Hon. Samuel Anable was well known as a business and public man in the city of Hudson for many years.  He was born in Haddam, Conn., March 20, 1786, and after spending a short time in New London, came from that city to Hudson in his youth and learned the trade of currier with Mr. Hopkins, then residing here.  He was married in 1805 to Nancy Cary, of Middle Haddam, Conn., and about 1810 established the leather business on the public square, in the city of Hudson, where he continued in business till 1835, at which date he sold a part of his business to his son, John S. Anable, and discontinued it entirely in 1837. 

     At this period other interests began to engross his attention.  He became interested in farming, in the West Stockbridge Marble Association, and in the Hudson and Berkshire railroad, now the Hudson branch of the Boston and Albany railroad.  In each of these corporations he was an active member and director, and was also for many years a director of the Hudson River Bank.  He was a man of indefatigable industry and enterprise, and, by the large and successful business interest which he conducted, became quite wealthy.

     He was a Democrat and a politician of much ability and sagacity.  In the Jackson campaign of 1828 and 1832 he was very active, and was a friend and supporter of Van Buren in 1836.  In 1832 and 1833 he was elected mayor of the city of Hudson, the duties of which office he ably discharged, and to which he was again elected in 1843.

     Mr. Anable was a man of strict integrity, strenuously honest and upright in all his dealings and relations.  He was also a man of great force and strength of character,--too candid and honorable to equivocate or deny his honest convictions, and too generous and catholic to disrespect the honest convictions of others.  Early in life he was not a professor of religion, but he was subsequently converted, and became a member of the First Presbyterian church of Hudson.  The account which we have seen of his conversion says, "The impression of his conversion was felt through all the town.  No man ridiculed it, for no man could deny it.  There he stood; the man whom they had known, the proud man, the man of the world, transformed [p. 211] into the humble, zealous Christian.  He came forward, with many others, and publicly professed his allegiance to Christ.  He was ever ready to speak for his Master, in the church, in the streets,--everywhere; and his words were burning words.  He witnessed a good confession.  Such was his life; and when at last God called him, how did he meet death?  Patiently, resignedly; I may say, almost exultingly.  When the last moment came it was one of celestial triumph."  Such is the testimony borne by his pastor.

     In January, 1840, Mr. Anable had been injured by a kick from a horse, which permanently lamed him, and was supposed to have hastened his death.  He departed this life on the 11th of July, 1846, His wife survived him, and died March 16, 1866.

      Of their seven children, only two daughters and their son, Samuel, now remain.  The latter, Samuel Anable, the youngest of the family,--his father's successor in the leather business in Hudson from 1838 to 1845,--is now a resident of Albany, where he has carried on the same business since 1846, and is one of the successful business men of that city.