Sarah Lewis @ Litchfield

Litchfield County, Connecticut

Litchfield, Connecticut

Sarah Lewis is the great-grandmother of Lewis Way

(Sarah Lewis, Solomon Way, Edward Lewis Way, Lewis Betheal Way).

Sarah Lewis was born 1 Mar 1742 in Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut, daughter of Edward Lewis and Rebecca Lathrop. She married 1 Sep 1761 to Samuel Way, son of David Way and Esther Russell. He was born 16 Sep 1738 in Litchfield, Connecticut. They both died in Litchfield, she in 1814. They had 8 children.

The "Greenwoods" or western lands of Connecticut were purchased for fifteen pounds from the Indians and first settled in 1720. In 1751, the village was designated the seat of the newly organized county of Litchfield. A location on the inland stage routes between New York and the towns of New England promoted a healthy commerce, and during the American Revolution the town served as a supply depot for the Continental Army as well as an occasional holding plance for Loyalist prisoners. In September 1780 General George Washington, attended by his aides Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette, lodged in the town en route from an historic conference with French allies at Hartford.

By 1810 Litchfield was the fourth largest town in Connecticut, but then, overlooked by railroads and large scale water-powered industry, the town declined in population for almost a century, fortunately preserving a large portion of the architecture of her Golden Age. Here can be seen houses where Ethan Allen, Aaron Burr, John C. Calhoun, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Benjamin Tallmadge, and Oliver Wolcott, signer of the Declaration of Independce, lived or studied.

Both Champlins and Ways located in Litchfield, CN and also in Lyme, RI