BRUSH, TREDWELL (1754-1826). Associator, Huntington, New York. Various sources differ as to the birthday and parentage of Tredwell. As per his family tree on Ancestry.com, Tredwell was born on September 1, 1754, to Tredwell (1726-1782) and Hannah (1724-1758) née Platt Brush. Oddly, his page on Find A Grave lists his parents as Isaac Brush and Sarah née Wood, lists a birth date of June 30, 1754, but confirms his first marriage and four of his children but not Sarah or Anna. U.S. Family History Books states he was baptized in Huntington on September 1, 1754, a record that might explain the confusion about the date of birth. His family tree on Ancestry reports that his sister, Naomi, was born May 28, 1758; his mother died that year in Long Island City. He also had an elder brother named Platt (1747-1814). Geneanet, another online genealogy website, lists his parents as Isaac (1724-1760) and Sarah Wood (1725-1813) and names half-siblings through Sarah. Despite the confusion over parentage, all online postings note a birth year of 1754 and a death year of 1826 for Tredwell.
As per Frederic Gregory Mather’s book, The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (1913), Tredwell was a signatory to the Articles of Association in Huntington. 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.
According to Mather, Tredwell was living in West Hills early in the Revolutionary War; he then moved to the Huntington town spot. U.S. Family History Books indicate that Tredwell was on the first list of Huntington residents who took the Oath of Loyalty to the Crown in 1778; many of the residents signed under duress. That family history indicates that Tredwell served in Captain Cornelius Conklin’s militia company (British service) throughout the war and was called upon to help construct Forts Franklin and Golgotha, the latter being atop the Old Burying Ground using boards from the First Church of Huntington. Huntington Town Records for May 18, 1778, record that Tredwell Brush was among those in Capt. Conkling’s (sic) Militia ordered to build Fort Franklin at Lloyd’s Neck. Tredwell also provided one wagon and two horses toward that construction. Huntington Town Records dated July 24, 1779, pertaining to the fort at Lloyd’s Neck include Tredwell as among the men ordered to appear at that site at 7 a.m. with three days provisions and one ox team or wagon and horses and driver as well as a shovel or spade. Men who did not appear would be sent for. Additional Huntington Town Records dated November 22, 1782, state that Tredwell owned 30 acres of Wood Land, a little more than most of his contemporaries in Capt. Conkling’s District. The “Assessment of Property in Huntington About the Close of the War” in 1782 reports Tredwell’s property was valued at £110, putting him in the upper half of his fellow residents. Further, Family History Books note that he was assessed on £300 in 1776 and £400 in 1787. In 1783, he put in a claim against the British for eight days of work carting provisions. That claim might refer to April 6, 1777, when he was owed £4 16 shillings for eight days of carting provisions from Oyster Bay to Huntington.
On December 7, 1776, Tredwell married Anne Gould (1756-1800) in Huntington. The couple’s children were: Elkanah (1778-1830); Ruth (1781-1856); Isaac (1781-1825); Anna (1782-); Sarah (1784-); and Abiel (1787-1836). All of the children were born in Huntington.
The 1790 census reports that Tredwell was living in Huntington and headed a household of nine. The residence was composed of three white males under 16, one free male over 16, four white females and one enslaved person. U.S. Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates for 1799 in Huntington reports that Tredwell owned property valued at $2,002 and owed $2.00 in taxes, about the average of his contemporaries. At the time of the 1800 census, Tredwell’s household in Huntington was comprised of six persons: two white males aged 10 through 15, one male over 45, one female under ten, and two females aged 10 through 15; his wife died in 1800, evidently before the census was recorded. The 1810 census shows only two people in the household, Tredwell and a female, aged 16 through 25. As per Find A Grave, he married Abigail Lewis, a widow, in Huntington on January 12, 1812.
On February 18, 1826, Tredwell died in Huntington. He was interred there at the Old Burying Ground. As per Cemetery Inscriptions from Huntington, Long Island, compiled by Josephine C. Frost in 1911, Tredwell’s gravestone in the Old Burying Ground reads, “Tredwell Brush, died Feb. 18, 1826. Age 71 years and 7 months. His first wife’s tombstone, nearby, is inscribed, “Anne, wife of Tredwell Brush, died April 24, 1800. Age 44 years.”
