I wrote this bio for my Mattoon website on Ancestry using my pen name morocco:
morcoco BIO OF ABEL MATTOON (1736-c1759)Abel Mattoon, the younger son of Gersham Mattoon (1690-1755) and Jemima Abell (1692-1740), had a long pedigree through his mother back to Charlemagne, but had an unfortunately short life, dying by age 24, apparently single with no descendants.We possess a few facts about Abel’s life. We have his birth date, 22 Mar 1736 (from town records in Connecticut). He had one older brother, b. in 1721 and 3 older sisters born in 1724, 1727 and 1729. His mother Jemima died in 1740 as he approached his fourth birthday. His father then married Abigail Chappel. One half-sister and 2 half-brothers were born in 1744, 1746 and 1747. During this period, the family moved from Lebanon to Hebron, Connecticut. Abel’s father, Gersham, died by 1755, when Abel was about 19 years old.
Incomplete muster rolls of the French and Indian War show some or all of Abel’s military service: under Capt. Joseph Savage [probably 9th Co. of the 1st or 2nd Regiment], from 2 Sep 1755 until 1 Feb 1756; then he was mustered 13 Apr 1757 in Captain Edmund Welles Eleventh Co. of Col. Phineas Lyman’s Regiment 6 Apr 1757. [Guertin, Iris Rose, compiler, Connecticut Soldiers, French and Indian War, 1755-62 (data base on-line), Provo. UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000, pp. 82, 189]
Abel Mattoon’s estate inventory filed by Abel’s older brother Philip 11 Jul 1760, in packet “No. 2109, East Haddam, Colchester Probate District.” [Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.] Estate includes Abel’s wescots, silk handkerchiefs and other clothes, 1 pair of brass shoe buckles, 1 colt, bridle, saddle, 5 sheep, some wool, 1 chest, 1 gun, 31 bullets, 1 powder horn, pocketbook with 15 shillings and 6 pence, 1 ink horn, 6 notes from various individuals in amounts ranging up to 6 pounds each, for a total value of 19 pounds, 3 shillings and 10 pence.
Additional inferences-- Abel’s inventory contains no hint that he was married or had children. Also, although he had several sheep, Abel’s inventory showed no real estate or farm implements, so perhaps he resided on someone else’s farm, such as his father’s farm. Although he was not wealthy, the fact that he had lent money to several people suggests that he was not impoverished. The ink horn hints at a capability or interest in writing. Speculation re death from illness, battle, or wounds suffered during battle. Connecticut soldiers suffered major losses at Fort William Henry in 1757 and the Fort Carillon in 1758. It is possible that as many as 2 or 3 years elapsed between his death and the filing of his estate inventory in 1760.
In addition to the tragedy of Abel’s early death, his biographical history has suffered severely from genealogical pedigrees that confuse his biography with that of his nephew, Abel Mattoon (b. 1752, d. aft. 25 May 1838). Many of these biographies wrongly show the uncle taking part in the Revolutionary War. Some biographies indicate that he died in Wayne Co., Indiana in 1821. This death date and place, although repeated thousands of times, could not apply to the uncle, who died 60 years before that in New England. (Nor do that death date and place apply to the nephew--see details in Abel Mattoon (1752-1838) this tree.
