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Below is a family biography included in The History of Darke County, Ohio published by W. H. Beers & Co. in 1880.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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DR. LEO MYERS BUCHWALTER, physician and surgeon, Greenville: the paternal ancestry of Dr. Buchwalter, whose portrait appears in this work, can be traced, not without many missing links, however, to the year 1527, at which time the Mennonites or Anabaptists (to which denomination they belonged), on account of their peculiar belief, were compelled through religious persecution to flee from their native canton, Berne, Switzerland, first to the Netherlands, and subsequently to the United States, arriving in Lancaster Co., Penn., about the year 1709. From the time of their exodus until the birth of Gerhardt Buchwalter, grandfather of Dr. Buchwalter, the line of genealogy cannot be traced with certainty. He, it appears, was born in Lancaster Co., Penn., June 9, 1771. Married Maria Brobsten in 1796, who bore him thirteen children: Benjamin, the oldest, father of Dr. Buchwalter, was born August 9, 1797; married Catharine Miller, daughter of Joseph Miller, of Middletown, Md., in 1824, the fruits of which were eight children, two of whom survive; in 1826, he removed to Dayton, Ohio, and after remaining here ten years, went to Laurel, Franklin Co., Ind., where he followed his calling of millwright, erecting many of the best mills in the country ; in 1842, he left Laurel and located in Harrison, Hamilton Co., Ohio, at which place he was appointed Postmaster in 1852, in which capacity he served until 1861, when he was elected Mayor, the duties of which office he creditably discharged for a period of ten years; after this he came to Darke Co., and soon after died at Euphemia, Preble Co., Ohio; his wife followed him July 11, 1877. Dr. Buchwalter, the subject of this sketch, was born April 11, 1831, in Dayton, Ohio; his boyhood days were passed in the usual routine incident to youthful life in general up to a suitable age to attend school, which in those early days was not over a stone pavement a few blocks distance to a fine schoolhouse, but, when the boy was determined enough to encounter the difficulties, he took his lonely way through the woods, along a winding path for many miles to a rude log cabin; these very hardships, stamped upon that boy an energy of purpose, which intensified by maturer years, defies all opposition; at the tender age of 12, Dr. Buchwalter’s father placed him in his mill, requiring his time eighteen hours out of the twenty-four—six of which, however, viz., from 6 P. M. until 12 M., being watch duty, he employed in reading and study, thus acquiring a very fair education in the English branches; in his 16th year he began teaching, which he followed about four years, then entered the store of Michael Miller, at Euphemia, as clerk; having thus by his own industry secured the necessary funds, he, in the fall of 1855, began reading medicine in the office of Dr. G. S. Goodheart, of Harrison, Ohio; before completing his course of reading, however, he was compelled to resume the counter, first with Miller & Moore, and subsequently with Moore & Winner. On the 1st day of November, 1864, he married Miss Matella Wilson, second daughter of Hon. William Wilson, of Greenville, by whom he had one child—Anna. In the spring of 1866, Dr. Buchwalter graduated from the Miami College of Medicine, and immediately located in Hollandsburg, in which he remained nine years, in the meantime building up an extensive practice; in 1874, he removed to Greenville, where he has by his indomitable will, untiring perseverance, and thorough acquaintance with his profession, built up a practice, which, while it is inferior to none in the county, is rapidly and permanently increasing. Dr. Buchwalter possesses an excellent library, which he is constantly enlarging by the addition of the leading medical and scientific productions of the day; he is, in the broadest sense of the term, a self-made man, and has won his way, conquering step by step, every opposing element that has impeded his pathway to that success and high professional skill to which he has at length fully attained. In the Biographical Cyclopaedia, appears a biographical sketch of the Doctor, to which, through more recent information, we are enabled to add some additional facts and emendations.

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This family biography is one of 659 biographies included in The History of Darke County, Ohio published in 1880 by W. H. Beers & Co.  For the complete description, click here: Darke County, Ohio History and Genealogy

View additional Darke County, Ohio family biographies here: Darke County, Ohio Biographies

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