Henry's was a descendant of German immigrants from the Palatinate, who came to the US in 1733 and settled in Berks County, PA. Michael Dreese, Henry's grandfather, moved to Central Pennsylvania (Snyder/Mifflin County) in about 1785, and then to Pickaway County, Ohio in about 1805, where he died about 1812/13. Henry's father Jacob was the only son of Michael to stay behind in Pennsylvania, where he ran a successful mill. Henry was born there, at Decauter, Mifflin, PA in 1809. The family finally came to Mohican Township, Ashland County, OH in the mid-1820s. Henry was married about age 22 in about 1831, and both of his parents died in the first part of the 1830s. At his fathers death in 1835 Henry inherited the family farm and he lived there nearly the rest of his life. During the 1860s he was quite a wealthy man, and he donated land to the Church where he is buried. In his later years, however, he lost nearly all of this money, and in 1893, when he died at age 83, he was quite destitute.

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