SYLVESTER H. ABORN

BIOGRAPHY

AS RECORDED IN:

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF TOLLAND AND WINDHAM COUNTIES CONNECTICUT.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS AND OF MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLED FAMILIES.

PUBLISHER: J.H.BEERS & CO., CHICAGO; 1903 P. 1341

SYLVESTER H. ABORN is one of the leading tobacco growers of the town of Ellington, Tolland county, and is a good representative of an old New England family, which is quite numerous in the vicinity of Lynn, Massachusetts.

Samuel Aborn was the first of the family to come into Tolland county, Conn., from Lynn, and he purchased ninety-six acres of land in the
northwestern part of the county near the Hockanum river. The marriage of this Daniel (**see footnote) Aborn to Mary Ingram, of Hebron, on Nov. 7, 1753, begins the history of the family in the records of the county. These were their children: Martha; Samuel (2), born Nov. 23, 1756; Mary, who died in infancy; Mary (2); John; Dorcas; Elizabeth; Ruth; and Reuben.

Samuel Aborn (2) was born on his father’s farm in Tolland county, where his entire life was passed in farming. He bore arms in the Revolutionary war, and was pensioned, $96 per year, in his old age for his three years’ services in that great struggle. Dorothy Post, of Hebron, became his wife in 1782, and bore him seven children: Samuel, born in 1783, died unmarried; Jedediah, born July 12, 1787, was grandfather of Sylvester H. Aborn; Roxa married Joel Cobb, when nearly seventy years old, and died in Tolland; Hiram became a noted business man and a very successful farmer, and never married; Dorothy, died in 1822; Mary, born in 1798, died unmarried at the
age of sixty-five years; and Ruth became Mrs. Tillinghast, and moved to Ohio where she died. The father of the above children died in 1827, and was buried in the North Cemetery at Tolland. The mother survived until 1834, when she passed away at the age of seventy-four years.

Jedediah Aborn was born on the old homestead and was reared to agricultural pursuits. He acquired unusual muscular strength, and was capable of prolonged hard work. When the estate was divided after the death of his father he erected a home, and passed his life upon the portion that came to him. In 1864 he died at the age of seventy-seven years. In politics he was a Democrat, but never sought office. Laura Ryder, his wife, was a daughter of Enos Ryder, who drove a team in the Continental army during the war of the Revolution. She lived to be ninety-three years old, and died in the home of her son, Henry C., in Ellington. Their children were: Lyman, the father of Sylvester H.; Albert, a farmer in Tolland, who married Mary Charter; Henry C., of Ellington, who married Fannie C. Slater; William, a farmer, who married Jane Kellogg; Charles, a farmer, who married Harriet Slater, and is now living in Oklahoma; and Enos, who was a farmer in
Tolland, where he died, and who married Emily Fitch.

Lyman Aborn was born Oct. 15, 1819, in Tolland, where he spent his early life. Until his marriage, he was employed at farm work and teaming, when he removed to Somers, Conn., and located on the Gen. Fuller farm, where he was engaged in farming and in butchering for several years. Then he moved to the farm of Joseph Wallace, in whose home had been reared the mother of Sylvester H. Aborn. This farm contained seventy-two acres, and was located in the south part of Somers, and it was his home until 1866, when he removed to Tolland where he was farming and doing a butchering business for a number of years. Then he came to Ellington to spend his last days in the home of
his son, whose name introduces this review, where his death occurred April 1, 1880, and he was buried in Ellington. For some eight months he was in the United States service during the Civil war as a member of Co. K, 22nd Conn. V.I., and spent the time in Virginia. On account of sickness he was discharged. Although in early life a Democrat, he became a Republican in his later years. Handling stock extensively, for years he was the principal butcher in Ellington.

Lyman Aborn and Lois Cooley, born in Somers, and the daughter of Levi and Dolly (Smith) Cooley, were married and became the parents of a good family. Mrs. Aborn was reared in the home of Joseph Wallace, and died April 18, 1874, at the age of fifty-three years. Their children were: Frank, who became a soldier in the Civil war as a member of Co. A, 16th Conn. V.I., participated in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg, and died in the Newport News hospital of typhoid fever; Henry, who was married to Phoebe Brown, and was engaged in a grocery business at Hunter’s Point, where he died; Sylvester H.; Julia, who married Charles Kibbe, an Ellington farmer; Ellen, who married George Braman, and died at her home in Ellington; and Charles, an undertaker in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sylvester H. Aborn was born Aug. 5, 1849, in Somers, Conn., and when he was twelve years old he left home to make his residence with his grandfather, Jedediah Aborn, assisting him on the farm, and becoming familiar with all details of farm work. During several years of his stay at his grandfather’s he worked for neighboring farmers, and then came to Ellington where he rented a farm of Guy P. Collins. Sylvester and his brother Henry were engaged in getting out ties and timber and burning charcoal in 1871. About this time Sylvester Aborn purchased the farm, on which he now resides, of E.G. Holton. It consisted of thirty-two acres, and on it he has made a fine living, occupying his time with garden truck, tobacco, etc. He is one of the largest growers of tobacco in the county, devoting to this about nine acres yearly.

On June 4, 1871, Mr. Aborn was married to Veronia Avery, the daughter of Lyman Avery, a farmer of Stafford, where she was born. She died Feb. 22, 1885, and was buried in Ellington. To then were born the following children: Edgar W., of Ellington, who married Hattie Baker, and has one child, Merritt; Julia V., who married Horace Davis, of Glastonbury, and is the mother of one child, Merritt A.; Grace; Harry O.; and Miles, who died in infancy. Mr. Aborn was married (second) to Mrs. Lizzie (King) Neff, widow of Oliver Neff, to whom she had borne the following children: Charles, Henry, and Hattie. By his second marriage Mr. Aborn has five children, Robert, Emma, Gertrude, Myrtle and Mildred. Mr. Aborn is a Democrat, and has served on the school board, but has little ambition for political honors. He belongs to the Congregational Church. His life is open and square to the world, and he bears the best of reputations in his own community.

**footnote: the name “Daniel” seems incorrect since the paragraph begins with reference to Samuel Aborn, but, I have reproduced it as published.

Reproduced by:

Linda D. Pingel – great-great granddaughter of Cyrus White of Rockville, Ct.