From "History of Steuben County, Indiana" Chicago, 1885, page 783-4.


David S. Gilbert
      is one of the representative pioneers of Steuben County. He is the son of
Samuel and Fanny (Crawford) Gilbert, who came with their family to the county
March 19, 1842. Samuel Gilbert was a native of Genesee County, N. Y., born in
1799, and married Fanny Crawford, a native of Vermont. They moved from New York
to Lorain County, Ohio, and thence to Steuben County. Their family consisted of
seven children; four are now living - Chauncey, in Kansas; John is deceased;
David S.; Lucy, widow of Calvin Powers; Lester, of Pleasant Lake; Miles died in
Indianapolis, while in the service of the United States, during the war;
Cornelius, also a soldier, died at Gallatin, Tenn., in 1862. Samuel Gilbert
settled on the northeast quarter of section 20, Steuben Township, where he
bought 320 acres of wild land which, with the assistance of his sons, he
converted into a fine farm. In 1862, although sixty-three years of age, he made
arrangements to enter the Union army. He enlisted and went to Fort Wayne to be
mustered in, but died suddenly of heart disease. His wife died a year and a
half later. David S. Gilbert was born in Loraine County, Ohio in 1827, and
lived with his parents till 1852, when he joined a company bound for California
and crossed the plains, being five months on the way. He remained in California
four years, engaged most of the time in farming. In 1856 he returned to Steuben
County and erected a saw mill in Pleasant Lake, which he exchanged 
the following
year for a part of his present farm, and with the exception of one 
year, when he
was engaged in the mercantile business, has since given his attention to
agriculture. He is one of the prominent and successful farmers of the township.
His farm contains 340 acres of valuable land. In 1874 he built a fine brick
residence in the village of Pleasant Lake, where he now lives. He was married
in the fall of 1857 to Lucy A. Gaylord, who died Feb. 12, 1864, leaving three
children - Lewis H., Arthur C. and Miner, all of whom live on the farm. Mr.
Gilbert subsequently married Permilia Grant, daughter of Abram Grant. Their two
children, Frank and Grace, are at home in Pleasant Lake. In the spring of 1857
Mr. Gilbert was elected Justice of the Peace and served eleven years, when he
resigned, but in 1873 was elected to the same office, and still holds the
position. He is serving his second term as Township Trustee.


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Transcribed by Ben Meyer Hines
bhines@alumni.ucsd.edu