Eleventh Generation

643. Eunice Chatfield was born on 23 March 1766 in Derby, New Haven Co., Connecticut, USA. She appeared in the census in 1850 in Derby, New Haven Co., Connecticut, USA. She died on 14 April 1856 at the age of 90 in New Haven Co., Connecticut, USA. Eunice was buried in Oak Cliff Cmtry., Derby, New Haven Co., Connecticut, USA. Connecticut Deaths and Burials
Name Eunice Smith
Gender Female
Death Date 14 Apr 1856
Death Place Derby, New Haven, Connecticut
Age 90
Birth Date 1766
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Find A Grave Memorial# 24402604
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USA Census, 1850
Name Eunice Smith
Event Place Derby, New Haven, Connecticut
Gender Female
Age 84
Race White
Birth Year (Estimated) 1766
Birthplace Connecticut
House Number 344
Eunice Smith F 84 Connecticut
Rachel Smith F 55 Connecticut
Eliza Smith F 53 Connecticut
Lavinia Stoddard F 45 Connecticut
Wm A Stoddard M 14 Connecticut

Eunice Chatfield and Abijah Smith were married in 1784 in USA. Abijah Smith, son of Abraham Smith and Sarah French, was born on 3 October 1764 in Derby, New Haven Co., Connecticut, USA. He died on 6 March 1826 at the age of 61 in Plymouth, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania, USA. He was buried in Shupps Cmtry., Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania, USA. Find A Grave Memorial# 41214555
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He was the pioneer in the use of anthracite coal, lived in Plymouth or Kingston, Pa.

"The Smith brothers, originally from Connecticut, came to Pennsylvania to make their fortune in 1806. They spent the next year mining fifty tons of anthracite at a small community near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In November, the brothers acquired a flatbed boat, called an ark, for $24. Their plan was to travel down the Susquehanna River to Columbia in Lancaster County, where they hoped to interest Pennsylvania Dutch farmers and merchants in this new type of fuel. Anthracite, they claimed, burned cheaper and longer than wood. It was a tough sell. People were quite skeptical about using "black stones" in their fireplaces. The Smiths were forced to abandon their coal, unsold, by the river."

Abijah Smith's Mine

Abijah Smith was born in Derby, Connecticut, about 1763, where he married and fathered numerous children. He worked as a blacksmith or harness maker. In 1804, he advertised: "For sale by Abijah Smith, at Derby Landing, Skirting and Bridle leather, of the first quality, May 7, 1804.
It is not known exactly why Smith left Derby for the Wyoming Valley, but one journalist reporting in 1901 related an anecdote that had been passed down through the years. "The story is that Abijah Smith heard through some man, who had been traveling in Pennsylvania, and who passing through Derby on his way home stopped at Smith's blacksmith shop to have his horse shod, about black stone in Pennsylvania that would burn. The result of this conversation was that Smith made a trip to Pennsylvania and eventually located there ... He left Derby in 1806 and in 1807 mined 56 tons of coal in Plymouth, Pa. at the old mine now rented to the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Co., and known as the Smith red ash coal."
According to Hendrick B. Wright, in the fall of 1807, Abijah Smith purchased an ark from John P. Arndt, a Wilkes-Barre merchant, which Arndt had used for the transportation of plaster. Smith floated the ark from Wilkes-Barre to Plymouth, loaded it with about fifty tons of anthracite coal, and shipped it to Columbia, in Lancaster County. According to Wright:
"...this was probably the first cargo of anthracite coal that was ever ordered for sale in this or any country. The trade of 1807 was fifty tons ... Abijah Smith therefore, of Plymouth, was the pioneer in the coal business. Anthracite coal had been used before 1807, in this valley and elsewhere, in small quantities in furnaces, with an air blast; but the traffic in coal as an article of general use, was commenced by Abijah Smith, of Plymouth."

Eunice Chatfield and Abijah Smith had the following children: