Nathan Washbon was a physician and a Tory, like most of that profession then, probably because of their education in British schools; [declining] to renounce inherited allegiances was frowned upon and oppressed. Many of them fled to Canada or Nova Scotia, while others moved out into the wilderness seclusion of Western New York. Of these the Washbons, Zeba and Zenas, settled in the Unadilla country in the Butternut Valley and reared large families. Daniel Washburn was the son of Zenas and Mary Cope Washburn.