John W. DeFrees, editor of the Miami Union, Troy; son of John and Mary Defrees, was born Nov. 4, 1809, in Rockbridge Co., Va.; came with his parents to Piqua, Ohio, in December. 1814; remained with his Father, who settled in the woods, two and one-half miles south of Piqua, until the fall of 1836, having aided, from the time he was large enough to do even the lightest work, in clearing up and cultivating the new farm; left home in October, 1836, going to Goshen, Ind., where he took a position with the late John L. Meredith, in a store belonging to Mr. Wm. Barbee, of Troy; returned home in 1837, and, in March, 1838, accepted a clerkship in the store of the late Wm. Scott, where he remained three consecutive years; left the store in April, 1841, and, in the succeeding fall, purchased the office of the Piqua Intelligencer, remodel it, and commenced the publication of the Piqua Register, which he continued to publish uninterruptedly until January, 1857, when he sold out; during the latter part of the time , the paper was published three years semi-weekly, and then changed to a tri-weekly, and as tri- weekly and weekly ran four years; after selling the Register office he spent one year on a farm, when he was nominated and elected County Auditor, serving two terms, retiring in 1863; at the close of 1864, at the solicitation of a number of prominent men of Troy, he brought on a new office, and commenced the publication, Jan. 1, 1865, of the Miami Union, with which he is still connected; through the usual trials and tribulations attending the building up of a new paper (including the total loss by fire of an office, with all the materials, books, papers, stock and a good library), by dint of much hard work and assiduous attention to business, he has brought the Miami Union up to the position it now occupies.