My Genealogy Hound

JOEL COLVIN. The late Joel Colvin was a highly respected citizen and a prosperous farmer of Ripley. He was born in Danby, Vermont, January 29, 1814, and was a son of Benajah and Ruth (Irish) Colvin. The great-grandfather of Joel Colvin was Luther Colvin, who was born in Rhode Island about the middle of the eighteenth century. He moved to Danby, Vermont, in 1765, and was the fourth settler in that section. There were no broken roads then, but the way was marked by niches being cut in the trees and it was by this means he accomplished the journey. Upon his arrival there he constructed a cabin of logs in a hasty manner, and the winter coming on much suffering and hardship was endured. Pioneer life in the wilds of Vermont during winter was about the most severe that man could experience and survive, but his vigorous body and hardy constitution stood him in good stead until more comfortable quarters could be provided. The most trouble was the wolves that killed and carried off the sheep. To prevent this constant vigilance was necessary, and a strong pen was provided to protect them at night.

Mr. Colvin stood high in the estimation of his friends and acquaintances, and was possessed of the strictest integrity. He married, and reared seven children, three sons and four daughters. Stephen Colvin was the grandfather of our subject. He was born in Danby, and married Mary Merrithew, when he settled on his father’s homestead and reared a family of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. He died in 1804. Benajah Colvin was born in Danby in 1787, and as he developed, showed a fine and sturdy physique and a strong and stable character. He was a successful man, and by careful management and good judgment amassed a competence. He was killed in 1867, when eighty years of age, while felling a tree in the woods. He married Ruth Irish, and had four children, three sons and one daughter. His first wife died, and he then married Hannah Palmer, who bore him one daughter.

Joel Colvin was educated in the public schools, and reared at Danby, Vermont. That he understood theoretical, as well as practical farming, is shown by the competence he had accumulated when the grim reaper took him away on March 15, 1882. In 1869 he bought the fine property in Ripley where his widow now resides.

On September 25, 1835, he married Almira Staples, a daughter of Ellery Staples, and they had five children: Charles, married Mary Green, and lives in Vermont; Ahira, first married Hannah Kirk, and for his second wife took Mary Wisner. He is in the grape-growing business; Albert N., married to Luella Cheney, is now a farmer in Ripley; James, married Sarah Hardinger, now dead, lives in Ripley with his mother; and Lizzie, wife of
Charles Brown, a butcher at Ripley.

Politically Mr. Colvin was a republican, but his gentle disposition and retiring nature much preferred the quiet of his home and the company of his family, to the bustle and deceit of politics and the hilarious companions which often accompany it, so that he never entered political life. He passed away mourned and regretted by his family and a large circle of friends.