Person Page 397

Josiah Jr.'s first wife, Sarah Dearborn Tilton was born in 1778 in Kensington about 20 miles from Deerfield. She was large, more than medium size, not fleshy but large framed, muscular, active and a hard, smart worker. Her eyes were blue (gray), her hair black, rather coarse while Grandsir's [Josiah Tilton, her husband] was rather fine. Her voice good - an excellent singer - sang counter - powerful voice, high pitch, was broad chested and shouldered and no hips, large hand, medium sized foot, high in instep - (father made her shoes numerous times). She was a woman of great executive ability, physical force, clear, strong mind and naturally high tempered yet pleasant. (M's comment was amiable, easy tempered and lover of home.) She and Josiah Jr. differed in religious belief. She was a congregationalist. Some points in baptism and perhaps in outward form and appearance she different in from Grandsir - he was sometimes disagreeable.

The Bagratids of Ani bore the title of shahanshah (“king of kings”), which was first conferred by the caliph in 922 upon Ashot II the Iron. In 961 Mushegh, the brother of Ashot III, founded the Bagratid kingdom of Kars. By the 11th century, the combined invasions of the Seljuk Turks and Byzantine conquests in the west destroyed what remained of the Bagratids and the Armenian...