Lake-Putnam County IN Archives Biographies.....Dwyer, John 1834 - 1902 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 24, 2006, 10:51 pm Author: T. H. Ball (1904) JOHN DWYER. John Dwyer, whose intense and well directed activity in business affairs has won him success, is now living a retired life in Lowell and enjoys in high measure the respect and esteem of the community. He is an honored veteran of the Civil war, has served as auditor of Lake county and in all relations of life has been found trustworthy and loyal. A native of Knox county, Ohio, his birth occurred on the 26th of June, 1834. His grandfather, James Dwyer, was born in the north of Ireland, and on coming to America settled in Maryland. His father, John Dwyer, was a native of Maryland and settled in Knox county, Ohio, in 1808, becoming one of the pioneer residents of that portion of the state. He was a carpenter and joiner and also a cabinet-maker, and he carried on business at Mount Vernon, Ohio, along those lines. His remaining days were spent in the Buckeye state, where he died at the age of seventy-eight years. His political allegiance was given to the Democracy in early manhood, but in 1856 he joined the ranks of the new Republican party and voted for John C. Fremont. His religious faith was indicated by his membership in the Baptist church. His wife bore the maiden name of Sarah Martin and was a native of Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, where she was reared. She, too, spent her last days at Mount Vernon, Ohio, and passed away at the very advanced age of seventy-seven years, there being only a week's difference in the date of hers and her husband's death. This worthy couple were the parents of three sons and eight daughters, all of whom reached years of maturity. John Dwyer, the ninth child and second son of the family, was reared in Knox county, Ohio, and pursued his education in Frederickton Academy and in Oberlin College. He learned the trade of a millwright in the county of his nativity, serving a full term of apprenticeship, but soon afterward gave up the business. He followed that pursuit for nine months in Iowa. In 1854 he removed to Lake county, Indiana, settling at Crown Point, and engaged in farming one mile east of the city, carrying on that pursuit for about three years. In the meantime Mr. Dwyer was married on the 28th of December, 1856, the lady of his choice being Miss Cornelia A. Clark, a daughter of Jabez and Marrelle E. (Burrows) Clark, in whose family were seven children. two daughters and five sons. Mrs. Dwyer, the second in order of birth, was born in Tompkins county, New York, June 27, 1837, and was but seven months old when she was brought to Lake county, Indiana, by her parents, who located at Lowell. The father was a farmer by occupation and, securing land from the government, at once began its cultivation and development, transforming the wild tract into richly cultivated fields. He continued to carry en farming up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1876, when he was sixty-eight years of age. His wife died in her eighty-eighth year. Mrs. Dwyer has one living brother, Perry D. Clark, of Lowell. In the year 1857 Mr. and Mrs. Dwyer took up their abode upon a farm a half mile south of Lowell, and there he devoted his energies to general agricultural pursuits for about a year and a half. At that time they removed to a farm two and a half miles northwest of Lowell, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1861. Feeling then that his first duty was to his country he joined the boys in blue, enlisting as a member of Company B, Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He joined the army as a private, but was soon afterward made corporal, and he served from June, 1861, until May 5, 1864. He took part in a number of the leading battles of the Army of the Potomac and was wounded in the shoulder at the battle of Gettysburg by a minie ball. He was again wounded at the battle of the Wilderness on the 5th of May, 1864, being struck in the knee by a minie ball. This necessitated the amputation of the left leg above the knee, and on account of his severe injuries he was honorably discharged September 25, 1864. Mr. Dwyer then returned to Lowell. He certainly made great sacrifices for his country and yet he has never regretted the part which he performed in the preservation of the Union. On again reaching Lake county he took up the work of school teaching, but after he had spent a month in that way he was appointed by Schuyler Colfax to a clerical position in the war department of Washington. Removing to that city he remained for seven years in that department, on the expiration of which period he resigned and returned to his old home in Lake county in 1871. In the same year he was made a candidate for the position of county recorder and was elected the following fall for a term of four years. During that period he made his home in Crown Point, and in the discharge of the duties of the office he was found most capable, efficient, prompt and faithful. On his retirement from official service he returned to Lowell and located on a farm a half mile southwest of the town, there remaining until 1882, when he sold his farm property and removed to Greencastle, Indiana, in order to educate his family. Not long after his removal to that place he was re-appointed to a position in the war department at Washington and remained as a clerk there until 1890, when he again resigned and returned to Lowell, where his family had previously located. He has since lived retired in the enjoyment of a rest which he has truly earned. Mr. and Mrs. Dwyer are the parents of seven children, but John Byron died at the age of three years and twins died in infancy, while Bessie Eliza died at the age of seventeen months. The others are Cassius C, Schuyler C, who is an attorney at Lowell; and Sylvia May, the wife of Roy M. Abrams, of Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Dwyer has been a life-long Republican, never faltering in his allegiance to the party, which stood as the defender of the Union in the dark days of the Civil war and which has ever been the champion of progress, reform and improvement. He is a member of the Grand Army post at Lowell, and thus maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades. He has a wide and favorable acquaintance in Lake county, and during his residence elsewhere he has felt the keenest interest in the development of this portion of the state. In all life's relations he has been true to duty and in matters of citizenship is as loyal to-day as when he followed the old flag upon battlefields of the south. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/bios/dwyer543gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 7.4 Kb