My Genealogy Hound

DEACON LYMAN SABIN, an old and highly respected resident of Belchertown, was born in that place, August 15, 1813, son of Thomas and Abigail (Durfey) Sabin, both natives of Ellington, Conn. Mr. Sabin is of French descent, his first ancestor in this country being a Huguenot who fled from France to England, and thence to Wales, coming to this country in the year 1630. Being a man of wealth and culture, he was prominent in Rehoboth, Mass., at the time when that town was organized, and was very influential in the colony. His will was probated in Boston, and it is believed on good authority that he is buried in the old Granary Burying-ground in that city. (See History of the Rev. Anson Titus, Jr., published in 1881.)

Monsieur Sabin’s son Benjamin, who was born in Rehoboth, removed to Roxbury; and there his son Nehemiah, the great-grandfather of Deacon Sabin, was born. Nehemiah Sabin went to Pomfret, Conn., and married Ruth Cooper. She bore him several children, of whom one, named Thomas, born in 1744, was the grandfather of our subject. Thomas Sabin had a son, Thomas, Jr., born in Ellington, Conn., December 22, 1783, who was Deacon Sabin’s father. In early manhood Thomas Sabin, Jr., settled in Wilbraham, and later removed to Belchertown, where he purchased a farm of one hundred acres. On this farm he spent the remainder of his life, sowing and reaping the harvests of many busy years, and passed away in March, 1885, at the age of one hundred and one. His wife was born July 3, 1787, and died in August, 1846. They reared five children: Lewis, Laura, Sherman, Lyman, and Abigail. Lewis Sabin became a widely known and respected preacher of the Congregationalist faith, and was pastor of the church at Templeton for thirty-five years. He was a very scholarly man, and was beloved and looked up to by all who knew him. He married Maria P. Dickinson, of Hadley.

Lyman Sabin was reared and received a fair education in his native town, and there taught school for some time before entering upon his life vocation of farming. He succeeded to the proprietorship of the homestead, and to-day harvests from the same broad acres the bountiful crops that smiled upon his father. The farm is pleasantly located upon the west side of Sabin Hill. The house occupies a commanding position upon an eminence, from which the view is magnificent. The line of vision takes in Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom; and on a clear day Mount Greylock is plainly visible, outlined against the western horizon. The buildings on the Sabin farm are in good condition, the house is cosey and homelike, and the whole domain is a heritage to be proud of.

In 1839 Mr. Sabin was married to Lucy Colton Stebbins, who was born in Belchertown, November 2, 1812, daughter of Samuel H. and Nancy (Reed) Stebbins and a direct descendant in the seventh generation of Rowland Stebbins. (For a history of the Stebbins family see the “Annals of Belchertown,” by the late Hon. Mark Doolittle.) Mr. and Mrs. Sabin reared three children: Maria Dickinson, Abigail Durfey, and Laura Sophia. Maria D. Sabin graduated from Mount Holyoke Seminary, and followed the profession of teacher up to the time of her marriage, when she became the wife of Joshua Longley, of Belchertown, who died in 1875. They had one child, Marion Sabin Longley, born October 15, 1874, who passed away in August, 1887. After her husband’s death Mrs. Longley resumed teaching. Abigail D. Sabin married Lewis Williams, and lives in Kent, Ohio. Laura Sophia’s life has been spent at the home of her parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Sabin have spent together fifty-six years of married life, strengthened to bear life’s burdens by mutual aid and sympathy. Although so advanced in years, they enjoy fairly good health. They are members of the Congregational church, in whose affairs Mr. Sabin has always taken an active part, being Deacon for many years, teacher in the Sunday-school, and one of the leading singers in the choir. Ranking among the oldest residents of the town, he and Mrs. Sabin are regarded with esteem by all who know them.