Our Forebears

William Samuel Sergeant was born on June 7, 1800, in Unadilla, Chenango, New York. As the eldest son of Samuel George Sergeant and Catherine Marvin, he was obliged to stay home and work on the farm while his father was away much of the time working as a carpenter. William married Sally Lucinda Fish on September 19, 1822, probably in New York, when he was 22, and she was 20. They had eight children and were married 41 years until Sally’s death in 1864. William purchased his first lot of 41 acres in Amboy, Oswego, New York, on Feb 25, 1831. He continued to buy land over the next several years, and on the 1850 census, he was listed as a farmer. He was also a Justice for the Town of Amboy from 1854 to 1857, and Postmaster from 1854 to 1856 when his brother, Harley took over the position.

On the 1860 census, William and Sally were living in Marquette, Green Lake, Wisconsin, where William was listed as a merchant. On March 11, 1863, the first of several family deaths occurred when his son, Harley D., died during the Civil War. William’s son, Lorenzo, died a week later, but it is not known how or where he died; there are no records of him serving during the war. Sally died at age 62 on June 22, 1864, probably in Wisconsin; however, it is not known where she is buried. William’s son, William Henry, died on June 26, 1864, after he was wounded on the battlefield during the Civil War.

In October 1865, William married the widow Ruth (Wheelock) Anjer. Ruth and her husband, Lyman, were neighbors of William and Sally on the 1860 census. Ruth was also the mother of Marie Antoinette Anjer, who had married William’s son, Luman DeWitt Sergeant. William and Ruth were living with their children, Luman and Marie, on the 1870 census in Ripon, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. All of them moved to Fairchild, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where William was a Justice of the Peace for a short time. Ruth died at age 75 on September 2, 1873, in Fairchild; however, it is not known where she is buried.

In 1873, William moved to Minnesota where two of his sons, Wells Ely and Diogenes, were living. In 1879, William moved to Phelps County, Nebraska, where Luman and Marie had settled, and he lived with them for the remainder of his life.

For many years William was an active member of the Free Will Baptist Church, serving as deacon. In Minnesota, there was no church of that denomination, so he joined the Presbyterian Church of which he died a member.

William died November 3, 1885, in Juniata, Adams, Nebraska at the age of 85 and is buried at the Juniata Cemetery.