Phineas Cadwell, a patriot of the American Revolutionary War, was born in Hartford, Connecticut on February 28, 1757. In 1776, at age 19, he enlisted with the 18th Regiment, Connecticut Militia and was discharged with the rank of Corporal on March 6, 1780. He married Eleanor Heydon on Christmas Day, 1780, and they lived in Harwinton, Connecticut, where they kept an inn and had four children. In 1801, they moved to New York, where he farmed and taught school until he became blind at age 70. After Eleanor died in 1841, Phineas moved nine years later at age 93 to the Town of Yorkville in Wisconsin, where in the last years of his life he helped found what is now known as the Union Grove Congregational Church and served as its first librarian. In 1856, he received a government land grant of 160 acres in recognition of his war service, and he died the next year on February 11, 17 days short of his 100th birthday.