopover in Lanesboro, John purchased land adjacent to his brother's in Pittsfield in 1772.  Their sister Mehitable was there also, although it is uncertain whether she had come with her brother Joshua or had joined him there later.  In fact, it is uncertain whether she was still alive in 1772, since there is no known record of her after intentions of marriage between her and Joseph Wright were published in Pittsfield in 1769.

The two oldest children, Samuel (b. 1730) and Joseph (b. ca. 1732) remained in Connecticut the longest.  Joseph purchased a farm of fifty-seven acres in Winchester, New Hampshire in 1772, although evidently not moving there right away, since his last child was born in Pomfret, Connecticut in 1773.  Samuel, meanwhile, had purchased land in what would become the town of Goshen, Massachusetts as early as 1765, but was likewise slow in leaving Connecticut.  He was put in charge of the roads in West Woodstock in 1773, and an early 1775 deed in which he purchased additional land in Goshen still shows him as being "of Woodstock".  He was clearly in Goshen by 1777, however, since it is from there that he enlisted in the Massachusetts militia as part of the Saratoga campaign.

As the Revolutionary War drew to a close, there were thus three vibrant new colonies of Naramores:  at Winchester, New Hampshire, and at Goshen and Pittsfield in Massachusetts.  The Pittsfield colony would soon dissipate, however, as most of John Naramore's family had crossed over the border into Columbia County, New York by 1784 (as has been recounted elsewhere, John's oldest son Asa settled in Charlotte, Vermont at aboout the same time).  Meanwhile, Joshua Naramore was killed in 1784 while cutting timber and his oldest two sons, Joel and Justin, soon headed north, first to Hampton, New York, and then from there into Vermont, Joel to Benson in Rutland County and Justin to Underhill in Chittenden County.  In the very early years of the new century, his third and last son, Elias, left Pittsfield for Chenango County, New York.  By 1805, the Naramore family had left Pittsfield.

The Goshen settlement thrived until brought to a sudden and tragic end in 1854.  Although Samuel's oldest son, Nathaniel, soon left for Vermont and then for the Genesee Country in western New York, his three younger sons, Thaddeus, Alpheus and Joseph all remained and raised large families.  But emigration and early mortality eventually whittled the Naramores in Goshen down to a single family, that of Alpheus' son, Franklin Naramore.  Still, it was a large family and he was a leading citizen of the town, and in 1850 it would have seemed to all observers that the Naramores had a long and prosperous future ahead of them in Goshen.  But it was not to be.  Within the space of a few weeks, Franklin and four of his children were wiped out by dysentery.

• Note:  there are several websites that incorrectly list the elder Samuel's deathdate as 1773, possibly through confusing him with his son of the same name and because the last known record of the younger Samuel in Connecticut was of his being put in charge of the roads in West Woodstock in 1773.  But the Killingly and Thompson Town Records (Thompson was officially set off from Killingly in 1785) tell the true story.  Although exact death dates are not given, the records show that Samuel and Lydia Narramore became wards of the town in 1778, and the last record of money paid "for keeping Samuel Naramore & wife" ends at January 8, 1781, which is then followed by a record of payment "for making a coffin for Samuel Narramore's wife".  Similarly, a record of payment "for keeping Samuel Naramore to 1st of Jan. 1789" is followed by one "for keeping Samuel Naramore 5 weeks - funeral charges also".