1890 Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 291-293

JOHN D. SLY (deceased).  This gentleman was for twenty years a prominent farmer of Delaware county, and we gladly give space in this record to the following article commemorative of his services as a citizen and his many virtues as a man.

John D. Sly was born in Orange county, N. Y., in September, 1814.  When three years of age he was taken by his parents to Brownhelm, Ohio, where he spent his boyhood and early manhood, and there, in November, 1843, married and settled to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture in which he had been reared.  In November, 1849, he moved to Henrietta, Ohio, where he resided, still engaged in farming, till 1865, at which date he moved to Iowa, settled in this county and here resided till his death.    Mr. Sly was a farmer throughout life, and a successful one.    He owned at his death one of the best farms in the vicinity of  Manchester, a tract of three hundred and sixty acres, most of which he had himself reduced to cultivation and which in every feature of his management showed   the   industry,  skill   and   sound judgment that marked his career in all things.   

 

Reared   upon   the   frontier   of Ohio among the primitive scenes of pioneer life and in  daily conflict with the rugged forces of nature, the strong elements of his character were early developed, and  the success of his after years thereby the   more   easily  assured.    Although he had much of the rough and ready way of the pioneer in dealing with the   angularities   of   life,   he   was   not, strictly   speaking,   a   frontiersman.    He belonged  to that larger class of sturdy home-seekers   and    intelligent   commonwealth builders who follow close upon the heels of the   adventurous   frontiersman, reducing    his   hunting-grounds  to   well tilled fields and  replacing his rude log buildings  with  comfortable homes.    He loved society and all its institutions and his name stood ever pledged for the maintenance of these.     Although his earlier education was restricted to a few months' attendance,  during   the   winter, at   the district schools, he yet managed to acquire a fair amount of mental training in his youth   and   he   became   in his maturer years a rather extensive reader for one of his calling and condition, and in this way amassed a large fund of general information, touching especially upon the history of his county, its political, economic and social needs.     A man of few words, he yet possessed positive convictions which he was able to sustain with intelligence and sound reasoning. He never sought public position nor desired to attract public notice.   He found his chief pleasures as well as his highest reward in attending strictly to his own affairs.    Above all things, he hated pretense and profession, and his life was kept in vital contact at all points with the essential truth  of   things.    Although   a member of no church and a subscriber to no articles of faith, he yet   had   in his mental and moral make-up the vitalizing elements of all religion, truth and justice, and his daily life, so far as in his strength lay to make it so, was an acceptable
fulfillment   of   the   golden rule.    He   had many  friends, those who knew him best esteeming him most.    He had premonitions of  his approaching dissolution, and stated some months before his death that he believed the end was not far.   But he was sustained by  a consciousness of the rectitude of his life, and he awaited the more positive summons with a calmness and serenity that went far towards reconciling his friends and relatives to these unhappy   warnings.    On   the   Saturday before   his death he was reading in the fourteenth chapter of John and when he came to the passage : " Yet a little while and the  world  seeth  me no more," he read aloud, and, turning to those around him, said  that he felt that those words applied to himself.    A few days later the prediction proved true, his eyes closing for the last time upon the scenes of this world February 13,1885.

Mr. Sly was twice married and left surviving him a widow and four children. He was married first in November, 1843, the lady whom he selected to share his fortunes being Miss Martha Bartlett, who bore him a faithful and affectionate companionship for nearly twenty-five years, dying in May, 1867. He married again in December, 1868, his second wife being Mrs. Eliza Holmes, of this county. His children are of the former marriage, these
being two sons and two daughters, now grown, married and themselves the heads of families. The eldest child, now Mrs. Julia White, resides in Omaha, Neb.; the two sons, Luther and Luman, are citizens of this county, and the youngest, Mrs. Adell Jones, wife of Josiah S. Jones, resides in Manchester.

Upon the old homestead and in the community where the family settled, now twenty-five years ago, resides one of the sons, Luther, the representative in name and estate of the family, a brief sketch of whom will close this article. He is a twin of Luman, and was born November 2, 1849, in Lorain county, Ohio. He was in his sixteenth year when his parents moved to this county, and he has therefore passed the most of his life in the community where he now resides. He was reared on the farm, and like his father has spent all his life in agricultural pursuits. He owns a splendid farm of three hundred and sixty and one-half acres in Delaware township, embracing the old homestead and some in addition thereto, the bulk of which he has under cultivation and otherwise well improved. He follows his calling with industry, and success so far has attended his efforts.

On December 25, 1874, Luther Sly married Miss Mary H. Acers, a daughter of George and Charlotte Acers, of Delaware county, being early settlers of the county, sketches of whom appear in this work. Mrs. Sly is a native of the township in which she resides, having been born there March 16, 1851. To Mr. and Mrs. Sly have been born a family of three children; George D., born September 29, 1876; Harry J., born August 2, 1879, and Frank L., born August 1, 1888.

While Mr. Sly has never mixed any in politics, he is a man nevertheless of fixed political sentiments, and gives expression to these when occasion demands. He affiliates with the republican party and gives to the support of his party's ticket an amount of effort proportioned to the exigency of the situation in all political contests. He belongs also to the Knights of Pythias, and is zealous in the secret workings of that order, as well as in the promulgation of its beneficent purposes.

 

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