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EARLY SETTLERS OF SANGAMON COUNTY - 1876
By John Carroll Power

These biographies were submitted by a researcher and evidently abstracted from the 1876 History of Sangamon County, IL. Errors could occur, so one should always verify the correctness by obtaining copies of vitals and performing all necessary research to document what is contained herein.




DIFENDORF, OLIVER, was born March 12, 1819, in Canajoharie, Montgomery county, New York, and came to Springfield, Ill., in November, 1840. He was married Jan., 1842, to Martha Ann Cutter. She died six weeks after their marriage. Mr. Diefendorf, about the time of the death of his wife, entered upon the duties of deputy clerk, at Springfield, in the circuit court of Sangamon county. He continued to discharge the duties of that position until June, 1846, when he volunteered in Co. D, 4th Ill. Inf., was commissioned 1st Licut., and went into the Mexican war under Col. E. D. Baker. He was subsequently commissioned as 2d Lieut. in the 16th U. S. Inf., and served until the close of the war. He was married Oct., 1848, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Caroline Cutter. They had three children, all of whom died in infancy. Aug. 23, 1850, they moved to Weston, Platt county, Mo. He was elected, Aug., 1851, for four years, clerk of the court of common pleas of that county. He was two years clerk in the office of the Surveyor-General of Kansas; was one of the thirty-two original proprietors of the city of Leavenworth, laid out in 1854. In 1856 he became a citizen of Kansas, and in the spring of 1857 a permanent resident of the city of Leavenworth. In Nov., 1867, he was elected clerk of Leavenworth county; re-elected in 1869, again in 1873 and in 1875. He is now--1876--in office, and resides in the city of Leaven-worth.




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