My Genealogy Hound

DAVID BOLES, blacksmith, Higginsport, was born in Pleasant Township in 1824, and is a son of William and Martha (Dickison) Boles, who were both natives of Pennsylvania, where they married and had born to them five children. About the close of the war of 1812, they emigrated to Ohio and settled where our subject was born. Here he became a small land owner and conducted his trade (blacksmithing) until about 1850, when his age required him to retire. He was one of the early smiths of the county and filled an important space in its history as such. He buried his wife in 1837, by whom he had twelve children, nine now living in various parts of the United States. William married for his second wife Mrs. Elizabeth Neal, with whom he lived until his death in 1864, at which time he resided in Shelby County, Ind. The subject of this sketch, the tenth child, was born in 1824, and raised in his native county, obtaining a common school education. At the age of twenty, he engaged in the trade of his choice, which he still follows, and has been located in Higginsport since 1859. The early part of his mechanical life was spent in Indiana. He is now one of three smiths in town, and by his mechanical skill and courteous treatment to his customers has his share of trade. He has been thrice married — in 1848, to Mary J. Dixson, who was a native of this county, and died five years after their union, leaving one child, now living; his second marriage was celebrated with Catherine Dunham, of Indiana, who died in 1857, leaving two children, one now living; his third and present wife was Elizabeth A. Burgett, of Brown County, Ohio, by whom he has one child.