Bezaleel Waste
(Bezaleel West)
Birth: May 14, 1742, in Norton,
Bristol County, Massachusetts
Death: Sept. 2, 1818, in
Whitingham, Windham County, Vermont
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Bezaleel Waste was born on May 14, 1742.
He was the son of Charles and Deborah Waste of the Dartmouth
and Middleboro area of Massachusetts. Francis West and Susanna
Soule of the Plymouth Colony were Bezaleel's great-grandparents.
Bezaleel was born 100 years after Francis and during that century
the family had always lived near the Atlantic coast of either
Massachusetts or Rhode Island. Bezaleel was the first to move
far from the safety of the coast into the wilds of Vermont and
upstate New York. He lived through the French and Indian War,
the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Remarkably, his
Vermont farm house survived from the 1770's and is open to the
public today as the Nutmeg Country Inn (see image at top of this
page) |
Bezaleel's birthplace
Norton,
Massachusetts |
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Click on the panoramic map
of Norton, Massachusetts to see full-size. |
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Bezaleel Waste was born on May 14,
1742 in Norton, Bristol County, Massachusetts. He married Joanna
Cannon on Nov. 28, 1765 on Cape Cod, Barnstable County, Mass.
Bezaleel and Joanna lived on Cape Cod for their first few years
of marriage. Their first children, Charles, born in 1766 and
twins born in 1767, did not survive. In 1768 their eldest son
Ebenezer was born. Their next child, Bezaleel, Jr., was born
March 10, 1772 in Bolton, Connecticut.
Bezaleel served in the military before
the American Revolution. By 1772 he was referred to as Lieutenant
Bezaleel Waste. His younger brother Richard Waste was killed
in action at Crown Point, near Ticonderoga, New York on Jan.
1, 1762 during the French and Indian War. It is likely that Bezaleel
also fought in the same war.
Many years before Vermont existed,
on April 29, 1751, Mr. Zephaniah Swift received a land grant
for the tract known as Wilmington then belonging to the Province
of New Hampshire. Swift was responsible for subdividing the tract
to responsible individuals. The Property Transfer records of
the Town of Wilmington show that on September 21, 1772, Zepheniah
Swift sold a parcel of land to Lieutenant Bezaleel and Joanne
Waste.
About 1777, Bezaleel and Joanne began
building a farm house and barn on their Wilmington property.
Later they added a carriage house. The property, which was really
more of an estate, would stay in the Waste family until 1827.
It's very interesting that Bezaleel's home is still in use today
as the Nutmeg Country Inn, a popular romantic Vermont country
inn. Click here
for more about the history of Bezaleel's estate.
Bezaleel worked as a farmer and Highway
Land Surveyor for Somerset, Wilmington and Whitingham, Vermont.
At the first recorded town meeting in Wilmington in 1778, Bezaleel
became a "selectman". A book titled the "Catalogue
of the Principal Officers of Vermont, as connected with its political
history, from 1778 to 1851, with some biographical notices, &c.,
by Leonard Deming" contains this entry: "April 9, 1778,
John Gibbs, Phinehas Smith, Bezaleel Waste, Josiah Locke, &
Eleazer Goodman, were chosen Selectmen". Click
here for more about this.
Bezaleel and his family moved from
Wilmington to the town of Hague, near Ticonderoga, on the shore
of Lake George in 1788 or 1790. Their son Uri (Uriah) was born
there. Later the family lived in Somerset, Windham County, Vermont.
While living in Somerset, two of Bezaleel's daughters died. Eighteen
year old Deborah died in May and sixteen year old Joanna died
in August, both in 1794. Somerset was in a less civilized part
of Windham County and today it no longer exists as a town. |
Joanna Cannon
Birth: Sept. 4, 1743 in Barnstable,
Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Death: May 20, 1815 in Whitingham, Windham County, Vermont
Bezaleel Waste married Joanna Cannon
on Nov. 28, 1765. She was the daughter of Ebenezer Cannon and
Mercy Blossom, who arrived in America in 1743 from Aberdeen,
Scotland, settling in Barnstable, Barnstable County, Massachusetts
which is located on Cape Cod.
contains additional information
about Joanna Waste:
"Old Deacon Aldis Brown, who
lived as the nearest neighbor to the Waste farm in Whitingham,
told me when I was a boy, that he remembered our Scotch grandmother
Joanna, born 1743, very well; that she was large, of fair complexion,
had quite a pronounced Scotch brogue, and instead of saying "wait
a minute" she would say, "bide a wee", or instead
of, "I don't know" she'd say "I dinna ken"
and so on. Perhaps that is why the rest of us in our line are
so cute and canny!"
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"Some hae meat but canna eat.
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat.
And so the Lord be thankit" |
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The following material is new to my
research project but in fact has been in our family a long time.
It is very significant information that will need to be fully
integrated with my previous findings. - Ed. |
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From "The Waste Family"
8 Generations
1720-1960
Compiled by Robert
W. Waste, 1960
(reproduced as originally
written) |
The Second Generation
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Bezaleel Waste, Sr. was born on May
14, 1742, in Plymouth, Mass. and was named for the Bezaleel Waste
who came from Europe in 1670. Here he received his formal schooling,
limited as it was.
At 18 he went to live near Barnstable,
Mass. on Cape Cod, and became a farmer there for a few years,
later returning to Plymouth. Tragedy struck this family as the
Father struggled to extract a meager living out of the sandy
soil in the Plymouth wilderness, and to protect his children
from the elements, sickness and hunger. Twins were born in September
of 1767, but due to lack of proper medical care, the babies died
the same month. A month later, one-year-old Charles died, too.
Baby Richard was less than a year old when Death took him in
1771.
During the Revolutionary War of 1776,
Lieutenant Waste enlisted in the United States Army and performed
many heroic deeds as a surgeon on the battlefields of New England.
The War over, he moved to Wilmington,
Vermont in 1778 and he found a job as a surveyor on the highways
of Wilmington and Somerset. He was then 36 years old. With his
family of 12 children, he traveled northwest beyond Albany, N.Y.
in 1788, and settled for a time in the small town of Hague, New
York by Lake George.
The Waste cabin in Hague was filled
with profound sorrow in May, 1794, with Death took away 18-year-old
Deborah, then returned three short months later to claim 16-year-old
Joanna. It required people of extraordinary courage and faith
to face such dire tragedy and rise above it, as they had to do.
In 1809, he returned to Vermont,
this time making his home in Whitingham. He died there on September
2, 1818, and is buried in the Cutting Cemetery in South Whitingham
near his old homestead. He was 76 years old.
"Six generations of this Waste
family lie buried side by side in the same graveyard in the south-east
part of the town," wrote Leonard A. Brown, Esq. in the book
History of Whitingham, 1866. He married Etta Edith Waste, daughter
of Charles Howard Waste. "This is an incident of very rare
occurrence in a rural town only 100 years old . . . The family
was self-reliant and apparently took very little interest in
what was going on in the world - the outside limits of their
own family."
At 18 Bezaleel married JOANNA CANNON,
who was 17, on November 28, 1760. Her parents were Ebenezer and
Mercy Blossom Cannon. She was born on September 4, 1745, at Barnstable,
Cape Cod, Mass. And she died in Whitingham on May 20, 1815, and
is buried there. She was then 72 years old.
Bezaleel Sr. and Joanna Cannon Waste
had 12 children:
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Charles Waste (1766-1767).
Ebenezer Waste (1768-1847), wed Lydia
Baldwin; had 4 children.
Richard Waste (1770-1771).
BEZALEEL WASTE, JR. (1772-1841) (Our
Line).
Mercy Waste (1774-1853), wed Levi
Hale; had daughter Salome.
Deborah Waste (1776-1794).
Joanna Waste (1778-1794).
Uri Waste (1780-1853), wed Martha
Morse; had 11 children.
Patience Waste (1782-1839), wed Uriah
Balcom; had son Bill.
Sarah Waste (1786-1823), wed Mr.
Pierce. |
Hague,
Warren County, New York (pop. 760) lies 127 miles east of Utica,
330 feet above sea level, on the western fringe of the finger
shaped Lake George. This is the pine and hardwood forests south
of historic Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and just west of the
Vermont borderline. This lakeside town is both a lumber center
and a resort for fisherman and hunters. It was founded in 1808
by the Dutch and named after the queen's residence and capitol
city of the Netherlands of Holland.
Whitingham, Windham County, Vermont (pop. 816) lies 30
miles west of Brattleboro, a few miles north of Rowe across the
Massachusetts border, and is about halfway in the 48 miles between
Troy, N.Y. and Keene, New Hampshire. Over 1400 feet above sea
level, this picturesque, mountainous village produces maple sugar
and syrup. It is the site of teh famed curative Sadawga mineral
springs and the birthplace of Brigham Young, the Morman leader.
Nearby is Lake Whitingham, largest lake entirely within the State,
and it's Dam, "the highest earth-dam in the world."
This remote hamlet was chartered in 1770 to Colonel Nathan Whiting,
for whom it is named; Samuel Champlain discovered Vermont in
1609.
(Reference on Bezaleel Waste and
family: "Vermont Historical Gazeteer", 1891, Vol. V,
page 713.)''
BEZALEEL WASTE'S OLD HOME
- WHITINGHAM, VT. |
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A timeline of Bezaleel's
life
Click to see full-size. |
Map showing the
locations of Bezaleel and Joanna Waste's homes
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Bezaleel Waste,
farmer and Highway Land Surveyor |
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Bezaleel was a farmer and Highway Land
Surveyor for Somerset, Wilmington and Whitingham, Vermont. This
map of southern Vermont shows Somerset, Wilmington and Whitingham. |
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The most important surveyor's tools
of the late 1700's were the compass and chain, like those shown
here. |
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Panoramic
map of Wilmington, Vermont |
Wilmington and Whitingham
area showing approximate location of Bezaleel's home. |
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Bezaleel Waste
was one of the first selectmen of Wilmington, Vermont
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A book published in 1851 contains
new information about Bezaleel:
According to page 200 of "Catalogue
of the principal officers of Vermont, as connected with its political
history, from 1778 to 1851, with some biographical notices, &c., by Leonard Deming":
"April 9, 1778, John
Gibbs, Phinehas Smith, Bezaleel Waste, Josiah Locke, & Eleazer
Goodman, were chosen Selectmen" |
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Bezaleel's family
moved to Hague, Lake George, New York
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In 1788 or 1790, Bezaleel moved his
family to the little town of Hague on the shores of Lake George,
New York, just south of Fort Ticonderoga. Click on the map to
see larger version and Hague locator map. |
Two of Bezaleel's daughters died
in 1794. Eighteen year old Deborah died in May and sixteen year
old Joanna died in August. The family was living in Somerset
at the time. Somerset was in a less civilized part of Windham
County and today it no longer exists as a town.
In 1808 the family moved back to
Whitingham, Vermont with their 6 surviving children, "the
others having died at early ages."
Whitingham is located near Wilmington
in Windham County, southern Vermont. |
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Historical References to
Bezaleel Waste's family
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Joanna Waste died at the age of 72
on May 20, 1815 in Whitingham, Vermont.
Bezaleel Waste died aged 76 years
old on Sept. 2, 1818, Whitingham, Vermont. He is buried at the
Cutting Cemetery, South Whitingham. The Cutting Cemetery is also
known as the Intervale Cemetery. |
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