The 1860 census for Flatrock Township, Henry County, Ohio, post office Florida, lists David Essex as age 30 and his wife Sarah (Sarah Eleanor Waggoner) as age 34. David is listed as a Farmer with his real estate valued at $1,400 and his personal estate at $750. With them in the household were the following children: Lydia, age 10, Nancy, age 9; Catherine, age 5; Margarett, age one; and John Read, age nine. A short time later the family moved to Adams County, Indiana.

David Essex enlisted at Decatur, Indiana, in Company H, 89th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

David Essex was killed during a Civil War skirmish near Decatur, Mississippi, on February 22, 1864, as Company H was marching from Meridian to Vicksburg.

In March 2005 a group of individuals reconstructed the events surrounding the death of David Essex and his burial. Their efforts were based on local lore, historical research and a detailed survey of the burial site. The following conclusions were reached:

The burial area is located in an area known as Union Ridge. The Union troops had passed there about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon, as they arrived after sundown at Tuscameta Creek, near the Scott County line. Local residents recall ancestors pointing out the burial sites on the Ridge. David Essex had been killed on 22 February 1864 while on a foraging party two miles north of Pleasant Hill. Pleasant Hill was an old church site, now the Conehatta Baptist church.
A survey of the area on Union Ridge located the burial of seven soldiers, each with an individual grave but buried close together, without coffins. The area had been enclosed by a fence, now long gone. However the fence line was detected and measured 20 ft by 25 ft by 20 ft by 25 ft. The gravesite is located at N 32 27.833 and W 089 12.740. Further details might be available from the Newton County Historical and Genealogical Society.

NOTE:- Further information on the above individual can be found in the book Civil War Service of John H. Smith, by Captain David G. Smith, USN Ret. The book is held at the Fort Wayne, Indiana, public library.