Dr. Ezekiel Porter bought a lot off Main Street in Wethersfield in 1743 and sometime, from the 1750s to the 1770s, he built the house that stands there today, possibly for his daughter Abigail and her husband, the merchant Thomas Belden. Their son, Ezekiel Porter Belden, served as an officer in the Dragoons during the Revolutionary War. Later, the Porter-Belden house was the home of Mary Belden and her husband, Frederick Butler, who authored the first Complete History of the United States of America (1821). Their son, Thomas Belden Butler, served as Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Early in the twentieth century, the house was made into a multi-family structure. The paneling from two rooms, as well some of the family furniture, are now in the Brooklyn Museum.
What is the address of the Porter-Belden house? Do you know of a seed store that was next door? My grandmother says it was there in 1970 when she visited and that her father’s uncle James L. Belden ran it. I do not think he was James Lockwood Belden but I’m not sure. She thinks her father, James E. Belden worked there at some time too.
do you mean:
Comstock, Ferre & Co., LLC
263 Main Street
Wethersfield, CT 06109
?
Comstock, Ferre & Co., LLC is next to the Simeon Belden House, not the Porter Belden Home.