Person Page - 225

461. Ananias Rogers Sackett, 1760–1839, of the counties of Dutchess and Sullivan, N. Y., and of Forest Dale, Ohio, son of (148) Hon. Nathaniel and Mary Rogers Sackett, was married about 1785 to Eunice Meeker, daughter of Solomon Meeker, of Cape Cod, Mass. He was born, and for several years previous to attaining his majority was employed as a clerk in his father's store at Fishkill, N. Y. During the war of the Revolution he was an active member of Capt. Van Wyck's Company, of Col. Brinkerhoff's Dutchess County Regiment. From the close of the war to 1803 Mr. Sackett was engaged mainly in conducting a general store and a farm in the town of his birth. In 1803 he purchased two tracts of timber land containing together upwards of 500 acres, located a few miles west of Monticello, in the town of Thompson, in the present county of Sullivan, N. Y., and took up his residence there. At the same time he leased for a long term of years, from Guillian Verplank, Esq., a third tract in same vicinity, which contained a water power, on which he built a saw mill, and there engaged in the manufacture of lumber. In connection with this business he built a wagon road through the wilderness from Mamakating westward, which passed through his principal purchase and extended to Klines Flats, several miles beyond. This road was known as Sackett's Pike until it was taken up by and became a part of the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike, a highway which for over half a century was the principal avenue of travel from Cochecton on the Delaware to tide water at Newburgh on the Hudson. Mr. Sackett was one of the principal settlers of western Sullivan. Sackett's Lake, one of the most attractive sheets of water in Sullivan County was named for him. In 1814 he sold the before mentioned lands and leasehold to his brother Samuel for $6,400, and again "moving on into the wilderness beyond." He journeyed on his own conveyance and took with him his wife and daughters, and a few household goods, including cooking utensils. This was the usual mode of "moving west" in those days. Their starting point was Newburgh, from which they took their departure in 1814-15, and drove through to Benton, in the present county of Yates, N. Y. There they remained a year with Mrs. Sackett's brothers, David and Archibald Meeker. Then they resumed their journey, accompanied by two families from Benton named Green and Sales, but leaving behind them at Benton their eldest daughter, Sarah. In this second stage of their journey they frequently encountered wandering bands of Indians, and suffered many hardships as they made their way through the forest over almost impassable roads. Their start from Benton was made early in the year, and when they reached Alleghany River, down which it was their purpose to journey, they found it was yet frozen over. Here they encamped and built a flat boat while waiting for the ice to break. When at length the ice was out they sailed down the Alleghany to its junction with the Ohio, and then on down the Ohio to Gallipolis, where they tarried for a few weeks. While there their second daughter, Elisabeth, who had been educated for a teacher, secured her first school, at a settlement near Sand Forks, on the Symmes Creek. Mr. Sackett, with his wife and youngest daughter, Charlotte, then journeyed down the Ohio to Kentucky, and spent a year there on a hired farm near the mouth of the Big Sandy River, after which they crossed over into Ohio and settled permanently at Forest Dale.

462. Samuel Sackett, 1762–1841, of the counties of Orange, Dutchess and Sullivan, in the State of New York, son of (148) Hon. Nathaniel and Mary Rogers Sackett, was married, at Fishkill, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1788, to Polly Halstead, 17—?–1796, daughter of John Halstead. On Oct. 20, 1803, he was married to his second wife, Mary Bailey, daughter of Nathan Bailey, and his wife Abigail Pine. When a mere lad he met with an accident which shortened one of his legs. This unfitted him for military service, and during the Revolutionary War was engaged in his father's store at Fishkill. At first under the direction of his uncle, James Sackett, who had charge of the absence of Nathaniel, whose time was almost wholly given up to public duties. But presently, James Sackett threw down his pen, shouldered his musket and marched away with the patriot army, leaving the lad to conduct the business as best he could. That he succeeded as well as could have been expected under the circumstances, is made apparent by the fact that his father, a few years later, made him a partner in the business. About the year 1800, Samuel Sackett removed from Fishkill to Moodna [Modena?], Orange County, where he had purchased a property with water power, and there engaged quite extensively in the milling business, and in the purchase of grain from farmers of Orange and adjoining counties, which he shipped in sloop loads to merchants in New York City. In 1813 he disposed of his mill and grain business and purchased a farm at Monticello, Sullivan County, N. Y., on which he remained for twelve years. He then returned to Orange County, N. Y., and in addition to conducting a farm, established a general store at Little Britain Square, New Windsor, which, with the aid of Samuel B., his oldest son by his second wife, Mary Bailey, he conducted in a successful manner during the remainder of his life. His death occurred September 9, 1841, in his 79th year.
     It does not appear that Samuel Sackett ever held any public office of importance, but the records show that in the year 1897 he was sent by the "National Appean Highway Company" to explore a suitable route for the proposed turnpike road from Newburgh, N. Y., westward to Cochecton. He, however, took an active part in public affairs and was a pronounced partisan and outspoken man of business. This is shown by the following extracts from a letter now lying before the writer, which is dated, "Windsor Mills, Oct. 22, 1812," and was written by him to his oldest son, Dr. John Sackett, who had a short time previously been appointed an assistant surgeon in the Regular United States Army and assigned to duty at Charleston, S. C.
Polly Halstead, daughter of John Halsted, and the first wife of Samuel Sackett, died at Fishkill, Sept. 1, 1796. She was survived by her husband and two sons, but left no daughters. The following inventory, made by her husband after her death and previous to her burial, for the evident purpose of making a satisfactory distribution of the articles mentioned to her female relatives, immediately after the funeral was over, in accordance with a custom of the times, is too interesting to be omitted from this record. I copy it from the original, word for word, not omitting an added schedule of articles he possessed which she had made for him with her own hands:

463. Nathaniel Sackett 1768–1854, of Dutchess County, N. Y., and Butler County, Ohio, son of (148) Hon. Nathaniel and Mary Rogers Sackett, was married in 1792, to Elisabeth Terboss, daughter of Jacob Terboss, Jr. and his wife Sarah Dubois. Elisabeth Terboss Sackett died in 1822, and Nathaniel Sackett, at an unascertained date, was married to his second wife, Jane Stitt, of Woodford County, KY. Mr. Sackett, shortly after his marriage to Miss Terboss, settled on a farm near Wappingers, Dutchess County. Just how long he remained there is uncertain, but in 1814 he was a resident of Fishkill, in same county. In 1816 he determined to remove to the "far west," and disposing of his property in Ulster County, he set out with a two-horse conveyance on a seven hundred mile journey to Cincinnati, Ohio. He took with him his wife and two children, together with such provision and household goods as would be needed in camping out along the way, for a considerable portion of the route to be traversed ran through a wild and uninhabited country. Cincinnati was, at that period, a flourishing city of about twenty thousand souls.
     It was Mr. Sackett's intention when he started on this long journey, to make Cincinnati his permanent home, but on reaching that city concluded he could best provide for the future of his family by settling on a farm within marketing distance of the place, especially as farming land was cheap, rich and easily cultivated, while the market value of all farm products was unusually high. He therefore joined with a Mr. Piatt in the purchase of an extensive tract at what was then called Baker's Hill, in Butler County. Now Baker's Hill was in fact an extensive plain and a hill only in the sense that it was the highest ground in all that region. Nearly four long years passed away after Nathaniel Sackett left his home on the banks of the Hudson before his relatives in that vicinity heard a word from him. Then there came a long letter which eventually found a place among the treasured archives of the family. This well written old letter, folded after the manner of those days, is inscribed:
Opening it with care and spreading it out we read:
Mrs. Elisabeth Terboss Sackett died suddenly in her home in Monroe, Butler County, Ohio, a little less than two years after writing above letter. Her death was supposed to have been the result of copperas poison contained in some pickles, of which she partook at a dinner party given at the house of a neighbor.
Nathaniel Sackett died in 1848. He was buried in the village graveyard at Monroe, which during his life time had become a settlement of nearly three hundred inhabitants. He has founded and named the place and no other man had done so much for it as he. The sites of its churches, schools, a public park, and a cemetery, were his free gifts, and its townsmen sincerely mourned his loss.

464. Hannah Sackett, 1771–1832, daughter of (148) Nathaniel and Mary Rogers Sackett, was married, Dec. 19, 1703 [sic: 1793], to Joshua Arkills, 1766–1849.

465. Elisabeth Sackett, 1778–1862, daughter of (148) Hon. Nathaniel and Mary Rogers Sackett, was married to Eleazer Crosby.