6 March 1873 - The Tipton Advertiser

DIED At his home in Sugar Creek township, Cedar county, Iowa, on Wednesday,
February 26th, 1873, Mr. JONATHAN CASEBEER, aged 81 years, 4 months and 13
days.

Mr. Casebeer was one of the first settlers in Cedar county. He was born in
Washington Co., Penn., Oct. 13th 1791, married in the fall of 1811, and in
1815, at the close of the war with England, he removed to Wayne Co., Ohio.

Previous to this removal he had commenced the Christian life, and had united
with the M.E. church. He brought his religion into the wilderness with him.
His children testify of him that, if there was any one Christian duty in which
he was more punctual than in others it was that of family worship.

In 1836, when the subject of slavery began to be agitated, he took sides with
the oppressed amid much opposition from the members of the church to which he
belonged and from others.

In the spring of 1839 with his wife and eleven children he moved to Iowa. He
crossed the Mississippi at Burlington, spent the summer in Henry Co., and
moved to Cedar county in the fall of the same year. In the summer of 1845, he
in company with a number of others who were dissatisfied with the episcopal
government of the M.E. Church and its treatment of the subject of slavery,
left the church and united with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, in which church
he continued until his death.

Mr. Casebeer was twice married and had 12 children--eight of whom survive him.
Two sons and two daughters now reside in this county, other have moved to
Canada, Kansas, Oregon and other States.

In his old age he had peace in belief in the Saviour, in whom he trusted when
young, and at the last passed away after a sickness of only a few hours.