Biographies and Obituaries
In loving memory
Abner G. Smiley
Biographical Sketches, History of Daviess County
A native of Ohio, where he was born November 19, 1828, and is one of four sons and three daughters born to William and Elizabeth Smiley. The father was a blacksmith by trade, and was born in Pennsylvania in 1800. In 1816 he came with his parents to Ohio, where he remained until death in 1848. The mother was also a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1804, and lives with her eldest son and is eighty-two years of age. Owing to ill health in his boyhood, our subject received a limited education. He remained with his parents until twenty-one years of age. May 28, 1854 he married Esther Bear, daughter of Leonard and Mary Bear. She is a native of the Buckeye State, born in 1833. They have seven children named Payson, Wilson, R.M., Reison, Sarah (deceased), Eliza (deceased) and Jonas. In 1863, Mr. Smiley removed to Daviess County, Indiana, where he owns 205 acres of land. His farm is well improved and furnished with good buildings. In politics he is a Democrat and cast his first vote for Franklin Pierce.
Contributed by: Shirley H. Platt