Henry Driesbach, Jr.

Notes:

In 1860 Henry was living in Sparta with Emmeline Osborn(ae.38), Andrew
Osborn(ae.13), Benjamin Miller(ae.24), and Samuel Barker(ae.20).
Henry was the head of the household and had a farm with a real estate
value of $10,000 and his personal property value was $1,865.
From the History of Livingston County, New York, 1881, by James H.
Smith the following biography is written.
"Henry Driesbach, Jr., was another son of Henry Driesbach, Sr., whose
biography appears in the pages of this work. He was a farmer, and in
the truest sense realized and appreciated the duties, trials and
embarrassments of all agricultural life. It is said by those in
the great book of human nature that all men are born with natural
proclivities for certain business occupations or science. Hence, one
man is a chemist, another an anatomist, another an astronomer, some
are intuitively mechanics and some musicians. Conceding this to be
true, then, we unhesitatingly say that Henry Driesbach was intuitively
a farmer. To him the farm was as natural as the native heath of the
McGregors to Roderick Dhu.
One of the distinguishing features of Livingston county is the
success of its farmers in raising stock. Into this Mr. Driesbach
entered enthusiastically. His judgment in this department was second
to no man's in the county young as he was during the active period
of his business life.
He was born at Sparta, Livingston county, May 9, 1824. He lived
with his father until he was twenty-eight years old. Having attained
that age he decided to commence business for himself. Being of an
independent, self-reliant turn of mind, and determined to be indebted
to no one for whatever success awaited him, he declined to ask his
father for any pecuniary assistance. Trusting to his own intelligence
and business capacity, he purchased on his own account the farm
just north of the village of Dansville called the "Shepard farm."
Without a dollar in the world he entered into speculation. His
self-reliance gave him success, and within a comparatively brief
period of time he stocked his farm, paid for it and brought it to a
very high state of cultivation. As an evidence of his perseverance we
relate the following:
A portion of his farm extended to the bottom of the Canaseraga, and
was accordingly so damp and boggy that it was a common thing to see
cattle almost hopelessly mired in the bogs.
Mr. Driesbach conceived the idea of draining those lands. He
accordingly commenced a system of drainage by underground cause ways
with such success that he soon made the lands perfectly dry, fertile
and productive. Henry Driesbach was a man of uncommon good sense,
thoughtful, candid, honest and direct. He had no platitudes. One
always knew exactly how to take him, and if he gae his word he carried
it out to the letter, as of to the time, place, and everything. He
was a man of very few words, but when he spoke it was to the point.
He was retiring but firm in his convictions, to an extent little
removed from stubbornness. In the midst of activity and usefulness he
was seized by an incurable malady which ended his days while he was in
the prime of manhood, and in the midst of his financial success and
usefulness, he died October 28, 1868, aged 45 years. His knowledge of
the value of farming land was almost unequalled an assessor of the
town of Sparta for a considerable period of time. In politics he was
a Democrat, honest and true to his convictions, but modest and
unassuming in declaring them. He early united with the Lutheran
Reformed Church at Dansville and was in every sense a worthy,
consistent Christian man, observant of all duties and ordinance of the
Church such was Henry Driesbach, Jr., in every sense a man who
commanded the respect and esteem of all who knew him."