Thomas Putnam

Notes:

Thomas (4), youngest son of Seth and Sarah (Harding) Putnam, was born in Delaware, Upper Canada, October 28, 1804, and died at Hamilton, Ontario, March 26, 1880. In 1825 he located in Dorchester, Upper Canada, which town was later (1839) named Putnam in his honor. He was largely engaged in mercantile and lumbering enterprises and became one of the most prominent men in private life in western Ontario. During the "patriot" rebellion of 1837-38 he became an object of suspicion to the Tory party, and was obliged to remain in concealment many weeks to avoid imprisonment and possibly a worse fate. He had a secret chamber in his house constructed to enter only by a sliding panel, where he lay while British soldiers searched the house. He greatly aided the rebel cause by money and influence. He was appointed a magistrate in 1838 by the governor-general of Canada, a life office and carrying the title of "Esquire." He refused all other public office. By the dishonesty of a partner, Squire Putnam met with severe business reverses late in life, which left him only a moderate competence after satisfying in full every creditor. He married (first) Nancy; daughter of Nicholas Dygert, a niece of General Nicholas Dygert, and granddaughter of John Dygert, who fought with General Herkimer at the battle of Oriskany. She was a sister to Eleanor Dygert, wife of William Putnam, who was killed at the battle of Windsor, Canada, previously mentioned. She bore him two children:

Harriet Ann, born July 24, 1833; married Hugh Duncan Cameron, a grand-nephew of the Duke of Athol and Earl of Graham. He was born in Perthshire, Scotland, July 26, 1833, came to Canada in 1852, was treasurer of the Hamilton Provident Loan Association at Hamilton, Ontario, where he died May, 1895.
Marshall Spring Bidwell, born October 25, 1837, died at Hamilton, March 13, 1880. Squire Putnam married (second), in 1844, Nancy, born 1822, died 1884, daughter of Rev. John Harris and his wife, who was also a daughter of Sylvanus Dygert.

Children of second marriage, all born at Putnam, Ontario:

Ephraim, born October 12, 1845, accidentally killed at the age of twenty-two years.
Rev. Alanson Harris, born December 20, 1847; a minister of the Baptist church, Toronto, Ontario.
Dr. Thomas Job, born December 25, 1848, graduate of Cleveland Medical College, 1877; now a practicing physician at Springfield, Massachusetts.
Dr. William Byron, of whom further.
Dr. Warren E., born May 6, 1857, graduate of Cleveland Medical College, 1881; now a practicing physician of Bennington, Vermont; he is surgeon-general on the staff of the governor of Vermont, and is now serving his second term (1910).

Thomas married Nancy Dygert. Nancy (daughter of Sylvanus Dygert and Magdalena Herkimer) was born about 1822 in Canada. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

[Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs]
Seth, son of Thomas and Rachel (Wetherbee) Putnam, was born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, September 16, 1756, a twin of Susannah. He died in Putnam, Ontario, Canada, September 3, 1827. His gravestone, erected in 1847, states he was born in Charlestown, New Hampshire, in 1758. He was a private in Captain Samuel Wetherbee's company, Colonel Isaac Wayne's regiment, which marched to reinforce the Northern Army in 1776. According to his gravestone he was a colonel in the Continental army. A family belief, as told in later years by his son Thomas, was that he was a member of the "Boston Tea Party." He was a man of education, with a good knowledge of civil and military engineering. In 1795 he emigrated to Canada to a wild and unbroken region. He entered into a contract with the Canadian government to construct a wagon road from the head of the lake where Hamilton now stands, to Chatham, eighteen miles east of Lake St. Claire, a distance of one hundred sixty miles, through a heavily wooded country. For this he was to receive sixteen hundred acres of land and a cash bonus. He built the road but never received his reward. He married, February 14, 1790, Sarah Harding (gravestone), of the Wyoming valley, Pennsylvania, one of the few who escaped from the massacre of Wyoming. She died about 1850.

Son Thomas: In his youth,in his father's house, he witnessed the historic interview between General Proctor and Tecumseh, the night previous to the battle of the Thames, in which the great Indian chief was killed. General Proctor made the house of Seth Putnam his headquarters at that time. [Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont: A Record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation - by Hiram Carleton

Seth married Sarah Harding on 14 Feb 1790. Sarah was born in in Wyoming, Penn.; died about 1850. [Group Sheet]