Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1889

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 567
S. S. DESBRO, of Atalissa, has been engaged in general merchandising at that place since 1883. He was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1831, and was the ninth in a family of ten children, the offspring of Jesse and Martha ( Spaulding ) Desbro, who were natives of New York State. They emigrated to Ohio at an early day and settled in Hamilton County, where the father engaged in farming for a number of years.

In 1850 the father of our subject came to this county and settled near Muscatine, where he resided two years. He then removed to a farm in Goshen Township, where he lived until his decease, which occurred in 1863. The wife and mother had departed this life some years previously.

The subject of this sketch was reared to farm pursuits and educated in the district schools. He came with his parents to Iowa in 1850, and assisted his father in the labors around the homestead until after the outbreak of the Civil War. He enlisted as a Union soldier in September, 1862, in Goshen Township, in Company B, 35th Iowa Infantry, for three years, and was mustered into service at Muscatine. Not long afterward he went to the front, and met the enemy in battle at the siege of Vicksburg and of Jackson, Miss. He there after followed the fortunes of war until its close, and received his honorable discharge at Jefferson Barracks, Mo. Soon afterward he returned home, and was married at Muscatine, in 1865, to Miss Lizzie Demming.

Mrs. Lizzie ( Demming ) Desbro was born in New York State, and is the daughter of James and Mary Demming, who were of French descent and came to Muscatine in 1854. Mr. Demming was a tinner by trade, and died, in 1876, in the city above-mentioned. His excellent wife survived him some years, passing away in December, 1885, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Desbro, in Atalissa. Mr. and Mrs. Desbro, after their marriage settled on section 12, in Goshen Township, where our subject improved a farm from a tract of wild land and resided there until 1882.

Mr. Desbro is one of the most active members of the Republican party in this section, and, although no office-seeker, has made himself useful as a member of the School Board at Atalissa. He carries a well assorted stock of goods, and has built up a lucrative patronage. His estimable wife died in February, 1886, at the age of thirty-nine years. They had become the parents of ten children, only five of whom are living now. Mary, Mrs. Hessel, is a resident of Chicago ; Emma, Mrs. Johnson, has her home in Atalissa ; Jennie, Ida and Pearl remain with their father. Jessie died at the age of sixteen years, July 2, 1886, and all of the other deceased children passed away within a short time of each other.

The present wife of our subject, to whom he was married in August, 1887, was formerly Miss Anna Hall, daughter of John Hall, who married a Miss Thompson. They were American-born and natives of some Eastern State. The paternal grandfather of our subject was Thomas Desbro, a native of Germany, who emigrated to America during the Colonial times, as also did Grandfather Spaulding, who likewise was born in the Fatherland.

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