The Life of Henry Bradley Plant / Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express Company

by G. Hutchinson Smyth

“To O. L. Frisbie,
“Portsmouth, N. H.”

The Frisbee family was patriotic and promptly responded to the call of freedom and independence. There were thirty-five of them from Connecticut in the War of the Revolution. Eleven of them spelled their names Frisbee; seventeen, Frisbie; and seven, Frisby. They continued in the service of their country from the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1776, until the disbanding of the army, by Washington, on the Hudson in 1783. A regiment marched from Connecticut towns, in 1775, to the relief of Boston. John Frisbee, son of Titus Ebenezer, represented Branford in the Legislature from 1690 to 1692. O. L. Frisbee writes to Mr. Plant: “Your ancestor was a good churchman. From him, there is a long list of Frisbees in the records of the church of Branford. In 1700, the annals of Branford say that among the families prominently identified with the church, town, and business from 1700 to 1800, the Frisbees, Bands, and Plants head a long list in the order in which I have written their names. This religious element seems to have been with the Frisbees. Rev. Levi Frisbee, father of Professor Levi of Harvard College, was a very pious man.

“He was invited to deliver an oration on Washington at his death. My grandfather was a very pious man; he founded a church at Kittery, Maine. My father, Joseph Frisbee, was a deacon in the church. He and Caleb Frisbee were in the regiment from Branford. I found Noah and Edward Frisbee were members of the company that marched to the relief of Fort William Henry, August, 1757, from Connecticut. I found your ancestor Joseph Foote Frisbee was in the Revolutionary War. He lived to be ninety-eight years of age. About 1700, Samuel Baker and Samuel Frisbee, Jr., bought land for a wharf at Dutch House Point, from Joseph Foote at Branford. Joseph Foote Frisbee might have been named for this man.

“In the church records of Branford there is a great deal about Joseph Frisbee, in connection with the church from 1743 to 1746. I find all the Frisbees good church (Congregational) people, from the first Edward who settled at Branford, July 7, 1644. He and his wife Abigail joined the Congregational church soon after settling in Branford. I should say the Frisbees were good fighters in war, and good church and law-abiding people, with Puritanic principles that helped to build the nation.”

In a history of the Wolcotts of Connecticut, it is stated that John Frisbee and Abigail Culpepper, his wife, came from Wales. This may be correct, although in the genealogical sketch already given it is stated that the first of the family, Richard Frisbee, came from England to Virginia in 1619, but the same sketch says that in 1642 the Governor of Virginia ordered all who would not join the Church of England to leave the Colony, and that hundreds went to Eastern Virginia, now called Maryland, and that among them was Richard Frisbee, who with his sons settled in Cecil County, living on Kent Island, the northern part of Chesapeake Bay. Now it is quite common, in the early accounts of immigration to America, to describe the people as English, or as coming from England, when in fact they were Scotch or Irish. But coming from any of the British Islands they were often called English. This would be more likely to be the case with those coming from Wales, which is, geographically speaking, a part of the island of Great Britain. Be this as it may, it is not of great importance. The spirit of dissent from the Established Church was just as strong in England as in Wales. The name Frisbee or Frisby, as its terminal denotes, is of English origin, but it is quite possible that the family came from one of the border countries.

Whether this family came from Wales or England may be only a matter of historic accuracy and personal interest; certain it is the Frisbees are a people who have done honor to their country both in war and in peace. They bore a prominent part in the victorious struggle for the freedom and independence of the American Colonies. They have been the promoters of education, peace, piety, and “the righteousness that exalteth a nation.” We have given this account of this people, for four reasons. First, because the historian of the family, with a commendable pride, has collected and preserved the family record of his people, from which the material for this brief notice was placed at our disposal. Secondly, because the family histories of the people who have combined to form the American nation are only beginning to receive a slight part of the attention which they justly merit. Thirdly, because a knowledge of the numerous and varied races that have formed the nation is essential to a correct understanding of the American people. Fourthly, because in the present case, owing to the early death of Mr. Plant’s father, the widowed mother was especially dear to him, and is still cherished in his memory with the most tender and affectionate regard.

Mr. Plant’s connection with Washington’s army during the Revolutionary War was one of the family traditions, but he was not the man to accept honors unless he knew they rightly belonged to him. So after an extensive correspondence, and a thorough investigation of the military register in several States, and at the national capital, he received the following communication, which I have carefully copied from the original.

“Records and Pension Office, War Department, Washington, November 15, 1895. Respectfully returned to Mr. Oliver L. Frisbee, A.M., Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It appears from the records of this office, that Joseph Frisbee was enlisted September 3, 1780, and served as a private in Lieutenant-Colonel Sherman’s Company (also designated as Captain Sylvanus Brown’s and Lieutenant Joseph Hait’s Company), Eighth Connecticut Regiment, Revolutionary War, and was also discharged October 29, 1780.” On transmitting the above to Mr. Plant, Mr. O. Frisbee writes from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, December 24, 1895: “Enclosed please find the record from Washington of the service of your grandmother’s father, Joseph Frisbee, in the Revolutionary War. He was born August 17, 1745; married, March 11, 1773, Sarah Rogers; had a daughter Sarah, born May 15, 1774, married Samuel Plant, February 11, 1795. These records will enable you and your sons to join in ‘The Sons of the American Revolution.’

“O. L. Frisbee.”