David Comeans was born in Madison County, OH in 1856.
He was the second oldest son of Aaron and Rosanna (Cissna) Comeans.
They had a total of 14 children, but 2 of them did not survive
infancy.
Being one of the older ones put a lot of responsibility on David.
He & his older brother, Secratos (also known as Crate) were
expected to help run the family farm.
When David was about 21 years of age, he met and married
Ellen Kraner.
At about the same time, David's sister, Rebecca, married Ellen's
brother, William. Together David and Ellen had 4 children: Melvina, Ransom, Annie, and Laura. Sometime between
1886 and 1893 Ellen passed away.
We do not have the particulars on her death nor where she is laid
to rest at this time.
In 1890, David remarried. His new bride was Mary
Luvada Cook.
Her family was from the Mt. Sterling, OH area. Coincidentally,
David's older brother, Crate, had married Mary Luvada's sister, Nancy. David and Mary Luvada had 6 children together:
Myra, Herbert, Frank, Ralph, Sarah, and
Harold - this author's father.
In addition to his farming, David tried several other business
ventures.
In 1885, he tried out the saloon business, running the business
out of the front portion of their home. If you are a student of history, you would know that this was in the midst of
a great temperance movement, and the entire town seemed bent on seeing this business fail. On Monday, May 4th, 1885,
the
Comeans saloon mysteriously caught fire. David and his family
barely escaped with their lives. This ended David's venture in the saloon business.
About 1890, David began a new venture, the grocery business.
Located in downtown Columbus, Ohio, this seemed an ideal was to
make profit off of excess produce from the family farm. The store was named Comeans Brothers Produce, after the two
partners David & Crate Comeans.
This venture lasted about 15 years until they sold the store.
After the grocery business ended, David and Crate returned
to farming on the family farm, having by now been subdivided several times, and either having been given to or sold to David's
brothers and sisters.
According to family stories handed down, David and Mary
Luvada had decided to move to what is now the Westerville area. Sometime during the move, David came down with pneumonia
and soon thereafter died.
Mary Luvada survived him by 36 years.
They are both buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Georgesville,
Ohio.
