Miami County, Ohio Genealogical Researchers -- Sponsored by the Computerized Heritage Association


    JUSTUS DIEHL

    JUSTUS DIEHL, for many years one of the substantial business men and a public spirited citizen of Troy, Ohio, is now living in retirement in that city. He was prominently identified with the wagon making industry as a member of the firm of Repholz and Diehl, and now rents the plant conducted by them to the son of his deceased partner.

    Mr. Diehl was born in Germany October 1, 1839, and was about seventeen years of age when he came to the United States in 1857, locating in the city of Dayton. There he worked as a cabinet maker one year for a Mr. Boyer, but not liking the work he hired out for a year as a gardener. In 1859 he went to Sydney, Ohio, where he learned the trade of wagon maker with Jacob Piper, in whose employ he continued for eighteen months. In 1861 he went to Greenville, Ohio, and in February, 1864, enlisted for three years' service as a member of the Eighth Ohio Battery Light Artillery, and was later assigned with his battery to the Army of the Mississippi. He contracted the typhoid fever but remained in the service until Angust, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. Upon his return from the front, he worked at wagon making for a Mr. Miller, in the same shop in which he learned his trade in Sydney. In the spring of 1866, he moved to Troy, Ohio, and formed a partnership with Frank Emerett in the wagon making business. They established their business on West Main Street, and in a short time Mr. Diehl purchased the interest of his partner and continued the business there alone for several years. In 1879 he entered partnership with Mr. Repholz and started a shop at No. 401 East Main Street. Their business association continued with uninterrupted success until Mr. Repholz died. Mr. Diehl then, on account of failing health rented the plant to a son of his former partner, who has since continued it.

    In 1867 Justus Diehl was married to Miss Mary Dunlap, who died in 1888, leaving five children: Charles Diehl, an electrician of ability, at Tippecanoe City; William Diehl, head engineer of the electric light plant of Lima, Ohio, with which he has been identified for a score of years; George Diehl, who also has been identified with the Lima Electric Light Plant for some twenty years, he and his brother beginning at that time as boys and working up to good and responsible positions; M. Lida Diehl, who lives in Tippecanoe City; and Elizabeth, wife of Henry Heiser, of Piqua, Ohio. Mr. Diehl, in 1891, formed a second marriage with Mrs. Catherine Shell, of Miami County. Religiously, he attends the Baptist Church in Troy, of which his wife is a member. Fraternally, he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

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