Person Page - 3656

James S. Cooley was the founder of the Cooley Hardware Store in 1851, owned and managed by various members of the family for many years. The business originated under the name of J.S.Cooley & Co. Frank Gage was associated with the firm, but after a year or two retired, and his interest was sold to Nathaniel Nourse Cooley, who in 1867 retired because of ill health, and James S. Cooley became the sole proprietor, until in 1878 his son, Augustine Sackett Cooley, became a partner. In 1883 Albert Eugene Cooley, nephew of James S. Cooley, became a partner, and about this time the firm became known as J.S.Cooley, Son & Co.
"In December, 1888, the man to whose sagacity and enterprise the business success of the company was due departed this earth, esteemed by the community. Fortunately, the younger partners upon whose shoulders the business fell, were men fully equal to the enlarged responsibility, and it is no exaggeration to say that Messrs. A.S. and A.E. Cooley have more than maintained the reputation for fairmindedness begun by the founder of the business. The business now is recognized as one of the most successful and extensive enterprises of the kind in western New York. Not only do they keep an immense stock of light and heavy hardware, including all the latest novelties in tools and household appliances, but they also carry a large line of the most approved designs in stoves and ranges, with kerosene and gasoline stoves, etc. They also have a great assortment of farming implements, tinware, copper and ironware. They keep a large force engaged in manufacturing these because the name is everywhere recognized as a guarantee of material and workmanship. They are building up a wholesale and jobbing trade that promises to attain large proportions. It is such enterprises that insure the continued prosperity and growth of the village (Ontario County Times, Canandaigua, 1893).
James S. Cooley, after a business career extending over a period of nearly forty years, left a record without blot or blemish, and marked throughout by strictest integrity. He was an enterprising, public spirited citizen, honest and conscientious in all his dealings, a kind husband and father, an obliging neighbor, and one who was always ready to extend a helping hand to those in need. He was a member of the Congregational church, and was justly esteemed as one whose consistent Christian character was worthily exemplified in his every-day life (Ontario County Times, Canandaigua, Dec. 21, 1888).

Source:
Cooley, Mortimer. The Cooley genealogy: the descendants of Ensign Benjamin Cooley, an early settler of Springfield and Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Tuttle, Rutland, Vt (1941). (Researched by Chris Sackett).

George Sackett, for sixty years a prominent resident of Cuyahoga Falls, who was closely identified with its manufacturing industries, and many other of its upbuilding agencies, was born at Warren, Litchfield County, Connecticut, January 6, 1821, and died at Cuyahoga Falls, Summit County, Ohio, July 12, 1907. He was a son of Aaron and Hulda C. (Tanner) Sackett.
The Sackett family became established in Summit County in 1838, through the settlement here of Aaron Sackett and his household. Both he and his wife were born in Connecticut, and the maternal grandfather of George Sackett served in the Revolutionary War as an officer under General Anthony Wayne. In 1836 Aaron Sackett moved to Canandaigua, New York, that his children might enjoy the educational advantages of that place. In 1838 the Sackett family resumed their western journey and permanently settled on a tract of land in Tallmadge Township, where Aaron Sackett resided until his retirement from active life in 1868. He died at the home of his son, William Sackett, in Copley Township, at the age of eighty-four years. His sterling traits of character were reflected in his children, George being the third in order of birth.
Mr. Sackett attended two sessions of the Tallmadge Academy, and then his school days were ended. Up to the time he attained his majority he performed faithfully the arduous part that fell to the lot of the eldest son in a large famiily under pioneer conditions.When twenty-one years old Mr. Sackett began farming on his own account. His capital was $100. He leased a tract of land from the "Chuckery" Company, located in that section of the city of Akron now known as North Hill. Thanks to untiring industry, and the exercise of his unfailing good sense, these farming operations prospered greatly. Special attention was given to the production of wool and wheat raising. His farm at one time embraced the handsome total of 1,400 acres of excellent land.
Mr. Sackett was also interested in manufacturing enterprises, and was for a number of years the president of the Cuyahoga Paper Company. He was a man of superior business ability and accumulated an ample fortune. He engaged in coal mining, railroad building, and the general development of the country at Laredo, Texas, in partnership with Gov. A. C. Hunt of Colorado. At one time he had large holdings of real estate and mining properties in Colorado.
Mr. Sackett was from the very formation of the Republican Party its staunch and undeviating supporter. He was the president of the first Republican Club in Cuyahoga Falls. In 1867 he was elected County Commissioner by the Republican party and served three years. In 1879 he was appointed a member of the State Board of Equalization, representing Summit and Portage Counties, and he also served in lesser offices. His superior judgment was exercised in the performance of public tasks with the same fidelity as in the pursuance of his private business. He was a man of honor in all transactions.
In 1848 Mr. Sackett was married to Helen Williams of Auburn, New York, who died in 1851. Mr. Sackett was married a second time, February 9, 1854, at Tallmadge, Ohio, to Frances V. Grant, a daughter of William and Esther (Treat) Grant, of Orange, New Haven County, Connecticut, who, with one daughter, Mrs. A. F. Smith, of Cleveland, survives him.
In 1847, Mr. Sackett purchased a valuable farm of 200 acres on which he resided until 1867, when he purchased the property on Second street, where he lived until he completed the building of a fine residence in 1902 on Broad street, Cuyahoga Falls. This beautiful home remains the place of residence of his widow. In 1902 Mr. Sackett completed the sale of the city lots into which he had divided his farm, making the Sackett addition to Cuyahoga Falls now one of the most attractive parts of the city. For many years Mr. Sackett was an active, consistent, Christian, a member of the Congregational Church, to which he gave generous support both of money and time. Until within a year of his death, Mr. Sackett enjoyed as good health as usually falls to the lot of men of his years, while his mind remained clear, and his interest in his family and immediate circle of friends never ceased. He was the last of his family save one, Mrs. H. C. Grant, of this city. George Sackett's was a pre-eminently successful career. In it all there was nothing to conceal. He was from first to last honest, upright, industrious, a good citizen, neighbor and friend.

—William B Doyle, Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio

William C. Sackett, farmer; P.O. Akron; born in Litchfield Co., Conn., Oct. 29, 1827, the son of Aaron and Huldah C. (Tanner) Sackett; Aaron was born Jan. 7, 1791, and Huldah Aug. 10, 1793; they were married May 15, 1816, and the parents of ten children as follows: Theodosia, now Mrs. Seth B. Hall, of Huston, Texas; Harriet, now Mrs. W. A. Hanford, of Cuyahoga Falls; George, now of Cuyahoga Falls; Sarah, died, aged 14; Emeline, died in 1867, aged 42; William C., of Copley; Seth, now of Colorado; Maria C., now Mrs. Cornelius Kellogg, of Freedom, Portage Co.; Frances A., married Bruice Baldwin and moved to Missouri, where she died; Sarah M., now Mrs. H. C. Grant, of Cuyahoga Falls. Aaron was always a farmer; he died at the residence of his son William, June 8, 1872. The father of Huldah C. Tanner served in the Revolutionary War, and his widow drew a pension for many years previous to her death; Huldah was a member of the Congregational Church at Tallmadge; she died April 24, 1855. When the subject of this sketch was about 10 years of age, his parents removed to Ohio and settled in Tallmadge Township; William was educated mostly in the schools of Tallmadge; he attended the High School of Akron during the winter of 1848–49, when M. D. Leggett, formerly U. S. Commissioner of Patents, was Principal; then farmed land on Chuckery Plains north of Akron for about two summers. In the fall of 1851, he left Summit County for California and Oregon, where he remained four years. During most of this time he was engaged in mining, at first near Shasta City, which was then at the head of wagon navigation, and then for about one year in the neighborhood of Jacksonville, Oregon, situated at the head of Rogue River Valley. Mr. Sackett returned to Ohio in the summer of 1855, and in the fall purchased from George Sackett, his brother, the farm upon which he now resides; the land was then known as the Isaac C. Isbel property, and familiar to most people as the "Copley Swamp." Mr. Sackett was married in the year 1857, to Miss Hatty L., daughter of Henry Galbraith, of Akron; he is the father of four children—Clarence, died, aged 18; Hattie, died, aged 6; Ina, died, aged 4; William A., his only living child, is now a student of the Akron High Schools; he was born in March, 1866.

—William Henry Perrin, History of Summit County, Ohio