The Dasher Family

Pioneers Of the Downriver Area

by Frank Rathbun, July 12, 1952

Courtesy of The News Herald (originally published in The Mellus Newspapers)

Typical of the many German immigrants who settled in the uncleared wilderness of Ecorse Township in the years following the Civil War was Frederick Dasher, ancestor of the many families bearing that name which have since spread throughout the Downriver district and played an important part in the development of the area.

Born in a now forgotten city in Germany about 1842, Dasher came to the United States when he was 20 years old, as part of the huge wave of Germans which flocked to this country to escape the despotism and oppression of their native land

GO WEST

After working several years on a farm in upstate New York, Dasher, as did thousands of other young Americans, took the famed advice of Horace Greeley to "Go West, young man, go West."

Settling in Springwells Township (now part of Dearborn), Dasher met and married Caroline Zimmerman, who had also left Germany several years before. The young husband then obtained employment in a brickyard.

Descendants recall his telling of being offered $1,500, an immense sum in those days, to serve as a substitute for a man drafted into the Union Army. Before Dasher had a chance to make up his mind, however, the Civil War had ended and the offer was withdrawn.

BOUGHT FARM

By the early 1870's, Dasher had saved enough of his earnings to buy a 105 acre farm in Ecorse Township - now at the northwest point in Allen Park. His land included part of the area now bounded by Allen, Southfield, Outer Drive and the Lincoln Park line.

A large, powerful man weighing close to 250 pounds, Dasher lived to see the birth of nine sons and a daughter before he was tragically killed on Thanksgiving Day, 1889.

Louis Dasher, a son, now living' at 14903 Harrison, Allen Park, recalls that his father had taken several horses across railroad tracks to be watered at some distance away.

HIT BY TRAIN

As the elder Dasher returned, a train frightened the horses. Attempting to keep the stampeding animals away from the train, Dasher himself fell against the side of the moving cars and was hurled to his death.

The widow and children carried on the farming operation for many years, as the sons, one by one, married and built homes on the property. Caroline Dasher died about 1918 at the age of 90.

Five sons are still living, four in the Downriver section and one in Detroit. Those in the area are Albert, now 82; Henry, who will be 80 next March; Louis, 74, and James, 72, still living on the old homestead at 24335 West Outer Drive. The oldest, Frederick, who will be 86 this fall, resides in Detroit.

FIVE DECEASED

Deceased are the daughter, Eliza, who died 10 years ago at the age of 82; John, who would be 90; Herman, who would be 88, William, who would be 84, and George, who would be 78.

All memebers of the family were truck gardeners. Frederick settled in Greenfield Townshiip, the rest operated in Allen Park and Melvindale.

Among the many living grandchildren of the original settler, Frederick Dasher, are Elmer Dasher and Lillian Weigert, of Dearborn, children of John; Walter Dasher of Melvindale, Irma Kalin and Viola Powser of Allen Park, and Elsie Fitzsimmons, of Detroit, children of Herman; Edna Dasher and Raymond Dasher, of Detroit, and Lester Dasher, of Toledo, sons of Frederick.

TRUCK GARDENERS

Proprietors of truck gardens in Nankin Township are Earl and Chester Dasher, sons of William, while their sister, Mrs. Doris Duke, resides in Melvindale.

Hazen Dasher, son of Henry, lives in Detroit, while Arthur Dasher, son of George, resides in Melvindale. Arthur's sister Mrs. Noreen Shaver, owns a farm in Canada.

Children of Louis are Alvin Dasher, Allen Park plumbing contractor; Ervin Dasher, of Ecorse: Mrs. Irene Wilkie, of Taylor Township, and Mrs. Dorothy Doyle, Mrs. Gertrude Flaishans and Mrs. Ethel Stancer, all of Allen Park; Charles and Warren Dasher, sons of James, at one time operated a drug store in Wyandotte.

In honor of this pioneer Downriver family, a street in Allen Park and a school in Melvindale bear the name of Dasher, lasting tributes to the sturdy German immigrant who helped clear the forests from the land on which his descendants have helped create the modern communities of today.