John C. Drury was born in Colerain, Franklin county, Massachusetts. Of his early life the writer has but little information, but he was a man of good education, fine business capacity, with a heart full of patriotism, and as brave as he was patriotic. He served a term in the Massachusetts legislature. He moved with his family to Troy, Ohio, in 1855, about the time the D. & M. Railroad was built to Troy. Here he engaged in the mercantile business with the firm of Drury, Coolidge & Jones. He raised Company H, Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under President Lincoln's first call for troops, and was commissioned captain of Company H, April 20, 1861. He re-enlisted for three years, June 17th, 1861, but resigned from that regiment December 19, 1861. In 1862 he raised Company B, Ninety-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was commissioned captain of that company July 22, 1862. On the 28th of August, 1862, the regiment, without uniform or camp equipage, and without drill, was ordered into Kentucky as part of the force to oppose General Kirby Smith's army. The Ninety-fourth in less than forty days from its organization was in battle, and Captain Drury was therein highly commended for his bravery. On the 8th of October, 1862, he was shot dead at the head of his company in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky.

The military record of Captain Drury is indeed brief, and fateful, but like many other records of the war of 1861, it is that of a man in the prime of life, comfortably situated in a good home, enlisting, fighting and dying for his country and flag. Miami county cherishes the memory of Captain Drury as one of her heroes who fell at his post of duty and died on the battlefield.