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▼Facts and Events
John died at age of 28 while spear fishing for salmon. The source above, p. 547, and several others (Source:Stratton, Harriet Russell. Book of Strattons, p. 2:45, and Source:Pierce, Frederick Clifton. Field Genealogy, p. 226) all give the following droll eulogy, which is on his tombstone. To make the incident sadder, John's wife, Roxana, died in a fit about a year later, leaving the three daughters to be raised by their grandparents Family:Samuel Stratton and Ruth Wright (1).
MEMENTO MORI.
Here lie interred where silence reigns
Mr. John Stratton's Sad Remains
Sam'el and Ruth once happy were
In Him, Their only Son and Heir.
In January, e'er the Sun
Had Eight & Twenty Curcits run
In Seventeen Hundred Fifty Six
With Mortals here on Earth to mix.
He first began; but lost his life
In Seventeen Hundred E1ghty-five
The first of June as in his Tour
Where Walpole Rapids foam and roar
He to a rock went down too nigh
To pierce the Salmon passing by.
The Rock's Smooth, Glassy, Sloping side
His feet betrayed, and let him slide
Plum down into a Watry Tomb,
No more to see his native Home
His tender Parents, lovely Spouse.
Or those bright Beauties of his House.
Three little helpless female heirs
Left to bedew his Grave with Tears
Alas, who can Their Loss repair,
Or ease the Widow's Soul of Care
Or furnish adequate Relief
To cure the Parents pungent Grief.
Father of Mercies, hear our Call,
Extend Thy Pity to them all.
Let Momentary Ills like this,
Issue in Everlasting Bliss.
▼References
- Temple, Josiah Howard; George Sheldon; and Mary T. Stratton. History of the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts, for 150 years: with an account of the prior occupation of the territory by the Squakheags: and with family genealogies. (Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1875)
546, 547.
John Stratton, s/o Samuel Stratton and Ruth Wright, b. 28 Jan 1756, drowned in the Conn. river at Bellows Falls, June 1, 1785, m. Roxana Field.
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