Sumter-Chatham-Richmond County GaArchives Biographies.....Willett, Asahel A. 1814 - living in 1913
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 31, 2004, 11:40 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 1034-1035

   ASAHEL A. WILLETT. At this writing Asahel A. Willett of Americus has
completed nearly a century of human life. He is one of the remarkable and
venerable men of southwest Georgia.

   Asahel A. Willett. was born at Norwich, Connecticut, May 4, 1814. His father
was Capt. Jedediah Willett, who was born at Norwich, and the grandfather was
Jedediah Willett, who married Sarah Rogers. The family is lineally descended
from the first governor of New York.

   Grandfather Jedediah Willett was a shipbuilder and built some vessels for the
government during the Revolutionary war. He later came into Georgia, locating at
Macon, where he died. His son, Joseph E., was one of the first settlers of
Macon, and it is said, cut the first tree ever felled on that site.

   Capt. Jedediah Willett, the father, was reared in Norwich, Connecticut, and
worked with his father in the ship yard. He early took up the life of a sailor,
and in time reached the position of captain. His father then gave him a ship,
and he was engaged in the coast-wise trade, making his home in Savannah,
Georgia, during the winter and in Brooklyn in the summer. He died of yellow
fever about 1827. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Adgate, who was born in
Norwich, daughter of Asahel and Mary (Rogers) Adgate. She lived to a good old
age and reared three children, whose names were Burnham, Asahel and Jared.

   Asahel A. Willett, the almost centenarian, attended school at Penfield and
Norwich, Connecticut and in his youth acquired the trade of carpenter. He worked
at that trade in Connecticut a short time and then moved to Macon, Georgia,
where his grandfather and uncle were living. At that time Macon was only a
village, and all the surrounding country a wilderness. He lived in Macon until
about 1840, and then came to what is now Sumter county, but then a part of Lee
county. At that time there were four log cabins in Americus, and Indians lived
in the woods near by. The first store was opened a few years after his location
there, and a man named Montgomery was one of the first, if not the first,
merchant. He worked at his trade in this little settlement, and subsequently
entered the merchandise business himself in this north part of the county. There
were no railroads and he had to bring in all his goods with teams and wagons.
His store was located on the stage route from Macon to Tallahassee and from
Macon to Lumpkin. After about three years he traded his store property for other
property in Americus, and there built the first house which was erected for the
purpose of renting. He engaged in business as a merchant and also in real
estate, and conducted fanning for many years.

   When the Mexican war broke out he raised a company for service, and during
the first year of the war between the states, manufactured salt in Florida for
the Confederate government. In 1862 he enlisted as a private and was soon put on
detach duty at headquarters, being on the staff of Generals Wright and Cummins.
He remained until the close of the war, and then resumed mercantile business and
farming. After several years in Americus, he moved to the plantation where he
now resides, a mile and a half from the courthouse.

   He married on October 1, 1844, Elizabeth White, who was horn in Virginia, a
daughter of Peter and Permelia (Andrews) White. Mrs. Willett died at the age of
sixty-eight. Their eight children were: Adelaide, Hattie, Jedediah, James,
Augustus, Mollie, Amanda and Joseph.


Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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