The tallest monument in the Dayton Cemetery is that of David Hite, but for many years the top part was lying in a heap next to the base. In 2014 a restoration effort restored a number of monuments in the cemetery and David’s was one of the stars of the project.

David Hite was born in Strasburg, Virginia, on July 30, 1798. as calculated from his age at death. He was apprenticed to the blacksmith trade and at the age of 21 was given $15.00 and a suit of clothes for his work. He decided to go to Newark, Ohio, arriving there late in 1819. There he met Elizabeth Stickley, whose family was also from Virginia. Elizabeth was born April 5, 1798, in Cedar Creek, Virginia. She and David were married August 28, 1820, in Licking County, Ohio.

A number of their friends and neighbors moved to the Dayton-Rutland area in La Salle County, Illinois, and in 1848 David and Elizabeth joined the migration. In 1850 David bought 160 acres of land on Buck Creek in Dayton township, where he moved with his family.  David and Elizabeth lived here until their deaths, he dying April 22, 1881, and she, January 4, 1890.

David and Elizabeth had nine children. Three, Alexander, Isaac, and Catherine “Kittie” Ann all died young. This site seems a good place to write about each of the six who lived to adulthood, so I will begin with Benjamin, as he has a special connection to the Greens.

The usual beginning to an account of someone is to start with their birth date, if known. The source that has been used for his birth date is that calculated from the death date on the tombstone and the age at death.

The death date is May 26, 1863 and his age was 38 years, 3 months, and 26 days, for a calculated birth date of January 30, 1825.  However, Benjamin’s probate file at the La Salle County Genealogy Guild in Ottawa clearly states that Benjamin died 26 May 1865, and his death notice was published in The Free Trader on June 10, 1865. The upshot is that he was probably born sometime around the end of January 1827.

Benjamin was 22 in 1849, when John and Jesse Green were leaving for the gold fields of California. They needed to make provision for the farm while they were away and Benjamin rented it from them. My aunt Maud always said that was the only time someone other than the Greens lived there. This stayed true up until the time my grandmother, Ruth Haight Green, sold or rented the house in the 1950s.

On February 22, 1853, Benjamin married Emma L. Dunavan, the daughter of William Lair Dunavan and Eliza Green. They had two children, Willard and Dora.

Emma Dunavan Hite went to live with a daughter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she died on November 19, 1905. She, too, is buried in the Dayton cemetery.