Biography of John Deihl, pages  787/788.  History of DeKalb County, 
Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



John Deihl



	Prominent in the affairs of DeKalb county and distinguished as a 
citizen whose influence is extended for beyond the limits of the 
community honored by his residence the name of John Deihl stand out a 
conspicuous figure among the successful farmers of he locality of which 
this volume treats. All to his undertakings have been actuated by noble 
motives and high resolves and characterized by breadth of wisdom and 
strong individuality, and high success and achievements but represent 
the results of fit utilization of innate talent in directing effort 
along those lines here mature judgment and rare discrimination lead the 
way.

	John Deihl was born on May 8, 1865, in Indiana county, 
Pennsylvania, and is the son of George and Nancy (Oba) Deihl.  George 
Deihl was a native of Germany and a son of John and Elizabeth Deihl, 
who, in 1830, brought their family to Bedford count Pennsylvania, 
George Deihl being at time about six years old.  He had a brother of 
precocious intellect and attainment, who, at the early age of eight 
years, was clerk at a sale in Germany.  He never left the fatherland 
and died there.  George Deihl was reared in Pennsylvania and there 
married Nancy Oba, a native of Bedford county, that state, and the 
daughter of John and Nancy (Bachtel) Oba.  George Deihl died in 
Pennsylvania in November, 1889, and two years later his widow came to 
DeKalb county and made her home with her children until her death which 
occurred on July 3, 1906.

	John Deihl was reared to manhood in Pennsylvania, securing his 
education in the  common schools of his home locality, and on September 
9, 1879, he left home and came to DeKalb county, Indiana, where his 
father owned a farm in Richland township and there the subject lived 
continuously since with the exception of about two years, which he 
spent back at his Pennsylvania home a short time after coming to this 
state.  Upon coming to Indiana the second time he made his home for a 
while with the Oba family and while there met his future wife.  She 
later moved to Abilene, Kansas, and there he went and married her in 
1891.  She had received a splendid education and had engaged in 
teaching school near her present home three years before she went west.  
Her maiden name was Emma C. Davidson, a sister of Henry Davidson, whose 
sketch appears elsewhere in this work, and in which will be found 
something of the family history.  John Deihl, at the time of his 
marriage, owned a farm of forty acres in the northern part of Keyser 
township, near his present home, and on this place he lived until 1896, 
when he sold it and moved to near Haynes Corners.  In 1896 he built his 
present home on the old farm formerly owned by his father and moved 
there in 1897, and has lived there continuously since.  He is now the 
owner of over two hundred acres of splendid land in his home farm in 
Richland township, and in the operation of this place he has met with a 
well merited success, for he has so conducted his operations as to 
insure a successful outcome.  He has carried on a general line of 
farming and in connection with agriculture has given considerate 
attention to the raising of live stock, having raised and sold more 
sheep than any other man in DeKalb county. In this line alone he has 
earned a wide-spread reputation and has done much to advance the 
interest of sheep-raising in this section of the state.  He has made 
many permanent and substantial improvements on the home farm, all of 
which bear evidence to his enterprise and progressive spirit, and in 
the public and civic life of the community he is equally enterprising, 
given his support to everything which promises to be of material, 
social or educational benefit to the community.

	To Mr. and Mrs. Deihl have been born four children, George, Roy, 
Victor and Dorothy, all of whom are at home with their parents. Mr. and 
Mrs. Deihl move in the best social circles of the community, where they 
have long been numbered among the best citizens, and wherever known 
they are held in high esteem, for they possess to a marked degree 
qualities which win and retain friendship.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com