Lydia Allis

Biography

Lydia Allis and James Wing established a farming household at Hinsdale in Berkshire County, in western Massachusetts, after their marriage on September 20, 1781. The Wing genealogy places her birth at Hatfield, in Massachusetts’s Connecticut River valley, on December 25, 1761. She was nineteen when they married; James had already served in the Revolutionary War.

Their children arrived over more than twenty years. Sophia was born in 1785, followed by Dexter, Joel Allis, Judith, Augustus, James Otis, Orra, Austin, Lydia and Lucy Allis. The family register records that Dexter, Augustus, Austin and the younger Lydia died in infancy. Those brief entries mark repeated losses within a household that was still growing.

The surviving children’s lives took different courses while Lydia was alive. Sophia married Asahel Chamberlain in 1804. Joel trained as a physician and established himself at Albany, New York. Judith married William Hinsdale but died in 1814. James Otis was reported to have drowned in New York’s Honeoye Lake in 1817.

Lydia remained associated with Hinsdale, where James continued farming. She died in October 1840, after fifty-nine years of marriage. James survived her until August 1841.

The burial listing places Lydia Allis at Hinsdale Cemetery, Hinsdale, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States.