The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
No GPS data for grave site on Find-a-Grave Mar 2021
Author: COL Fritz J. Barth USMCR (ret.)
Elijah Hungerford P-188035
Elijah Hungerford was born November 10, 1756, at East Haddam, Connecticut, a son of Grace Holmes, age 39, and Robert Hungerford, age 41. Elijah was the youngest of four brothers, all of whom served in the Continental Army. The Hungerfords were a distinguished family in Connecticut with ties to English nobility. His oldest brother, John, died of smallpox contracted in the French and Indian Wars and his other brothers Jeremiah and Robert were officers at the start of the Revolution.
At the age of 19, Elijah enlisted as a private in Capt. Eliphalet Balkeley's company, Col Woolcott's Regt in June 1776 for seven months, then enlisted under Capt. John Willey, Col. Dyar Throop's Regiment 1 Jan 1777, stationed at Fort Trumbull, New London CT. He also served as a minuteman.
He lived the rest of his life in East Haddam, ten years later marrying Rhoda Harvey in 1787 when he was 31 years old. They had four daughters; Silence (Palmes) born May 5, 1791, Orris (Harvey) born in 1793, Azubah (Phelps) born April 7, 1797, and Charlotte (Phelps) born in 1800.
At the age of 53, Hungerford again served as a private in a New York regiment during the War of 1812. He applied for and received a pension for his service in 1832.
His wife Rhoda passed away January 20, 1835, at the age of 76 after 48 years of marriage. Elijah died December 9, 1839, at East Haddam, Connecticut, at the age of 83.
Despite his modest role in the Revolution, Elijah Hungerford seems to have been an enormous influence on his descendants, the first name Elijah appearing often, most notably with Col. Elijah Hungerford Phelps of the Union Army during the Civil War, who made sure that “Hungerford” was spelt out whenever possible.
Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!
Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:
Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.