Recipes for Living Dague Family

J. B. Dague

John Belmont Dague was born June 1836.

September 30, 1861: J.B. Dague, Divisional Quartertnaster, Ashley, Delaware County, Ohio. To Governor William Dennison. Letter stating that he requested to procure an order to raise another company in Morrow County; requesting an order to raise a company of infantry; and stating that since a new company had just, left, he knew of no one who would conflict with such arrangements.

Enlisted in U.S. Navy 1862, Co. G, 88th Ohio. Made orderly.

Married in 1862, to Rosa Redfield of Vinton, Iowa

Appointed Commander of gunboat "Alice," to patrol the Ohio River to help stave off guerilla raids into the north and to thwart expected invasions by the Confederate Army.

On April 9, 1865, the vessel, stationed at Galipolis, Ohio, received news that Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox.

April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and died the next morning. J.B. Dague was appointed by the Governor of Ohio to be one of eight guards for Lincoln while he lay in state.

In 1869, J.B. and Rosa came to Osceola, Iowa where he and his brother, R.A. Dague became editors of "The Sentinel" newspaper for 20 years.

Two children were born to this union: Ethel Dague (Armstrong) and Fannie Dague (Slaymaker). Rosa died August 21, 1912; J.B. died in January 1929, at the age of 92.

It may seem strange that a river boat should play a part in the history of Clarke County, but it did — a part in a romance that eventually brought a pioneer family to Osceola. Details of the story were furnished by Mrs. Roy Armstrong and Mrs. O.M. Slaymaker from the mementoes of their father, the late J.B.Dague.

It was then, Capt. J.B. Dague of the U.S. Navy was in command of the U.S. Gunboat Alice. It had been his duty to patrol the Ohio river to help stave off guerilla raids into the north and to thwart expected invasions by the Confederate army.

On the 9th of April, 1865, Galipolis, Ohio, where the vessel was stationed, was a scene of great excitement and jubilation. News of Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox had been received and the soldiers and sailors were wild with joy. A dance was scheduled for the 15th on the decks of the Alice as one of the events of the peace celebration.

Then on the morning of the 15th came word of the assassination of President Lincoln and all festivities were cancelled.

Capt.. Dague paid a call to the Army quarters to notify the officers and men that the dance had been called off. At one of the billets the door was opened by a young lady who at once caught the eye of the young captain. She proved to be Rosa Redfield of Vinton, Iowa, who was there with her father, an officer of the graybeard regiment, to help him with his housekeeping.

During the next two months their friendship grew before they returned to their civilian homes. A year later (1862) they were married. It was soon after that, in1869, they came to Osceola where J.B. and R.A. Dague, brothers, became editors of The Sentinel, then established only 10 years. (They started the newspaper after the Civil War and it continued under their auspices for 20 years.)

Mr. and Mrs. Dague made Osceola their home as long as they lived. Rosa died August 21, 1912. J.B. was 92 years old at the time of his death in January, 1929.

Children of John Dague and Rosa Redfield Dague are Ethel Dague who married Roy Armstrong and Fannie Dague Slaymaker. (Suzanne's grandmother.) She died at the age of 86 in 1962.

Rosa Redfield Dague with Marion Slaymaker, 3 months

Fannie
Dague
Slaymaker

Two brothers, J. B. and R. A. Dague, were prominent in the early history of The Sentinel. For much of two decades following the Civil War they were associated with the paper.

Both are buried in adjoining graves in the Dague family lot in Maple Hill cemetery, although much of R. A. Dague's life was spent outside Clarke county.

J. B. Dague, father of Mrs. O. M. Slaymaker and Mrs. Roy Armstrong of Osceola, was the elder of the two men.

The chronological history of The Sentinel, which has been gleaned from old files does not exactly pinpoint the years the brothers were connected with the paper, nor does it exactly coincide with later writings of the two men.

J. B. was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1836. He attended Antioch college and the University of Michigan where he received his law degree in 1861.

He commanded a gun boat on the Ohio river during the Civil War, during the years of Rebel raids into the north. He was one of the honor guards at President Lincoln's funeral.

Early in 1867 he purchased The Sentinel and took over its operation in May. Associated with him was a Mr. Thompson.

According to his letter, written in 1899, he and Thompson operated the paper until 1872, when he sold his interest to H. C. Ayres. However, an issue of the paper, July 13, 1871, gives the names Dague and Dague on the mast head.

An astute businessman, Dague became interested in numerous financial ventures and remained in Osceola the remainder of his life.He died in Osceola on January 9, 1929.

R. A. Dague, younger brother of J. B., was born in Ohio in 1841, and came to Osceola as a lawyer in 1864. It was his residence here that brought his older brother to the city at the close of the war.

In one of his letters he writes that after he became associated with his brother in the newspaper, J. B. finally sold his interest to H. C. Ayres and the paper operated under the name of Dague and Ayres until he sold to Hunter Brothers.

R. A. then went to Nebraska where he published the Hastings Journal and practiced law. Drought and grasshoppers drove him out of Nebraska and he returned to Osceola and purchased a half interest in The Sentinel in 1881. He published the paper until 1884. At that time he went to California, later returning to Creston where he died February 16, 1918.

The above are two pictures of S.D. Redfield, father of Rosa Redfield Dague, Suzanne's great-great-grandfather. The picture on the left is S.D. at the age of 25, on the right at the age of 85.

The picture of the event "LEAP YEAR PARTY OF THE GAY NINETIES" was not clear enough to reproduce. It shows about 12 guests sitting on the floor around a punch bowl. Story:

Social Note: It was a gay party that gathered at the home of Miss Ethel Dague at the corner of Cass and Temple streets on the evening of September 30, 1896. It was an occasion long to be remembered, for Milt Gregg brought his camera with a newfangled flash pan and took a picture of the crowd at the height of its merry-making! When the smoke from the magnesium powder cleared away and the room was aired out to get the sting of the acrid fumes out of their eyes, the daring game of whist was resumed. Mrs. Archie Wade says it was a Halloween Leap-year party.

Those appearing in the photo are, from left to right in the outside semi-circle: Maude Forney, Fanny Dague (Mrs. O.M. Slaymaker); these two served the refreshments; Will Trent, Blanche Painter, Archie Wade, Bernice Thurston (Mrs. A.F. Wade), A.A. Nowers, Nora Sonner (Mrs. Frank Edwards).

Second row: Eva McIntire (Galloway), Lou Emery (Mrs. Johnson Richards), Johnson Richards, Jean Bashor, Will Temple, Grace Thompson, Roy Armstrong. Seated in front: George White and Ethel Dague (Mrs. Roy Armstrong).