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Archiver > INWELLS > 2002-11 > 1036300273


From: Cathy Burnsed <>
Subject: [INWELLS] Biography of Daniel Sills
Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 00:11:23 -0500


>From:
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>This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
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>Surnames: Sills, Blackford, Dick
>Classification: Biography
>
>Message Board URL:
>
>http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ui.2ADI/2363
>
>Message Board Post:
>
>Daniel Sills
>
>Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903, pgs 363-364
>
>Daniel Sills was born on the farm where he now lives, April 20, 1843. He
>is a son of Daniel Sills, a native of Pennsylvania, born November 12,
>1804, who died September 4, 1873, and the latter was a son of Joseph
>Sills, a native of Germany. The mother of Daniel Sills, Jr., was Mary
>(Blackford) Sills, born November 9, 1806, a daughter of John
>Blackford. Blackford county, Indiana, received its name from its original
>settlers, the ancestors of Mary (Blackford) Sills. Daniel, Sr., was
>married to Mary Blackford June 22, 1826, and settled in Ohio, later coming
>to Indiana, and on March 1, 1842, moved onto the farm now occupied by
>Daniel Sills, Jr. The senior Sills devoted the greater portion of his live
>to farming and hunting, he and his sons clearing the farm where the
>subject resides. Daniel, Sr., was the father of ten children, five of
>whom are living: Elizabeth, born May 1, 1827; Katherine, born November 9,
>1828, deceased; Sarah, born April 18, 1831; Margaret, born Novembe!
>r 21, 1827, deceased; Joseph, born February 24, 1833, deceased; Michael,
>born July 15, 1838; Daniel, born April 20, 1843; John, born June 5, 1847,
>deceased, and an infant, deceased.
>
>Daniel, Jr., attended school at the Helm Corner school house in Chester
>township until he attained the age of twenty years. The longest term of
>school in those times was three months, and he did not get to go more than
>half of that time at any one term. He remained with his father, who
>claimed his wages until he was twenty-one years of age. In 1865 he went
>to Iowa and remained there that year. Excepting this one year spent in
>the west, he remained working in the home neighborhood, making his home
>with his parents until he was about twenty-five years old. He was married
>February 13, 1868, to Mary C. Dick, who was born September 8, 1845 and
>died September 13, 1898. She was the daughter of Uriah Dick, a resident
>of Blackford county, Indiana, and a native of Virginia. After his
>marriage, Daniel Sills and wife settled two and one-half miles south of
>Montpelier, Indiana where they lived for a period of eighteen months, then
>moving onto the farm where he is now living. He h!
>as remained on this farm continually since that time, it having virtually
>been his home ever since he was born, excepting the first eighteen months
>of his married life. He has been all his life what may be termed a
>general stock farmer. He has also owned and run a threshing machine in
>season for thirty-five years and has done some saw-milling. He is the
>owner of three hundred and fifty acres of land, eighty-eight of which are
>in the home place and the remainder in Blackford county, Indiana. He
>received six hundred dollars from his father as a start in life. He is
>the father of fourteen children, all of who are living, as
>follows: Alvina, born January 29, 1869; Letta F., March 7, 1870; Rosa L.
>B., December 29, 1871; Uriah D., January 27, 1873; Jennie M., April 27,
>1874; Wesley H., November 16, 1875; Addie D., September 6, 1878; Charles
>C., March 18, 1880; Elijah B., November 15, 1881; Bertha M., June 30,
>1883; Sue O., June 26, 1885; Eva A., August 13, 1887; Mary C., Mar!
>ch 18, 1890; and Daniel N., March 18, 1893.
>
>In his political views the subject has always subscribed to the doctrines
>of the Democratic party; he believes, however, in a man voting his
>sentiments regardless of party dictation. Mary C., (Dick) Sills, his
>wife, after having been a true and faithful helpmate to her husband for
>thirty-one years, passed to her reward September 13, 1898, mourned by her
>husband and children. Daniel Sills is one in whom the love of family,
>friends and country is largely developed. He has never had a desire to
>roam the wide world o'er, but has found contentment in the bosom of his
>family and his friends in the locality of his nativity. He is an
>industrious and exemplary citizen, who has found his highest happiness in
>the performance of his civic duties to the community in which he has
>lived, in providing for his family and securing a competency to meet the
>contingencies of the inevitable "rainy day."
>From:


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