- Birth: 30 SEP 1786, Lyme,,CT
- Death: 1861
Father: Jedediah Engerson SKINNER
Mother: Sarah HURLBURT
Family 1:
- Daniel SKINNER
_Benjamin SKINNER _
_Joseph SKINNER _|
| |_Elizabeth DIXON __
_Jedediah Engerson SKINNER _|
| | ___________________
| |_Ruth STRONG ____|
| |___________________
|
|--Elijah SKINNER
|
| ___________________
| _________________|
| | |___________________
|_Sarah HURLBURT ____________|
| ___________________
|_________________|
|___________________
INDEX
Notes
!.....E95.0501.02 SKU 12(2):44 Esley, Nancy fgs
SKINNER STREET; from: Vignettes of Sandwich; by: Clarence A. McCarthy;
Along about 1790 Jedediah (1765-1844) and Sarah (1765-1840) Skinner
came from Connecticut and settled in North Sandwich.
Two of their sons, Elijah (1786-1861) and Clark (1806-1830) set up
separate stores in North Sandwich. Within a few years Elijah moved his
store to the Centre (as it was then spelled). Clark continued to keep
store in North Sandwich until he was drowned fording the Mad River in
Thornton in 1830. At about this time the community began calling North
Sandwich Skinnerıs Corner. Tradition says this name caught on as a
spontaneous show of sympathy for Clarkıs grieving wife. As late as
1926 THE SEVENTH ANNUAL EXCURSION of the Sandwich Historical
Society mentions that people in the neighborhood continued to refer to
North Sandwich as Skinnerıs Corners, often shortened to The Corners.
Elijah ³was above medium height, quick and lively, with fiery red hair
that stood straight from his head.² (A History of Carroll County). He
was a leader in the community for many years and ³the most remarkable
man who ever lived in Sandwich² according to the 1963 bicentennial
history.
In 1824 he retired from retailing. At that time the Methodists were
sharing the Baptist Meeting House, and Elijah, sometimes referred to as
the father of Methodism in Sandwich, proposed they have their own
church. Genıl Daniel Holt joined and with the help of a carpenter, Isaac
Webster, they began construction in April 1825 and completed the
building before the end of the year. Twenty-three years later it was
badly smoke-damaged with almost all of its windows cracked by a fire
that burned itself out before it was discovered. The congregation
decided to abandon the building and in 1848 built the present Methodist
Church.
Elijah bought the property and rebuilt the building into a large two
story house. The front part of the first floor was the dwelling with a tin
shop in back; the second floor was an apartment which he rented.
William Skinner lived here for a while when he returned from the Civil
War. About 1880 this house was completely destroyed by fire. Later
Elijahıs granddaughter and her husband moved the Nelson Hart house, five
places westward, to its present location. This house is now the
residence of Robert N. Burrows. Elijah continued in the construction
business but his inventive powers were his driving interest. He talked
of sending news over wires by electricity and the possibility of talking
over wires. His fourteen patents included an endless screw, a forerunner
of the screw propeller for boats. He invented a lock to open or close a
series of locks simultaneously, the system now used in prisons. He
introduced stoves into Sandwich and developed improvements in flues
and stoves, one of which was an elevated oven.
Also active in civic affairs her represented Sandwich in the General
Court in 1844 and 1845.
Three houses west of Elijahıs was the home of his son Daniel
(1825-1898). When Daniel married Sarah Stratton in 1845, his father
set him up in a tin shop in a building next to the Skinner home From one
of his employees, Daniel learned the shoe business and by the time he
was 32 he had fifteen people manufacturing shoes in the shop next door
to his fatherıs place. This business failed in the devastating Panic of
1857.
Created by
Sparrowhawk 1.0 (4/17/1996)
on
Mon Sep 3 16:59:14 2001