Rev Harvey Almeron Sackett

[Harvey Sackett] was by religious faith a Congregationalist, studied divinity and was graduated from the theological school of Yale College in 1835. For fifteen years after graduation he labored as a preacher and pastor in central and western New York. He then, partly through the influence of his wife, who had been a teacher, became deeply interested in the higher education of women, and applied himself to the work of stimulating public interest on that subject. He earnestly advocated the erection and endowment of a college for women that should afford equal advantages to those so long provided for men, and devoted not a little of his time and energy to securing, by public and private subscriptions, funds for that purpose. He was in fact the pioneer in that class of effort, which in six years resulted in the building of Elmira College, the first institution of its kind. He also took an active interest, with his wife, in establishing the New York Medical College for Women, of which he was a trustee to the end of his life.

—Weygant, The Sacketts of America