Written by: Leo Lawton
Sepetember 1, 2017
After the King George III Loyalists fled, the heavily in debt New York State confiscated their lands and sold them at public auction as a form of raising money to pay the war debts. The Revolutionary War veteran, 60 year old Oliver Lawton, along with his wife, 5 sons, and a daughter, came from Rhode Island in 1789 and purchased the 500 acre lot #1 of the second allotment of this land.
The farm was located half way between present day Fairfield and Norway, New York. Oliver’s middle son, Benjamin born in 1770, moved his family from that area to the newly opening more northern lands that would become Jefferson County about 1808 or ’09. He settled on a farm on what is today named the Connecticut Road. He is buried in a small cemetery on County Route 22 near the end of the Hull Road.
Benjamin was Leo’s grandfather’s great grandfather.