Stephen Dye

Copy of a framed newpaper clipping, a gift to the Troy Historical Society from Mrs. Edmond A. Sotherland, November 29, 1973

Among the fathers of Miami County, Mr. Stephen Dye stands prominent, who died September 14th, 1851, in Shelby County, Ohio. Mr. Dye was the son of Andrew and Sarah Dye. He was born in Maryland, but soon removed to Penn. Thence he emigrated with his father to Kentucky, what was then considered to be in the far west. Called to the defense of the frontier settlements against the depredations of the Indians, he became acquainted with the fertile valley of western Ohio. Invited by such a country, and the advantages of a free, over a slave state, he removed and was among the first settlers of Miami County. An idea of his judgment and forecast in property matters, may be gathered from this step in his history. He selected 400 acres on the rich bottoms of the Miami River, near the center of the county, where the location added essentially to the value of the lands, unsurpassed in inherent worth. On this chosen spot, but 2 1/2 miles from the county seat, he lived until 70 years old. At that advanced age, with a new wife, he removed to Shelby County, and commenced anew the cultivation of a farm and the support of a wife and a rising family. This is the more remarkable as he had made a disposition of the greater part of his estate and had been residing for several years with the son of his choice, upon the home farm. Here he remained upon a small farm at Port Jefferson till the spring 1851, when his fourth and last wife died, leaving two children the youngest about six weeks old. He then retired from the farm and made his home with Rev. Jacob Dye, residing in the neighborhood - where he died in the Fall of the same year, having filled up the full measure of a long life and good old age, being over 80 years old.

Mr. Dye, though not rich, acquired an estate which enabled him to give a large family a good start in the world, reserving to himself a fair support in this old age. The property which he was managing and held in his hands up to his death amounted to about $5,000.

We had the pleasure of visiting him at his residence, in the Winter of '49 and '50. We found him on a farm of thirty acres, with a convenient house and out buildings, a comparatively young wife and two little children, having no help in or out of doors. He was cheerful and happy and said he could manage his farm very well, only complaining that it made him rather "leg weary" to follow the plow. He thought he would be obliged to hire that done from that time on.

Mr. Dye was much esteemed in this county for many years as a man and a Christian. He served the county as sheriff eight years; two periods of two terms each, the law forbidding one to hold the office more than two consecutive terms in connection. He also represented his county in the legislature of the state.

In politics Mr. Dye was a Democrat. and never to the day of his death------------(missing).; In religion he was a Baptist and held an honorable standing in that church for 46 years, dying in full fellowship, and in the triumph of living and abiding faith in the great redeemer. He retained his reason up to the last moments of his life, and expressed a firm confidence in the great redeemer, and in him alone put his trust. At the day of his death, this patriarch could count in the line of his posterity 19 children, 114 grandchildren, 148 great-grandchildren. Total: 281.

(This is exactly as I read it. Grammar and all.)

Philip H. Dye phdphd@gte.net