David Ross Locke was born in Vestal, New York on September 20, 1833.  He was born into a lower-middle class family and spent much of his youth working in print shops in order to help provide for his impoverished family.  

He traveled to New York to work for a printer.  Little is known of his whereabouts for nearly thirty years after his initial work in New York.  Some biographers have assumed that he traveled the country working for various newspapers and printers.  This nomadic lifestyle gave him the knowledge of the country that would later be represented in the Nasby Letters.  

Locke eventually settled in Ohio.  He has published in newspapers in Plymouth, Mansfield, Bucyrus, and Findlay.  It is during this time that Locke met Martha H. Bodine.  They married and started a family.  

The Locke and his young family moved to Toledo where he began working for the Toledo Weekly Blade on March 21, 1861.  This large paper was distributed to hundreds of residences and businesses.  It was on this date that Locke made himself a permanent entertainer with the publication of the first of the Nasby letters.   

The infamous Nasby letters were humorist editorials on political subjects of the Civil War era.  These short essays poked fun at all aspects of the War, political figures, and himself.  He used the pseudonym of Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby in order to depict a humorous portrayal of the normal man of this time.  This aided in the acceptance of these harsh satirical works, and to improve the confidences of those enjoying these pieces.  Scholars believe Locke to have created this character in order to make readers feel better about themselves by viewing Nasby as inferior.  Nasby was everything that Locke was not.  Locke used the character of Nasby to satirize the racial injustices and corruptive nature of men during the period surrounding the Civil War.  Locke, in fact, fought for the reformation of many social policies.  African American rights, women’s rights, and the improvement of working conditions were all important elements of the political agenda for Locke.  The African Americans that Nasby would speak of in his letters would repeatedly show their intellectual superiority to Nasby.  These letters enabled Locke to shape the opinions of many listeners, viewers, and readers of the time.

Locke gained the recognition of Abraham Lincoln who professed his admiration of Nasby in his statement, “For the genius to write like Nasby, I would gladly give up my office.”  Lincoln was known to postpone the meetings of his cabinet in order to read the letters aloud.  Furthermore, Locke was offered several appointments with President Lincoln and President Grant.  However, he quickly turned these down.  The only governmental service that Locke desired was to become the Third Ward Alderman in Toledo.  Ironically it took several elections for Locke to be elected to this relatively insignificant office.