This home sits on one of the original land grants to Samuel Wakefield as lot #30 and was built in approximately 1798. At some point, Samuel Wakefield sold the property but re-acquired it (the land transactions from this period are little fuzzy). With the land back in his possession at some point, Samuel sold the portion of Lot #30 under Caleb Parritt’s plot to his son Asa (b. 1807, d. 1880, m. Martha Smith) in 1829, who in turn sold to John Kingsley in 1833, and then to Samuel Wakefield Cleaves in 1836. However, property research indicates that the house might date to 1836 when Samuel Wakefield Cleaves purchased the land.

April 13, 1829: Samuel Wakefield III to Asa Wakefield

Location: “Commencing at Caleb Parritt’s* southwest corner at the shore thence running east across a large stone in the field near the bank and continuing the same course to the southeast corner of said Parritt’s lot thence south so far that a line running parallel with the first mentioned line to the shore and by the shore to the first bounds mentioned shall contain 25 acres…also, a certain tract adjoining the above commencing at the southwest corner of the above described piece thence east to its southeast corner thence south 16 2/3 rods thence west to a poplar tree at the shore, thence by the shore…to the first bound containing 16 2/3 acres the same being one-third part of the bottom half of lot #30.”

Note: 1 rod = 16.55; 2,640 feet x 412.5 feet; *Thomas Parritt’s original lot is #73, this would be the 25 acres just below that line.

Film #008297521, Image 183 of 591, Deed Book 36:337

December 17, 1833: Asa Wakefield to John Kingsley

SAME LOT AS ABOVE; Film #008297538, Image 26 of 568, Deed Book 36:39

April 8, 1836: John Kingsley to Samuel Wakefield Cleaves

SAME LOT AS ABOVE; $500 mortgaged over five years to John Kingsley; Note: John is the son of Samuel Kingsley (1742-1803) who owned Lot #3 but didn’t appear to spend time in Steuben; there is limited information on the Kingsley family. Film #008297538, Image 26 of 568, Deed Book 36:40

One of the three original Cleaves brothers (Oliver, Joshua, and Samuel), Samuel Wakefield Cleaves, also a farmer, joined them at some point before 1830. He began to purchase and mortgage significant amounts of land in 1836. In April 1836, he acquired a 16-acre lot within the original Lot #30 upper boundary, which I believe to be Steuben tax map lot #19 (16.5 acres). Samuel Wakefield Cleaves still resided at the property as of the 1861 Washington Country Map and 1870 census. He and his wife Leonice [Leighton] had four children (Elvira, Mary Ann [Shaw], Jason, and Sophronia [Barr]). Samuel’s wife Leonice died in 1879, and as of the 1880 census, he had moved in with his daughter Mary Ann Shaw and son-in-law in Gouldsboro. He died in 1890 at 86 and is buried in the Parritt family cemetery in Steuben.

Samuel Cleaves sold the property to Rev. George W. Atwater of Boston in 1877 and included additional property acquired since the original purchase (outlined in Atwater to Haraden, 164: 433):

October 22, 1877: S.W. Cleaves to George W. Atwater

Location: “On the north by land of Charles Haraden and others, on the east by land owned by the heirs of Freeman Davis, on the south by Sawyers lot and land of Evered Cleaves thence north on the head of the home lots of Evered Cleaves, G.P. Cleaves, and Edwin S. Leighton, the Telegraph Road so called, thence west to the shore by land of E.S. Leighton, thence north by the shore to land of Charles Haraden containing 76 acres more or less.”

Film #008297559, Image 114 of 615, Deed Book 146:199

George Atwater sold the property to Charles Haraden and Bartlett Brown on July 16, 1883 (164:433). As noted, the deed references the following properties included in the sale: land from John Kingsley to Samuel W. Cleaves, from Horatio Page to Samuel W. Cleaves in March 1849 (76:55), and from Charles Haraden to Samuel W. Cleaves in December 1860 (122:53). A few months later, Charles Haraden and Bartlett Brown sold the property to Charles’ daughter Inez (Haraden) Leighton (December 21, 1883; mortgage deed 166:274 and 165:427). Inez’s husband Osgood is the brother of Amesbury and Edwin Leighton (#428 Rogers Point Road). Inez sold the property to her mother Clara (Parritt) Haraden in January of 1886 (171:253). Clara kept the property for four years and transferred the property to her grandson Ralph in 1890 (198:191).