George A. Hardin and Frank H. Willard, eds., History of Herkimer County, New York (Syracuse, 1893)

Read in the archive.org full text for the Hatten research (research/hatten/Browne_Chapin_Cumins.md, October 2026). County history; compiled.

• Winfield (p. 369): “Abel Brace came here in 1793 from near Hartford, Conn., bringing with him his family of nine sons and five daughters, with his wife’s aged mother. Mr. Brace was a man of standing, had been a captain in the Revolutionary War and a member of the State Legislature. He built a log house not far from the present residence of his youngest great-grandson, Seward H. Brace … Abel Brace died in 1832 … When Mr. Brace came here there was no road from the Mohawk southward, and travelers were guided by marked trees. One of the Brace family, Charles, kept what was probably the first inn in the town in 1794.” And: “In the summer of 1792 David Wood and Jonathan Chapin settled on the south side of the stream, and in 1793 Deacon Charles Burt … located in the same neighborhood.”
• First town meeting of Winfield, 7 June 1816 (p. 371): “It is said that the snow was several inches deep on that day; it was the remarkable cold season which is still remembered by old citizens.” Charles Brace was elected a school commissioner, Asahel Brace a commissioner of highways, Charles Burt an assessor and David Wood an overseer of the poor.
• Wood’s Corners (p. 379): “In 1792 David Wood removed with his brother-in-law, Jotham Chapin, from Monson, Hampden county, Mass., being then twenty-seven years of age, and purchased of John I. Morgan two farms, then being in a wilderness … the other is known as the Palmer farm, which was many years owned by Vose Palmer.”
• Litchfield, first town meeting, 5 April 1796 (p. 384): “Supervisor, Abel Brace”; among the constables and collectors “Abel Brace, jr.”; among the school commissioners “Abel Brace.”