Asa Taft (1774-1839) – Ancestor #84

Roberts-Brown Project
Roberts-Barnes-Taft Line
By Don Taylor

Asa Taft is my double-fourth great-grandfather. He was born in Uxbridge, Mass., in 1774. He had between 10 and 12 children and two wives, Sarah and Lucy. He moved west to Partridgefield (now Hinsdale), Mass, and again west to Sharon, New York. Finally, he moved west again to Lisle, New York, and he died in nearby Triangle, New York.

Asa Taft is found in my Roberts-Brown Family Tree, 696 Ancestry Public Trees[i], and is Family Search profile L78D-G83.

Birth

Asa was born on 29 April 1774 in Uxbridge, Massachusetts Colony, the third child of Silas and Elizabeth Mary (Cruff) Taft.

Children of Silas and Elizabeth (Cruff) Taft (Asa’s Siblings)

Name	Born	Married	Died
Dan	1769	Sarah Comstock	1834
Job	1772	Elizabeth Brown	1840
Asa	1774	Sarah Whitney Lucy Wilson Fuller	1839
Abigail	1777	Isaac Cory	Aft. 1855
Silas	1779	Silvy ?	Aft. 1850
Lewis	1781	Belinda Dewey	1842
Cruff	1784	Rhoda Crowell	Bef. 1831
Mahetable	c. 1785		c. 1848
Mary	1786

Mahetable & Mary may be the same child.

Asa’s marriage #1

Sometime between his birth and marriage, Asa Taft relocated from Uxbridge, MA, 100 miles west, to Partridgefield, MA. He and his wife, Sarah Whitney, were both of Partridgefield, MA, when they married on 18 September 1794.

Children of Asa and Sarah (Whitney) Taft

Name	Born	Married	Died
Asa	1794	Irene Day	1880
Luransa	1796	Luman Olmstead	1870
{Possible son}[ii]	1797
Amanda	1798	Chauncey Whitney	1872
Lucy Wilson[iii]	c. 1799	Joel Barnes	1839
Joel Cruff	1800	Tamise Sutherland	1849
Seth	1803	Sarah Spaulding	1875
John Whitney	1805	Electa Day	1892
{possible daughter}	{Bet 1810-1813}

Adulthood

Amanda was born in 1798 in Partridgefield, MA. Asa began paying taxes in Sharon, Schoharie County, NY, in 1800 suggesting the family moved the 100 miles west to Sharon about 1799.

They moved another 100 miles west again, about 1805, to Triangle, Broome County, NY. Sarah died there in 1813.

A few years later, probably about 1819, Asa married Lucy Wilson. They had three children.

Children of Asa and Sarah (Whitney) Taft

Name	Born	Married	Died
Sara Jane	1821	David Clinton	1881
James F.	c. 1822	Mary Ann Ellison	1848
Ambrose Wilson	c. 1825	Harriett W Shattuck	1891

Asa was a successful farmer. The 1825 New York Census noted he had 100 acres, 40 cattle, six horses, 20 sheep, and 16 hogs.

Death/Burial, etc.

Asa died on 17 March 1839 in Broome County and was buried in the Taft Family Cemetery about a mile north of Triangle, New York.

Events by Location

• Massachusetts Colony, Worcester, Uxbridge – Birth
• Massachusetts, Berkshire, Partridgefield (Hinsdale today) – 1794
• Massachusetts, Berkshire, Peru – Marriage 1 – 1794
• New York, Broome, Lisle – Lived 1820 to 1830
• New York, Broome, Triangle – Marriage 2 – Death & Burial – 1839
• New York, Schoharie, Sharon – Lived 1800-1803

Conflicts

I suspect Lucy was married previously and had several children in that marriage before she married Asa Taft. That would explain three children identified as Asa’s, which I don’t think are. It would mean that Lucy and Joel were stepsiblings and not brother & sister.

Actions / Follow-up

• Find Asa in the 1790 & 1810 Censuses.
• Continue Research on Asa Taft (1774-1839)
• Research Asa’s wives and children.

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Sources

• 1800 Census (FS), Family Search, 1800 – Asa Taft – Sharon, Schoharie, New York, page 16. “United States, Census, 1800”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH5B-QR1 : Sat Mar 09 23:59:55 UTC 2024), Entry for Asa Taft, 1800. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH5B-QR1.
• 1820 Census, Various, Asa Taft, Asa Taft Jr., Joel C Taft – Lisle, Broome, New York. “United States, Census, 1820”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHL8-H5F : Sat Mar 09 06:32:56 UTC 2024), Entry for Asa Taft, 1820.
• 1830 Census (NARA), Various, 1830 Census – Asa Taft – Lisle, Broome, New York. Year: 1830; Census Place: Lisle, Broome, New York; Series: M19; Roll: 85; Page: 109; Family History Library Film: 0017145.
• Ancestry.com, New York, U.S., Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014), Ancestry.com, 1800 – Asa Taft – Sharon Schoharie, NY.
• Ancestry.com, New York, U.S., Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014), Ancestry.com, 1801 – Asa Taft – Sharon, Schoharie, NY.
• Ancestry.com, New York, U.S., Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014), Ancestry.com, 1802 – Asa Taft – Sharon, Schoharie, New York.
• Ancestry.com, New York, U.S., Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014), Ancestry.com, 1803 – Asa Taft – Sharon, Schoharie, New York.
• Broome County (New York) census, 1820-1845, Family Search, Film # 008201793 – Image 112 of 382.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69087508/asa-taft: accessed February 19, 2025), memorial page for Asa Taft Sr. (29 Apr 1774–11 Apr 1839), Find a Grave Memorial ID 69087508, citing Taft Cemetery, Triangle, Broome County, New York, USA; Maintained by Nathan Warner (contributor 47282835).
• Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001, Family Search, Births – Page 199 (Image 373 of 509). “Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F42G-FZZ : Sat Mar 09 16:11:55 UTC 2024), Entry for Asa Taft and Silas Taft, 29 April 1774. Uxbridge. Birth Records, Marriage Records, Death Records, Declarations of Intention.
• Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001, Family Search, Image 214 of 259 (right side) Starts with Dan Daft. “Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F45N-HP8 : Sat Mar 09 15:45:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Asa Taft and Silas Taft, 29 April 1774.
• Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001, Family Search, Marriage – … Asa Taft ?? Vorway in the State of New York and Miss Whitney of Partridgefield were lawfully Publishe??? by me Geot Walkins Jr. “Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29L-CYBW : Thu Jan 16 14:01:09 UTC 2025), Entry for Asa …A and Whitney, 18 Sep 1794.
• New York, Cemetery Abstracts, 1800-1965, Family Search, Burial – Asa Taft – Age 65, 11 Mar 1839 -. “New York, Cemetery Abstracts, 1800-1965”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WQ6P-NCN2 : Sat Mar 09 04:50:14 UTC 2024), Entry for Asa Taft.

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Endnotes

[i] Ancestry Public Trees – This number changes. It is the number of trees on the day I was writing this sketch.

[ii] I think this might be a stepson to Asa.

[iii] I find it interesting that Lucy Wilson Taft has the second name of Wilson. I suspect this is a daughter of Asa’s second wife Lucy Fuller Wilson and is a stepdaughter to Asa.