John A. Thrap was born in Muskingum Township, Muskingum County, January 17, 1818. In 1842 he married Catharine, daughter of Judge Francis Scott, of Brookfield, and settled in this township in the following year. He is a prosperous farmer and a worthy citizen, a Republican and a member of the Methodist Protestant church. He is the father of two children, only one of whom is now living.

John Taylor, a native of Ireland, first located at Philadelphia, then moved to Holmesburg, Pa., where he lived four years in a house belonging to James Buchanan, afterward President. He settled in Brookfield Township in 1838 and died here in 1862.

The first school-house in the township was a log cabin on section 4. Among the early teachers of the township were Erastus Hoskins, Mary Brown, Josiah Burlingame and Asa Burlingame.

RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

Brookfield Baptist Church.-This church was organized February 8, 1825, at the residence of Ezekiel Dye, Sr., Rev. James McAboy and Rev. William Reese, officiating ministers. The original members were William Smith, Catharine Smith, Fanny Tilden, Sarah Dye, Harriet Swank and Charity Bond. During the first year the following persons joined: Ezekiel Dye, Sr., Augusta Green, Ruth French, John Braughton, Elizabeth Bates, John Dille, Horace Blanchard, Clarissa Blanchard, Lenna Dalman, Rebecca Tal

bert, Hannah Kirkpatrick, Mary Downey, Mary George, Michael Archer, Jacob Paul, Elizabeth Paul, David Green, Mary Ann Wharton, Lydia M. Moler, Caspar Moler, Elizabeth Moler, Jacob French, James L. Delong, Agnes Delong, Peggy Downey, Lucy Richardson, Mary Bond, Joseph Taylor and Prestley George. William Smith was chosen the first deacon in August, 1825, and James L. Delong church clerk. James L. Delong was clerk until 1856, and was succeeded by Edward F. Green until 1861, when David Delong was chosen clerk. The latter holds the office at present. In May, 1826, Joseph Taylor was the first delegate to the Baptist Missionary Society, which met in Zanesville. A meeting-house about thirty feet square, of hewed poplar logs, was built on the site of the present house in the spring of 1826. The first annual meeting of the Meigs' Creek Association was held May 26 and 27, 1826, in this building, when it was only partly completed. The floor was not laid, and the sleepers served as seats. This association afterward met with the Brookfield church at the following times: August, 1831; August, 1838; August, 1847, and August, 1865. In 1871 the church was dismissed from the Marietta (formerly the Meigs' Creek) Association, and August 28, 1872, united with the Zanesville Association. The latter association met with Brookfield church in August, 1877 and 1886.

Brookfield church is the parent of a number of other churches. In

1839 a new Baptist congregation was organized on Dye's Fork of Meigs' Creek, three miles from the old church. This organization was short-lived, and many of its members returned to the parent church. In 1852 a branch was formed at Hiramsburg, and a meeting-house built there, which has since become the property of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. About the

was

The

same time another branch formed in Meigs Township, Muskingum County. In 1865 twentyfour members withdrew to form an independent Baptist church at Cumberland, Guernsey County. pastors at Brookfield have been as follows: Rev. William Reese, 1825 -32; William William Sedgwick, 1834-7; Robert H. Sedgwick, 1837-8; B. Y. Siegfried, 1838-40; Eber Crane, 1840-3; Henry Ward, 1843-9; Benjamin Thomas, 1850-3; Edward Jones, 1853-7; John W. Warwick, 1858; A. J. Buel, 1859 62; Simeon

Siegfried, 1862-4; G. W. Churchill, 1865-8; Henry Ward, 1868-71; S. G. Barber, 1872-3; T. M. Erwin, 1873-80. The present pastor, Rev. E. W. Dannels, began his labors April 1, 1882.

The following persons have been licensed by this church to preach the Gospel: Warren Knowlton, 1838; Alexander McElroy, 1852; Christopher Lippitt, Thomas Downey, 1862. The following ministers have been ordained by this church: B. Y. Siegfried, March, 1838; Warren Knowlton, June 20, 1839. The following have served as deacons: William Smith, Prestley George,

Welcome Ballou, David Green, John Smith, Thomas Moore, Edward F. Green, Josiah R. Knowlton, Harrison R. Dye and David Delong.

From the organization to the present time the church has had 460 members. The present membership is eighty-five. David Green, Sr., eighty-nine years old, is the only person still living and holding a membership since the first year of the existence of the church.

The present church building was begun in the spring of 1846, and the society took possession of it late in the fall of 1847.

BIOGRAPHIC.

JOHN GRAY.

One of the most remarkable characters that ever lived in Noble

County was John Gray, of Brookfield Township. Although he was an early settler in the county, it is not to his name as that of a pioneer that most interest attaches. Far more

important are the facts that made him celebrated, causing his name to

be the theme of talented writers both of poetry and prose, and giving undying lustre to his simple, commonplace life. He was the last surviving soldier of the American army in the Revolutionary War.

John Gray* was born near Mount Vernon, Va., January 6, 1764, and spent his boyhood in that vicinity. His parents were poor and he was brought up to a life of toil and hardship. The same poverty was his con

*For the facts contained in this sketch we are indebted to a pamphlet written and published by Hon. James M. Dalzell.

dition throughout his long life. The first day that he ever worked out he was employed by George Washington at Mount Vernon. He seems to have been a favorite with the Father of his Country, who frequently shook hands with him and addressed to him encouraging words. He was the oldest of a family of eight children, and on his father joining the patriot army in 1777 he became the chief support of the family. Frequently the Grays were obliged to depend upon rabbits caught by John and his brother as their only meat. At one time John worked a week at ploughing for two bushels and a half of corn. His father fell at the battle of White Plains, and in 1781, John, at the age of eighteen years, volunteered and served until the close of the war, being present at the surrender of Cornwallis. He was in a skirmish at Williamsburg, and was one of 150 men sent on the dangerous but successful expedition of Major Ramsay. After the war he returned to the vicinity of Mount Vernon and resumed work as a day laborer. At the age of twenty he married Nancy Dowell and moved to Morgantown, Va. He was a western pioneer and lived at Dilley's Bottom and Fish Creek dur ing the days of border warfare with the Indians. He came to Ohio while it was yet a territory. The year 1829 he settled in Noble County, where he passed the remainder of his days. He married his second wife, Nancy Ragan, at the Flats of Grave Creek. He again married in Ohio, but survived his wife and all

his children except one. He spent the last years of his life at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Nancy McElroy, and died on the 29th of March, 1868, being in the one hundred and fifth year of his age. The records of the pension office at Washington prove that he was the last surviving pensioner of the Revolution. No pension was obtained for him until 1867, when, through the efforts of Hon. John A. Bingham, a bill was passed by Congress giving him $500 per year to date from July 1, 1866, as long as he lived.

John Gray was a man of spare and bony frame, five feet eight inches high, broad-chested, with a head that was well-shaped and massive. He had but one bad habit - he chewed tobacco for nearly one hundred years. He was a man of exemplary character and sound religious faith. He was a member of the Methodist church for nearly eighty years. In the later years of his life his hearing and sight became impaired and he was obliged to resort to crutches. He warmly sympathized with the Union cause during the late war, and lamented the course of his native State. Quietly, peacefully, as he had lived, the last of the Revolutionary veterans sank to rest amid the rural scenes which he loved so well. No proud monument adorns his resting place, but it is to be hoped that the public-spirited citizens of Noble County will some day see that an ap propriate memorial stone is placed there.

The Trimmer Family.-Samuel Trimmer was born in New Jersey

and when a child immigrated with his parents to Pennsylvania. His father, Paul Trimmer, was a soldier of the Revolution and participated in several notable engagements. He followed the sea for several years and died about 1830, aged nearly one hundred years. His wife was a sister of General Anthony Wayne. Samuel Trimmer was a farmer, a very worthy citizen and an exemplary member of the Presbyterian church, as was also his wife. He died in 1847, aged fifty

seven.

Stevenson Trimmer was born in Washington County, Penn., March 11, 1815, and October 14, 1843, was married to Miss Ann McAdams. His worldly effects at this time inventoried one horse and $25 in money. After his marriage he be gan life as a farmer on leased lands, and by his industry and thrift he prospered and soon acquired the nucleus of a competency. In 1852 he came from Pennsylvania to his present farm, which originally consisted of eighty acres of unimproved land, which by repeated accessions now contains 420 acres, highly im

proved. In 1882 Mrs. Trimmer died. Her only child, James A., enlisted May 2, 1864, in Company H., One Hundred and Sixty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died in hospital at Cumberland, Md., June 9, 1864, in his twentieth year. He was an estimable young man, a member of the Presbyterian church and a good soldier. In 1885 Mr. Trimmer was again married to Mrs. Malinda Butterbaugh. In religious and political affiliation Mr. Trimmer is a Presbyterian and a Republican. For six years he has served the county as Infirmary director, receiving the suffrages of both parties. He is an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian church and every worthy cause finds in him a warm friend and patron. friend and patron. He is one of those liberal, public-spirited gentlemen whose identification with any community is always productive of good. Five orphan children have been the recipients of his generosity, and throughout the entire county he is known as one of the most respected citizens of Brookfield Township.