The CLABAUGH family are of German ancestry. Their forefathers settled in Maryland, and afterwards removed to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where the grandfather and grandmother died. John, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Maryland. He came west to Ohio in 1817 or 1818, where he remained until 1837, then removed to Illinois and settled in Wade township, in Clinton county, where he entered land for his children, and also bought land which he improved. He remained there until his death, which took place in 1849. He in early life married Margaret HUMPHREY, a native of Wales. She died in 1850. There were seven children by that union. David is the next to the youngest. He was born in Clark county, Ohio, March 25th, 1819. He came west with his father's family, and was then a young man of eighteen years of age. He remained at home with his father until he married. He then entered forty acres of land, and at different times thereafter entered other tracts, until he had over two hundred acres. When he entered the first land there was not a house or fenced piece of land on the broad prairie, from where he now lives to Carlyle. It was an open prairie, covered with grass, infested with wolves, deer, and other animals, and game common to the prairies of the West. There Mr. Clabaugh toiled and worked, and gradually made a home. But it was attended with many hardships. Prairie fires were common in those days, and frequently did serious and great damage, and often the toil of months would be swept away in a few minutes. On the 22d of October, 1841, he married Nancy St. Clair SHARP, a lady who was born and raised on Pleasant Ridge in Clinton county, Illinois. She died July 28th 1876. There were twelve children born to David and Nancy, six of whom are still living. John Henry Clabaugh is the eldest of the children. He was a gallant soldier during the late war. He enlisted in 1862, in the 111th Regt., Ill. Vol., and remained in the service until the close of the war. He participated with his regiment in all the hard fought battles of the war in which it was engaged, and also went with Sherman on his famous "March to the Sea." He married Mary Jane YOUNG. Mary Margaret Clabaugh is the wife of John Fletcher WALKER, who was also a soldier in the same regiment with John Henry Clabaugh. Thomas Wesley Clabaugh, the second son, married Celeste MCCLAIN. He was during the war a member of the 145th Regt., Ill. Vol. Sarah Ann Clabaugh, the second daughter, is dead. Jonathan T. Clabaugh died in infancy; also Elizabeth E. Clabaugh. Samuel Mitchell Clabaugh is now at home on the old homestead. He married Louvina Jane SCOTT, a native of Bond county, Illinois. Nancy Alice Clabaugh died in infancy. David Fillmore Clabaugh married Amelia Yingst RUIGER. Elisha Newton Clabaugh died at fourteen; Cleona Corsana Clabaugh died in infancy. Lillie Mae Clabaugh, the youngest, is still at home. He is a member of the M. E. Church. His wife during her life was also a member of that church. Mr. Clabaugh takes but little interest in politics, except to exercise the right of suffrage, and vote the republican ticket. He was formerly a whig while that party was in existence. Mr. Clabaugh in his early life worked hard. He started in life poor. He was ambitious to succeed, and get a farm and sufficient land, which would enable him to take the world easy in the evening of his life. He has succeeded, and now is passing down by the vale of life with the full consciousness that it has been wisely spent.


Clabaugh, David family farm
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Source: History of Marion and Clinton Counties, Illinois, 1881, Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia, pages 280 and 281 as corrected

Submitted by: Dorothy Scott Falk

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