My Genealogy Hound

JESSE STUTSMAN, minister, educator and farmer; the subject of this memoir was born in Montgomery Co., Ohio, Oct. 29, 1833, and is a son of David and Francis Stutsman, natives of Pennsylvania; they removed to Montgomery Co. in 1802, when there were but three houses where the beautiful city of Dayton now stands; he cleared four farms in this county, and endured all the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life, and in 1860 he disposed of the old home farm and removed to Polk Co., Mo., where he died the following year, from the effects of exertion and the troubles of war; his mother, after the death of her husband, returned to Ohio, to escape the horrors of guerrilla warfare, and remained about seven years, and then moved to Kansas to spend her declining years with her daughter, and died in September, 1877. Her son-in-law, Mr. Herr, who resided in Missouri, was foully shot down by the rebel bushwhacker, Powell, and, before the close of the war he was captured in Arkansas, handed over to a Missouri regiment, court-martialed, sentenced to death and shot. In the winter of 1857, our subject emigrated to Cedar Co., Mo., and engaged in farming; here he was very unfortunate, losing all his property, and was thus thrown entirely upon his own resources; in 1858, he returned to Miami Co. and engaged in teaching, which occupation he followed for two years, when he removed to Montgomery Co. and still continued to follow his profession; he only received a common-school education, and is one of our self-made men in every respect, and is a successful and proficient educator; in 1869, he removed to Darke Co., where he now resides, and purchased 87 acres of land, all in a good state of cultivation, the fruit of his labor. Mr. Stutsman is a representative of the German Baptist Church, and has labored in the ministry for twelve years; he was united in marriage with Miss Martha, daughter of Martin Hyser, Nov. 7, 1857; Mr. Hyser emigrated from Lancaster Co., Penn., in 1850, and located in Montgomery Co., is still living, and is upward of 83 years of age, the oldest man in Butler Township; Mrs. Hyser departed this life Jan. 2, 1875, aged 75 years and 1 day; was born Jan. 1, 1800. Mr. and Mrs. Stutsman are the parents of nine children, viz.: Francis E., born July 1, 1861; Willis H., born Jan. 11, 1864; Charles A., born Aug. 27, 1866; Franklin M., born Dec. 18, 1868; Anna M., born July 3, 1871; Susella, born Aug. 26, 1873; Ira M., born June 1, 1875; infant daughter dying in infancy; Marcus D., died Aug. 27, 1860, aged 6 months 20 days.