Acker Family
Papers, 1784-1925

SC23344

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Biographical Note:

The Acker family is a classic example of early American settlers: buying land, farming, working hard, joining the local militia, and eventually having branches in western states. (Note: The name Acker is variously spelled Aker, Eaker, Eker, Acre and Acker. The early generations seem to have gone by Aker, while the later generations settled on Acker.)

John Aker appears to have been born in 1750, probably somewhere in eastern New York State.  There is some indication that he may have had Dutch ancestors by the name of Vrooman. There are several listings for John Aker or Acker in the records of New York in the Revolution, Vol. 1, but it is not clear if any of these is the John Aker in question. Following the war he appears to have been living in Freehold, Albany County, New York. (In 1800 parts of Albany and Ulster counties were combined to create Greene County, which is where Freehold, New York is located today.)  He made land transactions in Freehold between 1798 and 1805.  Aker also was able to purchase land in the Central New York Military Tract around 1800, in the town of Cincinnatus, Onondaga County. In 1808 Onondaga County was split and Cincinnatus became part of the new Cortland County.  Then, in 1818, part of Cincinnatus became Freetown, where he lived until his death in 1839 or 1840. John Aker is named as an early settler in the history of Freetown.  He is buried in Freetown Cemetery, Cortland County.

Little is known about John's marriage or family, except that he had a son, Abraham Aker, born in 1796.  Abraham is listed as a farmer in the 1850 federal census living in Freetown with his wife, Mehitable, and son, Damon. Mehitable (1799-?) was the daughter of David Monrose, who also was an early settler of Freetown. The couple married about 1817 and had at least several sons, two of whom are represented in this collection, Damon, born in 1819, and his brother John, born in 1829. 

Abraham Aker served in the War of 1812, and, later, in the New York State militia as a lieutenant and later a captain.  He was the executor of his father's estate in 1840.  Abraham moved to Syracuse at some point, perhaps to live with his son John.  He died there in 1874.

Damon Aker joined the New York State militia, like his father, and was elected a corporal in 1840 and sergeant in 1846. He married Minerva Elliot before 1851, and had several daughters.  The couple lived in Freetown and appeared in the 1860 federal census.  Damon must have died before 1870, as Minerva is listed as a widow in the 1870 census. 

John Acker was a bookkeeper, who by the age of 24 was living in Syracuse, New York. He married Caroline (Carrie) M_____, and they had two sons, Willitt Hamilton Acker, (born 1858) and Ashley B. Acker (born 1859). (Willitt seems to have been the intended spelling, but also appears as Willett in some accounts.)  By 1887, the couple was living in Liverpool, New York, northwest of Syracuse.

Willitt H. Acker was born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1858, despite the fact that his family lived in Freetown, New York, at the time of the 1860 federal census. He married in 1883 and had a son, Guy, and daughter, Mabel. In 1900, Willitt and his family resided in Syracuse, New York. Willitt's wife died sometime in the next few years and he moved to Spokane, Washington, with his mother-in-law. In 1911, Willitt married Nellie Colburn in Spokane. The couple moved to California and had one son, Phillip Colburn Acker, born in 1912 in Vallejo, California.  The Ackers became hotel proprietors in San Diego, Calif.  Willitt died in 1927 and Phillip in 2006.

Mabel Acker (1886-?), Willitt's daughter by his first wife, became an actress, living in New York and Boston.  She married Harry L. Burrage about 1912, and had one daughter, Alice Rosalind Burrage (1912-1973).

Scope and Content Note:

These papers consist chiefly of correspondence, military service records (War of 1812), and land titles related to pioneer settlers of the Town of Freetown in Cortland County, New York. The papers also include wills, inventories, and other documents related to the estate of various members of the Acker family as well as research materials relative to Acker family history and genealogy. Land purchases occurred mainly in Albany County, New York, in the town of Freehold (now Greene County); and in Cortland County, New York, in Freetown.

Abraham Aker's pension papers are an example of how the United States dealt with war pensions in the 1800s.  Pensions were first granted to soldiers who were disabled while in the service and to heirs of soldiers who died during the war. The first pension act based on service was not passed until 1871 and a second was passed in 1878. This explains Abraham's dealings with the state 60 years after the war ended.

One interesting item in this collection is the handwritten "Meditations on the 50th Anniversary of American Independence," assumed to have been written by Abraham Aker in 1826.  He is clearly a literate and well-spoken man.  He writes, in part: "Liberty and the improvement of the condition of the human race, and tyranny and slavery are opposite principles and if we enquire into the causes which "whelm nations in blood and wrap cities in fire, we shall find a considerable share in a struggle between those principles but a still greater in the ambitious assigns of monarchs."  

Included with these papers is a CD that contains several files on the genealogy of a Roger Tyler of Connecticut. It is unclear what relationship this family has to the Ackers of this collection.  (There is, listed in the index of the books on this CD, one "John Akers."  However, the names of his wife and children do not appear in this collection and by the age of his children, he would likely have been born around the 1840s, which would put him between the births of John Acker in 1829 and his son Willitt Acker in 1858.)

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