DANIEL DIEHL is a veteran of the late war and well known as the old village blacksmith at Salisbury, from which business he has retired. Mr. Diehl is now devoting himself to the cultivation of his farm. He owns forty and four-tenths acres of land on section 33, Salisbury Township, has a half interest in thirty-nine acres of land and four lots on section 29, and owns besides three and one-half acres of land and twenty lots in the village.

Henry C. Diehl, the father of our subject, was born in Pennsylvania in the month of February, 1908. His father, Adolph Diehl, was a native of Philadelphia, Pa., while his grandfather, Nicholas Diehl, was a native of Germany. He came to America in Colonial times and settled in Philadelphia. A baker by trade, he afterward opened the first bakery that was ever operated at Reading, Pa., where the last years of his life were spent. He was a soldier in the Revolution. The grandfather of our subject was an hotel keeper and was the proprietor of the Black Horse tavern near Philadelphia. He subsequently removed to Oley Valley in the same county, where he farmed till his death at the age of fifty-five years.

The father of our subject spent the first eight years of his life in Philadelphia and then lived on his father's farm till he grew to manhood. He became a farmer in Berks County. April 1, 1845, he left Pennsylvania for Ohio at the time of the Pittsburg fire and stopped a while at Johnstown on the way. He finally arrived in Pickaway County with fifty cents in his pocket. He had a hard time finding employment, but subsequently engaged in farming till April, 1851, when he came to Illinois, arriving in this State April 18, and, locating in Cartwright Township was engaged in agriculture there. In 1858 he bought a farm of forty acres and later bought eighty-nine acres of land in Gardner Township, which he cultivated till he retired from active work in 1883. He now resides with a daughter, Mrs. Hornbuckle, near Petersburg. He was in former times a Whig, but joined the Republican party on its formation and was a loyal Lincoln man. In Ohio he was connected with the United Brethren Church. Since coming to this State he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The mother of our subject was in her maiden days Hannah Lease, and was born in Berks County, Pa. Her father, John Lease, was also a native of the Keystone State, while his father was a German by birth, and a Revolutionary soldier. The grandfather of our subject was a day laborer and it was his rule to begin work early and to keep steadily at it as long as he could see, or till three stars were visible in the sky. He rounded out a useful life at the age of eighty-four years. The mother of our subject departed this life in the month of December, 1883, at the age of seventy-eight years, she having been born in 1805. She and her husband were the parents of seven children namely: John, a resident of Reading, Pa.; Catherine, Mrs. Berger, of Cowley County, Kan.; Daniel; Harrison, who died May 5, 1854; Charles, an hotel keeper in Louisburg, Kan.; Cinly, a mechanic of Springfield; Mary, Mrs. Hornbuckle, of Menard County. The family was well represented in the late war. John served nine months in a Pennsylvania regiment; Charles enlisted in 1862 in the One Hundred and Sixth Illinois Infantry and served till the close of the war; Cinly enlisted in the Twenty-sixth Illinois Infantry in August, 1861, afterwards veteranized and served until the war closed.

Our subject was born within six miles of Reading, Berks County, Pa., October 5, 1834. He lived there till he was ten years old and gleaned his early education in the common schools. He accompanied his father by boat and rail to Pickaway County, crossing the mountains on a railroad. He worked on a farm there and attended school in a pioneer log schoolhouse. In 1851 he accompanied his parents to this place coming by boat to Beardstown. They traveled on the steamer "Chief Justice Marshall" from Portsmouth and then from the falls by the "Monongahela" to St. Louis where they embarked on the "Avalanche" for Beardstown, and from there by wagon to near Pleasant Plains. After his arrival here he worked on a farm and one winter attended school. He had begun to work as a farm hand when he was nine years old, in Pennsylvania, receiving his board as a compensation. He was thus employed in Cartwright Township till March 3, 1854. He was then apprenticed to a blacksmith in Springfield, and after June of that year was in Pleasant Plains till 1856, when he went to Tallula and worked there four months. In 1858 he went to Springfield to join the Bissell Guards to go on the expedition to Utah, but was too late. In 1859 he went to Menard County and farmed for two years and then resumed his trade at Pleasant Plains.

In October, 1861, our subject enlisted in First Battalion Yates Sharpshooters, afterwards Company C, Sixty-fourth Illinois Regiment. He was mustered into the service at Camp Butler as Corporal and proceeded with his company to Quincy, and thence to New Madrid where he took part in a battle and next engaged in the battle at Island No. 10. Afterward his company and another one brought three thousand prisoners to Camp Butler. Our subject's regiment was then sent to Pittsburg and afterward took part in the siege of Corinth and had a number of small skirmishes with the enemy. He was at Iuka with Rosecrans and fought under that General in the battle of Corinth, October 3 and 4, 1862. His regiment remained there in camp till 1863, doing guard duty and protected Sherman's rear from the rebels at Pulaski, Tenn.

In January, 1864, Mr. Diehl veteranized after a furlough of thirty days and his regiment was reorganized at Ottawa; his company having been reduced to sixteen men, it being then recruited to seventy-three men. He and his comrades were dispatched to Decatur, Ala., to join Sherman and they did some gallant fighting at the battles of Resaca, Ringgold, Dallas, Buzzard's roost, Peach Tree Creek, Kenesaw Mountain and Atlanta. In September, 1863, mr. Diehl was detached as regimental blacksmith and served in that capacity till after the fall of Atlanta, and was then transferred to the supply train of the first division of the Seventeenth Army Corps and accompanied Sherman on his famous march to the sea. He was transferred to the first brigade of the first division of the Seventeenth Army Corps under Blair and accompanied it to Beaufort. He took part at the first fight at Orangeburg and for four days and four nights was in water three or four feet deep. He fought at Goldsboro, and after the surrender of Lee and Johnston went to Washington and took part in the Grand Review. He was mustered out at Louisville July 11, 1865, and was discharged in Chicago.

After his return from the South our subject worked at his trade in Pleasant Plains until the fall of 1866. I September of that year he entered the United mail service, as his eyes obliged him to abandon his calling, and conveyed the mail from Virginia to Springfield three times a week for a year. In 1867 he went to Vermont, Fulton County, and engaged in buying and shipping apples to New Orleans. He was unfortunate in that enterprise and after losing all that he had invested, went to Topeka, Mason County, Ill., and worked as a blacksmith there. September 11, 1868, he went to Cross Plains and, putting up a blacksmith shop, carried on his calling there till March 15, 1874. On that date he came to Salisbury Township, and buying forty acres of land engaged in farming here till November 15, 1884, when he removed to the village of Salisbury. He bought the smithy of J. K. McMurphy and was engaged in black smithing there till July, 1889. In that month he rented his shop to his son-in-law, Fred Cutler, and has since lived retired from his trade, though he superintends the cultivation of his farm. He has a pleasant residence in town and is in comfortable circumstances. He has borne an honored part in public life and is at present serving as Constable. In April 1880, he was elected as commissioner of Highways, for three years was Clerk of the Board of commissioners and has been a member of petit juries. He is independent in politics and religion. Socially, he is a member of the Grand Army Post at Springfield and of the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association in this village.

Mr. Diehl was married in Springfield June 22, 1869, to Miss Eliza J. Stone, a native of Gardner Township, and a daughter of Berry Stone, of Kentucky. Of this marriage five children have been born, as follows: Oraette, who married F. Cutler, of Salisbury and has one child, Robert; John H.; Allie D.; Kate L.; Viola M., the latter four of whom are at home with their parents. Mrs. Diehl is a most estimable woman and a valued member of the Christian Church of Salisbury. In connection with this biographical review the reader will notice a lithographic portrait of Mr. Diehl on another page.