John W. Lightbody
John W. Lightbody, of Blue Creek, was born July 31, 1842, at Wilmington, Indiana. His parents were Hugh S. and Sarah J. Lightbody, the former having come from Ireland to the United States in 1816. He lived in New York until 1835, when he located in Georgetown, Ohio, where he clerked in a store. Later he peddled clocks throughout the country for Pittinger & Eckman. Then he went to Wilmington, Indiana, where he married Miss Sarah J. Wright, by whom he had thirteen children, John W. being the oldest.
John W. Lightbody enlisted at Manchester, Ohio, where his father then resided as a Private in Company D, Captain Patterson, 24th Regiment, O. V. I., Colonel Ammon, for three years. May 3, 1861, and was mustered into service at Camp Jackson, June 13, 1861. He re-enlisted as a veteran at Whitesides Station, and was transferred to Company D, 18th Regiment, O. V. I., June 12, 1864, to serve balance of term. He was captured twenty miles below Florence, Ala., on the Tennessee River, September 9, 1864, and held a prisoner at Andersonville and Cahaba prisons for ten months and twenty-two days. Was sent North on the steamer Autocrat, just six hours in advance of the ill-fated Sultana. He was at Cheat Mountain, Greenbrier, Shiloh, Corinth, Perrvville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Atlanta Campaign, Nashville, and Decatur, Ala.
He is a Republican and is at present Postmaster at Blue Creek, where he conducts a good hotel and livery stable. On June 5, 1875, he married Miss Mary F. Bascom, daughter of G. W. and Elmira Bascom, of Henderson, Kentucky.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900