Witwer, Franklin David, 1842-1901.

Franklin D. Witwer was born 2 January 1842 in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Illinois when he was about 6 years old. After his mother died, he was raised by another family near Bluffton, Ohio. As a young man, he learned the harness and saddlery trade. He enlisted in Co. A., 11th Ohio Infantry Regt., on 18 April 1861 and was promoted to corporal in 1862. Because of sickness, he was transferred to the 7th Regt., Invalid Corps, and promoted to sergeant. After serving for several months in Hospital No. 7, Louisville, Ky., he was discharged from service on April 20, 1864. He returned to Ohio where he took up a variety of trades in the Dayton area, including a mercantile clerk, harness maker and bootmaker. On 30 March, 1865 he married Mary H. Miller of Osborn, Ohio. They had 8 children, 6 of whom survived childhood. He and Mary were divorced in the early 1890s over religious differences. He later married Elizabeth Boyle in 1892. After her death in 1900, he married Mary B. Stone. On 30 June, 1901, he was taken violently ill and died on 4 July, 1901. Although arsenic was later found in his stomach, charges against his wife were dismissed by a grand jury. He was buried in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio