My Genealogy Hound

DAVID NISWONGER, farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 17; P. O. Potsdam, Miami Co., Ohio. The subject of this memoir was born in Montgomery Co., Ohio, May 29, 1834, and is a son of George and Elizabeth Niswonger; Mr. Niswonger was born in Montgomery Co. March, 1809, and lived and died on the place where he was born, aged 70 years 4 months and 4 days; Mrs. Niswonger was born in Pennsylvania January, 1811, and died in Montgomery Co., Ohio, aged 57 years; they were the parents of six children, of whom all are living but one, who died in infancy-David (the subject of this sketch), Eli (whose sketch also appears in this work), Catharine (now Mrs. Peffly, and resides in Franklin Township), May (now Mrs. Wanger, lives in Montgomery County) and Moses who resides in Michigan. Our subject assisted his father on the farm till his 21st year, when he began life for himself, and worked his father’s farm on shares for two years, and burned lime for a season; then removed to Darke County and settled on the farm where he now resides, when it was mostly in the woods; he immediately set to work to clear off the heavy timber, and, going at it with a will, he soon accomplished a large part of the work, and, at the expiration of six years, he purchased a steam saw-mill, which he operated for four years, but was very unfortunate in this undertaking as the mill was twice destroyed by fire, and he was a loser of all the labor and money he had furnished; he then turned his attention to the farm again, and has followed this occupation ever since; he has 90 acres of good land, all in a good state of cultivation, and the improvements are all first-class; Mr. Niswonger has been very unfortunate in life; in 1868, the first year after he resumed work on the farm, he lost upward of $100 worth of hogs from cholera; the second year, he lost the best horse he had, which cost him $140 to replace; the third year, he was terribly afflicted with sickness in his family, and doctor bills, etc., cost him a large amount of money; in 1871, he lost his entire crop, except some barley and wheat, by a terrible hail-storm that swept over his locality, and was a heavy loss to him; since then, the sunshine of peace and prosperity has dissolved the lowering clouds of adversity, and all has gone well; free from pecuniary loss, he has escaped the ravages of disease, and the elements no longer play sad havoc with his growing grain. He celebrated his marriage with Miss Anna, daughter of Jacob and May Pebbly. March 14, 1857; they were natives of Pennsylvania, and removed to Montgomery County in 1823; Mr. Pebbly was born in August, 1801; Mrs. Pebbly was born in 1803; they were the parents of ten children, viz., Lydia (now Mrs. Flory, resides in Montgomery County), Sarah (now deceased, formerly Mrs. Prizen resided in Indiana), Fanny (now Mrs. Flory, resides in Montgomery County), John (who lives in Darke County), Mary (now Mrs. Landis, formerly Mrs. Cloppert. who lives in Montgomery County), Anna (wife of the subject of this sketch), Jacob (resides in Darke County), Simon (lives in Montgomery County), Samuel (resides in Miami County), Benjamin (started for Kansas the 16th of December, where he intends to make a home); Mr. and Mrs. Niswonger are the parents of seven children, viz.: Moses, born June 14, 1858; Mary E., March 12, 1861; Clement L., Sept. 1, 1863; Charles E., March 26, 1868; Cora, Sept. 27, 1870; Sarah, Nov. 30, 1873; Edwin A., Aug. 21, 1877; Clement departed this life Oct. 15, 1863; both Mr. and Mrs. Niswonger are members of the German Baptist Church, and are worthy Christian people; he was once an inveterate user of tobacco, but, finding it was undermining his health, he resolved to quit, and did; his receipt for a cure is, “never put it in your mouth, and don’t use it in any way, shape or form.”