Josiah Yale

Captain Josiah Yale (1752 – 1822) was a politician and military officer from Massachusetts. He became an early settler and pioneer of Lee, Massachusetts, and was made Justice of the Peace and Minister Treasurer. He also fought in the Stillwater Alarms of the Saratoga Campaign during the American War of Independence, and was a deputy in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, serving under Gov. James Sullivan and Lt. Gov. Levi Lincoln Sr.

Biography Battle of Saratoga at Stillwater, New York, where Capt. Yale was engaged under General Rossiter during the Saratoga Campaign

Josiah Yale was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, on June 19, 1752, to John Yale and Eunice Andrews, members of the Yale family. His father John was the grandson of Capt. Thomas Yale Jr., cofounder of Wallingford, and the great-grandson of Capt. Thomas Yale Sr., cofounder of New Haven Colony. He would also lead his regiment toward the Stillwater Alarms with the militia companies of Lee and Lenox, Massachusetts. Rosseter was previously major in Simonds' Regiment of Militia.

Later career

The citizens of Lee came initially from Cape Cod, following the financial troubles they suffered during the American Revolutionary War, and Yale helped with the construction of the town's first meeting-house with iron materials and its iron church bell. His home became the old Yale house in the city. Capt. Josiah Yale died in Lee, Massachusetts, on May 13, 1822, at 69 years old. Smith was an intimate friend of Abraham Lincoln and President William McKinley, and became the father of socialite Elizur Yale Smith, who married the daughter of Col. Clermont Livingston Best, a member of Mrs. Astor's Four Hundred. Hearst's wealth came from the Homestake Mines that he owned in South Dakota at the time. Da Ponte was the daughter of Venetian artist Lorenzo Da Ponte, who built the first Italian opera house in Manhattan, and became a personal friend and associate of Mozart and Casanova.