THE HARRINGTON FAMILY OF BERKSHIRE
COUNTY, MA.
Jonathan, or Johnathon,
Harrington was born 25 July 1804 in Barre, Massachusetts.
According to his death certificate issued by the state of Vermont, Jonathon's
father was Samuel Harrington and his mother was only listed as "S."
According to records, Samuel was married to Anna CLARK who was also known as
Sophia. I have seen her name Anna Sophia and Sophia Anna. Jonathon Harrington married Louisa Reniff, of Buckland, Massachusetts
on 8 January 1827. Louisa was born
on 28 Jan
1811 to George Reniff and Elizabeth Cook. Jonathon
Harrington was issued a certificate of Denomination for the Methodist Episcopal
Society of Lee, Berkshire County,
Massachusetts, in April of 1833. The evidence of his Certificate of Denomination was
published in the Berkshire Family History Association’s ,”Berkshire
Genealogist” Volume 16 #2 Spring, June,
1995. As of 2006 the Harrington family
has not discovered where Jonathon
and Louisa Harrington were married. The
Harrington family Bible is the source of the marriage date. Buckland had all of
its records destroyed twice by fire, so they may have been married there with
no marriage on record.
They
spent the majority of the years between 1830 and 1860 living in various towns
of Berkshire County, Ma.
They
had a total of ten children; three were born in New York,
three in Vermont, one in Canada, and three were born in Massachusetts. Jonathon
and Louisa were always listed in Berkshire
County censuses from 1830-1860, so it
can be surmised that Louisa was visiting relatives when she had her children
that were not born in Massachusetts.
The Harrington family is
found in the Berkshire county censuses for Monterey,
Great Barrington, Adams, North Adams,
and Lee. Jonathon Harrington is
always listed as an overseer or laborer in a cotton factory.
Jonathon and Louisa Harrington had
their first son, Dexter Valvord, on 3 Jan 1829. He
died 22 Feb 1830.
Their
second child they named Dexter Valvord in honor of their deceased son and he
was born 2 Sep 1831 in Battenville, Washington County, New
York. It is unclear why their second child was
born in New York.
Their
third child, George W. Harrington, was born 27 June 1833.
Sarah Harrington was born 17 October 1835, and she died on her first birthday
17 Oct 1836.
Their second daughter, Frances Harrington, was born 20 August 1837. Their sixth child, James
Bushnell Harrington, was born 28
Sep 1839. Jonathon
Harrington Jr. was born 9 Jan 1842 and he died in action, in the Civil War, on
25 May 1863 at Port Hudson, LA. Sarah Ellen, named after her deceased
sister Sarah, was born 11
March 1843. She died at the young age of 18, on 28 January
1862. Henry Royal Harrington was born 7 January 1846.
Susan Sophia Harrington was the youngest and she was born 25 Jan
1849. Their
two sons named Dexter, as well as George, were born in N.Y. Sarah,
Frances, and James were born in MA. Jonathan Harrington Jr.,
Sarah Ellen, and Susan Sophia were born in Vt.
and Henry Royal Harrington was born in Canada.
Dexter V, Jonathon
Jr., and Henry Royal Harrington all
served in Infantry from Lee, Ma. during the Civil War. Jonathon Jr.
was killed in action at a battle at Port Hudson, La. His body was never
recovered. His 2nd
great-grand niece,
Renné Harrington , in conjunction with Veteran's Affairs, had a Civil War
Memorial Marker installed at Fairmont Cemetery, Lee, Berkshire
County, Massachusetts
(next to his mother's grave) in gratitude of his service to his country. It was
installed on August 6, 2003.
His name also appears on the town of Lee's
"Wall of Honor." Dexter was wounded at Port Hudson, La. in the
same battle his brother Jonathon
Harrington Jr. was killed in. He was
shot in the leg and declared a cripple, but Henry suffered no injuries. After
the War, Dexter returned to Berkshire
County, Ma. He, as well
as a son, Fred, is listed in Directories of N.Adams, Ma. from 1871-1891 as
“shoemakers.”
George W. Harrington married Fannie Goodrich from Lee, Ma. They moved to Brandon,
Vermont. George was born in 1833 and died at age 50.
Fannie Z. Goodrich was born
2 Oct. 1851 and died 8 Nov 1875, at the age of 24 in Brandon, Vt.
It is not known when George and Fannie moved from Lee, Ma. to Brandon, Vt.
The couple had no children. George
remarried after Fannie died and he and wife Mary and son Lewis are found in the
1880 census of Addison County,
VT.
Dexter married Ellen McCormick
whose family also resided in Berkshire
County. The McCormick family is on pg. 72 of the Great
Barrington, Ma. Census of 1850. Out of all of the children it is believed
Dexter is the only one that remained in Berkshire County.
He raised seven children in Berkshire County and is buried with his wife and son, Walter,
and Walter’s daughter, Florence, in Southview Cemetery,
North Adams.
Dexter and Ellen were
married 1 April 1849.
They had George, Mary, Harry Anson
J., and Edwin before Dexter went to war.
After the War they had three more children; Walter, Fred and Isa.
Frances Harrington married Benona Wheeler
(from Vermont) on 28 Nov 1854 and they lived in Brandon, Vermont.
Benona was a day laborer and worked in Berkshire County,
Ma. when he met Frances.
They returned to his native Vermont as soon as they
were married. They had a baby that
died and Stella Louisa b 31 May1866—she died at the age
of 13 in 1879. They had Sarah (Linnie) Wheeler born about 1867.
“Linnie” is listed with
her parents in an 1880 census of Brandon, Rutland
County, Vt. as being
14 and occupation; servant. It is not known when Sarah, “Linnie” Wheeler died.
Buried in the same row of Forestdale
Cemetery, Brandon Vt., are:
Frances and Benona and “BABY”,
and Stella
Wheeler, George W. and Fannie (Goodrich) Harrington and Jonathon Harrington.
Henry moved to Oregon where he received a Civil War
Pension. Ancestry.com has Henry’s
Civil War Pension record. He is listed as having fought with the 49th
Infantry from Lee, Ma. There is no
spouse or children listed on Henry’s pension record. Henry applied for his
pension in Oregon
on 27 June 1892. Henry is found in
the 1900 Douglas County Oregon census and he has been married to his wife
Elizabeth for four yrs at that time and is 53.
Henry and Elizabeth are found in the 1920 Santa Cruz, California
census.
Henry died in Santa Cruz
in 1929. His obituary names wife SARAH(not Elizabeth) and two sons:
Ira, and Roy of Oregon.
The
second Sarah, Sarah Ellen, married at 15 but died at the age 18. Sarah married
Henry
Wood 14 March 1858. She died 28 Jan
1862. It is not known why she married or died so young.
James
Bushnell Harrington married Sarah Daniels from Elizabethtown,
Essex County, N.Y. and settled there with her in 1859. They were married 22 Jan 1859.
Sarah Daniels
was born
about 1839 to Chalion Daniels and Samantha Call. James
and Sarah had the following children: they had a daughter Frances born in 1859.
In 1863 they had William
Henry Harrington. They had Herbert Jan
1866 and Emma in 1871. They remained in
Essex County,
N.Y. and James
Bushnell died at the home of his son, William Henry Harrington, in Keeseville, N.Y.
He died 26 May 1897
at the age of 57 of throat cancer.
Renne Harrington has James’s
death certificate.
Susan Sophia would have been about 10 when Louisa
died and about 18 when Jonathon
died. She was found in the 1860 census living with her sister Frances in Lee, MA.
Susan Sophia married William Cogswell Dec. 2, 1865 in MA. They had 9 children.
After the birth of the first 3 children in MA., they
moved to Essex County, NY. and the other
six children were born there. Susan Sophia Harrington Cogswell died in 1910 in Essex County, NY.
Of the ten children, the first
Dexter, the two Sarah's, and Jonathon
Jr., died young. George and Frances
married and moved to Vermont.
Henry lived in Oregon and California,
James lived in New York. Dexter remained in Berkshire County and died in 1893 in Lynn, MA.
Louisa Reniff Harrington died 29 Jan
1860 at the age of 49 and she is buried in the Fairmount
Cemetery, Lee, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. After Louisa died, Jonathon is found living first with Dexter and then
with James. Eventually he moved to Vermont
and died on 25 October 1867
in Goshen, Vermont. Goshen is a few miles from where his daughter
Frances and son George lived with their families.
It is not known why Johnathon
was not sent back to be buried next to Louisa in Lee, Ma.
Times
were hard and Johnathon was a
laborer when he died. His son-in-law, Benona, was
a day worker, so it is believed that there simply was not
enough money to send him back to Lee at that time.
Johnathon
Harrington’s great, great, great granddaughter, Renne Harrington
, of Manlius, N.Y,(suburb of Syracuse)
continues to research this Harrington branch. She has
information on James
Bushnell Harrington and Dexter Harrington’s families from their births through
to present day generations.