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Below is a family biography included in The History of Darke County, Ohio published by W. H. Beers & Co. in 1880.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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PETER SHANK, farmer, Sec. 33; P. O. Center, Montgomery Co., Ohio. To the subject of this sketch we are pleased to accord a place in the advance brigade of early pioneers in Darke Co. He was born in Lancaster Co., Penn., May 28, 1803, and is a son of Christopher and Catherine Shank, natives of the same place—lived, died and are buried in the place of their nativity. His father departed this life in 1825, at the age of 45 years, and his mother at the advanced age of 91 years. Our subject assisted his father in tailoring till his 21st year, and then began life for himself, and followed his trade to gain a livelihood. After his father’s death, he resided with his widowed mother for four years, when he was united in the bonds of matrimony with Miss Barbara, daughter of John and Mary Keener, Jan. 12, 1830. They were natives of Dauphin Co., Penn., and their remains are peacefully at rest on the hillsides of their native place. Our subject removed to Montgomery Co., Ohio, with his young wife, the same year of their marriage, and settled seven miles north of Dayton, and resided there for four years and worked at his trade; in 1834, he came to Darke Co. and settled on the place where he now resides; he first purchased 160 acres of land, consisting of woods and almost impenetrable swamps; he erected a small log cabin, and began the great task of making a farm in the heart of a mighty wilderness, with no improved implements of industry such as we possess now to assist and lighten the heavy work of clearing; ax and muscle then were the essentials, and he who had not plenty of the latter was certainly an object of pity, for strength, muscle and the power to endure privations were the keys that opened the great wilderness and sustained the pioneer in those trying days. Our subject and his good wife have passed through the different phases of pioneer life, and for fifty years this day, the anniversary of their marriage, have they labored together, shared each other’s joys, partaken of each other’s sorrows, each has been a helpmeet to the other, and, although their frames are bent with the weight of years and incessant toil they are in the enjoyment of good health and strength, with faculties unimpaired; they are the parents of nine children—Nancy, born Oct. 2, 1830; Catherine, born Oct. 10, 1831, died aged 15 months; Lydia, born Sept. 26, 1833; Elizabeth, born Aug. 14, 1835; Catherine, born Dec. 24, 1837; Henry, born May 10, 1840; Susanna, born Nov. 13, 1844; Margaret, born April 5, 1847; John, born Sept. 3, 1850. Mr. Shank was the first Justice of the Peace in Monroe Township after its erection, and has been identified in most all of the offices in the Township, and is a man with considerable executive ability; he is a member of the Brethren in Christ Church, and his wife belongs to the German Baptist; both are Christian people in every sense of the word, and are universally beloved and respected by all; they have been very fortunate in rearing their large family, having lived in Darke Co. for a period of forty-five years without a death in the family; in May, 1879, the death messenger entered the family of his daughter, Mrs. John Miller, who resides in Washington Township, and removed three of its members from earth to heaven—Lydia on the 19th of May, and her sister Ara on the 21st following, and all that was mortal of these two innocents was consigned to the same tomb; but its ravages did not stop here, and little Peter fell a victim to the scourge, and was carried away to angels’ home on the 29th following.

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This family biography is one of 659 biographies included in The History of Darke County, Ohio published in 1880 by W. H. Beers & Co.  For the complete description, click here: Darke County, Ohio History and Genealogy

View additional Darke County, Ohio family biographies here: Darke County, Ohio Biographies

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