Person Page - 4213

Amherst.
October 30th, 1893.
Died, on the 27th instant, of old age, Mr. James Sackett. The funeral services were held on Sunday afternoon, at the residence of his son, Mr. William Sackett, conducted by Rev. John Berry, of Oberlin. Full particulars next week.

—The Elyria Republican, Elyria, Ohio, 2 Nov 1893, p 2

James Sackett, an old man about ninety years old, and who had been confined in the county jail and infirmary on account of insanity, a period covering about forty-seven years, died at the latter institution a few days since.

—The Elyria Republican, Elyria, Ohio, 2 Nov 1893, p 5

Death of an Old Pioneer.
James Sackett was born in Burns, Steuben Co., N. Y, March 2nd, 1804. and came to Ohio soon after his marriage with Charlotte Collins, which occurred in May, 1827. He bought a farm in Amherst and for several years their home was an exceptionally happy one. Four children were born to them, of whom two daughters died in 1852, and two sons are still living in Amherst. But a cloud was overshadowing the home, and soon a dark hand struck down and cancelled nature's best gift to the father, his reason, and he was adjudged insane and conveyed to the asylum at Columbus. His insanity was not inherited, but was the result of a wound inflicted on the skull in a fall from a tree when quite a young man. He speedily recovered from the blow and had no thought of further trouble from it. Several years elapsed and finally the indented skull pressed more heavily upon the brain causing intense suffering, and he began to fear that he would be insane. Aware of his great physical strength and the fact that his people were noted for longevity, he contemplated the long life of suffering that was in store for him and requested that no operation should be performed upon his skull--a promise his wife gave and always respected. Many of his years were spent in the asylum at Newburg, from which he was returned with several others, because Lorain county had more than her share of patients at that institution. On account of advanced age and because he was incurable he has been debarred from our overcrowded asylums for the last few years of his life, and his board has been hired in the insane department of the Infirmary. He died on Friday, Oct 27th, aged eigbty-nine years and eight months.

—The Elyria Reporter, Elyria, Ohio, 4 Nov 1893, p 8

One week ago last Sunday, friends and neighbors followed to its last resting place the remains of James Sackett, the father of William and Collins Sackett, of this place. He died at the infirmary the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 26th, of old age. He was 89 years old. The funeral service was held at the home of his son, Wm. Sackett, on the 29th. Those who remember Mr. Sackett years ago, before the accident that left his mind a blank, and from which he never recovered, speak of him as a true honest man, a man of deep Christian principles, and as he lay in that last deep sleep that knows no awakening he was the picture of a noble old man.

—The Elyria Reporter, Elyria, Ohio, 11 Nov 1893, p 1