Jonathan Trumbull Smith was one of triplets. George Washington, Nathanial Greene, and Jonathan Trumbull-then Governor of Connecticut- happened by the Ebenezer Smith family in 1781 and George gave their names to the children. This story appears in a newspaper article in 1866 about the reunion in Lewis County, NY, of Trumbell Smith's children. There are many divergent versions of this story: sometimes it is George alone that visits, but my favorite is that George was in Connecticut on his way to take command of the troops at Bunker Hill (in 1781? - a bit late!). Unfortunately, this family story is untrue. This was just after the fall of Yorktown (OCT 19) and George Washington buried his stepson, John Parke Custis at Morristown on November 13th. Immediately after concluding related family business through the end of November, he spent four months in Philadelphia at the Continental Congress. Washington spent the rest of 1782 at New Paltz, NY, preparing to attack NYC. Nathanial Greene was at war in the Carolinas all the Winter of 1781. Hancock was the original name chosen for Greene, but is crossed out. Ebenezer Smith, born in Ashford also, was the son of Samuel and Zipporah (Morse) who were from Needham, MASS. Samuel was the son of John who built a bridge over the Charles River on May 2, 1709, as well as being a Needham selectman in 1707 and a Dedham constable in 1694. John was the son of Christopher Smith and Mary Fairbanks of Dedham. Christopher's father was also named Christopher and he came to Dedham from England in 1642 and married Martha Metcalf on 2-AUG-1654. (History of Needham, George Clarke, 1912)
E-mail Mark Willey: pha1941@hotmail.com.
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