What Became of the Widow Ruth Ackley and Henry’s Children?

Henry Ackley died age 34 years old survived by a wife and six children in Chatham, Middlesex County, Connecticut. His widow was born Ruth Purple to Edward Purple and Mary Hodge about 1786. She married Henry in 1801 at Chatham, and they became parents to Lyman in 1802. A daughter, Betsey, followed a few years later in 1805. Two more daughters, Sophia and Caroline, joined the family in 1807 and 1809. Then in 1811 and 1814 two more boys, Hiram and Henry, completed their family.

In July I posted about 4^th Great Grandfather Henry Ackley’s April 24, 1814, passing and the administration of his estate in Chatham, Connecticut. It turned out there wasn’t enough money garnered from the sale of Great Grandfather’s personal estate to pay his creditors. It was necessary to sell some of his lands to pay off his debts.

Acting as Henry’s administrators, Ruth Ackley and brother Nathaniel Ackley sold two pieces of land Dec. 8, 1815. One acre sold to Mary Knowlton for $100. Mary Knowlton was Ruth Ackley’s mother and resold the home lot to Ruth that day.

The second land sale was more substantial. Dudley and Roderick Ackley paid $682.50 for 35 acres known as the Whitmore lot. The land stayed in the family as Dudley and Roderick were the sons of Henry’s brother James Ackley.

I wonder if Ruth was planning her family’s move to Smithville, Chenango County, New York when she mortgaged the remaining land owned by Great Grandfather March 10, 1823, to Nathaniel and Ogden S. Ackley for $1,500. Later deeds for this same property crop up which I’ll address shortly.

Ruth relocated the family to Smithville, New York where she executed a mortgage agreement for $700 with 88 acres as collateral July 8, 1824. Her land consisted of lots numbers thirty-six and thirty-seven of the second Township of the Chenango Triangle. Ruth and Henry’s eldest son, Lyman Ackley, witnessed the agreement.  

A few years after arriving in Chenango County on March 30, 1827, Lyman Ackley sold one undivided sixth part of the land formerly owned by his father to Uncle Nathaniel and cousin Ogden S. Ackley for $250 thereby giving up any legal rights to the properties. The deed covered three pieces of land (48 acres described below) situated in Chatham in the Society of East Hampton that his mother had mortgaged to Nathaniel and Ogden March 10,1823.

   Three pieces of Land lying in Chatham aforesaid East Hampton Society Bounded and described as follows (viz)  

   The first piece known by the name of the home lot, being the late home of Henry Ackley dec’d & Bounded Northerly partly on the land of said Nathaniel & Ogden S. Ackley and partly on land lately owned by Enos Brown dec’d Easterly partly on land of Nathaniel & Ogden S.

and partly on land owned by Martin Kellogg dec’d Southerly & Westerly on highway containing by estimation forty acres, be the same more or less with all the buildings thereon standing. 

   The second piece bounded Westerly on the land of said Nathaniel & Ogden S. Northerly on land owned by Martin Kellogg dec’d Easterly & Southerly on highway containing by estimation five Acres be the same more or less.

   The third piece bounded Northerly on land of George Evans  Easterly Southerly & Westerly by the land of said Nathaniel & Ogden S. containing by estimation three acres more or less

The following month on April 27, 1827, the Widow Ruth quitclaim her rights and those of her heirs to Nathaniel and Ogden S. Ogden for the same three parcels in Chatham described in Lyman Ackley’s recent land sale for $250. Most likely Ruth was quitclaiming her youngest sons’ rights to their father’s lands. Hiram and Henry Ackley were not of legal age to negotiate on their own behalf. The $500 would be split between them--$250 each.

Town of East Hampton, Middlesex Co., Connecticut

Deed Book 18, page 551

Like her brothers, Betsey Ackley, received $250 for her one equal undivided sixth part from her father’s estate Oct. 19, 1827.

Caroline Ackley was the next sibling to sell her undivided sixth part to Nathaniel and Ogden S. Ackley April 27, 1830.

On Jan. 5, 1832, Uncle Nathaniel and Cousin Ogden claimed all rights to Henry Ackley’s 48 acres when Sophia Ackley sold her share from her father’s estate for $250.

Within a few years, the Widow Ruth Ackley died March 14, 1834 (Age 48 years.) By this date all of Henry and Ruth’s children were adults.

Lyman, their oldest born 1802, married his cousin, Lydia Purple, in 1824. He resided in Smithville for some years before moving to McDonough in Chenango County. About 1866 Lyman and Lydia became citizens of Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa. They probably migrated west with their son Charles T. Ackley. Lyman died Sept. 27, 1867, in Waterloo.

Henry and Ruth’s eldest daughter, Betsey, is a bit of a mystery. I suspect she married a man named Taft. I’ve located ‘Betsey Taft’ living in the home of Caroline Ackley and husband Jonas Wight in 1850 and 1855 census records. She’s a good candidate to be Caroline’s sister. Betsey was born 1805 in Connecticut. The 1855 New York State census indicates Betsey was Jonas Wight’s sister-in-law and a five-year resident of McDonough. 1860 found Betsey working next door to Caroline keeping house for the Jefferson Matthewson family.

Only yesterday I found a death notice for Betsey published in the Chenango American, Greene, New York Thursday, August 26, 1875 issue:

  

    “In this town, Aug. 20^th, Mrs. Betsey, widow of the late Stephen Taft, aged 70 years.”

This presents a problem as daughter Sophia Ackley, born in 1807, married Stephen Taft and died in 1844 (according to Gale Ion Harris’ article “The Edward Purple Family of Connecticut and New York, An Overdue Account” published in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 137, No. 3, page 216.) It could be Betsey and Stephen Taft married after Sophia’s death. Or there’s two Stephen Taft’s who each married an Ackley sister. That’s a puzzle for another day.

My third great-grandmother Caroline Ackley married Jonas Sweetland Wight December 19, 1830. They lived in Smithville and later McDonough raising six sons. Caroline became a widow in 1878 when Jonas passed. She lived to be 85 years of age dying March 22, 1894.

Although I didn’t locate son Hiram Ackley in Connecticut deeds, I found him with his brother Henry and wife Sally, in Chenango County, New York land records. After Ruth died, the sons and young Henry’s wife sold the 88 acres she acquired in 1824 to David Grant of Smithville. Hiram passed away May 8, 1837, and rests near his mother in the Smithville Flats Cemetery.

The youngest Ackley child, Henry Jr., was born in 1814 and died in Iowa about 1855/6. He married Sarah Hotchkiss January 1834. A couple of years after they had married, Henry and Sally resided in Indiana before moving to Illinois and then Iowa. In 1871 Sally moved to Kansas with her son.