HON. JEDEDIAH SANGER
Hon. Jedediah Sanger will ever occupy a conspicuous place in the history of Oneida county, not only on account of his prominence as a citizen, but because of his sterling qualities of manhood, his eminence as a leading pioneer, and his foresight in planting in the community a standard of culture and enterprise which exists at the present day. He was a descendant of Richard Sanger, who came to Hingham, Mass., about 1636. His father, Capt. Richard Sanger, was a member of the Provincial Congress which convened at Cambridge on the 1st day of February, 1775, and also one of the gentlemen comprising the "committee from every town and district in the county of Middlesex and Province of Massachusetts Bay, held at Concord in the same county on the 30th and 31st days of August, 1774, to consult upon measures proper to be taken at the present very important day." (Note at bottom of page: See History of Sherborn and Holliston, by Abner Morse, and Journals of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts) The Rev. Dr. Sanger, great-grandfather of Col. William Cary Sanger, of Sangerfield, was a brother of Judge Jedediah Sanger.
Judge Jedediah Sanger was the ninth of ten children of Richard and Deborah Sanger, and was born in Sherburne, Middlesex county, Mass., February 29, 1751, (Note at bottom of page: Jones’s "Annals of Oneida County." Must have been 1752 to be a leap-year.) "consequently he had a birthday but once in four years." He received a common school education, interspersing his studies with work upon the farm.
In March, 1788, he arrived, the first white settler, in what is now the town of New Hartford, Oneida county, where he had purchased a thousand acres of land lying on both sides of Sauquoit creek, which divided the tract about equally. Upon this he at once began making improvements. His purchase included the whole of the site of the present village of New Hartford. Under the judge’s able management the immediate country was rapidly settled with a class of enterprising and intelligent men and women. He was the foremost man in all this section. In March, 1789, a year from the time he made his first improvements, he brought his family to his wilderness home, and the same year he erected a saw mill. In 1790 he built a grist mill, which was used for the purpose for nearly a century.
Judge Sanger possessed a master spirit of energy and decision, and was a man of strict integrity. Endowed with wonderful perseverance, imbued with the sterling principles of honesty and uprightness, he won universal respect and esteem and left a name which will forever grace the annals of local history. He was a man of indomitable enterprise. In 1796 he erected, through an agent, the first grist and saw mill on the outlet of Skaneateles Lake, now in the beautiful village of Skaneateles, Onondaga county. He was also one of the active and leading partners in the Paris furnace, which was erected in 1800 and went into operation in 1801. In 1805 he engaged in the manufacture of cotton. The town and village of New Hartford owed much to his efforts, and his death was greatly deplored.
In politics Judge Sanger belonged to the school then known as Federalist. He spent eleven winters in Albany as a member of the Senate and Assembly, having been elected to both of these bodies by the people. He was the first supervisor of Whitestown and held the office for three consecutive years. He was appointed first judge of Oneida county upon its organization and served in that capacity until 1810, when he resigned on account of the age limit. He died June 6, 1829, and upon his monument in the village cemetery was placed the following inscription:
"Sacred to the Memory of HON. JEDEDIAH SANGER, who died June 6, A.D., 1829. The founder of New Hartford. His charities are widely extended, and his munificence has reared and supported several edifices devoted to the service of his Maker. His virtues are indelibly impressed upon the hearts of his countrymen."
The members of his family raised a cenotaph in St. Joseph’s Episcopal church, New Hartford, with this inscription:
"Sacred to the memory of JEDEDIAH SANGER; born Feb. 29, 1751, died June 6, 1829. ‘He, being dead, yet speaketh.'"
Judge Sanger was married, first in May, 1771, to Sarah Rider, by whom he had four children. She died September 26, 1814, and on August 31, 1815, he married Sarah B. Kissam, who died April 23, 1825. October 3, 1827, he married, third, Fanny Dench, who survived him and died in May, 1842.
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