The Rev. Ebenezer Booge (c, 1717-died 1767), was a Yale College graduate of 1748, and the first pastor of the Farmington parish of Northington (today the Town of Avon). His headstone and foot stone were carved by Gershom Bartlett (1723-1798). The Connecticut Gravestone Network notes Bartlett’s work of diamond shapes, “bulbous noses, turned down mouths, row of vestigial teeth...raised eyebrows, usually a four-lobed crown, and three curved wings of curls beside the face. Farmington’s Second Ecclesiastical Society was organized on November 20, 1751. Twenty-four members of the Northington Society entered into church covenant with their new pastor and adopt-ed a confession of faith. He was ordained one week later, on November 27, 1751. The inscription: The Rev’d Mr./Ebenezer/Booge Here lies interred ye/ Body of ye Revd. Mr./ Ebenezer Booge ye late/ Prudent Pious & Faith/full Pastor of ye Church/Of Christ in Northing/ton Who Departed this/Life Febr. 2d 1767 [age ?] 51 [in the 15th or 16th?] Year of His Ministry. Blessed is that Servant whom when his Lord [cometh shall find so doing. (Matthew 24:46); this bracketed piece taken from scripture and presumed to be what is hidden below ground.] Text from a second stone, placed in 1914 by Frank Ebenezer Miller (not pictured) REVEREND/EBENEZER BOOGE/BORN EAST HADDAM, CONN. MAY 9, 1716/YALE COLLEGE, 1748/ORDAINED FIRST PASTOR/ OF NORTHINGTON PAR-ISH/CHURCH, NOV. 27, 1751/DIED FARMINGTON (AVON)/CONN., FEB. 2, 1767/BELOVED OF HIS PEOPLE Captioned by Nora Howard, Avon Town Historian, Summer 2020. Sources: as noted and from online sources such as ancestry.com; the US Census, wikipedia, and pertinent websites. Also see Nora Howard’s essay on the Hadsell Family (also posted on Ct. Digital Archive). If you are interested in conducting more research, be sure to see the collections of the Avon Free Public Library Marian Hunter History Room. These captions were completed the summer of 2020 (except as noted) and the library was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
