Elm Grove Cemetery, Mystic, Connecticut
My 3rd-great-grandfather, Austin White, son of Oliver & Lydia (—) White, was born 20 August 1806 in Stonington, Connecticut, and died 29 June 1882 in Preston, Connecticut. He married (as his first wife), 19 September 1830 in Groton, Connecticut, Lucy Ann Thompson, who was born 20 August 1808 in North Stonington, Connecticut, and died 29 December 1852 in Stonington, daughter of Elias & Elizabeth “Betsey” (Davis) Thompson.
Austin was a farmer and a laborer. His marriage to Lucy Ann, a homemaker, was performed by Ralph Hurlbutt, Justice-of-the-Peace. Austin married (as his second wife), 31 March 1854 in Stonington, Melissa S. Cole. On 3 March 1857 a divorce from Melissa was granted to Austin for desertion. He married (as his third wife), March 1861, Lydia Coon, who was born c. 1822 and died 9 February 1883.
Austin & Lucy Ann were the parents of three children:
1. Lydia A. White, born c. 1833, died c. 1843, about age 10.
2. William Martin White (my 2nd-great-grandfather), born 15 November 1836 in Stonington, died 18 November 1925 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He married (as his first wife) 30 October 1860 in Old Mystic, Connecticut, his first cousin, Ellen C. Hill, who was born c. 1844, daughter of Rufus & Lydia (White) Hill. William & Ellen were the parents of five sons and were divorced on 26 September 1876. William married (as his second wife) Martha Bennett, born 27 July 1849 and died 16 April 1921 in Stonington, daughter of Henry & Caroline (Bennett) Bennett. William & Martha had no children.
3. Rufus C. White, born 6 June 1839 in Stonington, died 16 May 1864, age 24, at Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia. Rufus served as a private in the Union Army, Company E, 21st Infantry Regiment, Connecticut and was killed at the Battle of Drewry’s Bluff. In the 1860 census, Rufus was recorded as a farmer with a personal estate of $100. Tim & I visited the battle site in May 2000, after reading about the battle, and as a stop on a trip to Florida. The following is from “Stonington’s Forgotten Heroes of 1861-65” in Historical Footnotes (Stonington Historical Society) by James Boylan:
The second large Stonington unit was Company E of the 21st Infantry Regiment, which was recruited in the summer of 1862 from eastern Connecticut. About seventy Stonington men served in Company E, under Captain Charles T. Stanton, Jr., of Stonington. Like Company G of the Eighth, this company became involved in the fogbound battle of Drewry’s Bluff, in which Stanton was severely wounded, and the siege of Petersburg, where Captain Henry R. Jennings of Stonington was wounded. Partly because its term of service was shorter, it suffered fewer casualties.
Last Revised: 31 August 2024