John Dygert

From the 1920 History of Northeast Indiana  pages 300 - 301

	John Dygert.  The record of the Dygert family has an inalienable right 
in the affairs of Steuben County, where the name has been represented 
prominently for over eighty years.
	John Dygert was born in Montgomery County, New York, February 27, 1826,
a son of Adam and Jane (Duesler) Dygert, both natives of New York.  The 
Dygert family after leaving Montgomery County lived for two years in Seneca
County and later in Monroe County, New York.  In the early thirties Adam
Dygert came to Steuben County and entered land i York Township, acquiring 160
acres.  In 1838 he settled his family there, and he and his wife lived in the
county until death.  They were members of the Presbyterian Church, and in that 
generation the politics of the family was democratic.  Adam Dygert and wife 
had children named Lany, Abraham, William, Christian, Levi, Benjamin, Harvey,
John, Jeremiah and Henry Adam, John Dygert being the only one still living.
	John Dygert was twelve years old when he arrived in Steuben County 
October 19, 1838.  For over eighty years he has been a witness of changing 
scenes and conditions.  He attended some of the early day schools and as a 
youth he manufactured many grain cradles and also worked one year at the
blacksmith's trade.  As a farmer he bought a tract of cranberry land two 
miles east of Angola, and later bought the farm where his sons Levi and Carl
reside and where he makes his home.  Mr. Dygert is independent in politics
and has served as assessor and township treasurer and has been an active 
leader in the Grange and Farmers' Alliance and in other local movements.  He
is the last surviving county official of the group who were incumbents of 
office when the court house was built.  At that time he was serving as county
commissioner.  He is liberal in his religious views.
	In 1851 John Dygert married Caroline Stotts, of Steuben County.  She 
died in 1875, the mother of two children:  Charles F., a farmer in Scott
Township, and Sarah Jane, who became the wife of Jackson Nisinger and has 
two children, Merle and Caroline.
	April 20, 1881, Mr. John Dygert married miss Mary Grubb.  She was born
in Richland County, Ohio, September 27, 1843, a daughter of John and Mary
(Bellamy) Grubb.  Her parents were natives of England and her father was 
killed by a falling tree in Richland County, Ohio, in 1845.  Mrs. Dygert
came with her widowed mother to Steuben County in 1862.  Her mother died 
February 1, 1881.  In the Grubb family were seven children:  Sarah, William,
Ann, John, who died while a soldier in the Civil War, Alice, Elizabeth,
and Mary.
	Mr. and Mrs. Dyert had three sons:  Ora Clyde, Carl and Levi.  Carl
married Grace Weicht, and their six children were John, Audra, deceased, 
Mildred, Louise, Galen and Herman.
	Levi Dygert, who was born on the home farm in 1885, was educated in the
common schools, and for a number of years with his brother Carl has worked
the homestead.  He is independent in politics, a member of the Odd Fellows
and Moose.  In 1911 he married Miss Balding, who was born in Scott Township
June 3, 1891, daughter of George and Alice (Nisinger) Balding.  Her father
died in 1894.  Levi Dygert and wife have two children:  George Wendell, born
January 26, 1913, and Rollin John, born February 27, 1917.


Submitted By:  Mindee Gleason