Worcester
Erasmus Darwins of Massachusetts

Auburn: Erasmus Lilly Burnap

06/15/2009 14:12
Erasmus Lilly Burnap was born in Auburn Massachusetts on 12-17-1813. Erasmus was the son of Ebenezer Burnap of Sutton (1756-1820) (2) and Ruth Tucker of Charlton (b. 1780, d. in Cabot VT) (1). Ebenezer was the son of Ebenezer, who settled “Burnap Hill” on “land that was first occupied by the Indians for growing Indian corn,” in 1750 (3). Ebenezer and Ruth married in 1809, (4) a year after the death of Ebenezer’s first wife, Thankful. Ebenezer and Thankful had five children in Auburn; Ebenezer and Ruth had another two.

Erasmus married Susan R. Hawes of Auburn in 1834, (5) and had their first children there in 1836 and 1837. (5, p. 23). Erasmus and Susan moved to Cabot Vermont in 1837, and had five more children there. Erasmus became Deacon of the newly-established Advent Church in 1858, before moving to Calais Vermont in 1859. Susan Burnap died in 1862, and Erasmus remarried in 1867. He was a State Representative for Calais in 1876 (6). Erasmus farmed 170 acres of land, and kept 24 head of cattle and 700 sugar trees. Erasmus apparently lived through 1889, when the last record I could find of him was published (7).

1. Vital Records of Sutton, Massachusetts (Worcester: Franklin P. Rice, 1907), p. 28
2. William A. Benedict, History of the Town of Sutton, Massachusetts (Worcester: Sanford and Co., 1878), p. 389
3. E. Tucker, Genealogy of the Tucker Family (Higginson Book Co., 1989)
4. Vital Records of Charlton, Massachusetts, (Worcester: Franklin P. Rice, 1905), p. 132
5. Vital Records of the Town of Auburn (Formerly Ward) Massachusetts (Worcester: Franklin P. Rice, 1900), p. 61
6. Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Vermont, Biennial Session, 1876 (Rutland: Tuttle and Co., 1877), p. 9
7. Hamilton Child, Gazetteer of Washington County, Vt., 1783-1889 (Syracuse: Syracuse Journal Co., 1889), p. 62

Tags: ,

Ashburnham: Darwin Woods

05/14/2009 15:46
Darwin Woods’ father, Asa, was born in Princeton, in Worcester County, Massachusetts. Asa was the son of Samuel Woods, who started Princeton’s first public school in a house on his farm. The history of Princeton is unclear exactly when Asa began teaching local children, but supposes that “it was about the year 1759, the date of the District’s incorporation.” (1) After ten years, Princeton had grown sufficiently to need a School Committee, and Samuel Woods was appointed to it.

Asa Woods was born on April 30, 1776. At 22, Asa married Permelia Mirick, whose father was a Captain in the Revolution. Asa and Permelia had three children in Princeton before they moved to Ashburnham in 1804 or 1805. The Woods settled on the east side of town, and Asa became well known as a farmer and a “prominent citizen...frequently chosen to office.” Darwin Woods was born in Ashburnham, April 19 1807.

Darwin’s mother, Permelia, died in 1814. Asa remarried three more times before his death in 1844. Darwin had fourteen siblings, at least three of whom died young. Darwin married Dolly G. Adams in 1828, and had three children with her: Mary, Cinderilla, and Edwin. Dolly died in 1842, and Darwin married Julia King, a widow with two young daughters. They had no additional children. (2)


1. Jeremiah Lyford Hanaford, History of Princeton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1852
2. Ezra S. Stearns, History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts, 1887

Tags: ,