1901 The First Reunion Paper

by  Lyman Dysinger

Lyman Dysinger’s paper at the First Dysinger Reunion.

The earliest ancestor that we have any account of is Nicolaus Deissinger, who was born in the year of 1753 and died in the year 1840 in the town of Fayette, Seneca Co. N.Y. at the age of 87. He was buried in the Cemetery connected with the Dutch Reformed Church and Beary-town in the town of Fayette N.Y. Dutch/German Reformed Church. He was a farmer by occupation and removed in 1825 from Cumberland Co. Penn. to Seneca Co. N.Y. and continued to live in the latter Co. until the time of his death. With his two brothers John & William he served on the side of the colonists in the American Revolution. Nicholas left a family of seven children, John, George, David, Thomas, Barbara Ann, Susan, and Catherine. The three daughters removed from this part of the State, and as near as we can learn, from the State of New York. We are not able to give any account of their families. 

note- One of the lost daughters, Barbara, married Christian Bergstresser and lived on the west side of Seneca Lake in Yates County, NY about 20 miles from her parents, and left dozens of descendants. The other two daughters Cattharina and Susan's whereabouts have been lost.

Thomas, George and David moved to Niagara Co. N.Y. and there founded and left families. John Dysinger was born in Cumberland Co., Penn., January 1, 1782 and came to Seneca Co. in 1804 and lived there until the time of his death on June 8, 1869, at the age of 87 years. In 1806 John married Elizabeth Ernsberger from Cumberland Co. Penn., and the result of this marriage was a family consisting of seven children, five boys and two girls, as follows: Nicholas, Nancy, Betsey, John, Jacob, Daniel & Samuel, of whom but two are living at this time, namely; Daniel & Samuel, both of whom are living in the town of Fayette, Seneca Co. N.Y. John Dysinger was one of the early pioneers and settled in Seneca Co. When he came to this county he walked from his native home in Penn. And brought all his worldly possessions in a bag upon his shoulders. He first stopped at the McAllister farm (now the Martin L. Allen farm) in Fayette and worked a week for an axe. Having thus earned and procured this necessary tool, he went into the forest southwest from where is now the Burgh Church [see Maps and Locations 1852 Partial Town of Fayette map] and built him a hut, which became his home and habitation. While he was living in this log house his brother Thomas came on from Penn. and lived with him for a while, but afterwards went on west to Niagara Co.

John Dysinger was an industrious and frugal man who was so mindful of his own business and so unmindful of the business of his neighbors that he never sued or never was sued in his life. His frugality and industry brought him what was considered wealth in those days, and he became in time the owner of about five hundred acres of good farming lands in Seneca Co. One of the pronounced features of his life was his unyielding and extreme opposition to the Erie Canal at the time that great water highway was being built through the State. He expressed himself all times and upon all occasions in the strongest language he could command against the project. His chief arguments with the farmers were that it would render transportation so much easier that “hosses” would become of little or no value. He often said that he would contribute his whole grain crop in any one year to feed the muskrats to give strength to dig as many holes in the bottom of the canal that it never would hold water.

The following facts show the present situation of the family of John Dysinger so far as we all are able to record it at this time. 

Nicholas died at the age of 12 years.

Nancy married Michael Hoster and both are dead, leaving six children, fourteen grand-children and four great grand-children.

Betsey married John Frantz both of whom are now dead. They left six children, seven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

John married Caroline Yost, he is dead, she is now living with her son, Lyman Dicinger. They left a family of four children, seven grand-children and one great grand-child.

Jacob married Mary Granbee for his first wife and they left two children, twelve grand-children and 5 great grand children. After her death he married another Mary Granbee and the result of this marriage was no child.

Daniel & Samuel were still living as before mentioned.

Daniel was twice married. His first wife was Catherine Esshnour by whom he had one child, and his second wife was Christinana Schroyer by whom he has three children and three grand-children.

Samuel married Caroline Bookman and they have five children, two grand-children and two great grand-children.

A summary of the decedents shows seven children, twenty-eight grand-children, fifty great grand-children and fourteen great great grand-children.

Written in 1901 by Lyman Dycinger

Observe the name is spelled Deissinger, Dysinger, Dicinger, and Disinger.

note- When Lyman Disinger wrote this paper in 1901, his Uncle Daniel Disinger was 77/78. Because he was John Disinger's son, Uncle Daniel was likely able to provide his Nephew Lyman with mostly accurate facts about his father and his grandfather Nicolaus Deissinger. Daniel was about 18 when his grandfather Nicolaus died, so he may have had many memories of him. Although curiously, they lost track of John's sister Barbara (Deissinger) Bergstresser (see below).

According to this paper, John's first farm was southwest of Burgh Church, which is on the 1852 Fayette map on the Maps and Locations page, nearly a mile directly south of the Burgh Cemetery east of Disinger Rd, which may be why it's named Disinger. A 1895 biography about Daniel Disinger mentions that his father, John, only kept his first farm for a year before selling it, buying another farm that he kept for five years, and then trading it for another estate, including forty acres on the banks of the lake (Cayuga). This explains how Daniel acquired a farm on Bull Farm Road near Lake Cayuga. The paper also mentions that John eventually owned five hundred acres of land, which his sons John, Jacob, Daniel, and Samuel each inherited a part of. Daniel and Samuel increased their property holdings beyond what John gave them. Their children and grandchildren continued living on the farms that their ancestor John Disinger started in 1804. Some of their great-great-grandchildren may still be living on or near the same farms.

Paper read at the First Reunion of Dysingers in 1901

In the Spring of 1813, our grandfather, then a young man of 22, enlisted in the Army in Pennsylvania and was detailed to duty on the Niagara Frontier, then a scene of great activity in the warfare between the mother country and our own.

Whether he was engaged in any of the battles that have rendered the mighty river historical, as well as wonderful, our records and researches fail to disclose, but his courage and ability to fight had the opportunity presented are unquestioned by those who knew him.

Only one incident of this campaign has been related to me. He with ten or twelve companions became separated from their company and after wandering about for nearly a day in the dense forest without food came upon a small clearing in the center of which stood a rude log house.

Tired and nearly starved, they applied at the place for food. The lady of the house recognizing them as friends told them she had nothing in the house to eat but said she was then mixing bread to which they were welcome if they could wait until it was baked. Hungry and tired they waited until the bread was baked and then began the feast of their lives on the hot bread.

Three of their number became desperately sick on the new hot bread and died there in a short time, and were buried there by their companions who shortly regained their camp and company. Attracted by the beautiful country and the fertility of the soil our grandfather decided to someday locate in this country, then the wilderness of Western New York. Returning to Pennsylvania, he married Catherine Ernest some time in the year 1815. To them were born eleven children: John, Elizabeth, Henry, Margaret, Melinda, George, Eve, Sarah, Mary, Harriet, David.

In the Spring of 1828, with their five children, their personal property packed in a covered wagon, with a four-horse team; they emigrated to Niagara County. The journey of about 500 miles was made in about 14 days. There were but few bridges, and often I have heard my father, who was then seven years old, relate the exciting events of the trip.

note- The trip from Pennsylvania to Niagara County is about 400 miles. A journey of 400 miles in 14 days equals about 28 miles a day, whereas 400 miles in 30 days is about 14 miles a day, much more plausible for a horse-pulled wagon.

In fording the streams his legs would be in water to the knees as he sat astride the leader horse, where one false step would have engulfed horse, rider and all.

Arriving here they settled on the farm ¾ mile north of here, then nearly covered with a dense growth of beech, maple, ash and oak in the midst was a small clearing with a log house and stable.

David Disinger's land

note- ¾ mile north of Samuel Disinger's farm, where the first reunion was held, puts David Disinger's farm at the corner of Keck Rd and Lincoln Ave. Ext.

In the summer of 1829 nearly the whole family were sick with malaria fever, the bane of the county, father and grandmother were the only ones not affected.

With two cows, three pigs and a very small patch of wheat and corn, they struggled through the year and kept the wolf of hunger from the door. The years that followed were prosperous and plentiful and soon by perseverance and industry the house was paid for and two more farms were added to it. The one now owned by Peter Fry and 100 acres where my father spent his declining years. Six children more came to bless the family circle during the years which followed.

The pleasures of school life in the old log school house, the husking bees, the barn raisings, the district spelling schools, the “coonings” for coons as well as things not coons are events in their primitive mode of life, of which the younger generation knows nothing by experience. It is safe to say however that they enjoyed life to its fullest extent and grew up strong and healthy men and women, used to hardship and well fitted to buffet the waves of adversity in the ever turbulent sea of life.

The history of the family since 1860 is well known to most of us, as we have been the principal makers of it. While some have sought fame and fortune in the West, the most of the descendants have settled right here in Niagara County, and for the most part prosperous farmers, though doctors, dentists and other professional men are found the list.

In closing let me propose a toast to the Dysingers: “May prosperity abound in their midst, may they increase in numbers, and influence, may all their ways be paths of pleasantness and peace and may their names in the future as in the past be synonyms for honesty, probity, industry, thrift and intelligence.”

Written by Stephen A. Dysinger, grandson of David Dysinger, a son of Nicholas Deissinger.

note- Stephen A. Dysinger (1860 – 1931) was writing about his grandfather, David Deissinger (1791 – 1852), a soldier in the War of 1812. Stephen’s father was Henry Dysinger (1821- 1890).