Much has been written about the leaders among pioneers of Wayne County, who made it famous during the first three generations of Indiana's history, and the record is a most engaging and interesting one.
Among all this wealth of historical lore there lies buried the story of one of these men, whose great contributions to the development of the county and state has been largely overlooked and generally underestimated. This is the story of Dr. David F. Sackett, the first physician to practice his profession in the county, the first county recorder, the first postmaster at Salisbury and probably the first postmaster at Centerville.
The record of the many public services of Dr. Sackett is hardly less thrilling than that of his ancestry and the story of his posterity is equally interesting. Dr. Sackett came to Wayne County in 1810 and began the practice of medicine in the cabin of Rev. Hugh Cull, a local Methodist minister who lived near Elkhorn Church, about five miles south of the present site of Richmond. This was only five years after Holman, Rue, and McCoy had built the first cabins in the county and before the county was organized. The following year the county seat was located at Salisbury and late in 1812 Dr. Sackett moved his wife and three children to the new town and at once became one of the leaders of the community.
The Sackett family, which is of English origin, is one of the oldest in this country. John Sackett, ancestor of David, came from England with his brother Simon, in 1653, on the ship Lyon and settled in Springfield, Mass. One of his descendants moved to Kent county, Conn., and it was here that Dr. Samuel Sackett, father of Dr. David Sackett served two enlistments as surgeon during the Revolutionary war. The record of these services from the files of the pension office follows:
Claims 4811
Samuel Sackett was commissioned July 2, 1776, physician
and surgeon's mate of the Connecticut Militia and continued to serve until
sometime in 1779, then moved from Connecticut to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania;
on May 1, 1782 he was commissioned surgeon of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania
Militia and served until the end of the war.
Dr. David F. Sackett was born at East Greenwich, Conn., Jan. 18, 1780 shortly before his parents moved to Uniontown, Pa. They later lived at Georges Creek, Pa., where the elder Sackett engaged in farming. Young David read medicine with his father and attended a medical college at Philadelphia and engaged in practice at Green burg, PA. Here he was married to Miss Martha Milliken, in 1807. It was here that Sarah Lucid, the first of their 12 children, was born in 1808. That year they moved to near Hamilton, Ohio, where many of the relatives of Mrs. Sackett lived. After about two years there they came to Wayne county.
Few Settlements
When the Sacketts arrived at the Cull Cabin in 1810, settlements were few and far between and hunting parties of Indians ranged the nearby unbroken forests. About this time Tecumseh, the famous Shawnee chieftain and his brother, the Prophet, began urging western tribes to join in a united effort to drive out the white intruders and alarms were frequent.
One of those alarms came late in 1812, soon after the birth of Guleilma, third child of Dr. and Mrs. Sackett. The mother and the few days old baby were hastily carried to a near-by blockhouse where they remained several days. The alarm soon passed. The war party of Delawares, which had been reported approaching from Muncietown, probably had been diverted to the southwest.
This daughter became assistant to her father in the recorder's office and many of the documents recorded two decades later are in her handwriting.
It was not long after this scare that Dr. Sackett moved to Salisbury and became its first postmaster. The exact date of this appointment is not known. One of his descendants has a letter, written in 1813, which directed to him as "Postmaster, Salisbury, Wayne County, Indiana Ter".
Dr. Sackett served three terms of seven years each, as recorder of Wayne County. He probably was elected the first time in 1816. His name appears first in the records in 1813 as witness to a signature on a deed. Early deeds recorded are attested by George Hunt, clerk of court and sometimes as recorder, as sometimes both the initials C.W.C. and R.W.C. are used. The first signature, "David F. Sackett, Recorder W.C." appears in 1817. It was not long after this that the records were moved to Centerville, then about two years old. Dr. Sackett also became postmaster of the new county seat and held the office for about nine years. He continued to act as recorder until 1838.
In addition to his political services, Dr. David F. Sackett took an active part in the early medical history of the state. On Dec. 24, 1816, when the state of Indiana was only 14 days old, Governor Jennings approved an act of the legislature, providing for the licensing of physicians. It divided the state into three medical districts and appointed a Board of Censors for each. Dr. Sackett was named a member of the board for the Third district, which was directed to hold its first meeting at Lawrenceburg in May, 1817, to license physicians. there is no record that this meeting was actually held, but the fact that Dr. Sackett was appointed one of the board's members indicated that he was regarded as one of the leaders in this profession.
The Indiana Medical society was created by an ace to the legislature passed in 1820 and a provision was made for district societies. The state increased rapidly in population and by 1827 there was a new alignment of districts. In that year the Eleventh District Medical society was organized at Centerville. The district consisted of Wayne, Henry, Randolph, Adams and Allen counties. Dr. Sackett was chosen secretary and Dr. Joel Pennington of Richmond was licensed to practice.
After the expiration of his third term as recorder Dr. Sackett devoted his energies to the practice of his profession. When he first came to Centerville he lived in a two-story hewed log house on South Morton Avenue, south of where the Friends church now stands. Later he lived in a small brick house on South Ash Street near Main. One of Mrs. Sackett's neighbors here was Mrs. Rebecca Hoover Julian, another pioneer woman, and the two were fast friends.
The story of Dr. Sackett's descendants is no less colorful than his own. Two of his sons served in the Union army and one with the Confederate forces. Alexander Sackett born in 1820, went to Iowa at an early age and engaged in farming. When no more than 40 years of age he enlisted in an Iowa regiment, leaving behind a wife and six children. He was captured and after spending several months in Andersonville prison was exchanged and started for home on furlough. He was a passenger on the ill-fated steamer, Sultana, which was destroyed by explosion of its boilers and he along with hundreds of other Union soldiers perished. His body never found.
Do. Sackett's youngest son, Cyrus Oran, enlisted in A. company, Seventeenth regiment, Indiana Volunteers, and served as musician and headquarters clerk. His niece, Mrs. Albert Foster of Richmond, has a silver fife that was presented to him by his company. He learned the printer's trade at Centerville, and after the war "held cases" on the Indianapolis Journal for many years.
James Milliken Sackett, born in 1817, went to Memphis, Tenn., while still a young man, Here he engaged in mercantile business and married a daughter of a prominent southern family, who inherited several slaves. A few years prior to the Civil war, Mrs. Sackett, made an extended visit to her husband's family at Centerville, bringing with her, three children and two slave girls to look after them. There was strong antislavery sentiment in Centerville at this time and the presence of these two bond-women made something of a sensation, but there was no attempt to liberate them as they apparently were well satisfied with their lot.
When the war broke out, Dr. Sackett, who was a staunch Unionist, tried to persuade his son to bring his family to Centerville and to enlist in the Union army. The latter refused, saying that all his business interests and those of all his wife's family were in the South and that he would cast his lot with the secessionists. He served until the end of the war and several of his grandchildren are still living in Memphis.
Samuel Sackett, named for his grandfather, was a storekeeper in Centerville in the 1840s and for a time was a partner of Meyer Seaton, later postmaster. He moved from Centerville to Laporte and went from there to Iowa.
During the pioneer period of Indiana, the making of hats was one of the leading industries and every town has one or more shops where hats were made from wool, rabbit, muskrat, beaver and other furs. Centerville had four of these shops and the largest of these shops was in a brick building on the south side of Main street, just east of Major Gay's Tavern. It was kept by Solomon Kuhn and Matthew Jack. Solomon Kuhn married Gulielma, daughter of Dr. Sackett and another daughter, Elizabeth Ann, became the wife of Matthew Jack. the brick house on Walnut Street, in later years the home of Mrs. Lizzie Wolfe, was built by Dr. Sackett as a wedding present for Mrs. Jack.
Martha Morina, another daughter of Dr. Sackett, born in 1825, became the wife of William Jefferson Medearis, a harness maker, who later lived at Williamsburg and Richmond. Their youngest son was Oscar Medearis. Theodore Medearis, general manager of Indianapolis speedway, is a grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Medearis.
Martha (should be Margaret) Ellen, another daughter of Dr. Sackett, was married to Calvin Conner, a carpenter and bridge builder, who later moved to Galveston, Ind. He built most of the bridges on the Richmond and Logansport railroad. The late Frank Conner, Richmond attorney, was a son of this couple, and Mrs Albert Foster is a daughter. Two other daughters, Mrs. Berry and Mrs. Shaffer reside at Logansport.
The small hatter shops having been crowded off the map
by machine hat factories of the east, Kuhn and Jack closed their shop and
the Jacks moved to Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn purchased a farm north
of the present site of Irvington in the early 60s and it was not long after
this that Dr. and Mrs. Sackett joined them. It was here at the ripe
age of 85 years that the long, rich and useful life of Dr. Sackett came
to an end. His body lies in a small cemetery near the eastern limits
of Indianapolis, that beautiful and rapidly growing city, which had not
even been thought of, when he came to Indiana Territory to do his not inconsiderable
bit in the development of a great commonwealth.