FRANK HOWELL BRINE Y.

One of the enterprising farmers of Rush township, Champaign county, is Frank Howell Briney, who was born near Yellow Springs, Clark county, Ohio, in September, 1851. He is a son of Mark DeMoss Briney, a native of Warren county, Ohio. His grandfather was pilot on the Ohio river. Mark D. Briney grew up in his native county and married Amanda E. Ebersole, who was born in Springfield, Ohio. Her people came to America from Holland. The Ebersole family located in Clark county, Ohio, and there the parents of Mrs. Mark D. Briney spent the rest of their lives, the father dying at the age of sixty-five and the mother at the age of seventy years. Mr. Briney was a preacher in the Christian church for many years in Champaign and Clark counties. He was also a school teacher and farmer. He was first a Whig, later a Republican. Mr. Briney moved to Champaign county in 1854.

To Mark D. Briney and wife the following children were born : John K., who was a soldier in the Civil War, was killed at Port Republic in 1862, while a private in Company A, Sixty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; Emily married John E. Emmons, and they both died in Pennsylvania ; Jennie is

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the widow of Charles Emmons and she resides in Cleveland, Ohio; Horace died when young; Mary is single and lives at Kirkwood, Missouri; Frank H., of this sketch ; Sallie is single and lives in Cleveland; Rose, deceased, was the wife of Leroy M. Reed ; Florence died in early life ; Charles died single, and Mark also died single.

Frank H. Briney grew up on the farm and he attended the Black school in Rush township. He lived at home until his marriage, September 7, 1880, to Clara Belle Smith, who was born in Clinton, Dewitt county, Iowa. She is a daughter of Rozalvo and Betsy (Cranston) Smith, both natives of Rush township, Champaign county, Ohio. Rozalvo Smith was a son of Dexter Smith and wife, natives of Vermont, from which state they came to Champaign county, in pioneer days, locating at Woodstock on a farm, where they spent the rest of their lives. Mrs. Clara Belle Briney was their only child. Rozalvo Smith was a soldier in the Civil War, belonging to the Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Smith married a second time, his second wife being Elizabeth Hewett, and four children were born to their union, namely : Elmer M., who lives in Chicago ; Ulla Dell, of Rockport, Illinois, and Nora and Mattie, deceased.

Five children have been born to Frank H. Briney and wife, namely : Horace B., died in infancy ; H. Clifford received a good education in the Woodstock schools and is a graduate of Ohio State University, and he is now in New York City with the George Battin Advertising Company ; he married Catherine Stone ; Mabel C., who is at home, was educated at Woodstock and the University of Urbana, and a graduate of Miami University, and she is now principal of the Woodstock schools ; F. DeWitt, who was educated in the home schools, also the high school at Pendleton, Oregon, now lives in that town ; Leroy, who is now assisting his father on the home farm, was educated in the local schools, the schools of Columbus, Oberlin College, and the College of New York City.

Frank H. Briney has always lived on the old home place, which he has kept well improved and well cultivated. He has been successful as a general farmer and stock raiser. He keeps Jersey cattle and does a dairy business : also handles Percheron horses and Duroc-Jersey hogs. Politically, he is a Republican, and he and his wife are members of the Christian church at Woodstock, Ohio, and they are active in church work. Both were superintendents of the Sunday school. He was county organizer for Sunday schools for five years. His wife has driven over four thousand miles in her Sunday school work. One or the other of them has been vice-president of the County and president of the township Sunday School Associations for over twenty-five years. He has been clerk and deacon in the church, also held other offices in the same. Mrs. Briney is descended from one of the oldest families of the Buckeye state. Her great-grandfather, John Cranston, a native of Rhode Island, who married a Miss Edwards, came to Ohio in 1808 and settled in Union county, where they spent the rest of their lives. Their children were : Phoebe, Stephen, John B., Ephraim, Christopher and Edward.

John B. Cranston, Mrs. Briney's maternal grandfather, married Betsy Lathrop, of Connecticut, and they came to Champaign county, in :pioneer times, locating in Rush township, where he hired out, first receiving thirty-seven and one-half cents per day. He devoted the rest of his life to farming here. His family consisted of the following children : Mary Ann, who married Joseph Johnson; Peleg, John, Dollie, Betsy, and Ann B. The last named is the only one living at this writing, 1917; she makes her home on the old homestead, where she has resided for seventy-nine years.

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John K Briney