Dreisbach Family

Lyman Driesbach was the son of Mahlon Driesbach (a son of Charles F. Dreisbach and Sally Kunckle), who in 1870 was an engineer for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in Scranton, PA. In 1880 Mahlon and his wife Clarissa Couse lived in Fairview Wright Township, Luzerne Co., PA. Clarissa was from Davenport, Delaware Co., NY, the daughter of Jared and Sarah Couse.  By 1900, Mahlon and Clarissa had evidently divorced, Clarissa had remarried, this time to John Turner, an Englishman and a railroad fireman, and Lyman, Clarissa and John were living in Oneonta.
            In 1909, Lyman married Veda Viola Clark, ten years his junior, in Oneonta, and by 1910 they had moved to Middleburgh, where they lived until Lyman’s death in 1946 at age 66. According to the 1920 and 1930 censuses, Veda’s mother Margaret lived with the couple, who had no children. Veda died in April 1982 at the age of 92, evidently still living in the same house in Middleburgh that she and Lyman had moved into in 1910.
            A friend who grew up in Middleburgh says “the doctor’s” house is “one of the nicest houses on upper Main Street,” and is still standing.
            A 1948 article, with a picture, written as a tribute to Lyman Driesbach appeared in the Schoharie County Historical Review (Vol. XI, No. 1, July 1948, p. 19–20)

Lyman is unrelated to two other Dreisbachs, information about whom can also be found on this site: Philip Dreisbach from Schoharie, and Philip’s nephew Herr Driesbach, the world-famous lion tamer, who grew up in Fort Plain and Frey’s Bush, Montgomery Co., but who also spent part of his childhood in Schoharie with his uncle.

            I see that you now have two obituaries on the site for Herr Driesbach, the menagerie performer--and he is one of my biggest research interests. I can tell you, if you're interested, that there are 3 links that you might want to carry on the Schoharie website, for more info about Herr. Two external links about Herr Driesbach are:
An excellent article about Herr in an anthology of circus history, that begins with a description of Herr's 1845 menagerie performance in Schoharie:
and
There's also a link to his entry in the Dreisbach Family Association database.

                                                                                                                                                                    Jeanne Finley

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This page created March 27, 2009