DAVID E. DEBUSK
Merchant of Glade Spring, was born in Washington county, eight
miles south of the Springs, June 12, 1836. His father, Jacob Debusk,
and his grandfather, Elijah Debusk, were both born in Washington
county, and were lifelong residents here, wheelwrights and farmers.
The father of Elijah came to Washington county from Shenandoah
county. The mother of Daniel E. Debusk was a Gentry of Johnson
county, Tennessee, and related to Abraham Lincoln.
Near Glade Spring, October 25, 1866, David E. Debusk married
Harriet Widener, who was born near her husband's birthplace, August
19, 1841. She died at Glade Spring, June 12, 1887, and her remains
were laid to rest in the grounds of the Presbyterian Church, of which
she was a member. She was the daughter of Reuben Widener, whose
father settled in this county shortly after the war of 1776, and came of
old Revolutionary stock, one of the name and family with Washington
at the surrender of Cornwallis.
Mr. Debusk entered the Confederate service on July 25, 1861, Company
H, 37th Virginia regiment. At Kernstown, March 23, 1862, he
was wounded by a musket ball in shoulder; at Chancellorsville he was
wounded by grapeshot and again in same battle by bursting of a shell;
at Gettysburg he received musket ball wounds in arm and leg; and his
service in the field ended at Spotsylvania C. H., May, 1864, where he
was captured, and after that held thirteen months at Fort Delaware.
