ERASTUS BRAINERD, JR.     The eldest son of Erastus Brainerd sen., was born at Portland, Conn , July 27th 1819.  He attended the public school in his native town for a short time, and was then sent to a private school in Boston where he remained for two years.  He then took a preparatory course of study, commencing with Rev. Mr. Corson, at Windham, Conn., and afterward at Guilford, intending to enter the military school at West Point. Circumstances, however, induced a change, and at the age of 21 he entered the office of the quarry company, which was then owned principally by his father and his uncle.
     Subsequently the management of the business devolved on him in connection with Mr. Frederick Hall, and after his father's death he assumed the management of the entire business.  It was then a partnership concern, but owing the complications arising from a diversity of interest it was organized into a stock company and Mr. Brainerd was elected president and general manager.
     It is to his ability, his honesty, integrity, and uprightness of character that he owes his advancement in life, although he inherits from his worthy ancestors those virtues that have characterized them though each successive generation.  His individual history is stamped on the history of the Episcopal church of Portland, of which he has been a lifelong member, and his generous gifts to that and other benevolent objects are too well known to require repetition in a biographical sketch.
     While he has always been ready to assist in every political movement that tended to promote honest legislation and place good men in office, he has invariably declined to accept office himself except on one occasion in 1880, when he was one of the presidential electors that helped to elect Garfield.
     On the 10th of October, 1843, he married Emily H., daughter of Captain Henry Churchill of Portland, by whom he had one child, Emily C., who was married to Charles H., son of Captain Charles Buckley, of Southport, and who while traveling with his wife on the Continent, died in Paris, leaving three children.  She was subsequently married to George P. Hart, of New York city.
Source:  History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, Published New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884 - Page 535

BRAINERD FAMILY, of Chatham.
     Othniel Brainerd, son of Abijah, of Haddam, born June 5th, 1728, married Lucy Swaddle, May 10th 1750 and resided in Middle Haddam Society for a time, and finally removed to East Hampton, where he died,  Dec. 10th 1816.  His wife died in 1763, and he married Jerusha, widow of Samuel Kilbourn, who died Aug. 10th 1806.  His children by his first wife were: Lucy, who married Isaac Brown; Lois, who married John Johnson; Othniel jr., Azuba, Esther, and Seba.  By his second wife: Ansel, Abigail, and Oliver.  Oliver married in 1793, Lucy Rogers, and after her death, Anna, daughter of Adonijah Strong.  He resided north of the lake, in the house now occupied by William Grover, and had nine children: Aristobulas; Jerusha, who married William Utley; Lucy, who married Erastus Buck; Adonijah S.; Ursula married John G. Hinckley; Betsey married Warren Veazy; Mary, married Francis Gilbert; Elizabeth, married Marvin T. Nash; and Amanda who married Nathan Levee.
     Othniel Brainerd, jr., married Grace Stocking in 1782.  He served seven years in the war of the Revolution, and about two years before it closed received an orderly sergeant's warrant.  He died in Madison county, New York, May 27th 1832.
     James Brainerd, jr., son of James, of Haddam, married, July 10th 1744, Rebecca, daughter of Jacob Hurd.  He died in 1740, before the birth of his youngest child, Ichabod, who was born August 19th of that year.  His other children were Abigail and James.  James married Mercy Stocking, Oct. 29th 1771, and died May 2d 1797.  Their children were: Jared, who married Henreietta Smith; Mercy, Lucy, who married Jeremiah Taylor; Parsons, James, George, Russell, and Abigail.
     Joshua Brainerd, born May 20th 1707, son of Caleb Brainerd of Haddam, settled in the east part of Middle Haddam, and was released from paying taxes for the support of the society in 1748, and allowed to pay his rate to East Haddam.  He was married three times, and by his first wife had a son Abner, who was born May 1st, 1731, and lived in Chatham.  Abner married, first, December 29th, 1756, Elizabeth Champion, of  Eat Haddam, who died i 1758, and in 1761 he married Elizabeth Burr.  His children were Elizabeth, Joshua, Abner, Caleb, Dorothy, Seymour, Gurdon, Jeremiah, Mary, and Jared Warren.  Joshua married Hannah Foster and was the father of Julius Brainerd, who lived in the Tarsia District, near the school house.  Jeremiah married Elizabeth Green, and settled in Rome, N. Y., and was a man famous for his ingenuity and firmness of character.  He was a contractor on the great Erie Canal and built the first weigh lock and the first canal barrow in its present shape that was ever made.  His inventions were numerous and useful.
     Ozias Brainerd, son of Jedediah Brainerd of Haddam, and Nathan Brainerd, son of Nathan and Sarah (Gates) Brainerd of the same place, resided in the Young Street District and had large families.  Nathan married, for his first wife, Content Hannah, youngest daughter of Benjamin Smith.  After her death he married Lydia, widow of Jabez Brooks, and youngest daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Bowers.  He died April 29th 1809, and is buried in the Young Street Cemetery.  Other families of the name have resided in different parts of the town, all of them descending from Daniel, one of the first proprietors and settlers of Haddam.
     Samuel Brown, whose parentage has not been ascertained, married, Apr. 27th, 1758, Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Brainerd, and resided in the east part of East Hampton Parish, not far from the Colchester line, near the Lyman Viaduct.  He died January 11th, 1795, aged 65 years.  Their children were Elizabeth, Samuel, Susannah, Mary, Enos and Abner.  Samuel Brown jr. married, first, Mary Kellogg, by whom he had four children, Clarissa, Cyrus, Polly and Samuel.  His wife dying, he married Sibil, widow of Loren Cowdrey, and by her he had two children, William A. and Arminda.  He served in the war of the Revolution, and resided in the East School District, in the house now owned by James Daley.
Source:  History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, Published New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884 - Page 202

BRAINERD FAMILY, Haddam.
     The Brainerds in America are descended from Daniel Brainerd, one of the proprietors of Haddam.  No attempt is known to have been made to connect him with any line in England.  Undoubtedly he came, as a child, with some relatives who were emigrating from Essex or Warwick county, to Massachusetts Bay.  Very complete records of emigration were kept for the period which embraces the time of the boy's arrival in America.  When about eight years old, in 1649, he was brought to Hartford, and lived in the family of Governor George Wyllys, who had in 1636, purchased a property which included land on which the Charter Oak grew, and had occupied it in 1639.  Wyllys became governor of Connecticut in 1642, and died in 1644.
     The Brainerd boy grew to manhood in this family, and when 21, in 1662, became one of the twenty-eight original proprietors of the old town of Haddam.  He is described by Dr. Field, as a prosperous, influential, and very respectable man; a justice of the peace, and a deacon in the church, and the largest landholder in the town.  He married Hannah Spencer, a daughter of Gerrard Spencer, of Lynn, Massachusetts, who afterward removed to Haddam, and subsequently married one Hannah Sexton.  Seven sons and one daughter were the fruit of the first marriage, and the only children of Daniel Brainerd.  He died Apr. 11th 1715, and is buried in the old burying ground in the centre village of Haddam.  The children of Daniel Brainerd were Daniel, Hannah, James, Joshua, William, Caleb, Elijah, and Hezekiah.
     Daniel and Joshua located in what is now East Haddam; William, in what is known as Haddam Neck; James, Caleb, Hezekiah, and Elijah, remained on the west side of the Connecticut River in the present town of Haddam.  The only daughter, Hannah, married George Gates, one of the proprietors, and also dwelt on the west side of the river.
     The descendants of Daniel Brainerd settled in Vermont, in Central and Western New York, and in various parts of Connecticut, but many of them remained in Haddam; so that Dr. Field, in his genealogy, says, that when he settled in that town the descendants bearing the family name "were more numerous in the congregation and in the schools than those of any other settler."
     The Brainerds of Haddam are almost all thrifty, industrious, sober landholders, holding to the Calvinistic doctrines and Congregational church order of their ancestor.
     The most eminent of these descendants was David Brainerd, the Indian missionary, who died October 9th 1747, aged 29 years and 6 months.  His qualities of head and heart won the regard, admiration, and affection of so great a man as Jonathan Edwards.  Miss Yonge in her book, "Pioneers and Founders," calls him the "Enthusiast."  Dr. Sherwood, in his edition of the life Brainerd, just published says:
     "No eulogy can exalt such a man.  The simple story of his life proves him to be one of the most illustrious characters of modern times, as well as the foremost missionary whom God has raised up in the American church - one whose example of zeal, self-denial, and Christian heroism has probably done more to develop and mould the spirit of modern missions, and to fire the heart of the Christian church in these latter days, than that of any other man since the apostolic age.  One such personage, one such character, is a greater power in human history than a finite mind can calculate."
     John Brainerd, David's younger brother, took his place in the Indian Mission, and carried on the work he began, and was hardly inferior to his elder brother in the great qualities which go to make up the missionary character.
     Many of Daniel Brainerd's descendant's have attained to considerable position in the land.
     Jeremiah Gates Brainerd was for twenty-three years a justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut, dying the 7th of January 1836.  His eldest son, William F. Brainerd, of New London, was a prominent lawyer, and quite famous as a wit and an orator.  He died April 27th 1844.  His second son, Dyar Throop, was an eminent 1844.  His second son, Cyar Throop, was an eminent physician, and lived to a very advanced age.  His third son, John G. C., is of fame as a poet, occupying, it is said by critics, a very high rank in the second class of American poets.  He died in 1828, at the age of 32.  Mary, a daughter of William F., and now living in New London, seems to possess much of the poetical talents which her uncle exhibited.
     Many of these people served in the Revolutionary war, both in the army and on board privateers, but it does not appear that any one rose about the rank of captain.
     Daniel Brainerd was an eminent medical professor and surgeon in St. Louis, and subsequently in Chicago, where he held high appointments in surgical institutions.  He died quite recently.
     Thomas Brainerd was a foremost clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, long settled in Philadelphia, famous as a faithful preacher and pastor, eminent as a platform speaker, and a leader in patriotic effort during the war of the Rebellion.
     Lawrence Brainerd was well known as a thriving farmer and merchant at St. Albans, Vermont, where he accumulated a large estate.  He was prominent as a leader in the anti-slavery movement, and at one-time represented his State in the United States Senate.  He died shortly after the close of the late Civil war.
     Silas and Erastus Brainerd, brothers, acquired both prominence and wealth as the owners of one of the largest sandstone quarries in the country, at Portland, Connecticut.
     Other members of this large family were known as jewelers in New York, and are now represented in that business by Amasa Brainerd.
     Jeremiah Brainerd, of Rome, New York, had great reputation in the days of the building of the Erie Canal, as a builder of bridges, an inventor, and a natural civil engineer.
     Rev. John Brainerd, D. D., now a comparatively young man is a prominent minister in the Episcopal Church.
     In local fame Ezra Brainerd, who resided in Haddam Neck, is entitled to the first place.  Born 17th of April 1744, in early manhood he became manager of the quarrying interests near him, which some became large and important.  He was a deacon in the Middle Haddam church for 66 years, a justice of the peace for very many years, and for a long series of years represented the town in the General Assembly, and acquired to a universal degree the confidence of his associates.
     Perhaps the best known member of this family, who still retains an active interest and home in Haddam, is Cephas Brainerd, of New York, the sixth in direct descent from Daniel Brainerd, and the son of Cephas Brainerd, of Haddam, Connecticut.  He was born in that place, September 8th, 1831.  His education was obtained at the schools in his native town, which he attended each winter until his 18th year, spending the summers in labor of the farm.
     At the age of 19, he entered upon a course of historical and general reading tending toward the line of specific study which was necessary for entering the profession of the law.  The year following he began a thorough study of Blackstone.  By a rigorous method, he made himself master of the elementary books placed in the hands of law students.  After two years' practical training in New York, in the office of the late Chief Justice Curtis, he was admitted to the bar in September 1855, and shortly after became managing clerk in the office of the Hon. Truman Smith and Mr. Ebenezer Seeley, and soon acquired an interest in their business.  In 1860, he engaged in business alone, though retaining offices with Mr. Seeley until his death in 1867.  He won at first, and held until the last confidence and warm personal interest of those two men, one perfect in his mastery of the law and the other inexhaustible in the personal resources of the advocate and debater, and to his association with them is due in great measure his own professional character.  While holding for a short time the office of arbitrator of the Mixed Court under the slave trade treaty with Great Britain, his attention was turned to international law, for the study of which he acquired and has always sine had a strong liking.
     His success and position in the legal profession is best determined by the nature and importance of the interests entrusted to his care.  Some of the matters in which he has been professionally concerned may be noted here.  In September 1864, with Mr. James S. Stearns, a former fellow student, acting as counsel for the Merchants' Relief Committee of the city of New York, and representing the claims of one thousand negroes whose property had been destroyed by the rioters in July 1863, they submitted an argument which was the basis of the opinion of the court sustaining the constitutionality of the law imposing upon cities the responsibility for damages occasioned by rioters.  He was associated with Hon. Lyman Tremain and Mr. John R. Dos Passos in the second trial of Edward S. Stokes for the murder of James Fisk jr., and in the appeals which were subsequently taken, and in the third trial which followed.
     His first appearance before the United States Supreme Court was as junior counsel with Truman Smith.  The case involved very important questions of law, and success was the gratifying result of the first efforts of the young man, and the last of the old before that high tribunal.
     He appeared before a committee of the State Legislature to advocate a reorganization of the public school system in New York city, which, though rejected then, has since been in substance adopted.  He ahs also appeared in behalf of grave interests before committees of Congress.  Once in the efforts made by the merchants of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, to abolish the system of informers in connection with the custom houses, he was one of the counsel for the committee of the Chamber of Commerce of New York.   He made an argument, subsequently printed and entitled "Book Seizures, Moieties and Informers Indefensible."  Congress adopted the recommendations made by the merchant committees.
     After a ten years' struggle, in which he has borne a prominent part, making five oral arguments and printing six, Congress decided that the claims of those for whom he appeared - upon the Geneva award - uninsured ship owners, whose vessels were destroyed, rebel cruisers not found culpable by the Geneva Tribunal, were superior to those of non-premium payers, while the claims of the insurance companies, who received large premiums to cover war risks, were rejected.
     While thus attending to professional duties, Mr. Brainerd found time for philanthropic labor.  He was for 27 years superintendent of the Sunday school of the Seventh Presbyterian Church in New York.  For ten years he was connected with the New York Prison Association, as one of its managers and its recording secretary.
     The best service he has rendered in this connection has been in the Young Men's Christian Association.  Joining the society in the second year of its existence, and receiving through its agency and divine impulse which made him an active and pronounced Christian man, he has rendered to it in return a service, the value and extent of which can hardly be over estimated.  He has been one of the most active, efficient, and self-denying of the directors of the New York Association since 1857, when he became a member of the board.  But he has rendered a far wider service to this Christian work for young men.  In 1865, he was chosen president, for that year, of the International Convention of Young Mem's Christian Associations.  In 1866, he was elected a member of the executive committee of that convention, becoming, in 1868, its chairman, a position of high responsibility he has held ever since.  At that time, the committee, consisting of five members, all residing in New York, was the agent of some sixty-five societies, which were expending but a few thousand dollars annually.  It now has thirty-three members distributed throughout the leading cities of the continent, and is the agent of 850 societies, which require in their work over $600,00 per year.  Then the committee expended a few hundred dollars yearly; in 1884, the convention entrusted it with a many-sided work involving the expenditures of over $35,000.  In all this growth, the work of the committee, under Mr. Brainerd's leadership, has been a most important factor.
     From the most comprehensive sketch yet made of the history of the Young Men's Christian Association, we quote the following:
     "No account of the international work would be complete without mention of its chairman for the last 15 years, Mr. Cephas Brainerd.  He, in the beginning, and when it was unpopular, grasped the basal ideal of the work by young men, and he has clung to it tenaciously throughout."
     Every report of the committee to the conventions has been written by him.
     Till 1872, the entire correspondence was conducted by him, and has since that time been under his careful supervision.  The various secretaries of the committee have prosecuted their work under his direction.
     This remarkable unsalaried service for so many years by one thoroughly qualified leader has been of incalculable service to the work for Christ among young men in this and other lands.
     Mr. Brainerd has lived to see his correct conception and understanding of the associations, unpopular at first, gain at last general approval and ascendency.
     Mr. Brainerd was married Jan. 12th 1859, to Eveline, daughter of Dr. Ira Hutchinson of Cromwell, who had spent 35 years of his professional life in Haddam.  Three children born to him are all living:  Cephas Brainerd jr., Ira H. Brainerd, and Eva W. Brainerd.
Source:  History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, Published New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884 - Page 406

BRAINERD FAMILY, East Haddam.
     Among the early settlers from Haddam was Daniel Brainerd jr., who settled at the lower end of the Creek Row, near the spring just below the Royal Ayres place.  His father, Daniel, came from England when eight years of age, and was the ancestor of the Brainerds in this county.  He settled in Haddam in 1662, and was prosperous and influential man, a justice of the peace in the town, and a deacon in the church.  The family is very numerous in th is part of the country, and has always ranked among the highest in wealth and influence.  Two doctors, Daniel and Hezekiah, were eminent physicians; Thomas, Israel, Timothy G., Elijah, and Nehemiah were popular ministers of the gospel; Hon. Jeremiah and Hon. Hezekiah gained much distinction as legislators and judges, while David and Rev. John earned world-wide renown as missionaries among the Indians.  The latter two were children of the Hon. Hezekiah.  Their older sister married Gen. Joseph Spencer, of Millington, in whose family David, the eminent missionary, lived for four years.  David's labors were for a long time with the Lennie Lanape and other tribes along the Delaware River.  The finest church in Easton, Pa., is Brainerd Church, a fitting monument to his name and fame.
     Daniel Brainerd, the original settler, had eight children, as follows: Daniel jr., Hannah, James, Joshua, William, Caleb, Elijah, and Hezekiah.  All the Brainerds in this country are said to be descendants of these children.  Of this town, William O. and Abby Brainerd, Mrs. Silas Nichols, Judah and Benjamin Lewis, Milton, John, and Frank Brainerd, and many of the Days in Westchester, are descendants of Daniel jr.  The Gates descended from Hannah.  Joshua Brainerd's residence is marked by the old cellar mound, just south of Selden Brainerd's and from this branch descended Colonel Orrin Warner, Brainerd Emmons, Miss Lucretia Brainerd, and Mrs. Blakeman.  Joshua was commander of the first military company formed in East Haddam.  Erastus and Silas, the Portland quarry owners, are descendants of James.  Selden T. Brainerd, David B., and George Sexton, of East Haddam; Fisk and Henry Brainerd, of Haddam Neck, and Cornelius Brainerd, of Higganum, are descendants of William.  Caleb was the ancestor of David Brainerd, of East Haddam.  Mrs. Francis Palmer is a descendant of Elijah.  John G. C. Brainerd, a brilliant writer, editor of the Hartford Mirror and author of a book of poems from which the poem "Machit-Moodus" was copied, was also a native of this town.
Source:  History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, Published New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884 - Page 323