Marilyn: The identity of the Minnie Orton Sackett who married Ely Samuel Parker in December 1867 is something of a mystery. A while back I did some searching for her ancestry and came up with several different biographies of Ely Parker. Most of them state that he married Minnie Orton Sackett an 18 year old Washington D.C. socialite. One of the accounts states that she was the step daughter of a soldier who died in the Civil War: http://www.africanpubs.com/nativepubs/Apps/bios/0061ParkerEly.asp On Christmas Day, 1867, with Ulysses S. Grant as best man, Parker married Miss Minnie Orton Sackett (1850-1932) of Washington, D.C., the stepdaughter of a soldier who had died in the war. In 1878, Ely and Minnie had a daughter, Maud Theresa Parker (d. 1956), from whom Ely Parker's descendants are derived. Another account states that she was the stepdaughter of Lt. Col. William Sackett: http://www.geocities.com/amawek/ElyParker.html In 1867, Parker finally married. His bride was a young Washington socialite, Minnie Orton Sackett. She was white, the stepdaughter of Lt. Col. William Sackett, a New York Volunteer killed at Trevilian Station in June 1864. They were married on Christmas Eve; Grant stood as best man and gave the bride away in the absence of her father. The mixed marriage caused something of a stir in Washington society, however, and the couple was maltreated on more than one occasion by less-enlightened contemporaries. "..." Their only child, a daughter, was born during this less-than-affluent period. Maud Theresa Parker was an engaging little tomboy who was proud of her Indian heritage, and whom Parker fondly referred to as Ahweheeyo, or Beautiful Flower, in his native tongue. She eventually married Arthur Bullard, a member of one of the more prominent old Massachusetts families. Now for the problems I encountered while doing my research: A search of the Ancestry/Rootsweb databases yields one hit for Minnie Orton Sackett. It is a database of lineages of Native Americans and lists Minnie's father as Thomas Orton. In October 2002; Kenneth D. Horky submitted a query about Anna Sissleberger whom Weygant has listed as the wife of Col. William Sackett. In our exchanges Kenneth sent me copies of part of Anna's widow's pension file. Briefly, Col. Sackett died 11 Jun 1864. His widow Anna, age 30, made her widow's pension application [Application #67,696; Certificate #34,078] on 22 Aug 1864 from Evanston, Cook Co., IL where she was residing in the household of John and Zayde (Sackett) Lighthall [sister and brother-in-law to Col. Sackett]. Anna was approved for a pension of $30 per month on 16 Nov 1864. Anna states in her application that she married William Sackett on 25 Nov 1862 at "Washington City" by Rev. Charles B. Hall, Rector of the Epiphany Parish [supporting document attached]. Her name at the time of her marriage to Col. Sackett was "Mrs. Anna Amodier" [the supporting document signed by registerer of the church gives her name as "Anna Modio"] Anna was age 30 in 1864 which would place her birth at about 1834. Minnie Orton Sackett was age 18 in 1867 which would place her birth at about 1849 when Anna was about 15 years old. It would help if we had the complete pension file for Anna Sackett. And if we had the marriage record and account of the marriage of Ely Parker to Minnie Sackett in December 1867. Warm regards, Thurmon King TSFA Historian On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 16:10:02 -0700 "Nancy Cluff Siders" <siders@cableone.net> writes: > Hi Marilyn! <CLIPPED> > -----Original Message----- > From: marilyn wiegand [mailto:mwgenie@strato.net] > Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 3:14 PM > To: sackett-l@rootsweb.com > Subject: {not a subscriber} Looking for Minnie Sackett > > Hello to all, > > What a lovely "Sackett" website your group has established. That is > really a lot of research. > > My name is Marilyn Becker Wiegand. I am in hopes of finding a MINNIE > SACKETT (with variable spellings for MInnie). She married a Seneca > Indian by the name of ELY SAMUEL PARKER. Ely was born in Genesse > Co., > New York (1828-1895), somewhere around Aurora, NY. He married Minnie > Sackett in 1867. When Ely died he was living in Fairfield, > Connecticut. > > Thanks to all, Marilyn, mwgenie@strato.net > > > ==== SACKETT Mailing List ====