wife of Josiah,6 was Abigail Wells, daughter of Robert and Abigail (Hurlbut) Wells and grand-daughter of Lieutenant Robert and Abigail (Bumham) Wells, the Wells ancestry beginning with Thomas Wells (or Welles), one of the original proprietors of Hartford and Wethersfield, many years a magistrate and for two years Governor of the colony. Mrs. Abigail Burnham Wells was a daughter of the Rev. William Burnham (William,2 Thomas3) and his wife Hannah, daughter of Samuel3 Wolcott. of Windsor. Samuel3 was grandson of Henry1 Wolcott, the founder of the distinguished family of this surname, prolific of governors.
Mary A. Belden, wife of Josiah Wells Griswold and grandmother of Kate E., was a daughter of John and Asenath (Darrow) Belden and grand-daughter of John Kellogg Belden and his wife Mercy, who was sister to Noah Webster, the lexicographer.
Bradford descent through the Websters is thus shown: Governor William1 Bradford married for his second wife Mrs. Alice Carpenter Southworth. Their son William2 married, first, Alice Richards. Mercy3 Bradford, born of this union, married Samuel Steele in 1680, and resided in Hartford. Their son, Eliphalet4 Steele, married Catherine Marshfield, and was the father of Mercy5 Steele, born at West Hartford in 1727, who married Noah Webster, Sr., the couple last named being the parents of Mercy, born at West Hartford in 1749, and of her younger brother, Noah Webster, of dictionary fame.
Mercy Webster was of the sixth generation of the family founded by John1 Webster, one of the original proprietors of Hartford, Conn., and two years Governor. The line from John1 Webster was continued through Robert,2 John,3 Daniel,4 to Noah,5 born 1722, who married Mercy Steele, as noted above.
Miss Griswold's maternal grandparents were Joseph Pantra and Sarah (Comstock) Jones, the grandfather, born in 1785, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Jones and great-grandson of Nathaniel Jones and his wife, Rebekah Pantra, who was a descendant of William1 Pantra, of Hartford. Elizabeth Williams was a daughter of Timothy4 Williams, great-grand-son of William1 Williams, of Hartford. Her mother, whose maiden name was Ruth Pitkin, was the daughter of Ozias Pitkin and grand-daughter of William1 Pitkin, founder of the prominent Hartford family of this surname, and brother of Martha Pitkin, who married Simon Wolcott, and was the mother of the first Roger Wolcott in New England. Another ancestor belonging to one of the first families of Hartford was Ozias1 Goodwin, whose daughter Hannah was the wife of William Pitkin and mother of Ozias Pitkin.
Mrs. Sarah Comstock Jones was a daughter of Perez and Abigail N. (Raymond) Comstock and grand-daughter of Nathaniel5 Comstock and his wife, Sarah Bradford, born in the North Parish of New London (now Montville) in 1744, who was of the fifth generation of Plymouth Colony stock. The line was: Governor William1 Bradford; William2 and his second wife, widow Wiswall; Joseph3 and his second wife. Mary, widow of Captain Daniel Fitch; John4 and wife, Esther Sherwood; Sarah.5
Abigail, wife of Perez Comstock and mother of Sarah, was a daughter of Dr. Christopher5 Raymond (Joshua,4 3 2 Richard1) and his wife Eleanor. The latter was a daughter of Daniel2 Fitch and great-granddaughter of the Rev. James Fitch, of Saybrook and Norwich, Conn. Her grandfather, Captain Daniel4 Fitch, was son of the Rev. James by his second wife, Priscilla, therefore a grandson of the latter's father, Major John Mason, sometimes styled the "Myles Standish of the Connecticut Colony."
Joshua4 Raymond, son of Joshua,2 married Elizabeth Christophers, and was the father of Dr. Christopher Raymond, born in 1729. Joshua' Raymond, grandfather of Dr. Christopher, married Mercy Sands, daughter of James Sands, of Block Island.
EUNICE NICHOLS FRYE.— It was in Portland, Me., that State federation of clubs had its origin, and it was Mrs. Eunice Nichols Frye who first advocated the formation of such an alliance. Having attended the first meeting of the directors of the General Federation at Orange, N.J., in her official capacity as president of the Woman's Literary Union of Portland (organized in 1889),
