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Biographies
Source:
History of Preble County, Ohio
H. Z.
Williams & Bro, Publishers
1881
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THE DEEM FAMILY ok
Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z.
Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 153 |
Matthias Disher |
CAPTAIN MATTHIAS
DISHER was born on the James river, Botetourt county,
Virginia, on the first day of January, in the year 1817.
His grandfather, Peter Deischer (as the name was originally
spelled), came to America from Germany, prior to the
Revolution. He served under General Arnold, and
lost an arm at Quebec. At the close of the war he settled
in Maryland, whence some years later he removed to Botetourt
county. Virginia, where he resided until his death, about
1821, or 1822. He had seven children, five of whom were
sons, the youngest of whom was Christian, born in
Maryland in 1788. He was in the War of 1812 as sergeant of
his company, and was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia. He
married Miss Frances Circle, and settled on a farm in
Botetourt county, Virginia, and resided there until the fall of
1829 when, with his wife and five children, he emigrated to
Preble county. He settled in Harrison township, building
his log cabin in the woods where his son, Christian, now
lives. Sept. 15, 1871, he died, at the advanced age of
eighty-two years and eleven months. June 13, 1857, his
wife died, aged seventy years, seven months and twenty-nine
days. They raised five children, of whom Matthias
was the oldest. He was raised upon the farm and had,
perhaps, less than two years' schooling. The greater
portion of his earlier years were spent in clearing land.
He assisted at eleven log-raisings within two weeks. This
kind of work he enjoyed very much. Sept. 1, 1840, he was
married to Mary Ann, daughter of John Ozias, of
Twin township. She died some six months after marriage,
and July 9, 1843, he married Rebecca Jane Ozias, a cousin
of his first wife. He remained on the homestead until the
fall of 1843, when he located on a part of the farm on which he
now lives, which consists of three hundred and sixty acres.
In 1862 Captain Disher raised a company of volunteers
(company H, Ninety-third Ohio volunteer infantry), and was
chosen captain of his company. His regiment was ordered to
Kentucky, and in the retreat which followed from Richmond,
Kentucky, to Louisville, lost by capture one hundred and eighty
men. He remained in service only about four months, being
compelled to resign on account of ill health. Captain
Disher is a man of much more than ordinary intelligence,
notwithstanding his lack of early educational advantages.
He is a reader of books , and possesses a literary quality of
mind in which the antiquarian element predominates.
Politically he is a Republican. Captain Disher is
now living with his third wife, his second wife having died in
February, 1854, at the age of twenty-eight. His present
wife, nee Elizabeth A. Circle, born Apr. 13, 1821,
he married Dec. 6, 1855. He has had four children by his
second marriage, namely, Mrs. Mary Ann Bunger of Harrison
township, Mrs. Susan Frances Fritz, of Twin, Mrs.
Martha Jand Richard, deceased, and Leonidas
living at home. By his present wife he has two children-
Julia C. and Ada B.
Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z.
Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 330 |
H. W. Dooley |
HAYDEN W. DOOLEY,
son of Silas Dooley, the pioneer was born in Gasper
township, Preble county, Ohio, Sept. 1, 1814. He was
brought up on his father's farm, and enjoyed no other
opportunities for the acquirement of an education than the
district school of his neighborhood afforded; but possession a
natural energy of character, and making the most of such
advantages as he had, he qualified himself to occupy, as he did
subsequently, important positions in the county and State.
He was president of the Agricultural Society of Preble county
for a number of years, and in 1856 was elected a representative
to the State legislature and served one term. He was well
and favorably known in the county, and was universally respected
for his uprightness of character. He was an active and
leading member of Friendship (Universalist) church, from its
earliest organization, and his life ws consistent with his
religious professions.
He was united in marriage to Adaline A. Runyon,
daughter of Robert Runyan, Oct. 27, 1836, and settled
where his daughter now lives. He resided there until his
death, which took place May 31, 1874. His wife died Oct.
30, 1872. They had but two children, Marquis L.,
born Oct. 26, 1837 (died Feb. 25, 1865), and Mary E.,
born Dec. 7, 1838, who occupies the homestead.
Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z.
Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page (betw. 176 & 177) |
Silas Dooley |
SILAS DOOLEY, SR.
So much has been written in another place in this history
concerning the pioneer experiences of the subject of this sketch
that it will be unnecessary to narrate them here.
The Dooleys were formerly quite numerous in
Preble county, but at the present time their number is
comparatively few. Moses Dooley, the oldest
representative of the family in Preble county, removed, in the
year 1781, from Bedford county, Virginia, to Madison county
Kentucky. In 1805 he emigrated to this county and located
a quarter section of land on Paint creek, in what is now Gasper
township. Moses Dooley died in Wayne county,
Indiana, Jan. 12, 1822, and his wife on the home farm, Jan.
7, 1819. They had a family of seven sons and three
daughters. Abner, the eldest, was an associate
judge of common pleas of the county for several years; Reuben
was a minister of the Christian denomination; George, Moses,
Thomas, and Silas were farmers; David died at
seventeen. The daughters - Mary, Nancy, and Jane,
were the wives respectively of Samuel Kirkum, Thomas Harris,
and Richard Leeson. After their removal to Kentucky
the family were compelled, owing to the depredations of the
Indians, to tive in a block-house, and there Silas
was born, on the eight day of March, 1786. His paternal
ancestors were Welsh and his mother, whose maiden name was
Mary Boyd was of Irish descent. Silas came to
Ohio with his father. He hired out as a hand for some
time, and in 1897 entered one hundred and sixty acres of land on
Paint creek, Gasper township - the northeast quarter of section
eighteen. His son Silas still has the patent for
this land which was issued Dec. 30, 1811. On the fifth day
of May, 1808, Mr. Dooley was married to Johannah,
daughter of Samuel Westerfield who lived on the pike east
of Eaton. Mr. Dooley was born Dec. 2, 1785.
The marriage license of Silas Dooley and Johannah
Westerfield was without doubt the first document of the kind
ever issued in Preble county. The Westerfields were
of Dutch descent, having originally come from Holland.
Samuel Westerfield was born in New York. When about
seventeen years of age he removed with his parents to New
Jersey. While upon the journey the father and some of the
children were massacred by the Indians. His mother and two
children besides himself escaped. He came to Preble county
about the year 1807 or 1808, having for some time previous lived
in Clermont county, Ohio. The next day after their
wedding Mr. and Mrs. Dooley returned to his father's in
Gasper, and the following day they began work in real earnest,
Mrs. Dooley helping her husband in his corn planting.
They soon moved into a cabin of their own, and they both spent
the remainder of their lives on the farm where they first
settled. Mr. Dooley's subsequent life was an
uneventful one. His occupation was one which in his day
required unceasing toil, the practice of economy and
self-denial. He was a man of excellent character, lived a
blameless life, possessed the respect due to such a character
and such a life, and passed away peacefully, July 8, 1877.
His wife died Apr. 14, 1859. They had seven children:
Catharine, Reuben, Hayden W., Mary, Isaac H., Warren B.,
and Silas. Catharine was born Feb. 5, 1809, married
William Wolverton in 1828, and died in 1847; Reuben,
born July 11, 1811, diedin1841, in Schuyler county,
Illinois; Hayden was born September, 1814, died in 1874.
Mary, died in infancy; she was born My 12, 1817; Isaac,
born May 5, 1818, died Sept. 20, 1858; Warren, born May
25, 1821, died Dec. 7, 1850; Silas, the only servivor,
and now living on the homestead in Gasper, was born May 2, 1825;
he was married Sept. 27, 1846, to Miss Isabel McCracken,
who was born Aug. 15, 1826, in Washington township, Preble
county, Ohio. They have had two children, Emma I.,
wife of William Morton and a son who died in 1850, aged
three months.
Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z.
Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page (betw. 176 & 177) |
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ok - JOSEPH A. DU SANG,
the father of the subject of this notice, was a native of
Bordeaux, France, born about the year 1755. When about
nine years of age, he came to America with his parents who
settled near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1798 John Du
Sang removed to Washington county, Maryland, where he died
in May, 1838. His wife was Elizabeth Moyier, of the
same county. She died near Hagerstown in 1837, in her
forty-eighth year, having been the mother of nine children.
Joseph A. Du Sang was born in Hagerstown, Washington
county, Maryland, Oct. 31, 1817. His education was
obtained in the common schools, and at an academy of his native
town. At the age of thirteen he left home, and made his
way to Dayton, Ohio, where for something over a year he found
employment as a clerk in a dry goods store. For two years
subsequently he filled a position as clerk in the old Dayton
bank. He then severed his connection with the bank, and
went to New Orleans, and after a brief clerkship in a commission
house, entered the State bank of Louisiana as teller. He
remained in the employment of that institution until 1851, when
he went to Jackson, Mississippi, where he purchased a
plantation, the management of which engaged his attention for
the next two or three years. During his residence there,
in 1853, Jackson was stricken with the yellow fever scourge,
which was terribly fatal in its effects. Nurses were in
great demand, and almost impossible to procure. Mr. Du
Sang was one of fourteen gentlemen of Jackson, who formed
themselves into an association to attend the sic so long as iheir
services should be needed. Out of their number eleven took
the fever and died. Mr. Du Sang, although stricken
with the disease, was one of the survivors. Of his
connection with this event, the Mississippi State Gazette
of Sept. 23, 1853, said:
"We desire particularly to return the
heartfelt thanks of the community to Mr. Du Sang,
paymaster of the New Orleans railroad. He is a stranger in
our midst, scarcely known by sight to a score of our people.
No persuasion could induce him to leave on the appearance of the
epidemic, but although from the up-country and unacclaimated
here, he was one of the first to volunteer to nurse the sick,
and has done so assiduously every night since. A more
noble-hearted, generous man does not breathe, and so
unostentatious is his goodness that we know we offend him by
giving publicity to his name."
After assiduous attention to the sick and dying for
thirty-five days and nights, Mr. Du Sang was taken down
with the dreadful scourge, but after much suffering, finally
recovered. In the summer of 1854 he returned to Ohio;
located in Eaton, and became teller in the Preble county branch
of the State bank of Ohio. In November following, he
became a stockholder in the bank, and in 1864, was one of the
organizers of the First National bank of Eaton, which supplanted
the State bank. In 1868 he sold his interest in the bank,
and for nearly a year afterwards, was engaged in the settlement
of a Dayton estate. In the fall of 1869 he returned to
Eaton, and again entered the bank as bookkeeper and assistant
cashier. In March, 1879, he was elected its cashier, which
position he still holds. He owns a fine plantation of two
thousand five hundred acres in Pike county, Mississippi.
Mr. Du Sang is a man of superior business ability; is
exceptionally careful and exact in all of his transactions, and
possesses the entire confidence of every one who knows him.
He is unmarried.
Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z.
Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 152 |
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