Capt. Increase Graham Child 1740 – 1810

Posted on June 29, 2016 Updated on June 30, 2016

Capt. Increase Graham CHILD (1740 – 1810)
was my 5th great-grandfather on the Bosworth family tree

 —–

Olive Pease CHILD (1775 – 1847)
daughter of Capt. Increase Graham CHILD

Dr. Benjamin Franklin BOSWORTH M.D. (1801 – 1843)
son of Olive Pease CHILD

Dr. Franklin Smith BOSWORTH (1832 – 1919
son of Benjamin Franklin BOSWORTH M.D.

Frank Hunt BOSWORTH (187 0 – 1919)
son of Franklin Smith BOSWORTH

Dr. Wilder Morris BOSWORTH Sr., D.D.S. (1905 – 1990)
son of Frank Hunt BOSWORTH

Capt. Frank Hunt BOSWORTH (1933 – )
son of Dr. Wilder Morris BOSWORTH Sr., D.D.S.

Me
the daughter of Capt. Frank Hunt BOSWORTH

History of Increase Child

HISTORY OF INCREASE CHILD Increase Child was the second child of Ephraim Child Jr. and Mary Lyon Child. He was bom in Woodstock, Conn., 13 Dec 1740. Increase received his name of Increase from a surname of his grandmother on the maternal line, Increase.1 Increase married Olive Pease of Somers, Conn. on 3 Nov 1762. Olive was born 10 Mar 1738 in Somers, Conn. and died in Greenfield, Saratoga, N. Y. on 5 July 1822. Increase died on 10 June 1810 in Greenfield, Saratoga, N. Y. and is buried there.2 At the age of sixteen Increase volunteered for the French and Indian Wars where he served for seven years. Increase served under Capt. Putnam for a year, fighting in the battles of Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Capt. Putnam was captured by the Indians but Increase assisted in his release and escape. In the year of 1757 Increase served in Capt. Carpenter’s Co. from Woodstock, Conn. Josiah Child was Lieutenant. In the campaign of 1758 Increase was seventeen years old serving with the sixth company under Captain Holmes. The Third Reg. of Conn. Troops was commanded by Eleazer Fitch and Increase was listed sick in the hospital. In the Campaign of 1759 Increase was eighteen serving in the Seventh Company under Capt. David Holmes. Jonathan Child was the 2nd Lt. A Muster Roll of Capt. David Holmes Co. in the Fourth Regiment of Conn. Troops by Eleazer Fitch. Increase served the full seven years of the war, being on call to fight the Indians whenever an uprising occurred. 3 At the close of the war, Increase returned to his home in Woodstock, Conn., where he fell in love with Olive Pease and the couple were married on 3 Nov 1762. The couple lived happily in Woodstock where their first four children were born. Harviland, Salmon, Rockselana (Roxalana) and Roxalana were all born in Woodstock. Harviland and Rockselane died young, being buried in Woodstock, Conn.4 In 1771 Increase moved his family to Oblong, near the town of Amenia, Dutchess, N.Y. Mark Anthony Child, my direct line ancestor was born soon after their arrival in New York on 10 May 1771 in Oblong. Increase taught school in Oblong, Dutchess Co., N.Y. Oblong derived its name from a point of land adjacent to the Hudson River, being oblong in shape. The nearest town was Amenia, sometimes spelled Armenia. As a school teacher Increase helped many children to become educated. When the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775 Increase first enlisted as a Private out of the Albany District. His family remained in Oblong while Increase went off to war. Judge Salmon Child, eldest living son of Increase Child mentions in his history of his father that the family moved to Oblong when he was about 6 years of age or 1771.5 The History of Woodstock, Windham Co., Conn. says that all the children were born in Woodstock, Conn. The Child Genealogy Book by Elias Child has all the children born in Woodstock under Increase Child. It mentions that Mark A. Child was born in Stillwater, N. Y. and Olive born in Oblong in the next generation with the remainder of the children born in Woodstock. Increase never went to Stillwater until 1778 in the war. I do believe that the above two references are incorrect, having all the children born in Conn. Judge Salmon Child in his history of Increase Child mentions that the whole family moved to Oblong, Dutchess Co., N. Y. when he was about 6 years old or 1771. The V. A. letter verifies this move to Armenia, Dutchess, N. Y. in 1771. Armenia was the town nearest to Oblong, since Oblong officially wasn’t incorporated into a town at that time. The V. A. letter also states that Increase entered the service from the State of N.Y., being a resident of Armenia in 1775, entered as a private, returned home (Armenia) (now spelled Amenia) called into New York City on 1 April 1776 to receive a Captain’s Commission, returned home in June of 1776 to bring his son Salmon to Constitution Island to serve as a waiter until April of 1777. In 1777 Salmon Child moved to New Canaan, Saratoga, N.Y. and about 1 April 1778 moved with his father to Stillwater, N.Y., serving in the war assisting his father. Salmon Child enlisted in the spring of 1781, served as a private in Capt. Kotham Dunham’s Co. Col. Willett’s Regiment. Salmon served as a waiter to Dr. Delano, a surgeon for nine months. Salmon served on various troop alarms from 1781 to 1783, amounting to two months service. (V.A. Letter dated 20 Nov 1939). From the history of Salmon Child: “My father bargin for a piece of land in Stillwater at the close of the war for his military pay. Increase and Salmon put in the crops and then they went for the family and moved to Stillwater, Saratoga Co., N. Y. in 1783, or the close of the Revolutionary War as stated.”6 From all of the above evidence the first four children were born in Woodstock, Windham Co., Conn. The last five children were born in Oblong, Dutchess Co., N.Y. Therefore, Mark A. Child, b. May 10, 1771; Ephraim b. May 10, 1773; and Olive b. 11 Mar 1775; William b. Jan 4, 1777, and Asa b. 21 May 1780 were all born In Oblong or Amenia, Dutchess, N. Y. Increase was a master surveyor laying out the towns and villages of Stillwater, Saratoga Springs and Balston Spring. He also laid out many farms and boundaries in the County of Saratoga.7 Increase and his family were very religious and attended Church. Increase had been a member of the Standing Order of the Congregationalist in Woodstock, being very strict Sabbath day observers. Many of Increase’s children joined the Baptist movement –Salmon, Olive, William and Asa. William and Asa printed Baptist literature and books. Mark Anthony Child established his own Church, the First Universal Church of Greenfield. He believed in the Bible as printed. 1. History of Woodstock, Windham Co., Conn. pp 505-506. 2. Gen. of Child, Childs and Childe of America, pp 79-87, also above ref. 3. Muster Rolls of Conn. Troops–French and Indian Wars. 4. Ibid pp 515-516. 5. Ibid pp 79-87. 6. Ibid pp 79-87. 7. History of Saratoga, N. Y., pp 128-130.

NOTE: History found on the web by Eugene M. Hancock, 5th Great Grandson of Increase Child.

https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/842405

When Capt. Increase Graham CHILD was born on December 13, 1740, in Woodstock, Connecticut, his father, Dr. Ephraim, was 29 and his mother, Mary, was 28. He married Olive PEASE on November 3, 1762, in Milton, New York. They had eight children in 17 years. He died on June 10, 1810, in Greenfield, New York, at the age of 69, and was buried in Saratoga County, New York.

From papers furnished by one of the descendants of Increas Child, we obtain items of his history which reveal a somewhat eventful life, showing manlliness, patriotism, and personal virtues.  Captain Increase, as he comes to our notice, is a lusty, burly youth, of a mercurial temperment, of an adventurous disposition, not content with the monotony of a home devoid of excitements, bent upon knowing and seeing what was going on in the world.  At scarcely sixteen years of age, when Israel Putnam was commissioned by the Connecticut colony as Captain, in 1755, in the French war, young Increase, in response to the call for volunteers, was among the first to be enrolled, and served through the seven years’ campaign of the war.  He fought in the battles at Crown Point and Ticondaroga.  Returning to the old homestead at the close of this war, he tarried but a short time, when he left and went to Dutchess county, N. y., and engaged in school teaching in a place called “Oblong,” deriving its name probably from its peculiar shape, as a point of land adjacent to the Hudson river.  After spending a few year in teaching, he returned to Woodstock, Ct. and married Miss Pease of Somers.  He made Woodstock, Ct, his home for a number of years, rearing some of his children, if not all, in this town, when the attractions of the then west brought him back to the borders of the Hudson river.  Taking his eldest son (Salmon Child), then a lad, on horseback behind him, he went to Dutchess county, N. Y., provided a home, and brought over his family. and settled there. 

 When the Revolutionary war broke out, he enlisted under General Schuyler, as captain.  Under Generals Schuyler and Gates he served through the war and obtained an honorable discharge.  In this compaign his son (Salmon) acted at first as a waiter for his father, being too young at the commencement of the the war to be taken as a soldier, but before its close his name was enrolled on the list of volunteers.  The excitements and hardships of war during an eight years’ service were not sufficient to break the force of will and purpose in Captain Increase Child.  The northern section of the state of New York through which the army of Schuyler and Gates had been led, presented such attraction to Captain Child that he resolved to make it his future home.  His settlement was in Milton, Saratoga county, N. Y., where he became a permanent and useful citizen.  The early opportunities of Captain Increase Child for a substantial education, that should qualify him for practical life, had been well improved.  He was an excellent penman, and competent surveyor and conveyancer, and a man of excellent general business capacity.  The inherent force of character evinced by Increase Child in budding youth did not expend itself in riper years; not did it expire at his death and leave no traces in the long line of descendents of this remarkable man.  As we trace the history of this branch of the family name.

Excerps from; Genealogy of the Child, Childs and Childe Families, of the Past and Present in the United States and the Canadas, from 1630 to 1881, Volume 1 By Elias Child 1946

From a Daughters of American Revolution application:

Miss Louise Marion Bosworth. DAR ID Number: 105923
Born in Elgin, Ill. Descendant of Capt. Increase Child, as follows:
1. Alfred Bosworth (b. 1846) m. 1872 Eleanora Wheeler (b. 1849).
2. Increase Child Bosworth (1812-88) m. 1844 Mary Ann Root (1814-96).
3. Alfred Bosworth (1773-1861) m. 1798 Olive Child (1775-1847).
4. Increase Child m. 1762 Olive Pease (1738-1822).
Increase Child (1740-1810) commanded a company of volunteers, 1776, at Fort
Montgomery and later served under Generals Schuyler and Gates at Stillwater.
He was born and died in Woodstock, Conn.
The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Volume 106
page 297

Military: 

from 1756 to 1763 (Age 15)

New York, USA