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.
State of Service: VT
Qualifying Service: Lieutenant Colonel
Author: Frederic Wayne Barnes
Solomon Spafford was born on September 21, 1756 in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut. He was the son of Rebecca Smalley and Jacob Spafford. He married Sally Sheldon and together they had nine children: Ira, Henry, Abijah Pratt, William, Solomon S., Maria or Almira, Sarah and Rebecca. The children were born in Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vermont and in the Ontario Providence of Canada.
In Solomon’s early youth, he joined the Green Mountain Boys. The Green Mountain Boys were established in the late 1760s in the territory between the British provinces of New York and New Hampshire, known as the New Hampshire Grants. The Green Mountain Boys were an unauthorized militia organized to defend the property rights of local residents who had received the land grants in New Hampshire. At that time, New York disputed the legal rights of grants to the west of the Green Mountains. The Green Mountain Boys helped resist New York’s attempts to control the territory and to help local residents retain their grants. By May 10, 1775, approximately 85 members of the Green Mountain Boys, joined the Revolution under the command of Ethan Allen and Col. Benedict Arnold. At this point in history they captured Fort Ticonderoga, Lake Champlain. They also seized Crown Point in New York and in 1775, they had invaded Canada. In June of 1775, Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, convinced the Continental Army at Philadelphia to create a Continental Army ranger regiment from the New Hampshire Grants. Having no treasury, the Congress directed that New York’s revolutionary Congress to pay for the newly authorized regiment. In July of 1775, Allen’s militia was granted support from the New York revolutionary Congress. The Green Mountain Boys became part of the Continental Army. Later, in 1777, the Green Mountain Boys played a major role against General John Burgoyne at the battle of Hubbardton and Bennington. Their action destroyed a detachment of Burgoyne’s army which was crucial to Burgoyne’s eventual defeat.
In the spring of 1771, Vermont declared its independence from Great Britain as a separate, free and independent jurisdiction or state. The Vermont Republic operated for fourteen years, before being admitted, in 1791, to the United States as the 14th state. The Green Mountain Boys (Vermont Republic) faded away.
In 1780, Solomon was paid for serving ten days and thirty miles in Capt. Ichabod Robinson’s Company of Militia, State of Vermont. In 1786, Solomon was residing in Clarendon, Rutland County, Vermont. In the 1790 US Census, he appears in Clarendon as Col. Solomon Spafford with four males under the age of 16, one male over the age of 16 and two females for a total of seven in the household. In January 1800, Solomon is residing at the south side of East Lake, Hallowell, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada. Solomon died, at the age of eighty, on February 2, 1837, in Athol, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada.
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