Dorman Family, Guilford NY

Dorman Family

Guilford, Chenango Co., NY

Norwich Sun, July 13, 1937

 

In looking over the private burial spot of the Dorman family at the lake, which is probably the oldest private lot or cemetery located in this community, the writer found many historical facts.  The great-grandfather of Charles and Emma North of this place was James Dorman of Cheshire, New Haven county Conn., as was his wife who was Anna Harper.  He was born in Connecticut in 1755.  His son, Joel Dorman, who came from Connecticut, was married to Lois Beecher in that state in 1815 and shortly afterward came to Smithville Flats where they purchased a farm.  They rode through this country in an old ox cart.  In coming to Guilford, which was then known as Fayette, they secured possession of an old log cabin that stood directly on the site the Darling cottage now stands [in 1937].  This probably had been in the possession of some white settler or a tribe of Indians, but there is nothing to prove this theory true.

 

Upon leaving this cabin Joel built a house which stands on the present Fred Burton farm.  An interesting old-fashioned deed was seen.  It took two years to get possession of the land, beginning Feb. 12, 1834 and was completed on Feb. 20, 1836.  Joel only lived there seven years when he died.  His wife Lola is buried with him in this private cemetery.  Joel Dorman's children were Philo, John, Andrew, Hannah, Sarah, David and Betsey.

 

Sarah married Charles C. North.  Their children were Louis, Jennie, Hattie, Charles W., Edward and Emma.

 

Charles W. North married Elizabeth Brome of Orange county, N.Y. She is a descendant of Rev. Richard Denton who founded the Presbyterian Church of America at Hempstead, L.I.  It is said that the seventh edifice now stands on the same site.

 

James Dorman, born in 1755, had another son, Alanson.  He was married in 1814 at Cheshire, Conn., and settled on a farm 11 miles south of Phelps which is seven miles south of the present site of Geneva, N.Y., where his great-grandson John S. Dorman conducts the same farm 123 years later.

 

This burial ground is from part of the Dorman property where both families, Dormans and Norths, now rest. Several descendants of the above ancestors still live in this and nearby places [in 1937].