Source: History of Noble County, Ohio : with portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneers and prominent men.  Chicago:  L.H. Watkins & Co.,  1887
For Reference: Noble County was formed in 1851

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<BACK TO BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX> HON. JAMES M. DALZELL, now an attorney-at-law in Caldwell, was born in Allegheny City (opposite Pittsburgh), Penn., Sept. 3, 1838.      He attended school in Allegheny, and was quite proficient in the rudiments of a common English education before he was nine years old.  Then his father, Robert Dalzell, removed to Brookfield Township, and there commenced farming.  His youth was spent like that of other boys of that day in the country, working on the farm in summer, and attending on the farm in summer, and attending school in winter three months in the year.  At sixteen he had completed the limited curriculum of that period, and having obtained a certificate set out on foot for Vinton County in the winter of 1854, and there taught his first school at $22 per month.  With the proceeds he maintained himself at the Ohio University at Athens for a term, and when his money was exhausted, again resorted to "the birch;" and so alternately teaching and attending college as he could; sometimes at Sharon college, again at Oberlin, at Athens, and Washington, Pa.  The years flew by, and with such difficulties to encounter and overcome, in making his own way at college.  When the war broke out it found him a junior at Washington College, Pennsylvania.  He had also graduated from Duff's College, Pittsburgh, but the dream of his life was to finish a full classical course in old Washington; but the cherished ambition of his youth was frustrated by his enlistment as a common soldier in Company H, One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  Here he served three years without discredit, and was promoted "Sergeant Major, for gallant and distinguished service," as his commission reads.  At the close of the war returning home to Noble County, he was chosen deputy clerk of the court of common pleas, and acted in that capacity until July, 1866, when he was appointed to a clerkship in the United States Treasury at Washington City, which he held for two years, until he had graduated in Columbia College and was admitted to the bar as attorney at law in June, 1868.  This be achieved by night study alone, for his days were devoted to the business of his office Nov. 29, 1867, he married Miss Hettie M. Kelley, and estimable young lady residing then at her home in Muskingum County.  Together they spent a pleasant and profitable year at the Capital.  But in the fall of 1868 they removed to Caldwell, Ohio, and there have resided ever since.  Their union has been one of the happiest and blessed with six children, all of whom survive except James Monroe, the eldest son, a very promising youth, whose sudden death at the age of fifteen has cast a deep gloom over the household that mourns his departure.      Mr. Dalzell has always contributed to the daily newspaper press, and it is probably not going too far for us to say that no name is better known than his among newspaper writers.  His business for eighteen years has been that of a lawyer, in which he has been fairly successful.  In 1869 he has elected prosecuting attorney and served two years; and so vigorous was his prosecution of liquor sellers that at the end of his term there was not an open saloon in his county.  In 1875 he was elected to the General Assembly of Ohio, and represented Noble County so well that in 1877 he was re elected for two years more.  During his entire four years in the legislature he was a member of the judiciary committee, the most influential and important of all the committees, and the one to which lawyers only are eligible.      The entire body of Ohio statutory law passed through the hands of this committee for the laws were then being codified and re-enacted.  In 1882 he was strongly supported in the Congressional convention at St. Clairsville for the nomination to Congress, and was balloted for unsuccessfully nearly three hundred times in the most exciting contest for Congress ever witnessed in Ohio.  The convention broke up in confusion, without nominating any one, and then and there Mr. Dalzell retired from politics and resumed the practice of law more assiduously than ever.  For many years he was on the "stump" in various States, and in 1879 was called to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania  and in 1880 to Indiana.  He was in demand everywhere and was regarded one of the best stumpers in the United States.  He was always a Republican.  He advocated the election of every Republican candidate, both with voice and pen, from Fremont to Garfield.  The confidential friend of Sumner, Frederick Douglass, James A. Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, Gen. W. T. Sherman, Henry Wilson, John Sherman, O. P. Morton, Thaddeus Stevens, Schuyler Colfax and a host of their great contemporaries.   Mr. Dalzell confesses to not a little pride in their letters testifying their high regard for him.  As is elsewhere fully detailed in this work, Mr. Dalzell was the originator and author of the popular soldiers' reunions now held annually in all parts of the country.  It is doubtful if there is a soldier in the United States who does not know "Private Dalzell" (as he is familiarly called) at least by reputation, for at the first and other reunions since established he has addressed most of them in his patriotic speeches.  Besides, he has always taken a pride in all matters relating to soldiers ever since the war, and devoted a large portion of his time and means to the furtherance of their interests not only in this but in almost every other State.      But since he quits politics and resumed the practice of the law, he has passed his time very quietly.  When not engaged in the courts of at professional business elsewhere, he devotes himself to his books.  He is regarded as one of the first forensic orators in Ohio, and on all public occasions he is in demand.  To these calls, however, he seldom responds, for he finds more pleasure and profit in the plain, plodding practice of the law and the presence of his family to whom he is doubly devoted. DANFORD Family CHARLES C. DAVIDSON was born in Noble County, Ohio, Feb. 24, 1844.  He worked on his father's farm while a boy, attending school during the winter months.  When nineteen years old he entered the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, where he pursued his studies so vigorously that at the end of two years failing health sent him again to his father's home.  Here, under private teachers, he continued his studies and completed the course begun at college.  For the first few years his teaching was in the schools near his home.  During these early years his abilities were recognized, and his services were eagerly sought at the various institutes and in the normal schools.  In 1871 he was appointed school examiner of Noble County, and with signal success he filled this position until called to the superintendency of the Quaker City schools.      To identify himself more closely with the professional teachers of Ohio, he completed, in 1875, the classical course of study at the Ohio central Normal School, and in this year obtained a life certificate from the State Board of School Examiners.      In 1876 he took charge of the public schools of New Lisbon, where he remained for nine years, winning for himself and the schools an enviable reputation.      Desiring a wider field of labor, he chose Alliance, and in his new field has added new lustre to his fame as an educator.  His success as superintendent of the schools in this latter place was evidenced in the fact that the Board of Education, unsolicited on his part, at the end of the first year elected him for two years, at a greatly advanced salary.      The results of his efforts are a largely increased attendance in the schools, with a correspondingly increased interest, and a visible improvement in "methods;" a public school library of a thousand volumes from the best authors; the purchase of the vacated college and its valuable grounds as the building suitable for the imperative needs of the city and which, when remodeled, will be one of the finest school buildings and sites in the State.      In 1886 the Ohio University conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts, and most worthily was the honor bestowed.  For years he has been a member of both the State Teachers' Association and National Department of School Superintendence, holding various offices in both; and for the past two years has acted as secretary of the National Association of School Superintendents. JUDGE JONATHAN DILLEY is an old and well-known citizen.  He was born on the Potomac River in Virginia, about thirty miles from Washington, in the year 1809.  His early life was spent in Shenandoah County, Va.  In 1839 he came to Ohio, and in 1841 to Cumberland, Guernsey County, where he clerked in the store of John E. Boyd.  In 1843 he removed to Sarahsville and engaged in the mercantile business, at the same time dealing in tobacco.  He continued a resident of Sarahsville for twenty-seven years.  In 1869 he was elected probate judge, and the following year he removed to Caldwell, and entered upon the duties of his office.  In 1872 he was re-elected to the same office.  He has since served two terms as deputy probate judge.  He married Margaret Nicholson, and is the father of five children.  Judge Dilly is a Republican, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. DR. ROBERT C. DOWNEY, M. D. - The grandparents of the subject of this notice were born near Winchester, Va.; his father, who was the seventh son, was named Doctor.  He came to Ohio and settled in Noble Township about 1820.  There Robert C. Downey was born in 1834.  In early life he farmed and taught school.  He studied medicine in Guernsey County and in Indiana, and graduated from the Starling Medical College.  In 1863 he became assistant surgeon of the Thirteenth Ohio Cavalry and served until the close of the war, being present in all the battles in which his regiment was engaged.  Sine the war he has practiced his profession in Noble County.  He has been married four times and is the father of three children.  Dr. Downey served as county coroner four years.  He is a Republican and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Masons and Odd Fellows. BENJAMIN C. DRAKE was born in Buffalo Township, in 1839.  He taught several terms of school and on the 22d of August, 1862, enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  He was promoted corporal and afterward sergeant.  He was in all of the engagements of his regiment until June 5, 1864, when he was wounded and taken prisoner at Piedmont, Va.,  He was first wounded by a piece of shell in the right though.  The regiment charged through the rebel works and he was again wounded in the ankle.  After the regiment left, he was captured by Mosby's guerrillas.  He was taken to Staunton, Va., and thence to Richmond.  At Staunton, while getting on the cars, he fell and broke his leg.  He remained at Richmond, subsisting on prison fare, until he became a mere skeleton.  In September, 1864, he was exchanged and reported at Annapolis.  He received a furlough, and May 15, 1865, was discharged at Camp Chase, Ohio.  In 1865 he married Eliza J. Halley.  Children: Charles A., Joseph B., John W., Eaton A. (deceased), Lillie A., Estella, Mary M., Elisha E. and Sarah.  Mr. Drake has served as justice of the peace two terms.  He is a member of the Lutheran church. EDWIN G. DUDLEY, son of Judge Gilman Dudley, was born in Olive Township in 1832.  He read law in Sarahsville and was admitted to the bar about 1853.  He practiced in Sarahsville and Caldwell until the summer of 1862, when he entered the service as a captain in the Ninety-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  He had a good legal mind and was a successful lawyer.  For several years he was the resident partner in Noble County of Hon. John E. Hanna, of McConnelsville.  After the war he went to Omaha, where he was elected State senator and afterwards police judge.  He next went to the Black Hills and engaged in mining.  He is now in Dakota, the proprietor of a sulphur springs resort.

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