My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM DILBONE, farmer; P. O. Piqua; was born in Spring Creek Township Feb. 1, 1837, and is a son of John and Pamelia Dilbone, and a grandson of Henry and Barbara (Millhouse) Dilbone. John was born Nov. 25, 1806, and came with his father and mother to this county in 1807; they were subsequently the parents of four children— John, Margaret, Priscilla and William; the last named was only in his 7th month when their parents were massacred by an Indian, Aug. 18, 1813; after dinner, Mr. Dilbone went up to the spring some distance northeast of the house, to get some water to take to the flax patch southeast of the house, where his wife and children were to meet him; John took care of the rest of the children while his father and mother were engaged in pulling flax in the southeast corner of a cornfield; toward evening they were aroused by the sharp bark of a young dog, and, on looking up, a shot was fired from the corn on the north by an Indian, who dropped his gun and rushed forward with knives and tomahawk to complete his villainous deed; the father, though pierced through by the shot, escaped to the woods on the south; the mother ran into the corn on the west, but was overtaken and tomahawked and scalped; the Indian then came near the children, who were sitting in the shade of a walnut stump, but, at this juncture the report of a gun was heard at no great distance to the southeast, and the red villain fled, not even stopping to get his gun. The second child, Margaret, had been sent home on some errand, and was just returning, when she met her brothers and sister on their way to the house; on reaching home, they met Mrs. Winans to whom they related what they had seen and heard and what they supposed had happened to their parents. This lady then informed a neighbor, William McKinney, who came and had John go with him to see what might be the fate of his father and mother. They found her dead body lying in the corn. The neighbors in wild excitement, collected together late in the evening and went with the children to a place near Troy, where they stayed for a short time till all became quiet again. The next day a party of men went in search of Mr. Dilbone, who was still alive, but died Aug. 20. He was found lying between two small oaks, on which his name was afterward carved. One of the trees having died was recently cut down, the other is still green and has long since overgrown the name. After this sad affair, the children were taken to a kind of block-house near where their grandfather Millhouse lived. In this neighborhood, John stayed until, sometime in 1826, he married Pamelia Denman and moved on the farm entered by his father. Here our subject was born and raised and still resides, owning 6 1/3 acres of the old farm besides 70 acres in Sec. 2. On the 24th of January, 1858, he married Alvira Balzell, who was born in Mercer Co. in 1840, and left an orphan quite young, when she was brought to Miami Co.; for some years previous to her marriage, she supported herself by weeks’ work; she was an exemplary and happy wife until her health declined. In April, 1875, while at church, she was attacked with a faintness, and was never able to sit up a whole day at a time until death called her to that land whence no traveler returns; the last six weeks of her life she suffered unspeakably, not being able to turn in bed without assistance; notwithstanding, she bore her afflictions with meekness and patience, departing this life Dec. 21, 1875, a consistent member of the Christian Church. She was the mother of seven children, leaving four to the care of her husband—Mary E., born Aug. 30, 1858, now Mrs. Leckey; Joseph F., April 14, 1861, who met his death by the accidental discharge of a gun while hunting on the day of his sister’s wedding, Jan. 16, 1878; Emma J., Sept. 8, 1863, and Elmer W., May 17, 1870. Since her sister’s marriage, Emma has been her father’s only help.