{{Infobox person | name = Anthony Sadowski | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Antoni Sadowski | birth_date = c. 1669 | birth_place = Poland | death_date = {{Death date|1736|04|22}} (aged 67) | death_place = Amityville, Pennsylvania, U.S. | nationality = | occupation = Trader, interpreter, settler |spouse=Marya Bordt (Mary Bird) }}
'''Anthony Sadowski''' (c. 1669 – April 22, 1736) was a Polish-born Indian trader and interpreter employed by the provincial governor of Pennsylvania as an Indian agent in the western country.
==Biography== ===Early life=== Sadowski was born in about 1669 in Poland. He hailed from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski near the town of Kielce. His father was Marcin Sadowski, who was a chamberlain at the Polish king's castle in Gostyń and, as a deputy of the Polish Sejm, an inspector of the king's land holdings in Ukraine.<ref name="life">{{cite web | url = http://www.poles.org/DB/S_names/Sadowski_A/Sadowski_art.html | title = The Turbulent Life of Anthony Sadowski | first = Wojciech | last = Wierzewski | year = 2006 | access-date = April 17, 2011}}</ref> Though it is not known which schools Antoni attended in his youth, he did receive a classical education.<ref name="life"/>
During the Great Northern War in 1701, Sadowski was taken captive with his brother at Riga. He managed to escape captivity, and made his way to Scotland and England. He sailed to the British colonies, landing in New York City in 1704.<ref name="life"/>
===In America=== [[File:Sadowski marker on Allegheny Co Courthouse.jpg|thumb|A historical marker commemorating Sadowski on the exterior of the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh]] After Sadowski moved to the colonial-era Province of New York, he married Marya Bordt (anglicized as Mary Bird), daughter of Andrew Bird of Newtown, New York. They had six children together. Their eldest son Andrew Sadowski and three daughters, Justina, Anna, and Sofia, all married and had children. Two of their grandsons through son Andrew, James and Jacob Sadowski, became noted Kentucky pioneers.<ref name="life"/> Through his daughter Anna, he was also the great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of US President Gerald Ford.<ref name="Poles">[https://www.poles.org/db/f_names/Ford_GR/Ford_Sad.html Edward Pinkowski, "President Ford was Sadowski Descendant", Poles in America Foundation, 2007]</ref>
Sadowski moved his family from New Jersey to Pennsylvania in 1712, to a {{convert|400|acre|km2|adj=on}} property along the Schuylkill River. Along with George Boone, grandfather of frontiersman Daniel Boone, he was a founder of Amity Township in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1719.<ref name="life"/>
Sadowski worked to establish friendly relations with the Native Americans in the area, learning the Delaware (Lenape) and Iroquois languages. He served as an interpreter to other settlers.<ref name="life"/>
He became an Indian trader, traveling as far as Logstown, a village near present-day Ambridge, Pennsylvania.<ref name="marker">See image of historical marker at Wikimedia Commons.</ref> With two other Indian traders, he established a trading post at Shamokin in 1728<ref name = "Hanna2">[http://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/wildernesstrail02hann Charles Augustus Hanna, ''The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path,'' Volume 2, Putnam's sons, 1911]</ref> and another at Kittanning, in June 1729.<ref name="marker"/> He became a citizen of Pennsylvania in 1735.<ref name="marker"/>
===Death and legacy=== Sadowski died on April 22, 1736, in Amityville, Pennsylvania, and is buried in the cemetery of Old St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Douglassville, Pennsylvania.
His grave marker bears the following inscription: <blockquote>Whether or not he opened an Indian trading post on the shores of Lake Erie and gave his name to Sandusky, Ohio, here lies the greatest Polish frontiersman of colonial times, an organizer of Amity Township in 1719, and founder of the Sandusky family in America.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=47093752&GRid=33767213& | title = Anthony Sadowski | publisher = Find A Grave | access-date = April 16, 2011 | archive-date = November 8, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121108204146/http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=47093752&GRid=33767213& | url-status = dead }}</ref></blockquote> French maps as early as 1718 identified Sandusky Bay as Lac Sandouské.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field%28NUMBER+@band%28g3700+ct000666%29%29 | title=Search results for General Maps, @field(NUMBER @band(g3700 ct000666)), Available Online }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=47093752&GRid=33767213& Anthony Sadowski] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108204146/http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=47093752&GRid=33767213& |date=2012-11-08 }} on Find A Grave *[http://www.poles.org/Sadowski.html Anthony Sadowski - Polish Pioneer] *[http://www.poles.org/DB/S_names/Sadowski_A/Sadowski_art.html The Turbulent Life of Anthony Sadowski] *[http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/APHistory/Sadowski/sadowski.html The First Polish Musician in America] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314140643/http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/APHistory/Sadowski/sadowski.html |date=2012-03-14 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadowski, Anthony}} Category:1660s births Category:1736 deaths
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:18th-century American businesspeople Category:American pioneers Category:Polish explorers Category:Interpreters Category:People from Berks County, Pennsylvania Category:Immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies Category:Emigrants from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth