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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS
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WELCOME to
ALLEN COUNTY, OHIO
HISTORY & GENEALOGY
BIOGRAPHIES
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BERNARD
W. DALK, one of the well-known citizens of Delphos, Ohio,
and proprietor of one of the largest blacksmith establishments
in the city, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, May 24, 1857.
His parents are Joseph and Anna (Simons) Dalk. The
father was born in Westphalia, Germany, in 1828, and the mother
was born in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, she being the daughter
of Nicholas Simons, one of the early citizens of that
city. The parents were married in Cleveland, where the
mother died in 1858, when our subject was but eleven months old.
The father learned the carpenter and cabinetmaker's trade, but
he has followed railroading most of his life, and for twenty
years was in the employ of the Lake Shore railroad at Cleveland
as a car builder. He left Cleveland in 1880 and located at
Fostoria, Ohio, and two years later came to Delphos, and went to
work in the Clover Leaf shops at this place. He is a
member of St. John's Roman Catholic church.
B. W. Dalk was the only child born of his
parents' marriage. He was reared in Cleveland, his
grandmother Simons taking him as an infant at his
mother's death and rearing him until his fourth year, when his
father, having married again, took charge of his son. The
latter received his schooling in the German Catholic school in
Cleveland, receiving a good German and English education.
After leaving school he entered the Lake Shore railroad shops
with the intention of learning the machinist's trade, at which
he worked for a year and a half, and then began work in the
blacksmith shop of James Cullen, in Cleveland, where he
worked for about six months, starting there to learn the trade,
but finishing up at Delphos. In 1873, being on his way to
Fort Wayne, Ind., he stopped off at Delphos to visit a friend,
and concluded to locate here, and in 1874 he began an apprentice
shop of three years with August C. Grothaus, a
blacksmith. After finishing his apprenticeship he
continued to work for Mr. Grothaus until September 19,
1891, when he left his shop, and the next week began getting
timber on the ground, preparing to build a shop, and beginning
blacksmithing for himself. On the 10th day of October, the
same year, he had his shop up and was ready for business.
He was not long in building up a trade, as he was always well
liked and had a reputation as a first-class workman, and from
year to year his trade has grown until he now has one of the
leading shops of the city. He contemplates erecting a
large brick shop in the near future on his lot, on the corner of
First and West Canal streets, where he will run a complete
carriage and wagon manufactory. His present place of
business is on teh corner of West First street and the canal,
where he employs two men besides himself. He does a
general blacksmithing and repair business, but makes a specialty
of fine horse-shoeing, his shop being the only one in the city
that turns out a hand-made iron or steel shoe. Mr. Dalk
also owns a handsome cottage residence, a story and a half, on
the corner of Cleveland avenue and Pierce street and also owns
well improved residence property on the corner of Pierce and
Jackson streets.
Mr. Dalk was married August 28,
1883, to Miss Anna Schwartzengraber, who was born in
Delphos, her father having been the first brewer in the city. Mr.
and Mrs. Dalk are members of Saint John's Roman Catholic
church of Delphos, and he is a member of the Royal Arcanum.
He is a democrat in politics when it comes to voting for a
president or a governor, but when it comes to minor office he
votes for the best man. Mr. Dalk has met with
deserved success in his business. He is full of energy and
enterprise, ambitious to improve his business and himself, and
is considered one of the leading and active citizens of Delphos.
He has many warm friends and is universally respected by all who
know him. (Source #1) |
AMAZIAH
DAVISSON (deceased) was one of the
oldest and most substantial farmers of Auglaize township, Allen
county, Ohio, was of Scotch-Irish descent, and was born in
Harrison county, Va., Sept. 21, 1822, and there passed his
entire life in farming pursuits. His grandfather,
Joseph Davisson, a farmer of much repute, lived and died in
Harrison county and born in 1778, there married Charity
Critchfield, a lady of many accomplishments, who became the
mother of the following children: Pattie, Joseph, Mary,
Elizabeth, John, Arthur, Amaziah, all deceased, and David.
John Davisson, father of this family, left
Harrison county, Va. (now West Virginia), in 1832, and came to
Ohio and settled among the early pioneers of Champaign county.
He had been an old line whig and had been represented his county
in the state legislature, after coming to Ohio, as a republican,
although his county was strongly democratic - this fact showing
that he was not only a very po9pular man but a very good
politician, who well understood the issues of his day. He
died in Champaign county, Ohio, in May, 1839, and soon afterward
his widow, with her family, came to Allen county, where she died
a year after her arrival.
Amzaiah Davisson was educated in a select school
and was well prepared for the business of life. April 8,
1852, he married, in Allen county, Miss Eliza J. Nye,
daughter of George and Sarah (Pascal) Nye both natives of
Pennsylvania. Eliza J. Nye was born in Fairfield
county, Ohio, May 25, 1829. Her parents, however, were
married in Berkeley county, Va., and the father, who was a
blacksmith by trade, later settled in Pickaway county, Ohio,
fought in the war of 1812, and ended his days in Pickaway
county, Ohio, a member of the Lutheran church, April 20, 1835.
His widow survived until June 1881, and died in the Presbyterian
faith. The children of these parents were born in the
following order: Kate, Maggie, William, Elizabeth, Hetty,
James, Mary, Phebe, Eliza J., Sallie and Bell, of
whom the only daughters still surviving are Eliza J. and
Phebe. The children born to Amaziah Davisson and
wife are named in order of birth as follows: Monroe,
a physician, of whom mention is made in full further on;
John, Albert, Bell, wife of J. A. McCartney, postal
clerk on the C., H. & D. railroad line and resident of
Lima, Ohio. Amaziah Davisson was a self-made man
and was the owner of 200 acres of fine farming land. He
was free in his financial aid to religious denominations and a
friend to educational progression; was a master Mason of lodge
No. 105, at Lima, and was one of the old pioneers, well known
and highly respected throughout the township. He died,
much lamented, Nov. 24, 1895.
Monroe Davisson, M. D., son of Amaziah
Davisson, was born in Auglaize township, Allen county, Ohio,
Dec. 12, 1855, and was reared on the home farm. He
attended the normal school at Ada, Ohio, several years and later
taught twelve terms. He then read medicine with Dr. H.
Thomas, at West Newton, Ohio, and when fully prepared
entered the medical department of the university at Ann Arbor,
Mich., studied one year, then entered the Eclectic Medical
college at Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1882; he
also tended a regular course in 1891 - being thus a graduate
from diverse schools of medicine. The doctor has a fine
library of medical works and also subscribes for the leading
medical periodicals of American and keeps well abreast of the
progress made in the science of medicine. For the first
two years after graduating, Dr. Davisson practiced in
Uniopolis, Auglaize county, Ohio, where he at once established a
solid reputation for professional skill; since leaning Uniopolis
he has been in the active practice of his profession
in his native village of West Newton - the Crucial test for all
young practitioners being in their native town - and here his
reputation, like is practice, has increased from day to day. "A
prophet is ot without honor, and save his own country' but here
the doctor has won both honor and recompenense.
The marriage of Dr. Davisson took place, in
1884, to Miss Evanna Blank, who was born in Union
township, Auglaize county, Ohio, Jan. 1, 1865, a daughter of
George A. Blank, a retired farmer, now residing in Uniopolis
- a democrat in politics, and, with his wife, a member of the
Lutheran church. The doctor is a member of the Northwest
Ohio Eclectic Medical association, standing very high with his
professional brethren; is a member of Sager lodge, No. 513, F. &
A. M., of LaFayette, Ohio, and is a non-affiliating
Odd Fellow. His social standing is with the best people of
the township and county, and as a physician he stands, as has
been intimated, at the head of the profession. |
JOSEPH
DIXSON, farmer, P. O. Lima, was born in Muskingum County,
Ohio, Oct. 22, 1827; son of Jacob and Mary (Hardin) Dixson,
former a native of Virginia, latter of Bedford County, Penn.
His paternal grandfather was Joseph Dixson, a Virginian
and a pioneer of Muskingum County, Ohio, where he lived and
died; he was a teamster in his early days, and later a farmer.
The maternal grandfather of our subject was William Hardin,
a native of Pennsylvania, who lived and died in Bedford County,
that State. Our subject was reared in Ohio, and acquired a
limited education in the country schools, prior to his being
eight years of age. His father at one time was a resident
of Shawnee Township, this county, where he located in 1835, and
lived three years; then removed to Franklin County, and from
there to Licking County, where he resided until his death; he
had eleven children; Mary A. (deceased), Dorcas
(Mrs. Jacob Ridenour, Jr.), Joseph, Julia A. (Mrs. William
Keester), John, Jacob, George, Enoch (deceased), James,
Seth and Austin. Our subject came to this
county in 1848, locating in Shawnee Township, and in 1849
settled on the farm now owned by H. C. Kemper, which he
cleared and improved and resided on until 1874, when he removed
to the farm he now occupies. He was married Oct. 24, 1850,
to Barbara E., daughter of Mahlon and Sophia (Nye) Moninger,
of Fairfield County, Ohio, by whom he has had fifteen children:
John, Joseph (deceased), Mary S. (Mrs. A. E.
Brown), Laura (Mrs. J. S. Franklin), Jacob
R. (deceased), an infant son (deceased), Clara E.
(deceased), Melva H., James S., Francis L., William C., Henry
O., Harvey L., Holmes C. and an infant son (deceased).
Mr. and Mrs. Dixson are members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. He was in the late war of the Rebellion
in the one hundred days' service. In politics he is a
Republican.
( Source#2: History of Allen County, Ohio -
Publ. Chicago: Warner i.e. Warner, Beers & Co., 1885 - Page 790) |
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JOHN H.
DUNATHAN. merchant and mayor, Spencerville, was born in
Sidney, Shelby Co., Ohio. March 13, 1836! eldest child of
Robert H. and Mary E. (Porotzman) Dunathan, the former
a native of Franklin County, Penn., the latter of Montgomery
County, Ohio. They were the parents of nine children, four now
living: John H. David P., Jacob B. and Edmond P.
Robert H. Dunathan came to Mercer County in 1840, died in
1873, his wife having preceded him in 1855. Our subject was raised
on a farm, and made agriculture the principal occupation of his
life until 1873, when he embarked in mercantile business at Deep
Cut, Auglaize Co., Ohio, dealing more or less extensively in grain
and produce. In the spring of 1882 he removed his business to
Spencerville, and a year later took in as partner J. H. Taft,
under firm name J. H. Dunathan & Co. Our subject was
married, October 13, 1858, to Mary A., daughter of
Thomas Upton, of Mercer County, born in April, 1842, by
whom he has eight children: Elizabeth F., Margaret B.,
Hettie A., Thomas R., Harmon, Susan, Edna and
Clarinda. While a resident of Auglaize County Mr.
Dunathan served as justice of the peace twelve years, and as
county commissioner five years, offices he filled with honor to
himself. In the spring of 1883 he was appointed to fill the office
of mayor of Spencerville, and was duly elected to that office at
the ensuing election. In politics Mr. Dunathan is a
stanch Democrat.
(Source #2) |
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