AMENIA BENTONS by William A. Benton, 2nd
My Great Grandfather, the 2nd Caleb Benton, came from Guilford, Conn. to Leedsville with part of his belongings on the first four-wheeled wagon ever seen in Guilford, or perhaps in Amenia, in May 1794. The balance of his goods and most of the family came by sloop to Poughkeepsie and were brought across the County by the same team and wagon. Two sons of Caleb 2nd reached maturity; Joel 1st and Wm. A. 1st. Caleb 2nd built the dwelling on the East side of the Webutuck, now known as the Century for his son Joel 1st. Joel 1st begat Simeon who was the father of Joel 2nd, born May 29, 1832, who founded the Amenia Times. Wm. A. Benton 1st, son of Caleb 2nd, was born in Guilford and moved with the family to Amenia in 1794, when he was six years old. He lived the remainder of his life at the Old Homestead, later named "Troutbeck" by his son Myron B. Benton, for the large, neverfailing spring at the N.W. corner of the house, which formed a clear, cold brook, where protected trout became almost pets. He married first Cytheria Reed and second Betsey Reed, her sister. Fifteen children were born to these two mothers, of which Father, Ezra Reed was the fourteenth. As Father has told me of him he was a man about my size and build, about 5'6" tall and weighing about 140 lbs., active and with great endurance. He would work all day with his men in the field and several hours at night in his shop, at his various side activities. He was an excellent mechanic without modern tools and must have been very ingenious for he built his shop and water wheel to power it. The water wheel was a twelve foot overshot about 30" wide as I remember the remains of it. I am not sure whether the power was transmitted to the shop by rope drive or by wooden gears, but it also ran the shieve for the rope drive to the West barn, about seventy-five feet away where the threshing, wood sawing and grain cleaning was done. As side lines to farming he dressed flax, made brooms, sawed stone, made shingles and rope. To aid the farming he threshed, sawed wood and cleaned grain, also ground feed. EZRA REED BENTON, son of Wm. A. 1st and Betsey Reed, was the fourteenth of fifteen children ( two mothers) born at Troutbeck, Leesville. He grew up at home and worked with his father on the farm and at the side lines of the business which Grandfather ran to augment his income. 40
