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| Grave of Harriet Deamer, Old Riverside Cem. Defiance Ohio |
Mrs. Harriet Deamer, who resides at 717 Perry street, is a daughter of the pioneer Andrew Jackson St John who established the tavern out along the Ayersville road about the year 1850
The purpose of this structure erected in the wilderness by a carpenter named Henry Stites was that of a farmhouse. And it became a tavern through necessity because so many folks stopped at the lonely dwelling along the muddy wilderness road and asked for lodgings.
Jack St John who was a raw-bone man measuring six feet two in his socks, was a hospitable man and it is a matter of legend in the community that he never turned a weary or hungry man from his door.
A.J. St John engaged his services to a tanner at Lebanon, Ohio, at the age of 17 receiving for his services the sum of $30.00 per year. After a thorough apprenticeship with different tanners he came to this county and established himself as a tanner and agriculturist.
Not only was he a tanner of leather, but from hides from his vats he made shoes for the neighborhood. Many a pioneer was shod in long-wearing leather boots made by this skillful man whose good workmanship brought trade from a large radius.
As his tanning trade gained in volume he added two more 40s to the original forty acre home site. Bark of the best oaks was ground in a one horse power mill and the ingredients of the tanning solution so skillfully blended that the green hides that went into the vats came out as choice harness leather that commanded a splendid market.
Seeking new territory as was the custom with many of the first settlers. Mr. St John after residing for 14 years in Defiance county, went to Camden, Mich., where he erected a tannery.
His daughter Miss Harriet, accompanied him there, but returned in the fall to become the bride of Solomon Deamer, a brick mason by trade whose name is familiar to many residents of Defiance.
The original home of Solomon Deamer was on the site now occupied by the Defiance Screw Machine Products Co. Mr. Deamer passed from life about 35 years ago. Mrs Deamer at the age of 87, an eighty-year resident of Defiance county is living with her niece Mrs Louis Rector, at the Perry street home.
In looking back to the hard times of her girlhood spend during the tragic years of the Civil War. Mrs. Deamer, who was actively engage in making a dutch girl quilt, said one reason we consider conditions difficult today is because there are so many different ways in which money may be expended.
In the days when the old plank road to Ayersville had lost its planking and resembled a mortar box, wagons were a common necessity and a buggy was a luxury.
Shirts were made of flour sacks with the sleeves from the legs of old socking. Almost all the white flour available was either musty or wormy and corn meal was the standard bread staple.
Mrs. Solomon Deamer, the widow of a Civil War veteran, recalls the stirring days of the great conflict of the 1860s when General Kirby Smith with his band of Confederate raiders threatened to invade Ohio and a company of local men whom her father, A.J. St John, was a member, was organized almost in a day and on Sept 10, 1862 enlisted with the famous Squirrel Hunters and departed to defend Cincinnati from the threatened invasion.
That famous company contains many familiar names: John Crows, Capt
C.B. Mix, First lieut.
David Butler, Second lieut
J.B Mellin
D.W. Nye
John Paul Jr.
Louis Godbell
D.W. Marcellus
John Linebrink
George Hooker
James Brown
Elias Zeller
John Stitsel
William Woods
Jerome Murray
A.A Ayers
Robert King
R. Girard
James Richards
J.B Heatley
Dave Buckmaster
George Dudley
Henry Miller
Sam Hutchinson
Abe Davis
Peter M Dodd
William B Watts
J.E. Willeman
John Andrews
John Moon
Ed Beall
Charles E Williams
William E Williams
William Douty
John Carpenter
J.A. Allen
Frank Nolan
John Spangler
Ambrose Maston
Isaac Collar
Dave Jackson
George Rogers
C.C. Strong
J.A Meyers
John Davidson
T.D. Harris
M. Houtz
T.C. Breese
S.S Hopkins
M. Carey
John Glen
B.F. Kniss
John Lewis
C.C. Case
A. Elliott
D.M. Corwin
F.H. Ferguson
John Bogg
Hugh Donnelly
Nelson Kibble
James Figley
Silas Figley
Frank A Masterson
Ed Hatfield
Fred Moninger
John Hatfield
Louis Daudt
James Kochel
George Miller
Ohio Miller
Andy Tuttle
Mathias Elliott
The company of Defiance County,
Squirrel Hunters
The original home of Solomon Deamer was on the site now occupied by the Defiance Screw Machine Products Co. Mr. Deamer passed from life about 35 years ago. Mrs Deamer at the age of 87, an eighty-year resident of Defiance county is living with her niece Mrs Louis Rector, at the Perry street home.
In looking back to the hard times of her girlhood spend during the tragic years of the Civil War. Mrs. Deamer, who was actively engage in making a dutch girl quilt, said one reason we consider conditions difficult today is because there are so many different ways in which money may be expended.
In the days when the old plank road to Ayersville had lost its planking and resembled a mortar box, wagons were a common necessity and a buggy was a luxury.
Shirts were made of flour sacks with the sleeves from the legs of old socking. Almost all the white flour available was either musty or wormy and corn meal was the standard bread staple.
Mrs. Solomon Deamer, the widow of a Civil War veteran, recalls the stirring days of the great conflict of the 1860s when General Kirby Smith with his band of Confederate raiders threatened to invade Ohio and a company of local men whom her father, A.J. St John, was a member, was organized almost in a day and on Sept 10, 1862 enlisted with the famous Squirrel Hunters and departed to defend Cincinnati from the threatened invasion.
That famous company contains many familiar names: John Crows, Capt
C.B. Mix, First lieut.
David Butler, Second lieut
J.B Mellin
D.W. Nye
John Paul Jr.
Louis Godbell
D.W. Marcellus
John Linebrink
George Hooker
James Brown
Elias Zeller
John Stitsel
William Woods
Jerome Murray
A.A Ayers
Robert King
R. Girard
James Richards
J.B Heatley
Dave Buckmaster
George Dudley
Henry Miller
Sam Hutchinson
Abe Davis
Peter M Dodd
William B Watts
J.E. Willeman
John Andrews
John Moon
Ed Beall
Charles E Williams
William E Williams
William Douty
John Carpenter
J.A. Allen
Frank Nolan
John Spangler
Ambrose Maston
Isaac Collar
Dave Jackson
George Rogers
C.C. Strong
J.A Meyers
John Davidson
T.D. Harris
M. Houtz
T.C. Breese
S.S Hopkins
M. Carey
John Glen
B.F. Kniss
John Lewis
C.C. Case
A. Elliott
D.M. Corwin
F.H. Ferguson
John Bogg
Hugh Donnelly
Nelson Kibble
James Figley
Silas Figley
Frank A Masterson
Ed Hatfield
Fred Moninger
John Hatfield
Louis Daudt
James Kochel
George Miller
Ohio Miller
Andy Tuttle
Mathias Elliott
The company of Defiance County,
Squirrel Hunters
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