Ananias Rogers Sackett

Extract from The Sacketts of America

Ananias Rogers Sackett, ... 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.