In  the first decades of the Westcott Society one of the most active groups was the Northern New York Chapter (Chapter 4), which held reunions almost every year starting in 1934, most of them at a beach grove on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario owned by George and Mitilda Westcott. Today, most of the original 190-acre Westcott property is Westcott Beach State Park.

Heading to the North Country

So, how did our Westcott kin end up populating northern New York and owning a 3,000 foot beach just right for family gatherings? The short answer comes in a report in the September 1934 Westcott Family Quarterly about their second annual reunion titled “Up North Westcotts Organize”:

Seventy of the Westcott kindred of northern New York, including ten members of our national Society, assembled at Westcott Beach, near Sackets Harbor, N.Y., on August 27th, to “know their kindred better.”

The Westcotts of northern New York descend chiefly from Gardiner and Mary (Knight) Westcott, natives of Rhode Island, who after living a short time at Cheshire, Mass., settled at Deerfield (now North Utica, N.Y.) about 1793. Ten years later, with the majority of his eleven children, Gardiner removed to near Sackets Harbor where he died in 1808. He had over seventy grandchildren. When the English attacked Sackets Harbor in 1813, Celeb Westcott, son of Gardiner, almost singlehanded, held the invaders back until the American troops could arrive. A colonel of the troops was John Westcott, another son. The Westcotts therefore, are justified in the pride they hold in their beautiful and glorious north-country.

The following offers a few more details about the aforementioned Gardiner, Caleb and George Westcott. Click here to see more genealogical information from our archive and from genealogist Tina Thorp at the Sackets Harbor Historical Society.

Gardiner Westcott (1744-1808)

Gardiner Westcott, a fifth generation descendant of Stukely and Juliana Westcott, was born on September 1, 1744 in Kingston, R.I., the third child and first son of Caleb Westcott and Hannah Gardiner (see Caleb Westcott, Skilled Carpenter). In 1764 he married Mary Knight of the Knightsvillle section of Cranston, R.I. and ran a small farm next to his in-laws.

Sometime after the Revolutionary War, during which he served in the Rhode Island Militia, Gardiner and his family moved to Cheshire, Massachusetts, and then in 1793, to Deerfield, New York. In 1805, he and nine of his children moved to Hounsfield Township, Jefferson County, New York, at first settling in Camp Mills and Field’s Settlement. His wife Mary died sometime between 1787 (the birth of son Daniel) and 1805.

Caleb Westcott (born 1768)

Gardiner’s first son Caleb Westcott moved with the family from Rhode Island to Deerfield, New York, where he married Eunice Nelson, with whom he had 11 children there and later in Sackets Harbor. He was a commissioned officer in two different regiments before and during the War of 1812. As noted in the Westcott Family Quarterly, Caleb was, in fact, successful in repelling the British forces in the Second Battle of Sackets Harbor (May 28 and 29, 1813), though probably not “singlehandedly,” the credit usually going to General Jacob Brown. On May 29, 1813, the British forces came ashore in their second attempt to take Sackets Harbor and massed for an attack. The British could have been held in check, but riflemen from an Albany regiment panicked and dropped back. With Lieutenant Westcott rallying the local militia, General Brown was able bring up a 100 troops to flank the enemy. As U.S. reinforcements were arriving, the British thought better of enduring heavy fire and headed back to their ships outside the harbor.

Captain George Westcott (1813 to 1863)

George Wellington Westcott, the youngest of Caleb Westcott’s 11 children, was born in Sackets Harbor on March 11, 1813, a little more than two months before his father’s heroics. George earned his fame and fortune on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence as master of his schooner G.W. Westcott, and thus became known as “Captain George.” In 1851, he purchased a 190-acre parcel on Chestnut Ridge three miles south of Sackets Harbor and fronting Lake Ontario, where he built the family home, established a farm and operated the swimming area and picnic grounds that became known as Westcott Beach. That same year his brother Nelson, who was married to Sarah Bell, the sister of George’s wife Catherine Bell, died on Lake Ontario when he was washed overboard while serving on the schooner Herald. George died from an accident on the farm on June 28, 1863.

George had two sons, Byron Murat Westcott and Nelson Lewis Westcott, who also were mariners and who, like their uncle Nelson, met with a tragic end on Lake Ontario, as recounted in a local newspaper:

On Friday, September 5, 1879 a sad casualty occurred in the town of Henderson, which resulted in the death of seven persons. Captain Byron M. Westcott and Nelson L. Westcott, owners of the sailboat West Wind, left Campbell’s Point with a crew of seven men, intending to go to Henderson Harbor to participate in a yacht race. Soon after starting their boat sprung a leak and was immediately capsized by a sudden puff of wind. The boat was heavily ballasted and at once sank in 18 feet of water. Two of the men, Morgan Weeks and Charles Washburn, clung to the mast of the boat and were saved. The others attempted to swim to shore, about 60 rods distant, and were drowned. In addition to the Westcotts, the victims were Allen Ransey, Drake Lewis, Shuler Howard, Edgar York, and Edward Benjamin.

Byron Westcott had married Harriet Maria Murphy ten years earlier; Byron and Maria had two children, Belle and George Henry, who were five and four years old when their father drowned. On March 12, 1878, his brother Nelson married Harriet’s sister, Sarah Murphy; Nelson and Sarah had one child, Frank Westcott, who was born two months after the drowning.

George and Tilly Westcott, Reunion Hosts

George Henry Westcott, the son of Byron Westcott and the grandson of Captain George Westcott was born on August 9, 1874. On September 20, 1902 he married Matilda Weeks. They lived in the Westcott house on Chestnut Hill where George grew up and ran the farm and the beach. They hosted the annual reunion of the Northern New York Chapter until, as one chapter member recalled in 1953, “the war and gas rationing” brought an end to the event. After George’s death March 26, 1945, Tilly moved to Florida and the family sold the property to the State of New York in 1946.

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Worth a Visit

It took Gardner Westcott and his family 17 years to get to the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. It need not take you that long to see Westcott Beach. The author recommends Westcott Beach as stop on a 1000 Islands Tour of the lake side and the St. Lawrence Seaway. It’s well worth it, and we no longer have gas rationing.

David Wescott Smith
Historian@SSWDA.org

 

In the 18th century the Rhode Island Colonial Assembly (which was a legislative, executive, and judicial body all in one) was convened in five different settlements on a rotating basis: Providence, Bristol, Newport, East Greenwich and Kings County (now Washington County, aka “South County”). In 1752, several wealthy planters convinced the Assembly to relocate the Kings County courthouse to their village of Kingston (then called “Little Rest”) promising a substantial court building and “Three good Taverns well furnished & supplied for ye Entertainment.” At first the offerings in Kingston were not much better than the previous location, but by 1775 the promoters had lived up to their promises, thanks in part to a “skilled carpenter” named Caleb Westcott.

New Court Building

In 1775, Caleb Westcott, who had already demonstrated his talent with the construction of several fine homes in Kingston, was tapped to build a new courthouse, a two-and-a-half-story oak-framed building with side chimneys. The Kings County Court House was a simple barn-like structure with a substantial assembly room on the second floor and a polygonal belfry (see the sketch above). The Rhode Island Colonial Assembly met here in rotation with courthouses in the other counties from 1776 to 1791, and then biennially from 1842 to 1854.

In March 1790 there was high drama in the building, when Henry Marchant (1741-1796) and other Federalists were struggling to get the holdout colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Kingston was a favorable environment for the opposition Country Party,  but the adoption of several bill-of-rights amendments allowed the Federalists to delay the final vote until a meeting in May in more favorable Newport, where on a vote of 34 to 32 Rhode Island became the thirteenth colony to join the Union. Henry Marchant was a cousin of Juliana Marchant Westcott, quite removed but a cousin nonetheless.

The Kingston Courthouse was radically altered in 1876 with a mansard roof and a central pavilion and tower on top of which the original belfry was mounted. It is now the Kingston Free Library (adapted from Historic and Architectural Resources of South Kingstown).

A Fourth Good Tavern

Caleb had already expanded Kingston’s ability to host and entertain travel-weary representatives from Providence and other settlements. In 1774 he completed a fourth “good Tavern,” a two-story wood shingled house with a center stone chimney and a portico entrance in a five-bay facade across the street from the village’s first attempt at a courthouse. The building, which Westcott sold in 1783, was used for a tavern until 1890. Today the building is  a private residence.

Skilled Carpenter and Patriot

Caleb Westcott was born on December 6, 1716, in Cranston (then part of Providence), the seventh son of Josiah Westcott (1675-1721) and Hannah Gardiner (1680-1756). He was a descendant of Stukely and Juliana Westcott in the fourth generation: Caleb⁴ Westcott, Josiah³, Jeremiah², Stukely¹.

Caleb’s mother Hannah was a descendant of George Gardiner, who arrived in Rhode Island in 1638 and whose progeny comprised one of the largest families in Colonial Rhode Island. Westcott cousins are well aware of the variations in the spelling of the family name; most frequently the middle “t” disappears and reappears in successive generations, and sometimes it toggles on and off within the records for an individual descendant. The same is true in the Gardiner/Gardner family. An old saw in southern Rhode Island says that there are blind farmers, Gardners without an “i,” and Gardiners with vision.

On May 27, 1739, Caleb Westcott married Hannah Gardiner of Kingston (1723-after 1760), his mother’s cousin once removed. Caleb and Hannah had seven children: Hannah, Abigail, Gardiner, Nicholas, Ruth, Mary and Elizabeth (see Edna Lewis, The Westcott Family Tree, 1999; index number 62).

Caleb may have learned his trade from his father Josiah, who operated a sawmill in Warwick. Caleb and his family lived in various places in Rhode Island including Cranston and Johnston, but they spent most of their time in Kingston, where Hannah’s uncle and wealthy planter Caleb Gardiner and other family members were probably helpful in securing the job to build the new courthouse – always good to know a guy in Rhode Island.  Caleb appears on the tax role of the town of South Kingstown (the municipality that includes the village of Kingston) from 1764 to 1797. “Caleb Wescott, carpenter” is listed on the May 1776 muster roles for the Kingston Reds, a militia unit responsible for guarding the south coast against marauding British troops and local Loyalists (referred to as “land pirates”).

Where and when Caleb and Hannah died is not noted in The Westcott Family Tree and there are only contradictory leads in online sources such as Ancestry and Family Search. Caleb may have left Kingston at the end of the 18th century for Newport or Block Island. On May 9, 1785, the South Kingstown Town Council voted “that Caleb Westcot have a Certificate for himself and his Sister [sic] Ruth Westcot & her two children Josiah Westcot & Jeffrey Westcot to the City of Newport acknowledging them Inhabitants of this Town {Certif Given}”.

Caleb and Hannah’s son, Gardiner (1744-1808), and some of his family migrated to Deerfield, New York, in 1793, and then in 1805 moved further north and west to settle in Hounsfield Township in Jefferson County. Caleb and Hannah’s great grandson, Captain George Wellington Westcott (1813-1863), purchased 190 acres along the shore of Lake Ontario south of Sackets Harbor. Today, that property is Westcott Beach State Park.

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Sources:
Historic and Architectural Resources of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission reports and publications (RG 050.01), 1984
William H. Jordy et al, contributing editors, Buildings of Rhode Island, 2004.
Edna Lewis, The Westcott Family Tree, 1999 (see index 62).
Christian M. McBurney, A History of Kingston, R.I., 1700-1900, Heart of Rural South County, 2004.
South Kingstown, Rhode Island Town Council Records 1771-1795, Transcribed by Jean C. Stutz, 1988

Harvey Westcott, who was born in Vermont in 1831, got to work early in life in a career that included commercial sales, hotel management, banking and real estate development. The centerpiece of this business life was manufacturing cigars, which he began in Burlington, Vermont, and took with him to Binghamton, New York, where he and son Frederick built the business into a 500-employee company that rivaled the major cigar companies, located in New York City. Here is a photo of the growing concern advertising “Rollers Wanted.”

One history of Binghamton includes this effusive account of Harvey’s contribution to the life of the city:

Mr. Westcott has been one of the most extensive employers of workmen in this city, and it is unquestionably true that he has trained more successful business partners than any other manufacturer ever in Binghamton. Moreover, he never had a partner who invested a dollar in business at the outset, while one of them on retiring from the firm took out no less than $48,000 after a partnership of about ten years’ duration (William Summer Lawyer, Binghamton, Its Settlement, Growth, and Development: 1800-1900, page 898).

Harvey Westcott was an eighth generation descendant of Stukely and Juliana Westcott: Harvey Westcott⁸, Reuben Jr.⁷, Reuben⁶, Stukely⁵, Stukely⁴, Stukely³, Jeremiah², Stukely¹ (Edna Lewis, The Westcott Family Tree, 1999, see #780). Roscoe Whitman wrote this profile of Harvey Westcott in his History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott,  Volume 1 (page 114):

In his young manhood, he, along with his brother Philetus, worked for their uncle, Abraham Gove, on the latter’s farm near Fair Haven, Vermont. Later he became a traveling salesman in Vermont for a paper manufacturing house, but was soon engaged in the manufacture of cigars in Burlington, Vermont, where, with his younger brother, Edgar, he also conducted a hotel. At the end of four years, he sold his business and in the early part of 1858, settled in Binghamton, again engaging in the manufacture of cigars. He was a pioneer in this industry which later made Binghamton second only to New York in the line. First employing 15 cigar makers, he developed the business until five hundred were employed in 1889, in which year he went out of business. From that year until he passed away in 1920, he with his son, Frederick Harvey, devoted their attention to the care and management of their extensive real estate interests. He always took an active interest in the welfare of his adopted city. Although approached at different times to fill important city offices, only in 1872 is it recorded that he consented to such recognition. In that year he was an alderman of the fourth ward of the city, in which he dwelled for more than sixty years. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, director of two banks, and a charter member of the Men’s Club.

Harvey Westcott Family Photos

Here is a photo of Harvey Westcott and his family from an album in the Westcott Society Collection followed by some biographical data. Click the image to enlarge it.

Harvey Westcott was born on November 10, 1831, the sixth of the eight children of Reuben Westcott, Jr. and Wealtha Rose. On October 11, 1854, he married Harriet Eliza Winchell, who was born on March 21, 1833, the daughter of Ephraim and Loly (Beach) Winchell of Unadilla, New York. They made their home in Binghamton, where Harvey’s business was part of an economic boom in the second half of the nineteenth century. They had two children, Frederick Harvey and Harriet M. “Hattie.” Harriett died on August 10, 1915, survived by Harvey, who died on January 28, 1820.

Harriet M. “Hattie” Westcott was born on October 21, 1859, ten years younger than brother Fred. She  married twice, first to Leslie M, Merchant and then to Charles Austin Ward. Hattie died on June 5, 1935. Frederick Harvey Westcott (June 27, 1859 to March 25, 1931) was 30 years old when he joined with his father in the cigar manufacturing business and was Harvey’s partner in numerous other ventures. On September 27, 1879, he married Margarette Chaffee.

Margarette (Chaffee) Westcott was born on August 15, 1859, the daughter of Charles (“Nune”) Chaffee. Frederick and Margarette Westcott had three children: Joseph Rogers (1882) Frederick Harvey (1887), who died at the age of three months, and Sarah Winchell (1890). Margarette died on June 6, 1952.

Joseph Rogers Westcott was born on January 18, 1882. He married Carolin Louise Sands on May 26, 1910, and their daughter Jeannette Sands Westcott was born December 21, 1911. Carolin (Sands) Westcott died on January 21, 1919, possibly from influenza in the Great Pandemic of 1918, which roared into the Binghamton, in the fall of 1918. According to one account, “Of the 3,000 cases of influenza reported in the Binghamton-area in October and November of 1918, at least 175 people died.” Joseph, who was a founding member of SSWDA, died in 1957.

Months before the Influenza Pandemic hit Binghamton, Sarah Winchell Westcott (born September 4, 1890) married Dr. Joseph Sweet Martin, who died on October 28, 1918, probably also a victim of Influenza. Their child, Sylvia Mary Martin, was born on June 5, 1919.

Front and Center for SSWDA

Descendants of Harvey and Harriet Westcott were active in the Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants of America from the society’s founding, including grandson Joseph Rogers Westcott, who is SSWDA member #5. Joseph helped organize the early reunions and served as president of the society in 1938 and 1939.

Sources: William Summer Lawyer, Binghamton, Its Settlement, Growth, and Development: 1800-1900 ; Edna Lewis, The Westcott Family Tree, 1999; Roscoe Whitman, History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott, Volume I, 1932.

More Family Photos

Here are more photos of four generations of Harvey Westcott’s family, taken from the Westcott Society Collection. Click any photo to enlarge the view.

2026 Westcott Society Reunion in
Watertown, New York, July 9 to 12

Mark your calendar for July 9-12, 2026, and plan to join us when Westcott Cousins gather in Jefferson County, New York, along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, where many Westcotts migrated from Rhode Island after the Revolutionary War. Reunion events include a tour of historic Sacketts Harbor and a barbecue at Westcott Beach State Park on Lake Ontario. This is the 45th Reunion of the Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants of America.

Reunion Hotel

The reunion hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn Watertown/Thousand Islands at 1290 Arsenal Street, Watertown, New York, 13601. The hotel is located along I-81, six miles from the Watertown International Airport, and a short drive to Alexandria Bay and other attractions in the St. Lawrence Seaway trail.

Making Room Reservations

To make reservations you may contact the hotel by phone (315-788-1234). Make sure you tell the customer service representative that you are booking a room for the “Westcott Reunion.” If you prefer, make your reservation online starting with the link below; use the code SSWDA to receive the discount room rate for the reunion:

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/artgigi-hilton-garden-inn-watertown-thousand-islands/

Reunion Events

Here is a brief rundown of reunion events:

• Thursday, July 9: Check in to Hilton Garden Inn (or other lodgings), meet your cousins arriving for the reunion and pick up your Reunion Packet. The Westcott Society Board of Directors will have its biennial meeting in the evening.
• Friday, July 10. Let’s get started with a short bus trip to Sackets Harbor on Lake Ontario, where we will have a guided tour of the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site, where cousin Caleb Westcott distinguished himself during the War of 1812. Then it’s on to a barbecue lunch at Westcott Beach State Park, where Captain George Westcott started a family farm after a career as a shipmaster on the lake and the St. Lawrence River. In the evening we will have a dinner at the Hilton Garden Inn and be entertained by the Westcott Jugsuckers Band.
• Saturday, July 11. In the morning we will have the Membership Meeting, elect officers and get updates on the scholarship, the financial health of the society and the database of Stukely Westcott descendants. Then there will be plenty of time for venturing out to visit sites in the Thousand Islands-Seaway area, or to do some family research at local historical societies. But be back in time for the Westcott Family Banquet and a group photo.
• Sunday, July 12. At a breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn we will say farewell to our cousins before heading home (or enjoying some more North Country sightseeing.)

Register Now

Download the 2026 Westcott Family Reunion Registration Form, select events and make menu choices for the Friday and Saturday evening meals at the hotel. Then mail the form with payment to:
Bart Westcott
722 Southampton Drive
Palo Alto, CA 94303

 

44th Biennial Reunion, Charlotte, N.C. – July 18 to July 21, 2024

Thursday, July 18, Cousins Gather

Friday, July 19, Tour of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte

Hospitality Room

Friday, July 19, Family Buffet

On Friday evening after the trip to NASCAR Hall of Fame, a bus tour of historic Charlotte and visiting other attractions in and around the city, we gathered for a Family Buffet in the DoubleTree’s Barringer Room, and were joined by more Westcott Cousins, some just getting off the road.

Craig Crosswhite told the postcard story in his application to join the society: “Enclosed is the form with my information, my wife’s and my ancestral chart back to Stukely Westcott, as well as my check for $15.00. Also included is a scanned copy of a postcard, front and back, that was mailed to my great aunt, Ruth Harriet Spooner Stone, from Joseph R. Westcott, President of the Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants in January, 1939. I was looking through some papers I had saved from her house when she died in 1978 when I came across this postcard. I was amazed when my wife looked up the Society on the Internet and found that you were still existing and planning one of your biennial reunions this summer in Charlotte, N.C. It happens that I am a member, through my father’s side, of the Shoun Family Association that traces our ancestors back to a couple who lived in Mountain City, Tennessee starting in 1792. This year, our reunion is being held in Wytheville, VA the weekend before your reunion in Charlotte. I have relatives in Raleigh, and am hopeful that I will be approved to join your Society and attend the reunion in Charlotte.”

Saturday, July 20, SSWDA General Membership Meeting

On Saturday morning it was time to conduct some Westcott Society business during the General Membership Meeting to review activities since the last reunion, remember our kin, elect officers and board members, and discuss plans including the 2026 SSWDA reunion.

The membership unanimously approved this slate of officers and directors for the 2024-2026 term:
President: Bart Westcott
Vice President: David Leflar
Secretary: Mary Pat Carroll
Treasurer: Bart Westcott
Historian: David Wescott Smith
Registrar/Genealogist: Jeff Westcott
Chaplain: open
Quarterly Editor: Connie Westcott Stirling
Webmaster: Jim Leflar
Scholarship: Pete Bentson
Directors: Judy Westcott Fregoe, Lynn Hulkow, Jennifer Wescott Verruto, Cathie Westcot

Next Reunion: We hope to announce the date and location of the 2026 reunion by Summer 2025. Judy and Jessy Fregoe will look into Watertown, N.Y. near Westcott Beach State Park on the shore of Lake Ontario where several dozen Westcott cousins have been meeting on a regular basis for some time now.

Saturday, July 20, Reunion Banquet

 

 

There is much to see and do in coastal Rhode Island before, during and after the 2022 Westcott Society Reunion (June 17-19). Here are seven side trips close to the Holiday Inn:

Narrow River Kayaks. Rent a kayak, or stand-up paddle board, and explore the Pettaquamscutt Estuary, saltmarshes and islands, or paddle the Narrows out to the tip of Narragansett Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.

South County Beaches. Visit one of the many state and town beaches for your choice of heavy surf on the south-facing beaches or family friendly beaches in the Harbor of Refuge. Surf boards available from two shops in Narragansett.

Beavertail Lighthouse. The nation’s third oldest lighthouse stands at the southern tip of Conanicut Island (Jamestown) protecting ships as they enter Narragansett Bay. The Keeper’s House contains a delightful museum, Beavertail is great place to walk and picnic, and there just might be a Westcott connection or two.

Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum. You know Gilbert from his portrait of George Washington used on the dollar bill. Well, Stuart was born at a snuff mill at the head of Narrow River, where the water-powered mill stones still turn and where you can see originals by the colony’s most famous portrait artist.

Word War II Foundation Global Education Center and Museum on Main Street in Wakefield contains hundreds of artifacts from World War II; the museum is open from 10:00 to 2:00 on Wednesdays and Saturdays and by appointment.

Trustom Pond Nature Walk. Start at the Kettle Pond Visitors Center operated by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Charlestown, climb the observation tower to take in the magnificent south coast and Block Island Sound, and then walk the trails at the USF&WS nature preserve at Trustom Pond.

South County Bike Path. Take a friendly and safe ride on the eight miles of the William C. O’Neill South County Bike Path from the Kingston Railroad Station and University of Rhode Island in the north to Narragansett to the south. Bike rentals are available at Stedman’s Bike in Wakefield and NBX Bikes in Narragansett.

 

This page contains two articles about Wescott-in-law Lynanne Butcher Wescott, who built a post-type windmill on the Outer Banks of North Carolina: “Lynanne Westcott: The Outer Banks Windmill” from the N.O.W.-N.Y. Women’s History Series and “One Good Turn,” by Susan Stafford Kelly in Our State (North Carolina) magazine in 2017.

Lynanne Butcher Wescott
by Betty Acker, Westcott Society Historian, 2000

The following article and cachet (purchased on Ebay) appeared in the N.O.W.-N.Y. Women’s History Series celebrating the accomplishment of Wescott-in-law Lynanne Butcher Wescott, who built a post-type windmill on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. (Note that the history series incorrectly spells her name Westcott.)

Born in Fairmont, West Virginia in 1951 to Kathleen and George W. Butcher, Jr., Lynanne Butcher Wescott was raised to believe that anything was possible with hard work, determination and the belief that if you’re going to do it, do it right. This standard of excellence served her well through high school and college.

Lynanne, a graduate of West Virginia University in Journalism and Chemistry, moved to North Carolina in 1972. The Wescotts now live in Manteo, North Carolina with their daughter Mesia. When asked why build a windmill, Ms. Wescott notes, “I’ve never wanted to do the safe, proven thing. I’ve always liked to be original and a windmill was the most unique thing l could think of! A hundred years ago windmills were commonplace on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The first is believed to have been built in 1723.”

It’s a toss-up as to which was the first coastal industry, milling or fishing. These mills filled a local need for cornmeal and were the basis for trade with the mainland farmers who accepted fish and yaupon in exchange for their corn. All of the windmills on the Outer Banks were post mills. A post mill is one having a body mounted and turning on an upright post.

Lynanne’s windmill is a post mill, simple in design with a single pair of millstones. The Iailpole, extending to the rear, ends in a wagon wheel support that eases the miller’s task of turning the mill to face the wind. Beneath the body of the mill are the heavy timbers on which it rests, all hand cut of oak. The center post is cut from a tree that was growing when America was born over 200 years ago. The moving parts are few. A miller can make only three operating adjustments: in the sail area presented to the wind, in the rate of grain fed to the stones, and in the distance between the stones.

“Financing and building the Outer Banks Windmill was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” Lynanne said with pride. The uniqueness of the project, even though it was the thing that guaranteed its success, caused many a conservative banking eyebrow to twitch. “I am thrilled that it explains to today’s visitors another energy source—the wind.”

The 35-foot 19th century reproduction Outer Banks Windmill grinds several types of whole grain, into many different products, including corn meal, grits, unbleached flour, muffin mix, buckwheat pancake ‘mix, breakfast cereal and more. Visitors to the windmill have the opportunity to view the milling from start to finish with a professional miller demonstrating and interpreting the process.

The windmill has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. A barn shaped Country Store and Museum stands nearby, where the whole grain products of the mill can be purchased along with a selection of windmill-related gifts and local arts and crafts.

One Good Turn
Dare County’s quaint, English-style windmill may look like it needs
a historic marker, but really, it’s a modern labor of love.
by Susan Stafford Kelly
Our State, June 1, 2017

Lynanne Wescott was pregnant, and her mind had turned to that staple of storybooks: windmills. Not the towering structures we associate with Holland, but a far older type — known as a post-mill windmill — whose history stretches back to the 12th century. Quaint and compact, they’re “a dime a dozen in England,” Wescott says. They’d been brought to America as early as 1621 for milling and irrigation, and, in the 1970s, Wescott decided that one belonged on the Outer Banks, too.

Who doesn’t love windmills for their romance, their place in history, their graceful silhouettes on a horizon? And with prevailing northeast and southwest winds and weathered cottages, the barrier islands seemed to Wescott well-suited for one of these magical structures. Her bosses at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the Wright Brothers National Memorial, where she managed the book and souvenir shops, liked the idea, but didn’t have a budget for it. So Wescott took out a loan to buy property in Nags Head, and began the long process of bringing her vision to life.

A post-mill is an ingenious bit of early — and movable — agricultural technology, consisting of a small, roofed house for milling, perched above the ground with a ladder leading up. The “post” in the name refers to a center post upon which the little house revolves. A long pole protruding from the house is attached to a wheel. By moving the wheel around a track — a job for an ox — the entire structure can be turned to the most advantageous position for catching the wind. Because, as any beachgoer knows, sea breezes are as capricious as life itself.

Poring through historical records, old maps, and architectural sketches of post-mills, Wescott discovered that her favorite windmills were in such extensive use along the North Carolina coast at the time of the Civil War that a Union soldier stationed on Hatteras Island observed “a greater number than I supposed were in existence in the whole country.” One post-mill had stood in Manteo, two had existed in Avon, and another was in Rodanthe. In the Cape Fear region, post-mills pumped water to flood rice fields, but by far, most of them north of Pender and Onslow counties were gristmills. The sites of about a hundred 18th- and 19th-century windmills have been discovered in Carteret, Hyde, and Dare counties.

But few people seemed to know about them, much less remember them. That fact gave Wescott a sense of purpose: She would bring back the “absolutely authentic” post-mill windmill to the land where it had once belonged.

“It was no hot glue and double-faced tape thing,” she says. Every single piece of the building would be created and fitted with the same tools as would have been used in the 17th century. “There was a cheaper, easier way to do it, but that wasn’t the point,” she says.

As she investigated where to find materials and people skilled to do the work, she came across a historically certified English millwright in Surry County, Virginia, and a stonemason who had cut stones for watermills. “I didn’t know people like that even existed,” she says.

The drive wheel to power the interior had to be exact, so that the gears would work, and the wood had to be able to withstand stress. Most of the windmill was made of oak, with the house clad in cedar. The central piece, on which the house revolves to face the wind, was even more critical: It had to be sturdy; it had to last. A 200-year-old oak tree grown in Germany’s Black Forest was cut, dried, and shipped by boat to North Carolina.

One year turned into two, and then three, before all the parts were in place. “I wanted it to feel like the mill belonged to the area. That this was its home,” Wescott says. She also wanted it to be a reminder: “The folks who’ve been here forever make it look easy to live here, but it’s not,” she says. “The windmill should be a symbol of what life was like on the Outer Banks.”

The beauty of a post-mill windmill is that it’s designed to be transported. Wescott moved to Philadelphia in the early ’80s — her windmill stayed put — to establish a bookstore at the U.S. Mint. Eventually, she went to law school. “The mill was safely launched, like a child into the world,” she says. “It was someone else’s turn.” She sold the property on which it sat, known as Windmill Point, to Dr. Sarah Forbes, who incorporated the windmill into a themed restaurant that closed in 2007. After that, the windmill fell into disrepair. The Town of Nags Head and the Dare County Tourism Board bought the property, but there was no use for a windmill, no matter its authenticity.

John Wilson, a history-loving founder and member of the Outer Banks Conservationists (OBC), stepped in to take his turn with the windmill. His nonprofit was restoring Island Farm, at the north end of Roanoke Island, to portray a thriving mid-1800s farming and fishing homestead. The OBC and the Dare County Tourism Board joined together to bring the post-mill across the sound to Island Farm, where it will be restored.

Because authenticity is as vital to Wilson as it was to Wescott, the windmill is situated away from buildings that could block the airflow, just as it would have been in the 1800s, and facing the prevailing winds. The mill shares a pasture with cows, sheep, and the oxen who — when a restoration is finished and the inner workings are fully functional — will pull the wheel around a track. Then, “Lynanne’s windmill,” as the locals know it, will return to its true, original purpose.

“My cries in the wilderness to save the windmill were heard,” says Wescott, now 66. “If things are meant to be, they work out.” The daughter Wescott was pregnant with when the windmill was being built lives in Manteo with her own children, who call their grandmother Hal. One day on an outing to Island Farm, Wescott’s daughter pointed to the windmill and told her sons, “You know, Hal built that.”

“Yeah, right,” the boys scoffed.

Wescott laughs and says, “It was like telling someone you built Cinderella’s castle.”

Source: Our State magazine; Outer Banks This Week

 

 

 

The Founder’s Speech Four Years In

Read Roscoe Whitman’s “Seven Centuries of Westcotts,” a talk delivered at the first meeting of the Chicagoland Chapter of the Westcott Society in the Fraternity Room of the Great Northern Hotel, Chicago, October 7, 1939.

A 1939 Postcard with a 1¢ Forever Stamp

The latest addition to the Westcott Society Collection is a 1939 postcard promoting the second volume of Roscoe Whitman’s History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott. Discovery of the card this year led to welcomed additions to 2024 Reunion, as new member Craig Crosswhite tells the story in his application to join the society:

Enclosed is the form with my information, my wife’s and my ancestral chart back to Stukely Westcott, as well as my check for $15.00. Also included is a scanned copy of a postcard, front and back, that was mailed to my great aunt, Ruth Harriet Spooner Stone, from Joseph R. Westcott, President of the Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants in January, 1939. I was looking through some papers I had saved from her house when she died in 1978 when I came across this postcard. I was amazed when my wife looked up the Society on the Internet and found that you were still existing and planning one of your biennial reunions this summer in Charlotte, N.C. It happens that I am a member, through my father’s side, of the Shoun Family Association that traces our ancestors back to a couple who lived in Mountain City, Tennessee starting in 1792. This year, our reunion is being held in Wytheville, VA the weekend before your reunion in Charlotte. I have relatives in Raleigh, and am hopeful that I will be approved to join your Society and attend the reunion in Charlotte.

Welcome Craig and Elizabeth, and thank you Ruth Harriet Spooner Stone! 

Westcott Society Collection

This page contains links to stories and images that were posted on the first version of SSWDA.org, and additional items from the society archive maintained by the SSWDA Historian and the collection at the Warwick Historical Society in the Arnold House in Warwick, Rhode Island.

• Judge Bullock’s Essay on Stukeley Westcote
  Judge J. Russell Bullock, “Some Incidents in the Life and Times of Stukeley Westcote, a Paper Read Before R. I. Veteran Citizens’ Historical Association at Providence, April 5, 1886,” which comprises the first half of Bullock’s Stukeley Westcote and Some of His Descendants; a note on copies of the book in the Westcott Society Collection
• Roscoe Whitman
  Betty Acker’s biographical sketch of SSWDA founder Roscoe Leighton Whitman, a selection from Whitman’s “My Boyhood Home” and notes on his books and research in the Westcott Society Collection
• Fame and Sadness in One Westcott Line
  Dr. Amos Westcott, “The Country’s First Dentist,” and his sons Edward Noyes Westcott, Author of David Harum, and Frank Nash Westcott, priest and author. The tragic tale of Amos and his sons was the topic of Roscoe Whitman’s talk at a Westcott descendants dinner in 1945.
• General Benedict Arnold (1740/41-1801), A Tragic Life
  Roscoe Whitman’s essay on General Benedict Arnold, two-times-great-grandson of Damaris Westcott Arnold in the History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott, Volume I (1932), and photos of a Westcott cousins visit to Arnold’s tomb in London.
• General Thomas Westcott
  This article about Thomas Westcott, who began his military career defending Warwick, R.I. during the Revolutionary War and was promoted to Brigade Commander in 1807, includes scans of original promotion certificates in the Westcott Collection at the Warwick Historical Society.
• Three Samplers from Westcott, Rhode Island
  In the first decades of the 19th Century, three talented young ladies in Westcott, Rhode Island demonstrated their literacy, dexterity and faith by cross-stitching three remarkable samplers. While the males in the village of Westcott along the Pawtuxet River achieved fame as generals, entrepreneurs and politicians, the quiet work of cousins Sarah Cook and Sarah Rice and their niece Martha Westcott endures with these embroideries in the Westcott collection at the Warwick (Rhode Island) Historical Society.
• Westcotts in History
  Roscoe Whitman’s profiles of five cousins “who achieved a place in the history of our country” in Volume I of his Westcott genealogy: Edward Noyes Westcott, the author of David Harum; journalist John Kimberly Mumford; railroad owner Robert Estling Westcott; statesman and Lincoln rival Stephen Douglas; and wayward cousin General Benedict Arnold
• Frank Rush Wescott, Wescott & Winks
  Frank Wescott, co-founder of Wescott & Winks, was a produce dealer and a leading citizen of Sumner, Iowa at the beginning of the twentieth century.

• L.H. Westcott, Model Railroad Legend
  Betty Acker’s profile of Lynn Hanson Westcott, “Pioneer of Model Railroading,” and a video retrospective featuring his wife Harriet
• She Drew with Butterfly Wings
  Read about Lilian Westcott Hale (1880-1963), who rendered elegant oil paintings and charcoal drawings of Twentieth Century domestic life.
• Caleb Westcott, Skilled Carpenter
  Caleb Westcott built a courthouse where the Rhode Island Colonial Assembly met and a tavern where they kicked back after debating the merits of ratifying the U.S. Constitution.
• Lynanne Butcher Westcott
  A NOW-NY Women’s History Series appreciation of a Westcott-in-law who built a pole-style windmill on the Outer Banks
• Varnum and Helen Westcott
  An article in the May 22, 1900 San Francisco Call that tells the story of two 75 year-old prospectors on their way to Alaska with 748 other “Gold Seekers,” plus further adventures of Varnum Westcott
• Harvey Westcott (1831-1920) Cigar Industry Pioneer
  The story of entrepreneur Harvey Westcott and his son Frederick whose cigar making business brought prominence to Binghamton, New York, plus a dozen family photos
• Ellis Perry Westcott (1871-1937)
  Ellis Westcott was a dairyman and Board of Selectmen Chairman in Seekonk, Massachusetts. Ellis, his son, and his brother were active in the early days of the society.

• The Westcott Ruler
  The story behind the Westcott Rule Company of Seneca Falls, New York, and manufacturing pioneers Henry P. Westcott and his son Charles H. Westcott
• Joseph Leander Wescott, Mountain Main and Poet
  Meet Joseph Leander Wescott (1835-1912 or maybe -1914), mountain man, Civil War veteran, miner, hunter, twice victim of fraud, survivor, surveyor, postmaster and author of the epic poem The Legend of Grand Lake. Read the whole story.
• Michigan’s Theater Man: Walter Scott Butterfield 
  Many thanks to Jeff Westcott for finding this story in the Kalamazoo Public Library’s local history files about Michigan’s Theater Man and our cousin Walter Scott Butterfield (1867-1936). Read about W.S. Butterfield, “The Bijou Man.”
• Musician Bob Welch (1945-2012)
  After a four-year, pre-phenomenon stint in Fleetwood Mac, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bob Welch produced albums that went Platinum and Gold.
• Arthur Westcott, Maine Berry Grower
  A 1954 article in the Farm Journal that describes how Arthur Westcott solved the problem of a surplus crop
• Mentions and Snippets
  Mentions of Westcotts in various histories and in genealogies of related families, including Nathan Westcott (1812-1878); Corinne Wescott Cornell (1828 – aft. 1902); and the Charles Westcott (1772-1856) Family. Each of these snippets includes a link to the original publication.
• Distant Cousins
  Items in the society’s archive about Westcotts (and Wescotts, Westcotes, etc.) who are not descendants of Stukely and Juliana, such as C.F. Wescott of Blue Hill, Maine and Walter Thomas Westcott of Falls Church, Virginia.
• Portraits and More
  Photos from the Westcott Society Collection include a studio photo of John Wescott and his daughters, a portrait of Robert and Deborah Westcott, several pictures of Eugene and Myrtle Wescott’s family, and portraits of Daniel Webster and Eliza (Durgan) Wescott.
• Attention Photo Detectives
  Maybe you can help identify the people in these photos newspaper clippings and a postcard in the Westcott Society Collection.
• D.B.A. “Westcott” (and “Wescott” too)
  A collection of business cards, ads and other promotional items for Westcott-named businesses, on two pages: Westcott Store Fronts and Westcotts Meant Business in Utica.
• Sculptor, Printmaker, Inventor, Teacher
  Dean Jackson Meeker (1920-2002) was an international known printmaker and sculptor who taught for decades at the University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
• Twentieth Century Notables
  Links to biographies of a dozen Westcott descendants who made names for themselves in the 20th Century, including a congressman, an economist, two recording artists, a TV producer and a radio star, a pioneering casino operator and a nun, and an engineer and physicist with over 200 hundred patents.

• Gardiner Westcott Takes the Family to Westcott Beach
  Read about the Westcott farmers and mariners that settled on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and hosted reunions for North Country kin at Westcott Beach.
• The Westcott Wrench
  In 1907 Keystone Manufacturing Company trademarked its adjustable wrench with the knuckle-saving S-shaped handle  WESTCOTT. Who was the Westcott for whom the wrench was named?
• The Westcott Motor Car Company
  Betty Acker’s 62-page book about the company that manufactured over 3,000 Westcott cars and the story behind the making of the book.
• John McMahon Westcott
  John M. Westcott was able to identify market needs and inspired others with his drive, as he created companies such as the Westcott Carriage Company, which his son Burton transformed into the Westcott Motor Car Company and energized others, including Hoosier Drill, which became a cornerstone of International Harvester.

• Westcott Cars at the Brickyard
  The Westcott racer makes its debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1910 and a video from the crash at the first Indy 500 in 1911.
• Christopher Westcott Heads for Ohio
  In 1816, Christopher and Mary Westcott packed their worldly goods and three children into a wagon (a covered wagon, we presume) and headed west from Rhode Island to a new life in Ohio. Read Christopher’s version of the story and page through his “Siphering Book.”
• Hall of Fame Musician Keith Knudsen
  Keith Knudsen (1948-2005) was a longtime drummer with the Doobie Brothers.
• On the Way to the Met, A Special Calling: Sister Mary Elise Sisson (1898-1982)
  Sister Mary Elise Sisson brought opera to Xavier University, integrated audiences in New Orleans, and taught acclaimed Black opera stars and musicians such as Annabelle Bernard and Debria Brown.
• Actress Templeton Fox (1913-1993)
  She starred in radio dramas in the 30s, appeared in films and television series in the 60s and 70s.
• Thayer Soule, Photographer and Travel Writer (1917-2004)
  Thayer Soule kicked off a 60-year career of photography and producing travelogues at the age of 17 by taking a banana boat to Haiti. At the age of 23 he was a combat photographer documenting the battle of Guadalcanal.
• Marshall Robertson, Engineer with Command in High Places
  Westcott descendant Lawrence Marshall Robertson (January 20, 1900 to July 23, 1988) was an internationally recognized electric utilities engineer, known for his cutting edge research into transmission line performance at high altitude.
• The Double Life of Martin Pattison
  Two lives, three wives, two states, three mayoral terms, one state park – Westcott Descendant Martin Pattison did it all.
• George Wescott’s Business Ventures
  Sales literature and a postcard in the Westcott Society Collection show some of the business ventures of distant cousin Geo. F. Wescott (1854-1913) ranging from elevators to cookware.
• Texas Oil, Florida Cypress and a Town Called Wescott
  Two letters  in the Wescott Society Collection introduce us to distant cousin Walter Scott Wescott, his son John James Wescott and a settlement in Custer County, Nebraska.

Other Interesting Links

Be sure to see our Member Pages for more Westcott Lineages and Information.

To submit links, please use the “comments” area

Westcott Family Pages:

Visit the Westcott Family Genealogy Forum to view messages regarding Westcott and variations of the surname

Westcott House – Built by Frank Lloyd Wright in Springfield, Ohio for Burton J. Westcott (1868-1926), owner of the Westcott Touring Car Company.

The Westcotts and Martins of the East – by Alicia Westcott

Westcott Online – A Westcott Genealogy site

James Laplante’s Family Site – Contains a report on the descendants of Stukely Westcott off the “Family Tree” link.

The Early Photography of Ed Westcott: From the Manhattan Project to the Cold War (1942-1959)

Wendell J. Westcott – Retired Michigan State University Carillonneur (1911-)

Local History Sites Referencing Westcotts:

Patent for Providence Plantations – March 14, 1643

The Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Master Index

Westcott Beach State Park in Sackets Harbor, New York – Sold to the state by descendants of Stukely.

Other Early American Surname Pages:

Merwin Almy’s Home Page contains the Almy Family Newsletter, devoted to the descendants of William Almy and Audrey Barlow

The Realm of Lawton has detailed information on the Lawton family who early settled in Rhode Island.

The Sisson Genealogy Page contains much information about Richard and Mary Sisson descendants, as well as other Sisson groups.

England Sites:

Biography of Dr. William Wynn Westcott (December 17, 1848 – July, 1925) of England

 

Save these Dates for the 2026
Westcott Family Reunion
Thursday, July 9 to Sunday, July 12
Hilton Garden Inn, Watertown, New York

Book Now for Special Room Rates

Special room rates will be available for the Westcott family reunion. Indicate you are coming for the reunion when you make your reservations. We will be able to visit Westcott Beach State Park during the reunion, just 20 minutes from the hotel.

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/artgigi-hilton-garden-inn-watertown-thousand-islands/

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	Organizational Meeting	October 21, 1933
	Organized in Lexington Hotel, New York City, New York	January, 1934
1.	Salem, Providence & Warwich, Rhode Island	June, 1935
2.	Cooperstown, New York	August, 1937
3	Bronxville, New York	June, 1939
4	Alexandria Bay, New York	August, 1941
5.	Cancelled because of World War II
6.	Providence, Rhode Island	August, 1946
7.	Johnstown, New York	July, 1948
8.	Cleveland, Ohio	July, 1950
9.	Cooperstown, New York	August, 1952
10.	Providence, Rhode Island	August, 1954
11.	East Poultney, Vermont	August, 1956
12.	Cooperstown, New York	August, 1958
	Special 25th Anniversary Meeting at Dr. F. H. Westcott’s Home in Tenafly, New Jersey	1959
13.	Manville, Rhode Island	August, 1960
14.	Boston, Massachusetts	August, 1962
15.	East Poultney, Vermont	August, 1964
16.	Griswold, Iowa	June, 1966
17.	Manville, Pawtucket & Rehoboth, Rhode Island	August, 1968
18.	Copperstown & Milford Center, New York	August, 1970
19.	East Poultney, Vermont	August, 1972
20.	Griswold, Red Oak & Elliot, Iowa	August, 1974
21.	Rivertown & Winsted, Connecticut	August, 1976
22.	Bennington, Vermont	August, 1978
23.	Bennington, Vermont	August, 1980
24.	Charlottsville, Virginia	August, 1982
24/25.*	Warwick, Rhode Island	August, 1984
25/26.*	Escondido, California	October, 1986
26/27.*	Zanesville, Ohio	October, 1988
27/28.*	Concord, New Hampshire	August, 1990
29/30.*	Massena, New York	July, 1992
30/31.*	Zanesville, Ohio	July, 1994
31/32.*	Des Moines, Iowa	July, 1996
32.	Killington, Vermont	August, 1998
33.	Colorado Springs, Colorado	August, 2000
34.	Seekonk, Massachusetts & Providence & Warwick, Rhode Island	July, 2002
35.	Overland Park, Kansas	July, 2004
36.	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	July 6-8, 2006
37.	Newark, Ohio	June 27-29, 2008
38.	Merritt Island, Florida	June 25-27, 2010
39.	Buffalo, New York	June 29-July 1, 2012
40.	Warwick, Rhode Island	2014
41.	Warwick, Rhode Island	2016
42.	Indianapolis, Indiana	2018
	Everett, Washington. Cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic	2020
43.	“South County,” Rhode Island	June 17-19, 2022
44.	Charlotte, North Carolina	July 18-21, 2024

Note
* At some point between the 1982 reunion in Charlottesville, Viginia, and the 1998 get-together in Killington, Vermont, the numbering of the event was reduced by one to account for the cancellation of the “Fifth Biennial Reunion” in 1941 because of World War II. (What would have been the 43rd reunion in 2020 was cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic.) As of July 2022, there have been 43 Westcott Society Reunions.