[ray_allis.ged]

An Ebenezer Allis shows up in South Hero, Franklin Co. Vt. in 1800 census. In 1810 an Ebenezer shows up in Shelburne Falls. This is either this Ebenezer or his Dad. According to Prodigy Note 10/4/92 He was known as Captain Ebenezer Allis (Ref:"Vanished Pioneer Homes and Families of Shelburne, Ma."by LS Bardwell,pg 2A); Marriage info according to 1994 IGI; Chr info according to NEHGR v52 (LR-C68)

Census Index:1790 MA Allis, Ebenizer, Jr.MA HAMPSHIRE CO. SHELBURNE 523 1790
580. JOHN FIELD (Eliakim, John, John, Zechariah, John, John, Richard, William, William), b. Hatfield, Mass., Aug. 25, 1760; m. in 1789, Lucy Look, of Conway, b. 1768 in Edgartown, Mass.; d. July 29, 1854. He moved from Hatfield to Conway. The territory of Conway originally belonged to Deerheld, and had no settlers previous to 1763. During that year Cyrus Rice became the first settler, and his daughter Beulah, born the next year, was the first child born in the town. Other early settlers were Israel Gates, Ebenezer Allis, Consider Arms, Elias Dickinson, Jonathan Whitney, Thomas French, Israel Wilder, Elisha Amsden, Solomon Field and John Boyden, whose son John, was the first male child born in Conway. Deerfield, Grafton, Barre, Leicester and Rutland furnished the first settlers. On June 16, 1767, "Southwest," as it was known, was incorporated as a town with the name of Conway. The first town meeting was held at the house of Thomas French, Aug. 24 of the same year, when Thomas French, Consider Arms and Samuel Wells were chosen selectmen, and Consider Arms, clerk. At a meeting held at Joseph Catlin's, three weeks later, measures were taken to procure preaching. and "to purchase law books." A committee was also appointed to find the center of the town, with reference to building a meeting house. The committee made a report at a subsequent meeting, which was "excepted," but it was not until after much contention, and the passage of nearly two years, that the site was fixed upon--about eighty rods south of the present Congregational church. Dec. 28, 1767, the first appropriation was made for a public school, to be kept five months by "a dame," which dame, Ebenezer Allis, Nathaniel Field and Benjamin Pulsifer were instructed to provide. There was no schoolhouse until 1773, when one was built a few rods northeast of the meeting house. The annual appropriation of money for schools, for the first six or eight years, was about ten pounds. In 1774, thirty pounds were voted, but the next year no appropriation was made, doubtless in consequence of war. This is the only instance, however, of failure to provide annually for schooling. The amount has been increased, from year to year, until, in 1854, the appropriation amounted to $1,200 for public schools, with an additional provision of scholarships in the academy, bestowed upon the most deserving pupil selected from the common schools. The town is divided into fifteen school districts. A select school has been maintained in the town for many years, and was taught through twenty-nine terms, by John Clary. In 1853, a handsome building was erected by subscription, and is now occupied by a large and flourishing school. The first meeting house, to which reference has already been made, was erected during the summer of 1769, but remained for a long time unfinished, except with a pulpit and a pew for the family of the minister. The internal arrangements of the house were not completed within twenty years. As the house was not warmed, a lodge was constructed within a short distance, at which a prodigious fire was kept on Sundays that was resorted to in the morning and at noon. Previous to the erection of the building, the town meetings were usually held at the houses of