AMERICA
by Charles H. Oviatt
Editors Note: I copied this from one of 25 copies I found among my grandmother's, Alice Jenkins Christensen's, papers. The copies were in an envelope addressed from the "Grange Natl. Bank of McKean Co., Lock Drawer S. Smethport, Pa." to "Mrs. Carrie Oviatt, City" postmarked "1925". I edited it a little by changing a little punctuation and spelling-out some abbreviations. However, there are some obvious grammatical errors which I deliberately left unchanged such as "come" instead of "came", to preserve some of the original 'flavor'. I presume Grandma obtained these from non-LDS relatives when she went to Pennsylvania sometime around 1925 and worked on the Oviatt genealogy.
Copied by:
Eldon R. Griffin
555 So. Main
Garland, Utah 84312
August 11, 1994
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The Oviatt family of America, is a very old English family, of Norman
(French) origin, entering England with William the Conqueror in the year
1066, A. D. It has not been definitely settled what the name was
at that period, but the family settled in Central Southern England and
every century or generation has brought many changes in the name until
there are dozens and dozens of families in England who have different names,
all originating from the Parent family of Normandy.
Buckinghamshire, England appears to have been the home of many Oviatt
families about the year 1550, and there are many records of births, marriages
and deaths in the numerous parishes of that county.
Wendover, Buckinghamshire was the early seat of residence of many and
it was from this locality that the first Oviatt to America hailed from;
Thomas Oviatt, 1630.
Some of the many changes of the name in England are the following:
Oviatt, Uthiatt, Uthiat, Uthwatt, Uthworth, Outhwatt, Outhwait, de Utteworth, de Ottewurth, Uthitt, Uthkitt, Uskitt, Uffiatt, Uffutt and others. Whole families are often found in nearby localities with the names changed in spelling and pronunciation a little different.
The emigrant ancestor, Thomas Oviatt, the first one to America,
in 1630, was like many people of his time unable to write his name, so,
on the ship "Lion's" register, a X (cross) was made for him, by the captain
of the vessel who put it down as Uffitt, instead of Oviatt, and from this
much confusion began in old Connecticut over our family name, and a great
deal of speculation has aroused from it over the families of Uffit, Uffoote
and Ufford and Oviatt.
Pond, the historian of Milford, Connecticut tried to solve the problem,
of the difference between these two families and sometimes had it one way
and sometimes hid it another, but since his death of a few years new records
have come to light in the Bryan and Baldwin families of Wendover County,
Buckinghamshire, England, showing that Thomas Oviatt's wife was Elizabeth
or Isabell Bryan, of Milford, Connecticut, sister of Alexander Bryan of
Milford, Connecticut, 1639-1673, who was the wealthiest citizen of his
day in all Connecticut, owning and operating many merchant ships between
the colonies and old England. The record of the will of Alex Bryan,
also shows a bequest he makes to his nephew, Thomas Oviatt, 1673.
Thomas Oviatt, Sr., died in 1661 leaving a widow, two sons and one daughter.
The records show Mr. Oviatt to have been a soap manufacturer and be
left some property in the towns of Milford and Stratford, Connecticut.
His widow, related to the Baldwin family, returned to england after the
death of her husband in 1661, and lived and died in Wendover, County Buckinghamshire.
She is referred to, in records as the widow Ovyott, late of America.
Of their children, John and Thomas, the records refer to them as John Uffitt
and Thomas Oviatt. Of Thomas Oviatt Sr., mention must be made of
his sailing from London, England on June 30, 1632, with his family and
of their arrival in Boston and subsequent residence for four years in Newton,
(now Cambridge) where he appears, as a member of the church flock of the
Reverend Thomas Hooker. This Reverend Mr. Hooker, had been excommunicated
from England for his pronounced religious views, and for awhile lived with
the Leyden people in Holland, who come over to America in the Mayflower.
Hooker's career in Newtown for the four years 1632-1636, was a stormy one
as he didn't seem to get along with the Mass governing and so he and his
church friends decided to found a new colony somewhere over in the Connecticut
River country, and in the fall of 1635 the sent a party of seven men, including
Pynchon, Holyoke and Thomas Oviatt, to go round by water and on up the
Connecticut River and explore the country, where they laid out the city
of Springfield, Massachusetts. This was in 1635, and the following
spring 1636, the Reverend Thomas Hooker and the head of 44 families, cut
their way through the wilderness, and came out on the Connecticut river
at the point where Hartford now stands, and decided to remain there and
were joined a little later by Pynchon:s little colony of seven who came
down the river from Springfield, and this it was that Thomas Oviatt Sr.
was one of the 44 heads of families who participated in the founding of
Hartford, Connecticut. Here is a great picture for the stretch of
imagination. the picture of the great and redoubtable Hooker, leading
his chosen ones through a veritable wilderness, and all with a purpose
of just desiring to live as the would wish, and worship as they choose,
without molestation from anyone, and a picture also of Thomas Oviatt, explorer,
together with Clark, Pynchon and Holyoke, all sturdy puritans, finding
a home miles and miles up form Long Island Sound among the many curves
of the beautiful Connecticut River alone, and yet surrounded by many American
Indian warriors, with whom they had to make a treaty of peace with.
Both of these pictures are instances of the very earliest white man's times
with the Indians, that all people by the name of Oviatt should be really
proud of.
With the opening up of the Connecticut River country, in 1636, and
the incoming emigrants from England, dissension soon arose again, and Hartford
was split in two, and Thomas Oviatt, three years later, in 1639 with his
family joined the newly organized town of Milford, Connecticut where his
relatives lived, the Bryans and the Baldwins. Here he died in 1661.
His son Thomas Oviatt, Jr., married but died childless, so all the Oviatts
in America are descended from the son John, who seemed to have had quite
a large family, some spelled their name Uffit and other Oviatt -- and since
then other have kept changing until we find many Uffords from Uffitt, --
and all should be Oviatt.
So it is that Milford, Connecticut, is considered the early seat of the Oviatts in America, and many of the family are still living there today, (1916). With the opening up of more towns and settlements in Connecticut a few of the Oviatts in Milford removed about 1723, to New Milford including Giles Oviatt, Samuel Oviatt and Thomas Oviatt, and thus we speak of the Oviatts of Milford and New Milford.
The New Milford Oviatts also scattered to tributary towns, and the ones at Goshue, Connecticut, were progenitors of the Ohio Oviatts, Benjamin and Isaac from Woodbury, Connecticut, -- settled in New York State, and their descendants still live in Cambridge, N. Y., also up in the Adirondack Country, some in Rochester and vicinity and others in Pennsylvania, and form here some have removed to Illinois, Iowa and on to Utah. It was from New Fairfield, Connecticut, close to New Milford that John Oviatt (son of Samuel of New Milford) a soldier of the Revolution was removed with his wife and 10 children in 1800 to Fairfield, Vermont, (the writers branch, and the descendants of John are very numerous and widely scattered, some in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, New York, Connecticut, and still larger numbers left in good old Vermont, away back on the farms. There is hardly a state in the Union which does not contain some members of the Oviatt family, and all are glad to be Americans and citizens of our United States of America.
(Signed)
Charles H. Oviatt
Muskegon, Michigan
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