KETCHAM (or KETCHUM), STEPHEN LEVERETT (1727-1792). Enlisted man, Colonel Josiah Smith’s Regiment, 1st Regiment of Minutemen; associator, Huntington, New York. As per his family tree on Ancestry.com, Stephen was born in Huntington, New York on January 1, 1727, to Nathaniel Ketchum and Abigail née Bassett. The posting shows that the father used the surname, Ketchum but the children spelled their last name as Ketcham. Stephen had seven siblings: Nathaniel (1707-1758), Keziah (1711-1739), Caleb (1713-1738), Jonathan (1716-1751), Isaac (1718-1787), Phillip (1728-1729), and Ruth (1732-1781), who married Timothy Conklin (see). Although his family tree on Ancestry notes that on February 16, 1749, Stephen married Ann Titus, another family history indicates the date of his marriage as February 16, 1751, at the First Church of Huntington; they had a son, John Titus (see), who was born on January 9, 1752. Stephen’s father died in 1758; his mother in 1781.
On February 26, 1757, Nathaniel Ketcham’s (surname spelled as such) wrote his will. Sons Nathaniel and Isaac were named executors with Nathaniel given all lands, rights and Commonage [common pastureland in town] not otherwise disposed of in the will. Sons Isaac and Caleb were given the land they possessed. He left to Stephen:
my house, barn, orchard and lots, called my two Home lots, likewise the woodland at the head of my Home lots, with my land lying on the road or roads to Hempstead, joining to the land of Philip Ketcham on the south, and on the roads east, north and south. Likewise a tract of land joining to the road to Oyster Bay on the north and the road to Hempstead on the east, adjoining the land of Peter Titus, deceased, on the south, and between the lands of Philip Titus and Israel Ketchum, Also a piece of land joining to Philip Ketchum, commonly called the Brick kiln field, both cleared and uncleared. I leave to my son Stephen all my right and privilege on the Neck commonly called the East Neck, on the south side of this Island, both upland and meadow. Also a hundred right of Commonage in the Town of Purchase, commonly called the Old Purchase.
Daughter Keziah Kelcy was given 10₤, Abigail Sammis 15₤, Ruth Conklin (g) his bed and bedstead and 20₤. The executors were to sell other property and give money to his three daughters.
On January 21, 1926, the application of Raymond Gould Brush, the great-great-great-grandson of Stephen Ketcham, was approved for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). Brush identified his ancestor as a soldier in Colonel Smith’s 1st Regiment of Minutemen and that he signed the Association. Brush references Frederic Mather’s The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (1913) in his application.
On May 8, 1775, 403 men, most of them Huntington residents (a few were from Islip), “shocked by the bloody Scene” that had occurred just weeks before at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, where patriot Minutemen and British regulars had engaged in a bloody armed struggle, put their signatures on Huntington’s Articles of Association. Only 37 Huntington residents, either Loyalists or those wanting to stay out of the fray, refused to sign. The Articles noted that the signers affirmed their “Love to our Country,” agreed “to whatever Measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress; or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention, for the Purpose of preserving our Constitution, and opposition to the Execution of the several arbitrary, and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament,” and prayed for “a Reconciliation between Great-Britain and America.” The actions of these associators were seen by both patriots and the British as a step towards rebellion. The fact that these men signed these Articles, placing themselves in danger of British retaliation, including imprisonment, seizure of their property, and exile from Long Island, is proof of their patriotic service.
As per Mather notes in The Refugees of 1776, Stephen was among those from Huntington who were present at a meeting of the 1st Regiment of Suffolk Militia held at Smithtown on October 24, 1775 to elect officers.
Although his family tree on Ancestry.com reports that Stephen died in Huntington on November 23, 1793, his old gravestone notes that he died on November 23, 1792. According to Cemetery Inscriptions from Huntington, Long Island, New York, copied by Josephine C. Frost (1911), the inscription on his gravestone reads, “In Memory of Mr. Stephen Ketcham who died the 23rd of November 1792, aged 60 years.” As per Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, Ketcham was buried in the Old Huntington Cemetery, now called the Old Burying Ground. New York Genealogical Records, 1675-1920, cites his death in Huntington. His Find A Grave web page indicates his burial at the Old Burying Hill Cemetery. The United States Revolutionary War Burial Index, 1775-1785 names his burial site as the Old Huntington Cemetery and confirms his service in the 1st Regiment, Suffolk County Militia.