Benjamin Barrett was born in Hindsdale, New Hampshire on June 22, 1760.  He was the son of Joseph Barrett and Sarah Brooks Barrett.  Benjamin served as a private in the Revolutionary War under Captain Benjamin Mann, with Colonel Moses Nichols’ troops in New Hampshire.  He married Dorothy Day in 1782, and they moved to West Greece around 1815.

Benjamin Barrett made the following land purchases in the area:

• August 1815 – paid $4,000 for 116 acres in lot 149 on the southeast corner at Hoosick hill.
• April 1816 – paid $260 for additional 26 acres surrounding the same lot.
• January 1818 – paid $200 for 60 acres in lot 122 near the northeast corner of Ridge Rd. and North Greece Road
• April 1819 – paid $1,470 for 163 acres in nearby lot 150
• May 1820 – paid $1,314 for 73 acres in nearby lot 131 and additional 37 acres in lot 149.

Being a prominent landowner, he sold lots to many of the other early settlers that would call the Hoosic area their home such as:  Eli Bond, Samuel Clark, Moses Everett, Asa Beebe, Dr. Samuel Bradley, John Patterson, Samuel Cushing, and Stephen Griffin.  

Benjamin Barrett presided at the organization of the 1^st Congregational Society of Parma and Greece and was one of the first six trustees elected.  The Congregational Church bought part of Barrett’s land for $1.00 to build the church in 1824 (located where Manitou Road is presently, next to the cemetery).  

In March of 1830, a temperance association for Greece was organized as an auxiliary to the Monroe County Temperance Society, and Barrett was elected as the first president.  Members of the local temperance association, their families, and laborers employed by them, were to entirely abstain from distilled beverages except in the case of illness.  Although there were taverns in the area, the Congregational Church insisted on a temperance pledge from its members.  Therefore, the taverns were frequented most often by travelers and not the local residents, like Benjamin Barrett. Benjamin Barrett passed away on December 12, 1831, and is buried in Hoosic Cemetery with his wife Dorothy, who passed away in 1829.