Staggs Family History

BIRTH: 2 Apr 1814, Fishkill, Dutchess, New York, USA
DEATH: 22 May 1885, Pennsylvania, USA
FATHER: Frederick Sammons (1789–1848)
MOTHER: Sarah Hueston (1794–1872)
SPOUSE: Harriett C Connor (1824–1872)

When Edmund Sammons was born on April 2, 1814, in Fishkill, New York, his father, Frederick, was 24 and his mother, Sarah, was 19. He married Harriett C Connor in 1845. They had seven children in 15 years. He died on May 22, 1885, in Pennsylvania at the age of 71, and was buried in Burlington, Pennsylvania.

His story

Edmund Sammons entered the world on 2 April 1814, born somewhere in the rolling countryside of New York State, a region where the Sammons family had lived for generations. He was part of a sprawling clan descended from the Revolutionary War Sammons of the Mohawk Valley—farmers, millers, and frontier families whose lives were shaped by the slow westward pull of the early American republic. Though the exact details of his childhood are lost to time, Edmund grew up in a world of small farms, river towns, and the lingering memory of the Revolution that his grandfather’s generation had fought.

As a young man, Edmund married Harriett C. Connor, a woman ten years his junior, born in 1824. Their early married life was spent in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, where Edmund worked the land and Harriett kept their growing household. Their first known child, George B. Sammons, was born there on 7 August 1853, anchoring the family firmly in the Hudson Valley during the early 1850s.

Sometime after George’s birth, Edmund joined the steady stream of New Yorkers who moved south and west into Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier, a region of wooded hills, new farms, and small but growing towns. By the 1860s, the Sammons family had settled in Bradford County, where Edmund found work and community among the farmers and tradesmen of Burlington and Towanda. His children grew up in a world of one‑room schoolhouses, dirt roads, and the rhythms of rural life.

Edmund’s life was marked by both hard work and quiet perseverance. He lived through the Civil War years as a middle‑aged man, watching younger neighbors march off to fight while he kept his family rooted and fed. His son George would later become a janitor in the Towanda public schools and even serve as a special police officer—roles that reflected the family’s steady, working‑class character.

Harriett died in 1872, leaving Edmund a widower in his late fifties. He lived another thirteen years, remaining in Bradford County, close to his children and grandchildren. On 22 May 1885, at the age of 71, Edmund Sammons died and was laid to rest in Mountain Lake Cemetery in Burlington, Pennsylvania, a quiet hillside burial ground overlooking the countryside he had come to call home.

Today, Edmund’s grave still stands among the stones of early settlers—an enduring marker of a man whose life bridged the old frontier world of New York and the emerging communities of northern Pennsylvania. His descendants, including his son George and grandson William Henry Sammons, carried the family line forward into the 20th century, rooted in the same values of resilience, migration, and family loyalty that shaped Edmund’s long and steady life.

The following is an excerpt from Staggs Genealogy – Harold Wareham Staggs – His Book

In a letter from Bess Sammons (George Sammons wife), she states, “Grandpa told me that the Sammons came from Peervill, New York. on the Hudson River to an area in Pennsylvania known as Mt. Lake”. In a letter from Dot (Jeanne’s sister) she states “My cousin found, in the Mt. Lake cemetery outside of Bareington, PA, the graves of Edmond E. Sammons, born 4-1814, died 5-1885, and Harriet Sammons, his wife, born 1824, died 1872.

These, I suppose, were Jeanne’s Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother. The birth date is right as my Great Grandfather Phillip Staggs was born in 1810. Too, you note that her first name carried on. Bill Sammons’s sister is named Harriet. However, death records were not kept by Bradford County until 1893, so I was unable to trace them back from that source.

Research identifying the ancestral line between Edmund Sammons and Sampson Sammons

Research by Harold Staggs revealed that Edmund Sammons and Harriet Connor were the parents of George B. Sammons. However, he was unable to identify the ancestral line between Edmund Sammons and Sampson Sammons. My research suggests that the ancestral line is

Sampson Sammons (1721–1796) → Jacob Sammons (1752–1815) → Frederick Sammons (1789–1847) → Edmund Sammons (1814–1885)

A compiled lineage published by the State of Illinois, Daughters of the American Revolution, in The Vallandigham and The Sammons Families, identifies Frederick Sammons (1789–1847) as a son of Jacob Sammons (born 23 April 1752) and his wife Eva Veeder, and places Jacob as a son of Sampson Sammons (1721–1796) and Rachel Schoonmaker. This DAR‑endorsed lineage is consistent with independent evidence: Jacob and Eva are documented in Schenectady and Mohawk Valley Dutch Reformed Church records as a married couple with children baptized between 1777 and the mid‑1780s, and the naming of a son Frederick aligns with established Dutch naming customs in the Sammons family. Further, Frederick Sammons appears in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, records with his wife Sarah Hueston (1794–1872), and their son Edmund Sammons (1814–1885) is documented in census, probate, and cemetery records, consistently residing in proximity to other known descendants of Jacob and Eva. The convergence of the DAR‑compiled lineage with the geographic, naming, and cluster evidence from primary records provides a coherent and well‑supported genealogical argument that Frederick is correctly placed as a son of Jacob Sammons and Eva Veeder, and that he, in turn, is the father of Edmund Sammons, husband of Harriett C. Connor (1824–1872).

See a more detailed explanation of the research and conclusions.

Legacy of Edmund Sammons

Parents

Father: Frederick Sammons (1789–1848)

Mother: Sarah Hueston (1794–1872)

Married

Harriett C Connor (1824–1872)

Children

• Charles E Sammons (1846–1911) married Harriet C Vaughn (1847-1927)
• William H Sammons (1848–1924) married Emma Luther (1854-1894)
• John J Sammons (1850-bef 1860)
• George B Sammons (1853-1929) married Helen E Carl (1863-1948)
• Emma Jane Sammons (1855–?) married Hiram Foster (1853-1907)
• Walter J Sammons (1858–1917)
• Anna Sammons (1861-1907)

Documents

• Birth Records
  • Find A Grave Birth Date: 2 Apr 1814
• Marriage records
  • None
• Death records
  • Find A Grave Death Date: 22 May 1885
  • Cemetery: Mountain Lake Cemetery
  • Burial Place: Burlington, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, United States of America
• Census Records
  • 1820 United States Federal Census > New York > Onondaga > Salina
    • Male age brackets present
      • 1 male 50–59 → Frederick (Edmund’s father)
      • 2 males 20–29 → Edmund + John
      • 1 male 15–19 → Joseph
      • 1 male 10–14 → Benjamin
    • Female age brackets present
      • 1 female 40–49 → Sarah (Edmund’s mother)
      • 1 female 20–29 → Nancy
      • 2 females 5–9 → Maria + Laura
  • 1840 United States Federal Census > New York > Onondaga > Onondaga
    • Male age brackets present
      • 1 male 50–59 → Frederick (Edmund’s father)
      • 2 males 20–29 → Edmund + John
      • 1 male 15–19 → Joseph
      • 1 male 10–14 → Benjamin
    • Female age brackets present
      • 1 female 40–49 → Sarah (Edmund’s mother)
      • 1 female 20–29 → Nancy
      • 2 females 5–9 → Maria + Laura
  • 1850 United States Federal Census > New York > Dutchess > East Fishkill > Edward Lammers, Age 35, Occupation: Laborer, Real estate value: $1,000, living with wife Harriet and children Charles, William and John.
  • 1860 United States Federal Census > New York > Dutchess > East Fishkill > Edward Sammons, Age 40, Occupation: Laborer, living with wife Harriett and children Charles, William, George, Emma and Walter
  • New York, U.S., State Census, 1865 > Dutchess > Fishkill > Edward Samens, age 45, living with wife Harriett and children Charles, William, George, Emma, Walter and Anna
  • 1870 United States Federal Census > Iowa > Benton > Taylor > Edwin Sammons, Age 56, Occupation: Farmer, Real Estate Value: $2500, Personal Estate Value: $600, living with wife Harriet and children William, George, Emma, Walter and Anna
  • New York, U.S., State Census, 1875 > Dutchess > East Fishkill > E.D. 03 > Edmund Edmond Sammons, Age 62, Relation to Head: Servant

Relation of Edmund Sammons to Steven Barry Staggs: maternal 2nd great-grandfather

Page last updated April 17, 2026

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