Introduction

Biography

David was the son of Ro­bert H. By­er and Dor­cas Mill­er, and hus­band of Su­sanne Obens­hain (or Oben­chain) (mar­ried May 6, 1855, Cass Coun­ty, In­di­ana).

He served on the Lo­gans­port ci­ty coun­cil, 1857–59, and as an in­ter­nal re­ve­nue col­lec­tor, 1876–84.

He pos­sessed a rare poe­tic­al and mu­sic­al fa­cul­ty and a large num­ber of po­li­ti­cal songs for ev­ery cam­paign from 1856 to 1896 came from his pen. Ma­ny of these have been pub­lished in pamph­let form.

He al­so com­posed church and Sun­day school hymns and set the same to mu­sic. These were never col­lect­ed and pub­lished, ex­cept an oc­ca­sion­al one in a Sun­day school pa­per.

Powell, p. 233