HomeMy WebLinkAboutJonathan and Susan Elison Ro.pdfReport by the Enfield Historian, Sue Thompson
Enfield Historical Society
The Loomis Family of Sangerfield, known locally as “The Loomis Gang,” will be
the program of the Enfield Historical Society August 21 – 6:00 p.m. at the Enfield
Community Building, Enfield Main Road. The presentation will be made by local
historian Darothy DeAngelo of Oran New York. Darothy looks at a notorious
upstate New York crime family and how they fit into the contest of the mid-
1800’s. She traces the “Loomis Gang” from their aristocratic New England roots
to their demise in the 1860s. All are welcome to attend.
Enfield’s First Permanent Settlers
Our new plaque is here! We have received the new historical plaque which
honors the family of Judah and Lydia Chase Baker and their family. We will
have the plaque at the Enfield Harvest Festival September 24. Look for our
booth; we will have information on the Baker family, Daughters of the American
Revolution organization, and other tidbits of historical interest.
Early Rolfe Family
Jonathan and Susan Elison Rolfe had four children when they moved from
Amboy NJ in October 1806 – Reuben, Sarah, Mary and Ephriam. Reuben being
the oldest gave a history of the journey as follows:
As I (Reuben) was the oldest of the four I remember many of the difficulties that
attended the journey.
The country was new, the public buildings (inns) were log buildings with a few
exceptions for the want of convenience, in my cases they were obliged to bring
their bedding from the wagon and lie up on the bar-room floor.
After journeying from sixteen to eighteen days they arrived at Jacksonville,
Ulysses, Tompkins County then Seneca) N.Y. and remained there till March
1807.
Early in March he located his farm in Enfield three and one half miles south o f
Jacksonville. He built a log house on his farm. in the current area of Applegate
road near Rolfe Cemetery.
On the last day of March he started with his family of five children – Reuben,
Sarah, Mary, Ephraim, Samuel (in after years Joseph, Jonathan 4th, Nicholas and
Susan). At twelve o’clock the same day we arrived at our new home. On
entering the house we found no door to shut or no window to open no upper
floor, no chimney, as for the window it needed none as there was a hole left in
the roof for a chimney in after days it furnished all the light necessary for the
domestic work of the house. At two o-clock the same day there commenced a
heavy snow storm, it snowed that afternoon and night, the next day and night
and the third morning after our arrival my father measured the snow and found it
to be four feet deep.
There in the woods with one pair of oxen, one horse with one hundred pounds of
provisions, he obliged to follow the customs of the country (hunt, fish, and grow
the rest of the families food).
In doing so he shouldered his axe started for a large basswood tree that stood
about 4 rods form the house, he cut it down and his oxen breakfasted on that.
That is about the summary of our settlement in the woods.
At that time there was not a public highway laid out in Enfield nor a frame house
or building, and but a few in the country. This section of the country was military
land, in the early settlements it was bought from three to four dollars an acre.
(Carl Fisher, Descendants of Some Early Settlers of the Trumansburg-Cover
(NY) Area – The Rolfe Family. 1968.) recorded to attempted to copy the above
story just as it was written, but his original was a copy of Reuben’s original The
date of the narration is unknown).