Peter Crapo ¹

  General Notes:

His stone was repaired in the 1970 by the Ashley family descendants.

Peter married Sarah Waste on November 13, 1766 in Dartmouth Massachusetts. Following Sarah's death, Peter married Content Peckham on October 13, 1789 in Dartmouth Massachusetts. His military history is as follows:

Crapo, Peter, Freetown - Private, Captain Levi Rounsevill's Company, which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, 3 days. Roll dated Roxbury Camp.

Military record taken for Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume 4, Page 92

Crapo, Peter - Private, Lieutenant Nathaniel Morton's (Freetown) Company, Colonel Edward Pope's regiment; marched to Rhode Island on the alarm of December 8, 1776; discharged December 27, 1776; service, 20 days.

Military record taken for Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume 4, Page 93

At what date Peter, the second, moved from Rochester to Freetown is not certain. A deed of land in Freetown from Bigford Spooner in 1770 to Peter's brother Joshua. This land was in the vicinity of the land which Peter later occupied. Joshua did not remain in Freetown. He is said to have immigrated to Maine.

Peter and his brother Consider were settled in Freetown in 1773. They were engaged in the lumber business. In 1774 and for nearly twenty years thereafter, Peter and Consider were actively engaged in logging and sawing as appears by the numerous recorded deeds to them. Their sawmill was 'partly in Freetown and partly in Dartmouth' at a place called 'Quampog where a forge formerly stood called Babbitt's Forge.' At one time Abraham Ashley and a Mereba Hathaway, a widow, were partners in their business. John Crapo, their father, conveyed several tracts of land to them and seems to have been interested with them in their business and may have lived with them for a time. He is always described, however, as 'of Rochester'." From "Old Dartmouth Sketches" (FHL 974.485/D1 H2o) No. 41-43, "Mills of New Bedford and Vicinity before the introduction of steam" by H. B. Worth. pg 12: "About 2 miles west of Brayley's station on the line between Freetown and Dartmouth is a region called Quanapog. At this point the Noquochocke River crossed the line and in 1774 a large tract was laid out to Nathaniel Babbitt and he established a forge on the town line. Babbitt's forge passed into the hands of the Crapos.

Then Peter Crapo and his associates built two other mills a short distance south of the forge. The Quonapog mills at one time were largely controlled by Malachi White and later by the Collins family and in modern times was owned by Gilbert N. Collins. The iron industry was changed to a sawmill soon after the Crapos became owners."

Continuing from "Certain Comeoverers": "Some time after 1790, Consider withdrew from the business and moved to Savoy, Mass. The deeds of partition between the brothers are dated in 1797. Both brothers were owners of considerable tracts in Dartmouth, owning salt meadows on Sconticut Neck, and lots in Belleville in New Bedford and in Troy, now Fall River. In 1793 Consider sold his homestead farm to Thomas Cottle of Tisbury, Dukes County, who removed thither. This was in the immediate vicinity of the sawmill since he reserved to his brother Peter a right of flowage above his sawmill. Afterwards, Peter Crapo appears to have taken in Richard Collins as a partner in the business. In 1793 the sawmill burned down but it appears to have been rebuilt. Down to the time of his death in 1822, Peter Crapo, as abundantly appears by the land and court records, was actively engaged in business.

"Peter had a large family of children, fourteen in all, and it would seem that his manner of caring for them was distinctly patriarchal. As each child came of age and was about to be married, he summoned all the other children, the married and the unmarried, to undertake some special work whose profit might be devoted to settling the child to be married. In the case of a daughter with a dowry, in the case of a son with a homestead farm. .......

"Peter kept the title of the various farms acquired for his sons in his own name and, when he died, left them severally by his will, dated 20 Feb 1822, to their occupants, devising his own homestead farm which, as appears by the inventory of his estate, was much the most valuable, to his youngest son Abiel, the baby of the family, on whom he placed the duty of caring for his widow. To his widow he also gave fifty dollars, one cow, and "the use and improvement of the south front room in my dwelling house with a privilege to pass and repass through the kitchen and porch and to the well to draw water, as well as a privilege in the cellar and the use and improvement of all the household furniture during her life." (She was his second wife. MDR) "Considering her somewhat limited domain all the furniture may have been too liberal, but it is to be hoped that Abiel really did do his duty and made his mother comfortable.

His will read, "Unto my 'seven daughters' three hundred and fifty dollars each and all his household furniture after his widow's death".

His estate was inventoried at something over $10,000, which was in those days a considerable estate.

~~~~~ His children with Sarah ~~~~~
Peter Crapo 1767 ~ 1830 married
...Rachel Peace Wordell
Azubah Crapo 1768 ~ 1860
Richard Crapo 1770 ~ 1848
Betsey (Crapo)Wordell 1772 ~ 1840
Charles Crapo 1776 ~ 1862
Reuben Crapo 1777 ~ 1860
Jesse Crapo 1781 ~ 1831
Sarah (Crapo) Haskell 1779 ~
Joseph Crapo 1784 ~ young
Deborah (Crapo) Kirby 1786 ~ 1866
Elizabeth (Crapo) Wordell 1771 ~ 1840

~~~~~ His children with Content ~~~~~
Susanne (Crapo) Howland 1793 ~ 1887
Abial Hathaway Crapo ~ 1757
Orinda (Crapo) Robbins
Joseph Crapo

Peter married Sarah Waste, daughter of Charles Waste and Deborah Williamson, on 14 May 1766 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, USA. (Sarah Waste was born on 4 Sep 1748 in Freetown, Bristol County, Massachusetts, USA, died on 16 May 1789 in Freetown, Bristol County, Massachusetts, USA and was buried in Crapo Cemetery, Freetown, Bristol County, Massachusetts, USA.)