| Notes |
- The name George T. B. Chafee first came to my attention in a copy of an old letter of Great Uncle Frank's which he sent to his mother, Mary Elizabeth Chafee (nee Andrews), my great-grandmother. In this letter he lists our Chafee ancestors, but without any documentation or details, save that he says this person's son invented a propeller boat which used to sail from Connecticut to New York City. This ties in somewhat with the information I found in the Bristol town records, which identify his occupation as sea captain, and his place of death as Middletown, CT. (Bristol Vol. #5, p. 139)
According to Frank's letter, the son George Austin (brother of my great-great-grandfather, Samuel Russel Chafee) was a restaurant and hotel man in Middletown, CT. He had a son Charles Austin and a daughter Grace. Around 1870 he built a propeller ship that ran between Portland, CT (across the river from Middletown, CT) and New York City. The ship was named after him: The George Austin Chafee. (Need to check out all these details!)
George T. B.'s name came to me also from an Austin family genealogist (Bonnie Austin Bigolin of Green River, WY), in an e-mail replying to my query through their web site. They have his name in their database as having been married to Harriet N. Austin, and she listed his children for me, one of whom is my gr-great-grandfather, Samuel Russel Chafee. The name Austin has since been passed down in our family in the form of the middle name of his son George and of my grandma's brother Charles, and the first name of one of Charles's sons, among others.
Also, it appears that the name Harriet has also been passed down, being the name of one of George and Harriet's daughters, the name of a granddaughter ("Hattie" who married DeWitt Bolster), and the name of a great-granddaughter -- my grandma's sister Hattie, a name which I presume was also Harriet in this generation. She died very young. My parents have her old rocking chair.
Since acquiring the above information, I have viewed and copied George and Harriet's marriage record at Bristol Town Hall, as well as other family records of birth, marriage, and death. I also have photographed their gravestone(s) at Bristol's North Burial Ground.
In addition to the above sources of information, I have transcripts from the following census records which show the various Chafee families: 1850, 1860, and 1870 for Bristol, RI; 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 for Middletown, CT.
"The Chaffee Genealogy" by William H. Chaffee, published in 1909, says that Mr. George T. B. Chafee "served as a sutler in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was a mechanic and restaurant keeper. He had a light complexion, blue eyes, a jovial disposition, and was five feet, four inches in height. In 1883 he lived in Middletown [CT], where he died of pneumonia at the age of seventy-five in the home of his son, Stephen B. Chafee. He was buried in the family lot in Bristol."
In the front of my grandmother's old Bible there is this notation, written in her handwriting: "Lest I forget, I must write down the Chafee family motto -- 'As we journey through life, let us live by the way.' It is above the large fireplace in the Chafee Hotel in Middletown Conn. made in the masonry."
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1816 - 1891 (74 years)
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