A Modern-Day Relative Helps Fill In The Story Of Silas Camp

By Jan Howard

A Bethel man has discovered his connection to a lonely grave in Newtown.

It was several years ago that Charles Hurd of Bethel first noticed the solitary tombstone of Silas Camp located off Route I-84 near Tunnel Road in Newtown. He has since driven by the location of the grave many times. However, it never occurred to him it could be of personal interest to him.

 He did not realize it could be a part of his family’s history until he read a recent story about the grave  in The Newtown Bee and recognized an ancestor’s name.

“I had no idea it was in anyway related to my Barnums,” he said recently.

However, after reading The Newtown Bee story, he telephoned the newspaper about his belief that he was a descendant of Mr Camp, who died February 23, 1771, in Newtown at the age of 35 of smallpox.

 Because it was believed the contagion could survive death, smallpox victims were often buried far from the town and houses.

 When Interstate-84 was designed, the road had to be moved from its original path to avoid the lone grave. While the solitary tombstone was visible from the highway for several years, the location of the grave is now obscured from view by the overgrowth of trees and brush.

Mr Hurd came to The Newtown Bee, bringing his family Bible, a photograph, and a genealogy of the Barnum family.

As it turns out, he is not a direct descendant of Silas Camp as was first thought.

A scrutiny of the Bible and the Barnum family tree turned up information to clarify some assumptions made in the original story about Silas Camp.

Some of the information uncovered was correct. As Ezra Johnson wrote in his book, Newtown 1705-1918, Mr Camp was descended from Samuel Camp, who settled in Newtown in 1707, and his wife, Rebecca Canfield. Their son, Lemuel, and his wife, Alice Leavenworth, had several children, one of whom was Silas Camp, though Mr Johnson does not list him. Town birth records, however, state that Silas Camp was a son of Lemuel and Alice.

Silas Camp did marry Mary Sheperd as indicated in Mr Johnson’s book and in town records. However, his brother Joel, and his wife, Ellen Jackson, had a son, Silas, who died in Newtown on December 8, 1825, at age 50. He is the father of Emma, Marietta, and Edson Camp, not Silas and Mary Camp as originally thought. Emma Camp married Isaac Barnum, Mr Hurd’s ancestor, on April 14, 1830.

 So, though Mr Hurd is not a direct descendant of Silas Camp, who lies in the lonely grave near I-84, he is a descendant of his brother, Joel.

 Mr Hurd had no idea of the relationship, but someone in the family knew of the grave near I-84. In the Barnum genealogy under the maternal ancestry, Camp Branch, it was noted after the name Silas,  “bur beside highway 84.”

Mr Hurd can also claim P.T. Barnum as an ancestor in the same way. His Barnum lineage comes down from a brother of P.T. Barnum.

A lifelong resident of Bethel, Mr Hurd lives in a farmhouse that has always been owned by persons of Barnum lineage. The original house burned down about 100 years ago, and was rebuilt on the original foundation, he said. 

His great-grandparents, Charles and Emma (Barnum) Grumman, once lived in the house across the street, he said. Emma Grumman was the daughter of Isaac and Emma (Camp) Barnum.

It is believed that Isaac and Emma (Camp) Barnum lived in the house across the road.

Mr Hurd is not a direct descendant of Silas Camp, but his lineage goes back to those early Camps who settled in Newtown. But what about Silas? Mr Johnson’s book contains no references to any children of Silas and his wife. Do people live today, perhaps in this area, who are able to trace their family tree back to the man whose remains lie in a solitary grave near Tunnel Road?