Page 8 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 52 Winter 2025

structing houses. Documents in- man, died lamented by all the
dicate he and his son Abel helped friends of worth who knew him.”
to build the Porter Cook house still
located at 38 North Elm Street. I did not find the cause of John
Mansfield’s death in 1823. I did
John Mansfield was a respected discover that his wife Eunice died
and popular man in Wallingford. of Spotted Fever three months af-
People remembered the vital role ter John’s death. Apparently, there
he played in the Revolutionary was an endemic of New England
War. During the early 19th Century Spotted Fever (reported in her
his friends and neighbors became obituary) in the Middletown area
increasingly concerned. They were in 1823. It is unclear exactly what
aware that Mansfield was in need this disease was, possibly menin-
of assistance paying for food, heat, gitis or Typhus Fever according to
and other necessities. today’s medical historians. Per-
For unknown reasons, Mansfield haps both Mansfields succumbed
had not applied for the pension to it. John Mansfield and two of
owed him for his military service his wives were buried in the Cen-
and could not be convinced to do Eli Whitney, Mansfield's ter Street Cemetery. His nearly il-
so. Perhaps he felt it was charity character reference legible headstone is near the Cen-
and undeserved. When his situa- ter Street entrance.
tion continued to deteriorate, his tion, and Mansfield was stricken from
Wallingford friends interceded on the rolls due to the fact that his prop- The Hiddleson Family at 188
his behalf, contacting Eli Whitney to erty was valued over the cap at $2110. North Main Street
serve as a character reference. Whit- Mansfield’s daughter Sybil had mar-
ney had patented his cotton gin about John Mansfield’s Obituary: ried a southerner named John Hiddle-
20 years previously and was now a Connecticut Herald, June 10, son only one month before her father
musket manufacturer in New Haven. 1823 died. They were probably living with
He spoke in glowing terms of John “Capt. John Mansfield of Wallingford him and Eunice on North Main Street
Mansfield: “Mansfield’s character in died on June 2, 1823, in the 75th year at Mansfield’s death. Mansfield’s will
the Revolutionary War was that of of his age— He served his country bequeathed his real and personal es-
a very brave, active, and enterpris- faithfully during the Revolutionary tate mostly to Sybil, though he left the
ing soldier and officer, and since that War—was the same man (then Lieut. use of the north half of the house to
war has been a sober, frugal, and in- Mansfield) who commanded the ”For- his widow Eunice. The Hiddleson fam-
dustrious, peaceable, good citizen.” lorn Hope”, at the storming of the ily lived in the south half until Hiddle-
Whitney also related that General redoubts at Yorktown—and whose son’s death from colic in 1854. How
Washington had taken particular no- name was honorably mentioned by John Hiddleson, a sea captain born
tice of Mansfield “on account of the Col. Hamilton, the Commander of the and raised in Georgetown, South Car-
heroic bravery which he displayed as Detachment—he received a wound in olina, ended up in Wallingford is un-
the Commander of the Forlorn Hope that attack, which would have entitled known to me. But based on Census
in storming a redoubt at the capture him to a pension, but he refused to records, he arrived between 1821 and
of Lord Cornwallis.” Whitney conclud- apply for it. When peace was conclud- 1823 and remained in Wallingford un-
ed his letter of reference with “There ed and the Independence of his coun- til his death in 1854. He continued
can be no doubt that Captain Mans- try acknowledged, he was discharged to live in the Mansfield house at 188
field, now in the evening of life, really from the service, with a captain’s North Main Street, raise a family, and
needs and truly merits the assistance commission and the thanks of the run the Mansfield farm even after
of his Country.” This letter in the Na- Commander and Chief. Poor in purse, Sybil’s death. During the antebellum
tional Archives and accessible on an- but rich in honor, he returned to his years, he and his family travelled back
cestry.com was signed “Eli Whitney, family, and by strenuous exertions, and forth to Georgetown where he
New Haven, 7th March 1820.” [The succeeded in accumulating a small owned a plantation and numerous
government pension rolls show Man- property. When the pension law was enslaved people. Some of his chil-
sfield receiving a pension beginning in passed in 1818, his friends believed dren settled there. It was on a visit to
1818 so there is a slight discrepancy he was entitled to the benefit of that Georgetown in 1833 that Sybil Hiddle-
with dates.] act; he petitioned and received a pen- son died. After remarrying and having
sion until the law was amended – the five more children, Hiddleson died in
Mansfield’s friends were successful in stipend was then withdrawn, on the 1854 and was buried along with fami-
their application for his military pen- ground that he was not wholly desti- ly members in the Center Street Cem-
sion; and he must have been thank- tute of property, (although his circum- etery. At this point the house was sold
ful to receive those extra funds for a stances were far from affluent.) He to a family named Harrison, passing
while. Two years later, in a cruel twist sustained through life the character out of the Mansfield’s hands forever.
of fate, the government adjusted its of an industrious, honorable, upright
requirements for pension qualifica-

8 Wallingford Magazine - Winter 2025