My Genealogy Hound

GARRET VAN SICKLE is the son of John and Catherine (Reer) Van Sickle, both natives of New Jersey, and at Kingwood, Hunterdon County, that state, he was born August 5, 1811. In 1832, a few days after he had attained his majority, he removed with his parents to Cayuga County, N. Y. Mr. and Mrs. Van Sickle took up a one hundred and twenty-five acre farm near Cayuga Bridge, about half a mile from the lake on the east, and lived there until their death, the former passing away when eighty-three years of age.

Garret secured a farm two miles from his parents’ homestead, but remained with them until 1836, when he was married to Miss Sarah Jane Smith, a daughter of Jacob and Catherine Clement Smith, who made their home with our subject until their deaths, a quarter of a century later, at which time they were ninety-six and eighty-four, respectively. In 1849, accompanied by his wife and her parents, our subject removed to the town of Fayette, Seneca County, where he remained with his elder brother, Abraham, upon his one hundred and forty acre farm for six years, or until the latter married.

Our subject then moved for the last time and settled upon the one hundred and twenty-five acre farm in the northwest corner of the town of Varick, which he owns and personally conducts at present. The farm is highly cultivated and is a credit to the owner, who has cultivated it for the past forty-one years. Mr. Van Sickle is an advocate of mixed farming, and puts his theories into practice with great success. Although he upholds the principles of the Republican party, he takes no active part in politics beyond casting his ballot, a fact deplored by many of his neighbors, as his ripe experience eminently fits him for official position. He belongs to the Presbyterian Church, of which he is an Elder of many years’ standing.

Mr. Van Sickle’s first wife died in Chicago while on a visit, and left six children, all of whom are living. Sarah Catherine Van Sickle, who married a cousin bearing the same name, is a widow and lives in Geneva, N. Y.; she has one daughter, named Estella. Daniel is a farmer at Aurora, Ill. John P. is living at Pasadena, Cal. Mary married Myron Van Duyne, whose farm adjoins that of her father. Lydia is the wife of John P. Robinson, of the town of Fayette. George is in the employ of the Big Four Railroad, and lives in Chicago.

Mr. Van Sickle married for his second wife Mary M. Smith, a sister of his first wife and the widow of Dr. George W. Strong, late of Ravenna, Ohio. There were no children by the second marriage, but Mrs. Van Sickle had two children by her marriage to Dr. Strong, and they reside in Denver, Colo. Although eighty-four years of age, Mr. Van Sickle is hale and hearty, his eye is undimmed, and it is the universal hope of his neighbors that he may celebrate the centenary of his birth.