Hi, Everyone,
I certainly do not have my Cassety genealogy finished, but have been
working on it recently. I would like very much to hear from any
relatives, and would be happy to share information.
I am descended from Edward Cassety (spelling varies), through his son
James, his son Thomas, his daughter Margaret (married James Lowell),
their daughter Mary Ann (married Collins Roff), and so on.
Edward, a native of Ireland, married Hannah Alburtis 25 Sep 1731 in St.
George's Church, Hempstead, Queens County, NY. One of Edward and
Hannah's children was James Cassety, who was recruited in Queens County
in 1758 for the French & Indian War, in which he ultimately served as a
captain (another brother, Joseph, served as a private). James was sent
with his unit to Albany, NY in 1759, and evidently met and married
Margaret Nickson in Schenectady 9 Apr 1760. After the war James removed
with his wife and children to Detroit, where he became a merchant and
Indian trader. He was there by 1767. He purchased and leased land in
the vicinity of Detroit and evidently did well. By 1778 he was a
Lieutenant in the Detroit Militia. However, in 1779, he "made himself
obnoxious to the king's officers" by drinking toasts to General
Washington and refusing to fight for the king. He was imprisoned in
Quebec for over three years, finally escaping and making his way back to
New York.
Back in Detroit, James' son Thomas (born about 1762) also got into
trouble with the British; he escaped to join the Western
Indians-reportedly the Shawnees, who adopted him. He supposedly married
a Shawnee princess, but 25 Feb 1786 he married Anna Warmouth (Nancy
Wormwood) in the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of German Flats,
Herkimer County, NY. In 1794 Thomas appeared at the present Oriskany
Falls (then called Cassety Hollow), Oneida County, NY. Thomas was
well-educated for the time, and had been appointed a Justice of the
Peace in Herkimer County. He became the first supervisor of the Town of
Augusta, swearing himself into office. Thomas, now a Colonel in the
Militia, and his father James, did a brisk business with a saw mill and
grist mill. These were washed away in 1807, and Thomas suffered several
reverses of fortune. James died in 1822, Thomas in 1831.
Thomas's daughter Margaret married James Lowell in Oneida County, and by
1817 they had settled in Chautauqua County, NY. John J. Cassety, a son
of Thomas, also settled there, as did another daughter, Nancy, who
married John Gregg. Thomas's widow Nancy joined daughter Nancy and her
husband at some point-she was living with them in the 1850 census-and
died in 1853 at 91 years of age.
I have been able to document some of the other children of Edward, James
and Thomas, and would like to share information with anyone who might be
related.
Judy Damewood