DAVID H. CONNELL, who for the past several years has served efficiently as postmaster at Pierceton, is a native of Ohio, born in Columbiana County, near North Georgetown, March 23, 1838, a son of Amos and Anna (Heistand) Connell, natives of Maryland and Pennsylvania respectively, the father of Irish and the mother of German ancestry.  They were the parents of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters, of whom our subject was the fourth son.  The father located with his family in Columbiana in a very early day, and is still a resident of the same county, living at the age of seventy-nine years.  He was reared a farmer, and has always followed that avocation.  In politics he was formerly an old line Whig, but has been a Republican since the organization of that party.  He was an avowed abolitionist, and is a strong temperance advocate, and was the first to advocate that whisky should be abolished in the harvest fields of his township.  In his religious faith he is a Dunkard.  His wife was also reared in that faith, and adhered to the doctrines taught by that denomination till her death, which occurred in May, 1860, at the age of forty-eight years.  David H. Connell, whose name heads this sketch, was reared to agricultural pursuits, remaining on the home farm until eighteen years of age, receiving his education in the district schools and at Mount Union College , Ohio , attending the latter one year.  On leaving home he taught school two terms, after which he clerked in a dry goods store at North Georgetown for one year.  In 1861 he went to Rogersville , Ohio , where he was engaged in clerking until August, 1862, when he enlisted in the Union service as a private, and was assigned to Company E, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  He was discharged at Washington , D.C. , March 22, 1864 , on account of disability, caused by sickness.  After recovering his health he, in May of the same year, was commissioned a recruiting officer, and served as such until October 8, 1864 , when he re-enlisted in Company D, Twenty-fifth Ohio Infantry, as Orderly Sergeant, and March 4, 1865 , he was commissioned by President Lincoln Second Lieutenant of Company K, Thirty-fourth United States Colored Infantry.  The following October he was promoted to First Lieutenant of Company D of the same regiment and placed in command of the company, and five months his company was stationed at Cedar Keys, Florida , where he acted as custom-house officer.  February 27, 1866 , he was relieved from duty, and ordered to Charleston , South Carolina , where he was mustered out with his company.  While in the service he participated in the battle of the Wilderness and Honey Hill , South Carolina , where he was slightly wounded.  He was also in skirmishes and battles in the Army of the Potomac, in 1862-’64, and in the numerous engagements in and around Charleston, South Carolina to Indiana, and located in Jackson Township, Kosciusko County, and engaged in dealing in lumber and farming until 1876.  April 18, 1867 , he was united in marriage at Center Point, Clay County, Indiana, to Miss Mattie Zimmerman, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Wenger) Zimmerman, natives of Switzerland .  Her parents immigrated to America in 1832, and settled in Tuscarawas County , Ohio ; there her father died in 1872 and her mother in 1879.  Both were members of the German Reform church.  Mr. and Mrs. Connell are the parents of five children—Minnie Maud, John Amos, Lora May, Ben Ward and Grace.  Mr. Connell became a resident of Pierceton in 1876, and in May, 1877, he was appointed postmaster of that place under President Hayes’ administration, and held that office until November, 1886, when he was removed by President Cleveland, on account of his political sentiments, he being a staunch Republican.  While acting as postmaster he at the same time dealt in books and stationery.  In April, 1886, he was elected to the office of township trustee for a term of two years.  Mr. Connell in his religious faith is a Dunkard.  He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, being a comrade of John Murray Post, No. 124, of Pierceton.  Mrs. Connell is a member of the Brethren church , a branch of the Dunkards.

[From Biographical and Historical Record of Kosciusko County , Indiana.; Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1887; pg 234-5.]