Obituaries are not limited to newspapers--this wonderful item on Lewis Demoss was obtained in The Northwestern Weekly Miller of 1 March 1889 (Volume 27, Number 9, page 261). The Northwestern Weekly Miller was published weekly in Minneapolis, Minnesota and was obtained digitally today on Google Books.
The notice contains a wonderful portrait of Lewis, along with a short obituary. No date of birth is given, but the notice does allow the reader to estimate his arrival in Ohio and does provide his year of marriage. Of course, the actual source of the information is now known, so the researcher should validate it as much as possible with information from other sources.
There may be additional materials on Demoss in Masonic records and it may be that local newspapers have obituaries containing even more details.
The notice indicates that Demoss was survived by several daughters. While the failure to list them may frustrate the researcher, it should be remembered that this was a publication geared towards those in the milling industry, not locals who might have been interested in knowing about Demoss' family.
Trade publications are an excellent source of information which are becoming more accessible via Google Books.
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Demoss is a first cousin of James Rampley (1803-1884), my 3rd great-grandfather.
