David O. Sheeley
David O. Sheeley, a retired farmer now living at Alpha and the proprietor of a farm of something more than one hundred and eight acres in the southern part of Beavercreek township, was born in that part of the county now included in Jefferson township on August 25, 1846, son of William B. and Elizabeth (Osborne) Sheeley, the latter of whom was born in Clermont county, this state, October 31, 1816. Her father, a Virginian and a Methodist preacher, blacksmith and farmer, came to Greene county with his family in 1833 and bought about one thousand acres of land in that part of Silvercreek township that later came to be set off as Jefferson township. Her maternal grandfather, the Rev. Philip Gatch, was one of the pioneer Methodist preachers of Ohio and a noted evangelist in his day, and for twenty-one years was one of the associate judges of Clermont county.
William B. Sheeley was born in Greene county on October 24, 1811, and on November 14, 1841, married Elizabeth Osborne. He became a farmer in Jefferson township and there died on May 21, 1870. His widow survived him until 1890. They were the parents of eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being Preciosa, deceased; Mrs. Sarah Tysor, of Missouri; Mrs. Pallas Brookbank, deceased; Moses, who died at the age of two weeks; Isaac, deceased; Lydia, unmarried, and Mrs. Harriet Hunt, of Clinton county. By a previous marriage William B. Sheeley was the father of two children, Reuben and George.
David O. Sheeley was reared on the farm and early became engaged in farming on his own account, becoming the owner of a farm of a fraction more than one hundred and eight acres in the southern part of Beavercreek township, on which he lived until his retirement about five years ago and removal to Alpha, where he is now living, renting his farm land. Politically, Mr. Sheeley is a Democrat, and by religious persuasian is a Methodist.
On April 30, 1868, David O. Sheeley was united in marriage to Alice J. Weeks, who was born in Warren county on October 10, 1850, and who died on December 9, 1917. To that union three children were born, Charles C, John W. and Ivy Ethel, the latter of whom married William Netherton, a Beavercreek township farmer, and has eight children, William, Ethel, Arthur, Alvida, Elizabeth, Elwood, Stephen and Charles. Mr. Sheeley's elder son, Charles C. Sheeley, now foreman of a machine shop at Dayton, married Catherine Greenwald and has six children, Anna, Dorothy, Bessie, David, Frederick and Caroline. Anna, the first-born of these, is married and has one child, Charles Caron. John W. Sheeley, also a machinist, now living in Detroit, married Matilda Neff and has three children, Ruth, who is married and has one child, and Alice and John.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918