BALL FAMILY.  Mathew Ball, one of the prominent pioneers of Center Township, was a native of Wales, where he was born in 1745.  He came to this country shortly after the Revolutionary War; he first settled in Allegany County, Md., where he followed tanning and milling; he was successful in business, and accumulated what at the time was thought to be a competency.  With the desire no doubt of bettering the condition of his family he came to Noble County, and in 1818 entered 160 acres of land near where is now the village of Sarahsville.  On this farm he lived until his deceased which occurred Dec. 27, 1821; he reared a family of nine children -  Mathew, Jonas, John, Daniel, Lydia (Gilpin), Mary (Riddle) Susan (Vorhies), Anna and Julia.  Jonas was born in Maryland in 1791, and came to the new country with the family.  He married Miss Amy Archer, and was the first settler on the farm now owned by Mr. Clay Young.  He was a typical pioneer in the fullest sense of the term, strong, robust and resolute, and possessed of unlimited confidence in his own resources and his ability to conquer success under such adverse circumstances.  He had a full share of pioneer experiences, a narration of which would sound to the present generation more like fiction than fact.  He was obliged to market the produce of the farm in Marietta, a distance of nearly fifty miles over roads that at this time would be thought to be impassable; on one occasion he took a load of pork to Marietta, which he sold for $1.50 per hundred, but despite the obstacles, which would have disheartened one less courageous, he was successful in life and at one time owned over 1,200 acres of land.  But few men did more than he in the development of the county, and the name of Jonas Ball will always he accorded a prominent place among the pioneers of Noble County.  He died Oct. 9, 1875, aged eighty-three years; his wife died in 1865, aged sixty-three.  He had a family of twelve children, four boys and eight girls.  James was born in Center Dec. 19, 1819; his youth was passed on the farm of his father, sharing the hardships of a pioneer family; his recollection of the early days is vivid; he recalls many incidents that took place in his boyhood that illustrate pioneer life in Center.  The following is related to show what the pioneers were compelled to endure, and something of the early life of our subject.  In 1835, just before harvest, the family got out of wheat, and they were obliged to cut the ripe spots; the sheaves after being sufficiently dried were threshed with flails, cleaned with a sheet and riddle. On this occasion the wheat was boiled in a tea-kettle with a little maple sugar to render it more palatable.  On this unwholesome diet they subsisted for two days.  Many other experiences might be given, but this will suffice as an illustration.
     Like his father, he began life upon a new farm, and is entitled to a prominent place among the pioneer farmers of the county.  He married Miss Anna Salladay in 1844.  She was born in Buffalo Township in 1824.  They reared a family of six children - Emily (Russel), Israel, Martha (Downey), Angeline (Cox), Jane (Newton) and Annie.
Source:  History of Noble County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co., 1887~ Page 357 - Center Twp.

BARNES FAMILY.  Able Barnes, one of the early settlers of Noble County, was born in Freeport, Harrison County, Ohio, Oct. 23, 1814.  He was of English descent.  His wife, nee Caroline Brown, whom he married in Summerfield, Dec. 24, 1839, was of Scotch extraction, and was born near Culpeper Court House, Loudoun County, Va., May 31, 1815.  They had a family of seven sons and two daughters - Nathaniel B., Adam, Peter F., George B., Allen W., James S., Abel W., Margaret A. and Rhoda E.  Nathaniel B., the eldest of the family, was born in Marion Township, near the village of Summerfield, Mar. 28, 1844.  In 1871 he married Miss Sarah E., daughter of John and Nancy Floyd.  They have two children - Edward W. and Nola; the former was born in 1879, the latter in 1885.
     Adam, the second son, was born in 1846.  He was a member of Company H, One Hundred and Eighty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  He married in Missouri, in 1873, Miss Nancy Garrett, a native of South Carolina.  They have five children.  He is a prominent business man of Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.
     Peter F. was born in 1848.  He married Miss Jeanette Dalrymple in Greene County, Ind.  They have four children.  George B., the fourth son, was born in 1850.  Abel W. was born in 1853, and married Miss Ida Warren, of Washington County, Ohio.  He is a farmer.  Allen W. was born in 1856, and married Sadie E., daughter of B. F. Penn, in February, 1883.  She died June 24 of the same year.  James S. was born in 1859, and married Miss Kate, daughter of George and Jane Furches.  He is one of the prominent business men of Pratt, Pratt County, Kan.  He is a graduate of the Muskingum College, and for several years was a teacher.  He was for some time county surveyor of Pratt County.  The eldest daughter, Margaret, was born in 1841.  She is now the wife of Bartholomew Davis, a well-to-do farmer of Greene County, Ind.  They have four children.  Rhoda E. married in 1865 J. F. Gant, and resides in Washington County.  They have a family of eight children.  Nathaniel B. is one of the representative men of Noble County.  He is a Republican in politics.  For nearly five years he served his fellow-townsmen as trustee, and in 1885 was elected county commissioner, which position he now holds.  In religious belief he is a Methodist, and has officiated as steward, district steward and trustee.  During the war he was a member of Company D, Ninety-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, from which he was transferred to the Thirty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company H.  He was in the service for nineteen months, and participated in all the engagements in which his regiments participated.  He is a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post of Summerfield.
     Mr. Barnes is the possessor of a fine farm near Carlisle, which is his home.  He occupies an enviable position among the best men of the county, and is regarded by those who know him as a man of unimpeachable integrity, and is well qualified for the responsible position he occupies. 
Source:  History of Noble County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co., 1887~ Page 463 (Photo available)

ISAAC HENRY BASS, a farmer of Center township, was born in Belmont county, near Barnesville, Nov. 24, 1849.  He is a son of Joseph Oxley and Ann (Hayes) Bass, the father a native of England.  There were two children, Malinda Jane, now Mrs. Parker, of Lockwood, Missouri, and Isaac.  The mother died in 1855, and the father in 1877.  After the death of his mother, Isaac Bass went to live with his uncle, Job Johnson, of Belmont county, remaining with him until his twenty-second year.  He received only a limited education and took up the occupation of farming, which he has followed all his life.  In the spring of 1873, he moved to Noble county, going a short time afterward to Colorado, where he engaged for thirteen months in the tinker business, returning at that time to Noble county, where he has followed his old occupation since.  Mr. Bass was married January 16, 1875, to Margaret Carter, daughter of Robert Carter, an old resident of Noble county, and to them have been born two children: Emma Dell now Mrs. Stottsberry, of Byesville, and Herbert Clyde, of Wheeling, W. Va.  Mr. and Mrs. Bass are members of the United Brethren church at Fredericksdale.
Source:  The County of Noble, Ohio - By Hon. Frank M. Martin - 1904 - Page 166

JABEZ BELFORD, an early and prominent lawyer of Noble County, was born in Malaga, Monroe County, O., in 1820.  He was brought up to hard work and had but limited opportunities for obtaining an education.  His youth was spent in Hoskinsville and vicinity.  He learned the blacksmith's trade when young, but not being satisfied with it he sought to improve his mind by reading and study, and finally began the study of law in the office of Virtulon Rich, of McConnelsville, and was admitted to the bar in 1851.  He first began practice in Sharon, but removed to Sarahsville a few years after the organization of the county.  He served as the first prosecuting attorney of Noble County, and in that position achieved such success that he at once rose to prominence as a lawyer.  He was afterwards elected to the same position.  For several years he was the law partner of Hon. Isaac Parrish, and afterward he sustained the same relation to William C. Okey, Esq.  He was a skillful and eloquent advocate, a successful lawyer and a good citizen.  He removed from Sarahville to Caldwell, where he served as the first postmaster of the village.  During the war he was elected as draft commissioner of the county.  He was a Democrat and a partisan, but he never permitted politics to estrange friendship.  He died in Caldwell, October 22, 1882.
     One of the local papers in an obituary, said: " *  *  *  Without the advantage of a classical education in youth, he has long been recognized by those who knew him best, as a gentleman not only learned in the law, but possessed of a vast fund of accurate knowledge of science, history, and general literature.  He was especially fond of biological research and natural history.  Seen in the court-room he appeared cold, practical and severe, but his heart was full of generous warmth and noble impulses."  At a meeting of the Noble County bar, highly eulogistic resolutions were passed, at which time Hon. W. H. Frazier said:
" He was one who always did what he believed to be right, without prejudice or favor."  W. C. Okey, who perhaps knew him more intimately than anyone else, said:  "I saw him more and knew him better than others.  As a lawyer he was greatly above the average.  Often when in in consultation respecting the merits of a case, 'Is this right as between men, let this test settle the question,' as soon as thus satisfied, he became invincible in his convictions.  During his last years his life seemed to be growing more symmetrical with his extensive reading and reflection."  In 1843 he was married to Miss Clarissa, daughter of Lebbens Fordyce.  She was to him a valuable aid in his early struggles with poverty; while he was engaged in his law studies she supported the family through her own efforts.  Ten children were born to them, six of whom are living. Cyrus, the eldest son is a farmer; Irwin is an attorney, residing in Toledo, O; Richelieu follows the trade of his father; Ethan A. is a physician in Nevada; Dora married Reuben McGlashen; Lebbens, the youngest, is a dentist.
Source:  History of Noble County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co., 1887

DR. W. R. BOGGS, of Keiths, is a native of Noble County, where his parents reared a family of eight children. He was born at Sharon, March 23, 1854. He followed teaching, and in 1883 graduated from the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville. He settled at Keiths, where he is now in successful practice. Dr. Boggs is an Odd Fellow and a Democrat. He was married in 1876 to Sarah A. Barkley, of this county, and they have one child, Ola.
Source:  History of Noble County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co., 1887

Center Township -
BROWN FAMILY. 
     Jeremiah Bateman Brown was one of the prominent early settlers.  He was born in New York State, of Scotch-Irish parentage.  He served in the War of 1812, and after its close removed to Pennsylvania and thence to Ohio, locating at Zanesville, where he worked in the first glass factory ever established west of the Alleghanies.  About 1820 he settled within the present limits of Center Township, Noble County, on a piece of unimproved land which he entered from the government.  He married Miss Nancy Gillotte, and reared a large and respectable family.
     He was a warm Union man during the late war, and at the time when the Morgan raiders were spreading terror through Ohio, though then over seventy years of age, he shouldered his squirrel rifle and joined in the pursuit of the guerrilla band.  Mr. Brown died in 1864.  His widow reached the advanced age of ninety years, and died in 1885.  The sons were G. W., Admiral N., Jeremiah B.(deceased), and Jason Whitney. The daughters were Sarah A., Eliza J. (deceased).  The oldest son, G. W., served in the late war in Lanphere's Michigan Battery, and was wounded at Chickasaw Bayou.  The fourth son, Jason W., served in an Indiana regiment during the war.
     Jeremiah Byron Brown, third son of Jeremiah Bateman Brown, was born in Zanesville.  He married Miss Isabella C. Harris, and reared six children: Mary E. (Smith), John H., better known as Judge Brown, of Caldwell; LeRoy D., of Alliance, Ohio, late State school commissioner; Orra A. (Lamley), Amanda (Grim), and Warren B. - the latter a student at the Cincinnati College of Medicine.  The father, like his father before him, was a most earnest and zealous friend of schools, and gave his children the best educational advantages that his means afforded.  The sons and daughters have been successful teachers, following that useful vocation for many years, and one of the sons has filled in a highly creditable manner the highest educational office within the gift of the people of Ohio.
     Jeremiah Bateman Brown died in 1880, while on a visit to his former home.  He was a farmer and lived the greater part of his life in Center Township, removing thence to West Virginia in his later years.  His widow is still living.
     LEROY D. BROWN, A. M., PH. D.  Among the many prominent educators whom Noble County has furnished to the State and country ahs furnished to the State and country, the gentleman whose name heads this article stands pre-eminent.  LeRoy D. Brown was born in Center Township, Noble County, Nov. 3, 1848, and his boyhood was passed amid the rugged but beneficial influences of farm life.  At the early age of fifteen years, in the darkest days of the Rebellion, he became a volunteer soldier, and for two years bravely bore his part in the stern discipline of civil warfare.  He took part in many engagements, serving under Crook, Sheridan and Grant, and was wounded while with Sheridan in the valley of Virginia.  At the close of the war he returned to the farm, and by teaching one year and attending school the next, managed to fit himself of the Ohio Wesleyan University, which he entered in 1869.  From this institution, after several intervals of teaching, he was graduated in the regular classical course.  Having decided to make teaching his life-work, he devoted himself closely to his pursuit and gained an excellent reputation as a teacher in eastern Ohio.  In due time he was called to the Miami Valley, and became distinguished as a teacher and organizer.  He held the position of superintendent of schools in the city of Hamilton, and proved both popular and efficient in that capacity.  He is a close observer and a hard student.  His characteristic energy is shown by the fact that he studied law and was the bar in the midst of his professional duties.
     Since 1873 Mr. Brown has visited many of the best schools in various parts of the United States and Canada, and in 1882 he traveled in Europe, visiting schools and studying the educational systems of Great Britain, Germany, France and Austria.  He has been styled "The best travelled schoolmaster in Ohio."  In 1883 he was nominated by the Democratic party, and elected State commissioner of common schools, by a handsome majority.  His labors to improve the educational institutions of the State have been indefatigable and have brought good results.  The excellent educational exhibit, sent to the New Orleans Exposition, was prepared under his direction, and won for him the highest praise.  In recognition of his scholarship he has received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.  He has contributed many valuable articles to prominent educational journals.
     In a published sketch of Mr. Brown* occur these remarks:
     "As the head of the Ohio school system he has proved an efficient officer, and the schools of Ohio were never in a better condition than they are to-day. *  *  *  *  At various times he has been honored with important offices in educational conventions and organizations, and he is now the president of the department of superintendence of the National Educational Association.  As a vocation, he holds that teaching should be so well remunerated as to induce the noblest young men and young women to adopt it as a life work.  Only thus, he thinks, can the new profession assume its true place among the callings of men; and to the end that it may assume such a place, he is willing to give to it the greatest energy and the best thought of his life."
     Governor Joseph B. Foraker as a mark of his confidence in the integrity, capacity and public spirit of Mr. Brown appointed him as a member of the Board of Trustees of Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, on the 10th day of February, 1887.  This appointment, coming as it did from a chief executive of the State, of opposite political views, near the close of Mr. Brown's official term as school commissioner, attests the fidelity and ability with which he has discharged the important duties of his high office at the head of the public school system of his native State.
     In 1878 Mr. Brown was married to Miss Esther Emma Gabel, of Eaton, Ohio.  Three children have blessed this union.  He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Their home is always open to their friends, and their hands are always ready to do any good work for "family, church or state."
     John H. Brown, ex-probate judge, was born in Center Township in 1846.  He was reared on a farm, attended the common schools, and for a few terms was a student at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.  For twelve years he taught in the schools of Noble County, and during seven years of that time was principal of the Batesville schools.  While there he served as justice of the peace and as county school examiner, being twice chosen to the former office and once to the latter.  In 1878 he received the Democratic nomination for probate judge, and was elected.  He was re-elected and held the office for two terms.  This, in a strongly Republican county, is sufficient evidence of his popularity.  Judge Brown has been a resident of Caldwell since the fall of 1878.  He is a member of the Odd Fellows and of the Masonic order.  He was First married, in 1866, to Miss Louisa Maria Knox, of this county.  She died in 1881, leaving four children:  Oscar E., Ida M., Carey I., and Miles E.  In 1882 he married Mrs. Maria D. Carr daughter of William J. Young, formerly one of the prominent business men of the county.  Two children have been born of this union - Guy B. (deceased), and Simon K.
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*Cincinnati Graphic, July 4, 1885 
Source:  History of Noble County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co., 1887 - Page 350.

DR. JAMES T. BROWN, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., settled in Fulda in 1874 and was the first physician in the place. He still resides in Fulda, having a good practice. Dr. Brown came to Middleburg, in this county in 1867, and practiced until 1871, when he returned to Pittsburgh and remained three years.
Source:  History of Noble County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co., 1887

Sharon Twp. -
BROWNRIGG FAMILY
     John Brownrigg, Sr., was one of the prominent early settlers of what is now Sharon Township.  He was born in England, where he married.  Five children were there born to them:  Elizabeth, William, Sarah, Mary and John.  In 1818 the immigrated to this country with four of his children, Elizabeth, the eldest, remaining in her native place, the mother having died.  The family landed in Baltimore, Md., thence they came to Pittsburgh, and from there to Steubenville, Ohio, in a flat boat.  Here the family spent the winter, the boat being their home.  The following spring they voyaged to Marietta and from thence to the place where the family now reside.  Here the elder Brownrigg entered 640 acres of land.  He was a thorough and energetic farmer, and soon after his arrival built a log house, 36x40, and two stories in height.  In 1820, the year following his settlement, he built a barn which was the admiration of the pioneer farmers for miles around.  This structure, the walls of which are still standing, was one hundred feet in length; the floors were puncheon and are still in good repair.  He died in 1856, aged eighty-four years.  He was an Episcopalian in religious belief, and for many years one of the leading citizens of the township.  Of his children, John, Jr., is the only one living.  He was born in England May 15, 1807, and is one of the few who have witnessed the transition of a wilderness to a fertile and productive country.  He remained with his father until his decease, at which time he received 240 acres of the paternal estate.  He has been a thrifty and prosperous farmer, and at one time owned 1,100 acres of valuable land.  He says that when his father settled in Sharon, that Silas Sailor was their nearest neighbor, and that they occupied his stable until they could erect a cabin.  He married in 1829 Miss Matilda daughter of Robert and Jane Caldwell.  Four children were the result of this union: Jane (Swank), Elizabeth (Ellison), who died in 1887, William and Sarah (Kildrow), William, the only son, was born in Sharon Township and resides on the homestead farm.  He married Miss Nancy G. , daughter of Samuel and Jane Norris  They have six children: Emma (Jones), Lewis M., Mary (Bozman), John W., May and Lillie.  The fertile fields and substantial improvements attest Mr. Brownrigg's skill and success as a farmer.  He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a pronounced Democrat.
Source:  History of Noble County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co., 1887 - Page 379