Anson Ackley

1797 - 1865  (68 years)

• Name	Anson Ackley
  Alternate birth	1797	Massachusetts   [1]
  Alternate birth	1797	New York   [2]
  Birth	6 Jul 1797	Litchfield, Litchfield, Connecticut   [3, 4]
  Gender	Male
  Alternate birth	Abt 1798	Connecticut   [5]
  Death	18 Dec 1865	Convis, Calhoun, Michigan   [6, 7]
  Person ID	I22498	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of GFS
  Last Modified	11 Jan 2019

  
  

  Father	Samuel Ackley,   b. Connecticut
  Mother	Nancy Landon,   b. 5 Feb 1771, Litchfield County, Connecticut d. 7 Dec 1859 (Age 88 years)
  Marriage	28 Aug 1788  [3, 8]
  Family ID	F13568	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Olive Holliday,   b. Abt 1802, Chenango County, New York d. 1861 (Age ~ 59 years)
  Marriage	1822  [9]
  Children	+ 1. Sarah M. Ackley,   b. Abt 1835, Lockport, Niagara, New York d. Aft 1900 (Age ~ 66 years)
  Family ID	F13558	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	11 Jan 2019

  
  

• Notes

  "[Charles H. Ackley] was born in Shenango county, New York, August 25, 1836, the son of Anson Ackley and Olive (Holliday) Ackley, both natives of the Empire state. They were among Michigan's early pioneers, coming across country in 1838 and settling in Monroe county, where they resided for a short time before coming on to Calhoun county. Arrived within the boundaries of the county, Anson Ackley located in Convis township in 1839 and on this homestead farm he and his wife lived until their term of life was ended. They were good citizens in the highest sense of the term and stood for all that was best in the many-sided life of the community. Ackley Lake in Convis township was named after Anson Ackley, this body of water joining his farm on the north. Under his roof-tree were reared to maturity seven fine children, three being boys and four girls. Today, the father of the immediate subject, and his sister, Mrs. Sarah M. Fitzgerald of Battle Creek are the only survivors of the number." [History of Calhoun County, Michigan: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People, and its Principal Interests by Washington Gardner. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1913. Volume 2, p. 655.] According to a 16 Dec 1950 Battle Creek Enquirer obituary for Samuel A. Ackley, a grandson of Anson Ackley, Anson and family came to Michigan in 1838 from Lockport, New York. From Portrait Biographical Album of Calhoun County (citation details below): [Anson Ackley] was a farmer and was engaged as a jobber on the Erie Canal when it was in process of construction. He likewise kept a tavern and built and operated a sawmill. He was at one time in good circumstances but was finally swindled out of his money. In 1837 [he] came to Michigan and made his way from Detroit into the interior of the State with a wagon drawn by oxen. In 1838 he located in Convis Township where he had purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land on section 2. He put up a log house with the help of his eldest daughter, and the family lived in that abode some years. In 1856 he located on the homestead now occupied by [the son of his son George W. Ackley] and erected here suitable buildings. He was successful as a farmer and he branched out into the milling business, putting up a mill in Convis Township. He erected a mill on Beaver Dam Creek and managed it successfully for years. He furnished three hundred thousand feet of plank for the plank road of which he was a shareholder. At one time Anson Ackley owned some three hundred and fifty acres of improved land and was in comfortable circumstances at the time of his death in December, 1865, at the age of sixty-nine years. He was first a Democrat in politics but voted for Fremont the first candidate of the Republican party, and he was a staunch Republican until he died. He was one of the pillars of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a Class-Leader and active in the Sunday-school. He was highly thought of by all who knew him and had a large circle of friends and acquaintances. He was very social and extremely liberal and open-hearted. He gave generously to all schemes for advancing the welfare of his township materially and otherwise, and the poor and unfortunate found in him a kind and sympathetic friend who relieved their necessities whenever he could.

  
  

• Sources

  [S2229] 1860 United States Federal census, on ancestry.com. [S2794] History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, Michigan: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers by Samuel W. Durant. Philadelphia: D.W. Ensign & Co., 1880. [S2795] Landon Genealogy: The French and English Home and Ancestry, with Some Account of the Descendants of James and Mary Vaill Landon in America. Part II: Boardman Genealogy: The English Home and Ancestry of Samuel Boreman and Thomas Boreman, Now Called Boardman, with Some Account of Their Descendants in America by James Orville Landon. New York: Clark Boardman Co., Ltd., 1928. [S2796] Portrait Biographical Album of Calhoun County, Michigan, Containing Full Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Representative Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1891., date and state only. [S2228] 1850 United States Federal census, on ancestry.com. [S2761] Michigan, Wills and Probate Records, 1784-1980, on ancestry.com. [S2794] History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, Michigan: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers by Samuel W. Durant. Philadelphia: D.W. Ensign & Co., 1880., year only. [S2797] Find a Grave page for Nancy Landon Ackley., month and year only. [S2796] Portrait Biographical Album of Calhoun County, Michigan, Containing Full Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Representative Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1891.