Theodore Riley Vaughan was born on February 23, 1843, in Ohio to Charles and Beulah Vaughn. His father was a merchant who owned $6,000 of real estate and $4,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Goshen, Ohio.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 9, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company G of the 89^th Ohio Infantry on August 26. He served on General William T. Sherman’s staff, and he took part in the Atlanta campaign and the March to the Sea. He expressed devotion to the Union, celebrating his “noble Nation” and “beloved country.” In September 1862, he declared that “home is dear yet we must consider our Country dearer.”

 

He settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, after the war and married Lydia J. Turner on December 9, 1869. He worked as a grocer, and by 1870, he owned $5,000 of real estate and $1,100 of personal property. They moved to New Castle, Indiana, in the 1870s, and he worked as a clothing merchant there. He applied for a federal pension in July 1900 and eventually secured one. He died of a “dilation of [the] heart” in New Castle on July 20, 1917.

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