Biography – (tree link)

Cephas Sheldon was born in 1754 in Deerfield, Massachusetts to Remembrance Sheldon and Mehetable Burke, and was a descendant of the Isaac of Windsor line.  Our first record of Cephas was at the age of 22 when he enlisted into Col. Elisha Porter’s Massachusetts regiment out of Northampton, under Capt. Thomas Alexander’s company on or about 1 Jan 1776 “the last days of December 1775, or the first day of January 1776”.  Although he enlisted for a period of one year, he stayed longer.  One testimony in his pension record says that he “did not return from the army until some time in the Winter of 1777”.  In his own testimony he would say that “at the request of Gen’l Washington, volunteered and served until the enemy was driven from New Jersey”.  During this time he took part in the expedition to Quebec and was also at the taking of Elizabethtown and Newark “and in the skirmish with the enemy on the 5th day of January 1777 in which we killed Sixty Mercenaries (otherwise called Waldeckers) and took some prisoners”.  The Waldeckers were a large regiment of German mercenaries from several principalities but primarily from Hesse, and more commonly referred to as Hessian soldiers today.

It is currently unclear exactly when Cephas married or moved to Vermont, but he was with his wife, Abigail Foster, in Bridgewater, Vermont by the time their daughter Abigail was born in 1786.  We have no information on any additional children, although census tallies suggest the possibility of several additional children.  By the 1790 census, and at least until the 1800 census, they had move 30 miles north to Rochester, Vermont.  Finally by 1810 they had moved 70 miles further north to Waterbury, Vermont where his wife Abigail died on 4 Aug 1846 and he followed on 24 Jul 1848.  Both are buried at Hope Cemetery.

Lists: American Revolution

Children of Cephas Sheldon and Abigail Foster:

1. Calvin Sheldon (born c1779) – unconfirmed, noted in several online trees.
2. Richard Sheldon (born c1781) – unconfirmed, noted in several online trees.
3. Abigail Sheldon (1786-1879) married Oramel Strickland and had at least three children – Mary, Lucinda and William.
4. Asenath Sheldon (1793-1813) – unconfirmed, noted in several online trees.  Death records do not name her parents.

Cephas’s Migration

Cephas was born in Deerfield, Franklin, Massachusetts (1754), and had moved to Bridgewater, Windsor, Vermont by 1786. In 1790 and 1800 he was in Rochester, Windsor, Vermont and by 1810 through to the end of his life he was living in Waterbury, Washington, Vermont.

Documentation

Cemeteries:

• Hope Cemetery – Waterbury, Washington, Vermont

Census:

• 1790 – Rochester, Windsor, Vermont
• 1800 – Rochester, Windsor, Vermont
• 1810 – Waterbury, Washington, Vermont
• 1820 – Waterbury, Washington, Vermont
• 1840 – Waterbury, Washington, Vermont

Publications:

• The Sheldon Magazine, 1855