sanger arrived in the area, then known as whitestown (the town of new hartford was not split from whitestown until 1827) in march 1788 at the age of 37, where he would purchase many hundreds of acres of land on both sides of sauquoit creek. he resold a large tract east of the creek, a year after his purchasing it, to joseph higbee, the second "settler" in new hartford. sanger moved his family to new hartford (at the time, an unincorporated village in whitestown) in march 1789 and built a saw mill there. the following year he added a grist mill. he became a major land speculator in the area and was involved in many business ventures. in 1805, he engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods. in the period of around 1810-20, sanger owned a paper mill on sauquoit creek in new hartford, purchasing it around 1810-12 and selling it to samuel lyon before 1820.