Brooks Beery

As printed in 1884

BROOKS BEERY, son of George and Catharine (Cradlebaugh) Beery, was born in Fairfield County. Ohio, February 19, 1820. " His father, George Beery, was born in Rockingham County, Va., in the year 1783, and emigrated to the almost unbroken wilderness of your county in the year 1800. He was the youngest of six brothers of his father's family, in the order here given: John, Isaac, Abraham, Jacob, Henry and George. There were two half brothers, Christopher and Joseph, all of whom were among the first and early settlers of Fairfield County. He came down the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers in a flat-boat, and up the Hock-hocking to the falls, thence through the woods on foot to Lancaster, and remained over winter, clearing land for others by the acre. He returned to Virginia the next spring, and finally returned to Fairfield County, in the fall of the year 1801, and settled on the Raccoon Creek, near Bremen, clearing land and working for others, thus enabling him to enter eighty acres, which he did in the fall of the year, 1807. In 1809, he married and settled on this small tract of land, continuing to live thereon, and in the neighborhood of Bremen, until in the spring of 1832, when he moved to Little Raccoon, five miles east of Lancaster, where he died in the year 1856. John Beery, his oldest brother, came to the county in the year 1805, and the other brothers soon after, all settling upon and near the streams mentioned in Rush Creek and Berne Townships. They were a hardy, stout and industrious set of men, and did their full share of clearing and improving that part of the county. They are all dead, leaving families scattered all over the country. Their education being very limited, and their habits sober and industrious, were content with the occupation of farming, except my father, who was always fur in advance of his neighbors in schools and public improvements. He took an active part in the construction of the canal from Carroll to Lancaster.

Also, in building the Zanesville & Marysville, and Haaner & Lancaster Turnpikes; was one of the Commissioners of the county, I think, in the ar 1828, and assisted in locating and building the County Infirmary. In

'_34:, he laid out the town of Bremen, and, in the next year, in partnership with Mr. Hedges, commenced the business of selling goods, an occupation yet followed by several of his children, who received their first lessons under his supervision. In the war of 1812. he was pressed into the service with his team, and while May. Croghan was defending Fort Stevenson, at Lower Sandusky, with team and provisions he was camped at Fort Ball, now Tiffin, and within hearing of the guns of the fort. He was a personal friend and a great admirer of the Hon. T. Ewing, claiming that he had no superior as a lawyer and a statesman in the Union. Sach was his admiration of this truly great man, that he called his tenth and youngest son Thomas Ewing. As a citizen he was public spirited; as a neighbor, kind and benevolent; as a father, strict in his requirements, yet tenderly devoted to his children. His wife was a Cradlebaugh, a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. a German Reform minister, and a man of considerable influence in his day. He emigrated to Western Pennsylvania soon after the war closed, and in 1810 or 1811, to Fairfield County, when he soon afterward died. She was born in Washington County, Penn., in the year 1789, emigrated to Fairfield County in 1806 or 1807, and died in 1870. She was a woman of more than ordinary force of character, positive in her opinions, and free to express them; industrious and economical, loving right and having wrong; prompt and practical in every duty, exercising a marked and controlling influence over her husband and family. A mother of the old type in every sense of the word. They had twelve children, nine of whom still survive: four are living here, one near Urbana, Ohio, and the balance in and near the family village of Bremen."* Brooks Beery, the subject proper of this sketch, was employed on the farm with his parents till twenty-seven years of age, obtaining only a common school education. He subsequently engaged three years in mercantile pursuits at Bremen, Ohio, and was attended by fair success. In 1850, he came to Upper Sandusky and established a dry goods store in a frame building on the site now occupied by the Beery

Block, where for thirty years he conducted an extensive and successful business, retiring in 1880. He is the principal owner of the Upper Sandusky Gas Works; owns a half interest in the Beery Block and also in the elevator located by the C. H. V. & T. R. R. For many years Mr. Beery has been regarded as one of the prime factors of the commercial and business interests of Upper Sandusky and is well known as one of its most enterprising and substantial citizens. He is a gentleman of broad and liberal views on all subjects, and is endowed with a large and valuable business experience. Mr. Beery was married September 4, 1856, to Miss Jeannette Sherman, their only child being Frank, who was born October 20, 1857. Mrs. Beeiy was born in New York, August, 1828, and is the daughter of Horace and Luceppa (Harris) Sherman.

As printed in The history of Wyandot county, Ohio, containing a history of the county: its townships, towns, churches, schools, etc.; (1884). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.