Re: BEARCE/BIERCE/ BEARSE Cornwall, Litchfield, CT to Danby, Tompkins, NY

I don't have any insight on the original questions, but I was interested to read the paragraphs below about Isaac, Jabez, and Joseph BEERS settling in Danby about that time.With the various transmutations of the family name, it would seem quite plausible that they might fit into the picture as well.

From "A Short History of Tompkins County", by Jane Marsh Dieckmann, c1986, DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, pp 60-61.

"The original settlers of the town of Danby came from Ithaca, where their claims to the land had proved invalid.They were seeking higher ground for their homes, away from the swampy area at the head of the lake.Isaac and John Dumond and Jacob and John Yaple built in the north and northwestern parts of the town of Danby in the spring of 1795.They were followed by Dr. Lewis Beers and his brother Jabez, who arrived in 1797 from Connecticut.Dr. Beers was an active civic figure as the first justice of the peace, the first judge of the Court of Common pleas, and the first (and only) president of the Ithaca & Owego Turnpike Company,...He built the first frame house in the community in 1801 and in 1801/2 established the first post office.He was its postmaster for several years andconstructed the town pound at his own expense (one-half of it was on a corner of his land).In addition to all this, Dr. Beers, who was of the Swedenborgian persuasion, found time to be founder and first pastor of the Church of New Jerusalem, which was organized in 1816 and became an important station on the Underground Railroad."

From "The Peopling of Tompkins County, ASocial History", by Carol Kammen, c1985, Heart of the Lakes Publishing, p116.

"The earliest schools within the county - such as the Dryden school which met in Amos Sweet's house, or the Slaterville log school (built in 1802), or the school in Danby (1799) taught by Joseph Beers, or Enfield's school erected in 1809, or the Groton hewed-log school of 1805 - were all incorporated into school district systems as required by the state 1812 law."