Uzziel Withee Biography

Uzziel Withee

Born 10 April 1764 Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Died 5 September 1862 Hartland, Somerset, Maine

Biography

Among the early settlers of Norridgewock were members of the Withee family. The name is spelled in a variety of ways which includes Wythe, Wyeth and MacWethey... Some say the Withees belonged to the Clan MacDougall in the southwest coast of Scotland who were a mixture of Picts and Angles. They, like most Scots, were Covenanters inspired by John Knox who supported agreements to defend and extend Presbyterianism. Others say the name comes from the Old English derivative "wir" from which we get "sire" and "wiry" meaning a supple twig, given to those who lived near a willow tree. People of that name lived in London and the southwestern part of England in the counties of Devon and Dorset.

Uzziel (Uriel), was the youngest child of Zachariah and Esther (Kemp) Withee. Born in 1764 or 5, he enlisted in the Army 4/11/1782 for a period of three years but was discharged 11/1783 in West Point at the end of the Revolutinary War. He was said to have been a Major Drummer.

Migrating to Norridgewock with Luke in 1783, he went back to Groton to marry Elizabeth (Betsay) Stevens 1797-1840. Soon after 1800 when he is shown as married and in Norridgewock they removed to Hartland where Withee Brook and Pond bear his name. His pension was approved but the land bounty grant denied because he hadn't enlisted "for the duration of the war."

In 1820, he stated that he was lame and couldn't work, and in his household was Elizabeth, his wife, and two daughters, Elizabeth 15 and Mary 13. Eventually he received two pensions, but Uzziel lived to be the oldest Revolutionary War veteran in Somerset County. He was almost 100 when he died in 1862 according to histories. Both he and Betsay are buried in the Old Hartland Village Cemetery.

Written by Lucille Greer of the Norridgewock Historical Society

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