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Author: HuntingtonV
Surnames: Dawson, Myers, Butler, Souers, Rittenhouse, Nye, Thompson
Classification: biography
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OLIVER HAZARD PERRY DAWSON
From Biographical Memoirs of Huntington County, 1901, pages 490-492
Fifty years ago there came to the southern part of Huntington county a young man by the
name of Oliver Hazard Perry Dawson, whose selection of this part of the state as his
future home was determined somewhat by there then living here another young person for
whom he had formed a warm attachment, having become acquainted with her in Clinton county,
Ohio, where he had been employed on different lines of work some four years previous. The
lady in question was named Lydia Myers, whose father, Jacob Myers, had some years before
entered a large tract of land in the vicinity of Warren, and had come for the purpose of
making it his home and of converting it into a farm. The reception to the young man was
of a most cordial nature by both the lady and her father, and but a few weeks elapsed
after his arrival until she had consented to share the trials and successes of life with
him as her companion, the ceremony that made them man and wife being celebrated soon
after. They began h!
ousekeeping on a rented tract, continuing to operate rented land for some six years; in
the meantime starting an improvement on a tract of wild land that her father had decided
to present to them, having confidence in his ability, which had by this time been fairly
well demonstrated. He erected a hewed-log house, to which they removed and where they
lived for several years, succeeding in the clearing and improvement of quite a nice little
farm. The natural course of nature took her parents from among the living, and they
purchased the old homestead, buying out the other interests, and from that time made it
their home. During the first quarter of a century that he lived here he made extensive
improvements, not only to his original place but to the Myers homestead as well, the
results of his activity as a careful farmer enabling him at the end of that time to leave
the farm and retire to a smaller tract near the village, turning his attention more
specially to the cultiva!
tion of a choice plum orchard and attending to the demands of an exten
sive gravel pit on that part of the farm that he had not sold, and which lay about one
mile from the town. Forty years he and his amiable wife traveled the journey of life
together, having been a comfort and consolation to each other in times of distress and
sharing equally the pleasures of their success. But the touch of the Dark Angel was laid
upon the brow of the cherished wife and the spirit that had been his inspiration passed to
the shadowy land. No children had come to add to the comfort and satisfaction of their
lives, and they lived in closer communion with each other. In looking for a time into the
early history of Mr. Dawson we find that he was born in Clermont county, Ohio, December
27, 1826, and was the son of John and Massa (Butler) Dawson. His grandfather was Joseph
Dawson, who came from Pennsylvania, though he was a native of the Emerald Isle, having
been brought while yet a child to this country. His wife, Nancy, was a representative of
the old Dutch s!
tock in Pennsylvania, and, as a young married couple, they came west and secured a tract
of land which is now embraced within the great city of Cincinnati, though the greater part
of their lives was passed in Clermont county, where both died. John and Massa were
married at Vevay, Switzerland county, Indiana, removing soon after to Clermont county,
finally passing to the "Unknown Dark" while living in a suburb of Cincinnati,
know as Cheviot. The family that resulted from their union retained the reputation of the
two races represented, having fifteen children, and, what is quite unusual, two sets of
twins were of the number. All grew to maturity, but at the opening of the twentieth
century three only were surviving, there being besides Oliver Hazard Perry a sister in
Louisville, and one in California. The boyhood of our subject was all passed with his
father, going, after attaining his majority, to Clinton county, where he engaged in
various occupations previous to his c!
oming to Indiana.
February 7, 1893, he was joined in matrimony with Miss Mary A. Souers, the popular and
fashionable dressmaker of the village, who for ten years had industriously attended to the
demands of the matrons and maids of the community in the preparation of their most select
toilettes. She was born in the township some four miles north of Warren, on the
Huntington pike, her parents being S. P. and Mariah (Rittenhouse) Souers, who had come to
this region from Ohio. Her father had come early enough to make land entry, selecting a
choice tract in the same neighborhood of the Rittenhouse family, with whose charming
eighteen-year-old daughter he became smitten, and succeeded in winning her hand, locating
thereafter upon his land, his cabin being the first and only habitation on the Huntington
road between Warren and the Little Wabash river, a distance of thirteen miles. Further
reference is made regarding those early days in connection with the review of the
venerable Jacob Souers, of!
Huntington. Mariah was the daughter of Aaron and Sarah (Nye) Rittenhouse, and was a
young girl at the time of coming here, being but eighteen when married. Both of Mrs.
Dawson's parents died at their old home, the father at seventy-five and the mother ten
years younger. Of their seven children, five are still living, one brother, Amos L.
Souers, of Salamonie township, being the only other remaining in this vicinity, although a
sister, Sidona, wife of Marion D. Thompson, resides in the extreme northeast corner of the
county. Mary A. left the farm to engage in the art of dressmaking, and for ten years did
the principal business in that line in Warren. Within the past three years they have
erected a handsome and convenient residence in a very desirable location on the main
street and close to the center of the town, where their lives are being passed in the
frequent enjoyment of the society of old and true friends, though the lady had been a
sufferer for some months, bei!
ng debarred the comforts of outdoor exercise. She was reared in the M
issionary Baptist church, in which she retains active and influential relations, while he
affiliates with the Methodist denomination, having served the society as its steward for
some time.
Mr. Dawson has ever been an important factor in the making and development of the county,
and though holding some of the minor offices of the township has primarily devoted his
attention to the improving of his farm, having certainly done his full share in the
clearing of the soil and developing a first-class farm. Following closely in the
footsteps of his father-in-law, Mr. Myers, who brought the first well-bred stock to the
neighborhood, he has continued to keep the best line of cattle and other thoroughbred
animals, realizing that his efforts in that direction have resulted in much improvement in
all grades of stock in the county. He has ever felt special love for a good horse, and
being something of a judge of horseflesh has not allowed others to lead him in the owning
or handling of choice animals. Whenever a citizen has a good one that is for sale or
trade he knows where to go to be accommodated. Now, as he stands at the threshold of the
new century, he may well su!
rvey the grand work that has been done during the last half of the nineteenth, feeling a
commendable pride in the part that he has played therein, and while he may not have
attained what the world calls greatness he has, at least, contributed liberally to the
material wealth and improvement, the maker of a farm under the many drawbacks and
conditions being entitled to great credit by those who become his successors.
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