Hamlet Sanford

Hamlet Sanford was born in Orange County, Virginia. He married Phebe Biggers on January 17, 1810. They left Virginia in 1812 and traveled to Mason County, Kentucky on horseback. They had two children. After the death of his wife, Hamlet returned to Virginia where, on September 11, 1815, he married Ann Clark. They also made the trip to Kentucky on horseback. There were ten children born to this marriage with two surviving to adulthood. The family moved to Indiana in the fall of 1832 traveling in a five-horse wagon. One hundred acres of land were purchased northeast of Washington and became the Sanford farm.

He served as a “visitor” or inspector at the County Asylum in Daviess County and was appointed to that position in June of 1843. (History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana. Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1886.) In 1835, Hamlet Sanford was elected, along with seven other delegates from Daviess County to meet with delegates from other counties to deliberate on the building of a turnpike road from Vincennes to New Albany.