It has been a real pleasure working with Cayuga Community College students over the past few months on their cemetery project. They have sometimes unearthed new information, and have shown me some great new research ideas.
One young lady researched the Ambrose Sperry family. Born in Connecticut in 1755 and buried in Scipio in 1817, Ambrose served his country in the American Revolution with the 4th Regiment out of Connecticut.
This dedicated student discovered a lovely family history written by Ambrose's granddaughter that attests to the strength and determination of this man. He was present for the Siege of Boston, serving for about 6 years in total, and was present for the taking of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, the same place where his father had met his fate as an Englishman battling for the fort with the French in 1757.
Ambrose developed typhoid fever, but somehow survived and came to Scipio about 1800 and remained until his death in 1817. Patience followed just 3 years later in 1820. Both are buried in the United Baptist Cemetery, which no longer exists. It was located just south of Scipioville across from Goose Lane. It seems a shame that we don't yet have a marker for that location, or know for certain what happened to the gravestones. However, we now have a nice Sperry family file located at Scipio thanks to this student project. Included in this file is a photograph of Ambrose and Patience's daughter Lucetta. If you look at the blog entry titled "Scipio Center NY History" (just 2 entries before this one), you can click on a picture of a census page. That will take you to a series of 7 thumbnail photographs that include one of Lucetta Sperry. Thanks to the collaboration between the Town of Scipio and Cayuga Community College, future Sperry researchers will find this information more easily and that was the whole purpose of the project!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment