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History of Macon County, Illinois, 1880

John N. Demsey

    was born in Fayette county, Ohio, in the year 1813. About the year 1832, he was married at Chillicothe, Ohio, to Tabitha Duncan, a native of Jackson county, Ohio, and a daughter of General John Duncan. General Duncan was born in Tennessee, and was connected with the family of that name who settled in Middle Tennessee, where a considerable number of the descendants still reside. During the Indian troubles, connected with the war of 1812, he raised a regiment in Tennessee, with which to fight the Indians, and after having served in Ohio settled at the Salt Springs, in Jackson county, of that state, where he lived for many years. John N. and Tabitha Demsey, were the parents of eight children, of whom Dr. Cyrus F. Demsey was the second. In the year 1853, the family moved from Ohio to Illinois. After spending the winter of 1853-4 at Woodburn in Macoupin county, the following spring they came to Decatur. In January, 1855, they went to Clinton, DeWitt county, and in the spring of 1856 moved on a tract of five hundred acres of land, in Austin township, of this county. Dr. Demsey's father improved all of this land and began
the business of raising wheat. Wheat growing in Macon county with the farmers was at that
time an experiment. Several crops were raised with considerable profit, but the business in
the end proved unremunerative, and many farmers lost large sums by successive bad
yields. This was the case with Dr. Demsey's father. The enterprise proved disastrous, and
swept away almost his entire means. While living in Ohio he had studied medicine, and he
began again the practice of his profession; moving to Hickory Point township, seven miles
north-west of Decatur. In those days when the settlements away from the timber, were few
and far between, the physician practicing in the country, led by no means an easy life. He
was obliged to undergo hard travel, much discomfort, and had little opportunity for leisure.
He was a successful physician, and remained in active practice till his death, which
occurred in March, 1874.

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