The Remarkable Life of Phineas Camp

by Janice Moerschel

Phineas Camp, my four-times great-grandfather, lived nearly a century and witnessed early America’s defining events.Born 13 Jan 1744 in Durham, Connecticut, he served in two wars, resettled in central New York, and raised a large family.

Before the Revolution, Phineas served in the French and Indian War, including Connecticut service for the relief of Fort William and Henry in 1757 and a later call-up in 1759.

War reached him again with the American Revolution. Phineas took the oath of fidelity in 1777 and enlisted with the Connecticut Continental Regiment, with records placing him in service through Dec 1779. One later record says that by 1 Jan 1780 he was either “discharged or had deserted.” His oath, documented service, later civic roles, and respectful obituary point more toward discharge, though the record is not conclusive.

Phineas married Martha T. Hall on 8 Jan 1767 in Connecticut, and their first son was born later that year. The family appears in Connecticut in the 1790 U.S. census, then moved about 1793 to Whitesboro, Oneida County, New York. There Phineas bought land, farmed, and held offices including surveyor of highways, constable, grand juror, and inspector of provisions. Federal censuses from 1800 through 1840 place the family in Whitesboro as the Erie Canal was built and opened nearby.

Phineas died on 13 Jul 1843. Portions of his obituary, published in the Albany Evening Journal on 17 Jul 1843 after first appearing in the Utica Gazette, are excerpted below.

“Death of a Revolutionary Soldier

… Mr. Phineas Camp, who died at the home of his son in the village of Whitesboro, on Thursday at 3 o’clock P.M., aged 99 1/2 years.

Mr. Camp came into this county 50 years ago; purchased his farm and continued to cultivate or superintend it until about ten years since. He walked about, smoked his pipe, and read his Bible as usual until within twelve hours before his death. The immediate cause was the prevailing influenza.

He was a man of plain, strong sense, firm determination, and of deep, though not lively, affections.

His long life was owing, as nearly as could be learned, to inherited vigor, temperance in eating and drinking, and almost entire abstinence from medicine.”

“He went to sleep full of years, respected and beloved, surrounded by his children, to whose tender and unremitting attentions he was indebted for many benefits during the last of his life.” — Utica Gazette.

The number of children Phineas and Martha raised is unclear. FamilySearch.org lists 12 offspring, but I have seen numbers ranging from 11 to 17, likely reflecting incomplete records, repeated names, or uncertain links.

Phineas is buried at Grandview Cemetery in Whitestown, Oneida County, New York and is recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution as a verified patriot ancestor #A214794, leaving a legacy that joins documented public service with the quieter endurance of a large and far-reaching family line.

Headstone photo from FindAGrave.

Dr. Elisha Story: A Revolutionary Cousin with a Boston Tea Party History

by Janice Moerschel

In researching my family history, I often come across names that at first appear only as basic genealogical facts: dates, places, marriages, and family connections. Dr. Elisha Story, my third cousin seven times removed, caught my attention. He is one of those relatives whose record leads well beyond the family tree and into the history of Revolutionary Boston.

Elisha was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 3 Dec 1743, into the Story family line that traces back to my immigrant ancestor, William Story, who arrived in New England in the seventeenth century. Like my direct Revolutionary ancestor Ebenezer Story (The Story Behind a Story: Ebenezer Story of Revolutionary Connecticut) Elisha belonged to a family whose roots were already deep in colonial Massachusetts by the time resistance to British rule began to intensify.

Massachusetts was one of the centers of colonial frustration, and Elisha came of age in a world charged with the issues surrounding taxation, representation, and rights. He joined the Sons of Liberty, the patriot network that included historical figures like Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere. He was also known as a close friend of Dr. Joseph Warren, one of the most important patriot leaders in Boston before the Revolution.

On 16 Dec 1773, Elisha stepped into one of the defining acts of American resistance to the tax on tea. That night, men disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and set off from Griffin’s Wharf into the Boston Harbor, where three ships carrying East India Company tea lay in waiting. Elisha was among the participants who boarded the vessels and threw the tea overboard. Some accounts describe him as a leader of the group, but historians do not all agree on the extent of his role. What is clear is that he was not merely sympathetic to the cause – he participated in it.

Elisha’s commitment continued during the Revolutionary War. As a physician and surgeon, he served during the Lexington and Concord alarm and fought briefly at Bunker Hill before tending to wounded soldiers. One especially tangible reminder of his service survives: his medical chest, reportedly used during the war and now preserved as part of Marblehead’s historical memory.

Dr. Story died 27 Aug 1805 at Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Medical chest of Elisha Story. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Marblehead (Mass.)

After the war, Elisha returned to Massachusetts, helped manage a serious smallpox outbreak around Marblehead, and settled there permanently. He had married Ruth Ruddick on 12 May 1767 in Boston, Massachusetts, with whom he had 11 children. After Ruth’s death, his second wife Mehitable Petrick raised those children. One of them was Joseph Story, who would become an influential Supreme Court Justice.