Purgett - Mary "Polly" Purgett Family Line
Henry Purgett

Mary "Polly" Purgett
ca. 1788 - 1854

      Mary "Polly" Purget Reser, daughter of Henry Purgett, was born in 1788 in Hampshire County, VA, now WV. Mary is listed in Henry Purgett's will as Mary Reser (from original copy of will dated February 1835). Mary Purget was born on 10 February 1788 in Hampshire County, VA, her tombstone gives her death as 24 August 1854, age 66y, 6m, 14d. She married Jacob Reser circa 1808. According to his tombstone, Jacob Reser was born on 20 February 1780 in Hampshire County, VA and died on 09 July 1862 in Sheffield Township, Tippecanoe County, IN, age 82y, 4m, 19d. They are both is buried in Salem Cemetery.
      Most of the information on Mary and her husband Jacob Reser is documented in two books from Indiana. In "History of Indiana from Exploration to 1920," by Logan Esarey, printed in 1828: Jacob and Mary (Purget) Reser married about 1808 in Hampshire County, VA, now WV, and moved to Springfield, Ohio in 1814. In 1835 they and their 10 children came to Indiana on the historic Strawtown Road, taking 20 days to travel 200 miles. They spent their first winter in a cabin near Concord, now Conroe, and the next spring came to the land of Daniel and Sarah Hoover in Wea Twp., known as the Booth farm for 70 years. They lived in a cabin on Big Wea Creek and then bought 360 acres from Stanford Keeler a short distance from the present village of Stockwell. Their brick house was built in 1844. The bricks were made on the property and burned there, the clay tramped by horses. Besides being a farmer, Jacob had a forge until he was way past 80. He spoke German almost exclusively and it is believed he was born there, in Germany, in 1779 (no proof). He died on the farm July 9, 1862, and is buried in Salem Cemetery. His wife, born in 1788, died August 24, 1854. Hiram, Sidney, and Eliza were born in Hampshire Co. Va.; and Margaret, Hezekiah, Samuel, Mary, David, Harvey and James F. in Ohio. Harvey, born in Springfield, Ohio on 04 February 1826, died 14 July 1906, married Sarah Waymire on 10 September 1857. All the brothers farmed and drove cattle to Pittsburg on the hoof."
      Jacob Reser is listed in 1820 and 1830 census in Moorfield Township, Clark County, Ohio. He is also listed in Sheffield Township, Tippecanoe County, IN in 1850. In an excerpt from "Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe Co., IN" published in 1888: "Jacob Reser was born abt. 1780 in Hampshire Co., Va, where he was reared, and married to Miss Polly Purget, who was born and reared in the same county." "Jacob Reser, the father, learned the blacksmith's trade in early manhood, which he followed as long as he was able to work, his sons attending to the work of the farm. He settled in Tippecanoe Co. with his family, as before stated in 1836, the date of their arrival being Nov. 28. They lived in Randolph Township about three years, and in the spring of 1840, Mr. Reser purchased a tract of land on section 32, Sheffield Twp., consisting of 360 acres, all of which was prairie but 80 acres of timber land. The land was almost unimproved, but a log cabin had been built into which the family moved, and with the assistance of his sons, Mr. Reser soon had a good farm on which he lived until his death, in July, 1862. His wife had died at the homestead several years before. The humble log cabin was replaced by a fine substantial brick residence, before the death of the father, and the farm became one of the best in the neighborhood. Jacob Reser was a typical pioneer, honest, industrious and enterprising. In politics he was a Whig, and later affiliated with the Republican party." Jacob and Mary are both buried in Salem Cemetery, Sheffield Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana. They had 10 children. Hiram, Sidney, Eliza, Margaret, Hezekiah, Samuel, Mary, David, Harvey and James.


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Henry Purgett
Copyright © 2006
By Diane Kleinke and Judith Griffin