CONKLIN, JR., RICHARD (1756-1818). Seaman, Patriot privateer, United States Navy; associator, Huntington, New York. Much of what we know about Richard Conklin Jr. is thanks to family records, inscriptions on gravestones, and some military records, such as headstone applications for military veterans. Richard was born on January 28, 1756, in the Huntington/Cold Spring Harbor area of Long Island, to Richard Conklin Sr., born in Smithtown in 1726, and Rebecca née Titus, born in 1732. The Conklin family arrived originally from England in the first half of the 17th century, settling in Huntington, according to The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (1913), by Frederic G. Mather.

Richard Jr. had several siblings, all born in Huntington:  Jemima Conklin Mather (1758-1805), Titus Conklin (1761-1855), Charlotte Conklin (1765-1810), Buel Conklin (1770-1822), and Enoch Conklin (1778-1847.)

In 1775, Richard Jr. signed the Association Test (Articles of Association) in protest of the British occupation of New York Province and, sometime afterwards, fled Long Island for refuge in Connecticut. On May 8, 1775, 403 men, most of them Huntington residents (a few were from Islip), “shocked by the bloody Scene” that had occurred just weeks before at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, where patriot Minutemen and British regulars had engaged in a bloody armed struggle, put their signatures on Huntington’s Articles of Association. Only 37 Huntington residents, either Loyalists or those wanting to stay out of the fray, refused to sign. The Articles noted that the signers affirmed their “Love to our Country,” agreed “to whatever Measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress; or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention, for the Purpose of preserving our Constitution, and opposition to the Execution of the several arbitrary, and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament,” and prayed for “a Reconciliation between Great-Britain and America.” The actions of these associators were seen by both patriots and the British as a step towards rebellion. The fact that these men signed these Articles, placing themselves in danger of British retaliation, including imprisonment, seizure of their property, and exile from Long Island, is proof of their patriotic service.

Records show that he enlisted in the Continental Navy as a seaman and became a privateer. Documents and records in the New York Comptroller’s Office that were used in compiling the rolls and rosters for New York in the Revolution (1898), by James A. Roberts, show Richard as among the enlisted men in the naval service. While skirmishing with the British off of Danvers, Massachusetts, he was wounded in the hand. Per several accounts, including the Official Bulletin of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (March 1909), he was imprisoned by the British on the Caribbean island of Barbados as well as in New York, where he was a prisoner on the Admiral’s ship in New York Harbor. There he witnessed examples of the severity of British naval discipline, including death from lashings. Richard managed to escape to his home in Cold Spring Harbor, but his return was reported to the British, who soon attacked his house, firing through the barred door where Richard stood waiting until the rest of his family were able to find shelter in a neighbor’s home. According to the Huntington historian Robert C. Hughes, Richard’s bravery was recounted in the 1876 speech, “Historic Huntington.” Richard fled through a swamp and the woods to the shore where he was able to board a waiting vessel.

Richard married Mary Bernard about 1779. She was born in 1762. They had several children: Titus Conklin (1788-1818), Rebecca Conklin Rogers (1792-1847), Stephen Bernard Conklin (1794-1812 or 1814), Richard Montgomery Conklin (1799-1877), and Henry Alonzo Conklin, born in 1806. All the children were born in Cold Spring Harbor where the family resided with Richard’s brother Titus. After Richard’s father’s death on July 24, 1787, in Huntington, his mother, Rebecca, remarried the widowed Hubbard Conklin (Conkling) (see) on January 7, 1789. Rebecca died on January 2 or 22, 1793.

During the War of 1812, Richard helped capture a vessel loaded with grain and flour intended for the British. His son, Stephen Bernard Conklin, died at sea as a privateer in either 1812 or 1814. Richard’s brother, Captain Enoch Conklin, died in 1814. Enoch had become a privateer during the war and had his own ship, the Arrow. According to Francis Ferdinand Spies’s 1933 book, New Rochelle, New York, Cemeteries, Enoch and his crew were given a commission by the United States government and sailed from the port of New York in September 1814. Neither vessel, captain, nor any crew members were ever seen again. The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut notes that Stephen Bernard Conklin had been an officer on that ship and was lost at sea.

Richard died on August 11, 1818, in Huntington. Not only is he interred in Huntington’s Old Burying Ground, but his father, mother, and stepfather are also interred there. His original marble gravestone, with an iron repair, displays his name, date of death at age at death, and an epitaph. In 1973, Rufus B. Langhans, Huntington’s Town Historian, applied for a a government-issued marble headstone. That gravestone is inscribed “Seaman, Privateer Service, US Navy, Rev War.” Richard’s widow, Mary, expired on August 6, 1828, and is interred in the Old Burying Ground as well, along with the couple’s daughter, Rebecca Conklin Rogers and her husband, Daniel Rogers.

CONKLIN (or CONKLINE, CONKLING), EZRA (1756-1815). Corporal, Suffolk County Militia, 1st Regiment of Minutemen, Colonel Josiah Smith’s Regiment, Captain John Wickes’s Company; associator, Huntington, New York. According to Find A Grave, Ezra was born on November 1, 1756, in Huntington, Suffolk County, New York, to Ruth née Ketcham and Timothy Conklin Sr. He was the second oldest of five siblings; he had three brothers and one sister. On some official documents Ezra’s surname is spelled as Conkline or Conkling.
 
As per “A Brief Biography of Some of the Huntington Patriots” (2024), by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian, Suffolk County Historical Society,
 
Ezra Conklin was “Signatory to the Association at Huntington, he served in Colonel Josiah Smith’s 1st Regiment of Minute Men of Suffolk County, as an enlisted man. He was eventually promoted to corporal. He was also listed in a payroll account of July 29th to August 31st, 1776, for Captain John Wickes’ 5th Company. He lived at or near the “Town Spotte” (intersection of Park Avenue and Sabbath Day Path.)
 
On May 8, 1775, 403 men, most of them Huntington residents (a few were from Islip), “shocked by the bloody Scene” that had occurred just weeks before at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, where patriot Minutemen and British regulars had engaged in a bloody armed struggle, put their signatures on Huntington’s Articles of Association. Only 37 Huntington residents, either Loyalists or those wanting to stay out of the fray, refused to sign. The Articles noted that the signers affirmed their “Love to our Country,” agreed “to whatever Measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress; or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention, for the Purpose of preserving our Constitution, and opposition to the Execution of the several arbitrary, and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament,” and prayed for “a Reconciliation between Great-Britain and America.” The actions of these associators were seen by both patriots and the British as a step towards rebellion. The fact that these men signed these Articles, placing themselves in danger of British retaliation, including imprisonment, seizure of their property, and exile from Long Island, is proof of their patriotic service.
 
New York in the Revolution as Colony and State, by James A. Roberts, Comptroller, published in 1898, at page 169, lists Ezra among the names of the enlisted men in the First Regiment of Minutemen under Colonel Josiah Smith. In his book, The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (1913), Frederic Gregory Mather records Ezra’s promotion to the rank of corporal on or about July 1, 1776. Further, information from Sons of the American Revolution, indicates that he held the rank of corporal during the war. The Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR, Volume 076, states that Ezra was present at the Battle of Long Island. The Lineage Book of the Charter Members of DAR, Volume 071, reports that Ezra’s older brother, Timothy Jr. (see), held the rank of lieutenant during the war, also served with Colonel Josiah Smith, and took part in the Battle of Long Island.
 
There was some uncertainty as to whether Ezra was a loyalist or a patriot. In the book, Huntington Town Records, Including Babylon, Long Island, N.Y., 1776-1873, published in 1889, Charles R. Street lists Ezra among 400 additional names who took the oath of loyalty before Governor Tryon in Suffolk County, Long Island in 1778. As explained in the article, “American Revolution,” posted on the town of Huntington’s website, residents often were forced to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown or risk losing everything they owned. Though an applicant on a submitted request to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) suggested Ezra was a loyalist, this assertion was deemed invalid by the DAR. Furthermore, other records indicate that Ezra and fellow residents of Huntington were harassed and coerced by the British throughout the Revolutionary War. As Huntington Town Historian Robert Hughes wrote in “Huntington and the Articles of Association,” of the 403 men who signed the Articles of Association in 1775, “269 also signed the Oath of Loyalty to the Crown three years later.” Hughes explains that this number is less than that of the signers of the Articles because some who had signed the Articles may have died in the interim; others had fled Long Island, primarily moving to Connecticut, to avoid living under the British.
 
Incidents between Ezra and the British are documented in Old Times in Huntington: An Historical Address, published in 1876, by Hon. Henry C. Platt:
 
Ezra Conkling, who lived at the time, in the house, which is now a barn, on the premises of George C. Gould, in the eastern part of the village, and whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren are now living in Huntington, and many of whom I see here to day, was a great sufferer from the British soldiers, who stole most everything eatable off of his farm. In order to hide a fat calf for his own use, he placed it in his milk-room, where it was secreted and fed.
 
He had a tory neighbor, living below him, whose daughters used to flirt considerably with British officers, (girls used to flirt in those days) and they informed the officers where this calf was hidden. On the pretence of searching for a deserter, several British soldiers came to his house early one morning. Going up stairs, they threw two of the children of Mr. Conkling out of their bed, and cut the rope underneath the bedding, stating they had found a deserter down stairs in the milk room, and wanted some rope to tie him with. They marched off to camp, with the struggling prize, which met the fate of War.
 
On one occasion a British dragoon, riding upon his horse, by Ezra Conkling’s residence, when he was away from home, saw a goose wandering in the door yard by the roadside. It tempted his appetite. He took a fish hook, baited it with a kernel of corn, tied it to a long string, and without dismounting, threw it on the ground near the goose, and retained the end of the string in his hand. The goose was such a goose, as to swallow that kernel of corn, and with it, the hook. And as soon as he had swallowed it, the dragoon started his horse off for camp, on a full gallop; the goose, fast to the string, was jerked up in the air, and as a natural consequence flew along after the horse and rider.
 
After his Revolutionary War military service, Ezra married Sarah Platt on October 4, 1778, as noted on Find A Grave. Sarah was the twin sister of Mary Platt Conklin; Mary had married Timothy, Ezra’s older brother, in 1776. Ezra and Sarah had nine children. As per Find A Grave, their children were “Platt, Elizabeth (married Silas Titus Ketcham), Experience (married Ebenezer Prime), Erastus Harvey, Matilda (married Brewster Helme Wood), Letitia (married Nathaniel Woodhull Woolsey), Maria (married Gilbert Platt), Ezra, and Nathan Woodhull Conklin.”
 
According to the 1799 New York, U.S. Tax Assessment Rolls of Real Estate and Personal Estates, Ezra’s estate was valued at $2,155, a substantial sum for the time. The 1800 and 1810 United States federal censuses detail that Ezra and his family resided in Huntington, Suffolk, New York.  According to Huntington Town Records, Including Babylon, Long Island, N.Y., 1776-1873, Ezra was elected as the assessor for Huntington each year from 1808 through 1814. As per the U.S., Revolutionary War Burial Index, Ezra passed away on February 17, 1815 and is buried in the Old Huntington Cemetery, Suffolk County. The Conklin brothers were probably very close as they served in the same regiment during the war, married sisters, and are buried in Huntington’s Old Burying Ground. Ezra’s ancient gravestone reads, “In memory of Mr. Ezra Conklin who departed this life Feb. 17th, 1815 – E 58 years 5 m. 17d’s.”

BRUSH, JR., JESSE (1752-1800). Associator, Huntington, New York. The Department of Veterans Affairs headstone for Jesse Brush, applied for by Huntington Town Historian Rufus Langhans in 1973 and placed in Huntington’s Old Burying Ground soon thereafter, describes a man who was a vehement and very active patriot, as well as a leading target of the British, with an inscription specifying that he was a 1st major of a regiment of Suffolk County Minutemen during the Revolutionary War. However, there were two Jesse Brushes who were born in 18th century Huntington, and there has long been confusion over which one was the major. As discussed below, it is likely that the Jesse Brush interred in Huntington’s Old Burying Ground was not the major but rather was a signer (associator) of the Huntington Articles of Association, and therefore a patriot.

The Jesse Brush who is the subject of this biography had life dates of 1752-1800; he was born on either April 14 or October 2, 1752, in Huntington, according to “Long Island Surnames,” the database archives of Long Island Genealogy. This 1752 birth is confirmed by records kept by the Reverend Ebenezer Prime, patriot pastor of the Old First Presbyterian Church in Huntington, who baptized the younger Jesse Brush—the subject of this biography—on October 25, 1752. Reverend Prime also had baptized his cousin, who would become Major Jesse Brush. The younger Jesse Brush was the son of Thomas Brush and Temperance née Denton, born in Huntington and Jamaica, Queens, respectively. His siblings were Temperance Brush Ketcham (1740-1803) and Thomas Brush (1741-1803).

The Jesse Brush who is interred at the Old Burying Ground is often confused with his cousin, also named Jesse Brush, who was born earlier (1736 or 1737), and who served as a major with the local militia. Indeed, Frederic Gregory Mather, in his The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (1913), details the Revolutionary War actions of Major Jesse Brush, but then mistakenly attributes the younger Jesse’s wife and father-in-law to the major. According to a Daughters of the American Revolution application by a descendant of Major Jesse Brush’s son Elkanah, Major Jesse Brush was born in Huntington in 1737 and died in Rye, Westchester County, New York, about 1790, a decade before the man interred in Huntington’s Old Burying Ground passed away and was interred. It is thought that the older Jesse may have been interred in Westchester since there is no grave listing for a Jesse Brush born and dying in those years for Huntington’s Old Burying Ground. Additionally, an editor’s note to the Huntington Historical Society’s Vignettes of Early Huntington, published in 1976, states: “There were two citizens of revolutionary Huntington named Jesse Brush” and “Major Jesse Brush, the Patriot soldier (not to be confused with his cousin, Jesse Brush, the Loyalist) . . . .” However, this characterization of the younger Jesse Brush as a loyalist appears to be incorrect. As of 1911, there was indeed an Old Burying Ground gravestone for the Jesse Brush who is the subject of this biography: in Cemetery Inscriptions from Huntington, Long Island, compiled by Josephine C. Frost in 1911, she recorded the inscription on his gravestone as “Jesse Brush, Died July 12, 1800. Age 48 years. (A Revolutionary War soldier).” While it is unclear whether Frost was noting “A Revolutionary War soldier” as part of the gravestone inscription or was adding that note as her own comment or as common local knowledge, this seems to be some evidence that the Jesse Brush interred at the Old Burying Ground was in fact a patriot.

On January 5 or 6, 1774, the younger Jesse married Dorothy (or Dorothea) (see) Platt, in Smithtown Church. Dorothy was born on July 27, 1754, the daughter of Zephaniah Platt and Anna Smith. It appears that she is interred next to her husband, the younger Jesse Brush, in the Old Burying Ground; Josephine Frost lists her gravestone inscription right after that of Jesse, as follows: “Dority (sic), wife of Jesse Brush, died December 16, 1835. Age 84 years, 5 months.” The couple had many children: Job, Thomas, Zephaniah, Temperance, Jeremiah Platt, Samuel Sammis, Charles, Jesse, Jonas Platt, and Sarah Brush.

On May 8, 1775, 403 men, most of them Huntington residents (a few were from Islip), “shocked by the bloody Scene” that had occurred just weeks before at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, where patriot Minutemen and British regulars had engaged in a bloody armed struggle, put their signatures on Huntington’s Articles of Association. Only 37 Huntington residents, either Loyalists or those wanting to stay out of the fray, refused to sign. The Articles noted that the signers affirmed their “Love to our Country,” agreed “to whatever Measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress; or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention, for the Purpose of preserving our Constitution, and opposition to the Execution of the several arbitrary, and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament,” and prayed for “a Reconciliation between Great-Britain and America.” The actions of these associators were seen by both patriots and the British as a step towards possible rebellion. Jesse Brush, the subject of this biography, was a signer (also called associator) of the Articles of Association. See Genealogies of Long Island Families, by Henry B. Hoff, 1987, Volume I, page, 246. According to that same source, until after the Revolution he was referred to as “Jesse Brush Jr.;” that name appears on the list of signers of the Association. Both of Huntington’s men named Jesse Brush signed the Association; “Jesse Brush Jr.” and “Jesse R. Brush,” are listed as signers. See Mather, page 1062. The former is the subject of this biography; the latter is the major.

Three years after Jesse Brush signed the Articles, in 1778, his name appears on the first list of those who took the Oath of Loyalty to the Crown. As per Genealogies of Long Island Families, Volume I, page 246, “He was detailed from Capt. Conklin’s company (British service), on 18 May, 1778, to work on Fort Franklin at Lloyd’s Neck. Again, on November 5, 1782, he was detailed to work on Fort Golgotha in Huntington. His name appears on several other rolls of men called out by the British.” It should be noted that many locals—whether patriots or loyalists—were similarly impressed into service on these fort-building projects. And it was Captain Philip Conkling of the Huntington Militia who routinely was assigned by the British to make sure the locals appeared to work for the British. This calls into question the above “British service” and “loyalist” comments; though the quoted text could be read as stating Brush was serving in a British loyalist regiment, it appears the more likely correct reading is that he was a member of Captain Conkling’s militia company, and therefore subject to mandatory call-up of locals for service to the British.

Jesse Brush’s father-in-law, Zephaniah Platt, was imprisoned by the British on a ship off Brooklyn for suspicion of harassing British ships off the Long Island coast. Dorothy, Jesse’s wife, went, alone to the British forces’ commander to demand her father’s immediate release. Sadly, her father died a short time after he was freed, at the age of 74.
On a tax list of January 8, 1783, Jesse was assessed £500. His claim against the British that year totaled over £155—a substantial sum. After the war, it appears that he was the Jesse Brush who sold a 180-acre farm along Huntington Bay on West Neck to Thomas Seaman on March 14, 1785. On September 27, 1786, he “entered his earmark” to direct funds in the legislature in Huntington.

The federal census of 1790 shows that the Brush household contained one male over 10 years of age, five under 16, three females, and two enslaved people. When Jesse died of dropsy on July 12, 1800, he was living at West Neck, Long Island. His will, dated July 3, 1800, and probated on October 7, 1800, named his wife Dorothy, sons Thomas, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Samuel Jesse, Charles, Jonas, and youngest daughter Sarah. Dorothy Brush, Jeremiah Platt, and Stephen Kelsey were appointed the executors.

It appears that, even soon after his death, Jesse Brush was often confused with his cousin, Major Jesse Brush, who had perished a decade earlier. Vignettes of Early Huntington has a section on Major Jesse Brush’s grave, which was in the “ancient cemetery on Main Street, at Nassau Road, in Huntington,” the Old Burying Ground. The account states that “his grave is marked by the Huntington Sons of the American Revolution who place a flag there each Memorial Day in his honor.” It may be that the flag was placed to mark the younger Jesse Brush’s grave, understood to have been a patriot, knowing that it was not Major Jesse Brush’s grave.

Following Jesse’s death, his widow, Dorothy, married Richard Conklin, a widower, in 1805. Richard, who died in 1818, is interred in the Old Burying Ground, as is Sarah Brush Kelsey, the youngest child of Jesse and Dorothy, who was born in 1797 and died in 1817. Dorothy died on December 16, 1835.

BRUSH (CONKLIN), DOROTHY (or DOROTHEA) (1754-1835). Patriot. Born Dorothy Platt on July 27, 1754, or possibly as early as 1750, in Smithtown, Long Island, Dorothy’s given name is also recorded as Dorothea in some genealogical records. She was the child of Zephaniah Platt and Anna or Ann née Smith, according to Genealogies of Long Island Families, Vol. 1, and cemetery records. Anna Smith may have been Zephaniah’s second wife, and he may have been her second husband. However, Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 shows Phoebe Hedges of East Hampton, Long Island, as Zephaniah’s second wife and Dorothy’s mother. According to that source, Dorothy was Zephaniah’s youngest child. It should be noted that eighteenth-century genealogical information can be confusing and inaccurate, especially when pertaining to women. Zephaniah was a direct descendant of Richard Platt, who was born in Ware, Hertfordshire, England in 1603, and settled in the Connecticut Colony, as chronicled in George Lewis Platt’s The Platt Lineage: A Genealogical Research and Record (1891).

Dorothy had several siblings and, possibly, half-siblings including Zephaniah, Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Charles, Jeremiah, and Daniel. Some of her brothers were involved in the creation of our country. For example, Zephaniah Platt was the founder of the town of Plattsburgh, New York, as well as a delegate from New York to the United States Continental Congress from 1775 on, as detailed in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Another brother, Captain Nathaniel Platt, served in military campaigns in Huntington as well as Dutchess County, New York, during the Revolutionary War. And Judge Charles Platt, one of the first settlers of Plattsburgh, was a leader of Minutemen and served in many military campaigns in New York and New Jersey during the war, as he explained to Dr. Samuel Jenner in a letter dated November 30, 1809.

Dorothy married Jesse Brush Jr. (see) in Smithtown Church on January 5, 1774. Jesse was born in 1752 in Huntington, Long Island, according to “Long Island Surnames,” the database archives of Long Island Genealogy, as well as in records kept by the Reverend Ebenezer Prime, pastor of the Old First Presbyterian Church in Huntington. During the Revolutionary War, Jesse’s name appeared on the first list of those who took the Oath of Loyalty to the Crown in 1778 and, according to “Long Island Surnames,” his name appears on several rolls of men called out by the British to work with them. Note that many residents of Huntington who supported the patriots, including Jesse who first signed the Articles of Association in 1775, signed the oath of Loyalty to the Crown, often under duress, and were impressed by the British to work on their behalf.

Dorothy’s father, Zephaniah Platt, was imprisoned by the British on a ship off Brooklyn in 1776. Per a member of the Long Island Historical Association’s post in Facebook on December 13, 2024, he allowed his barn on his land in Sunken Meadow to be used to hide whale boats, which the British alleged were used to spy on and harass British ships off the Long Island coast. Dorothy went bravely, by herself, to the British forces’ commander to demand her father’s immediate release. He was freed, but unfortunately, he had had contracted smallpox while imprisoned and died at age 73 or 74, just four days later. It was written that Dorothy was “a woman of culture and great determination” and that “she was one of the most noted women of her day,” doing much “to elevate those who needed uplifting, and was remarkably good to the poor.” Dorothy’s courage and perseverance are noted in the Daughters of the American Revolution’s online “DAR Genealogical Research Databases.” However, it is noted there that her “claimed service was a humanitarian act, not patriotic service.”

Dorothy and Jesse had several children: Thomas (1779-1862), Zephaniah (1781-1861), Samuel Sammis (1787-1842), Jonas Platt (1794-1872), and Sarah (1797-1817.) There may have been other children; along with those just listed, Jeremiah, Charles, and Jesse were also named as children in Jesse Brush’s will of July 3, 1800, and two others, Job and Temperance, are listed in genealogical records. The federal census of 1790 shows that the Brush household contained one man over 10 years of age, five under 16, three females, and two enslaved people. When Jesse died on July 12, 1800, he was living in West Neck, Long Island. He was interred in the Old Burying Hill Ground (Old Burying Ground).

After Jesse’s death, Dorothy married Richard Conklin, a widower, in 1805. The Conklin surname has also, over generations, been spelled as “Conkling.” The son of Captain Cornelius Conklin and Elizabeth Rogers, Richard was born around 1748 in Huntington. He had previously been married to Abigail Strong, who died in 1795. Her gravestone can be found in the Old Burying Ground. Richard died in 1818 in Huntington and was also interred in the Old Burying Ground.
According to Genealogies of Long Island Families, Vol. 1, and cemetery records, Dorothy Platt Brush Conklin died on December 16, 1835. She was interred in the Old Burying Ground with her first husband, Jesse Brush. Cemetery Inscriptions from Huntington, Long Island, compiled by Josephine C. Frost in 1911, lists her gravestone inscription right after that of Jesse, as follows: “Dority (sic), wife of Jesse Brush, died December 16, 1835. Age 84 years, 5 months.” Many Brush and Conklin/Conkling family members were also interred there, including Richard Conklin’s parents, grandfather, and great-grandparents. Dorothy and Jesse’s youngest child, Sarah Brush Kelsey, who was born in 1757 and died in 1817, was also interred in the graveyard.