p.21
"Now, of the second brother, William Gilcrest, (or Gilchrist), my grandfather: His history seems to indicate that he was somewhat of a trader, or a buyer and seller. The first record of him is on a farm adjoining West Middleton, Washington County, Pennsylvania, soon after 1794. In 1813 he moved from there to Belmont County, Ohio, and bought a farm of 153 acres near Flushing, and the next year
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he sold the West Middletown farm to a man by the name of Paul Dunkel. In 1828 he sold the Belmont County farm to George and Isaac Brokaw, the latter his son-in-law. That property is in the hands of the Brokaws to this day. After he had spent two or three years farming in Brook County, Virginia, he bought again, this time in Guernsey County, forty-three miles west of Wheeling on the National Road. Here he lived several years and here the younger members of the family were brought up. In the mean time, also, Grandfather had acquired property elsewhere. He owned some houses and lots in Williamsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania, which he sold in 1832 for five thousand dollars. In the records of this transaction the name of his second wife first appears, his first having died in 1827. Then in 1819 he seems to have acquired 160 acres of land by patent, in Wayne County, Ohio, near Wooster. The original instrument, signed by President James Monroe, has been for the last several years in possession of Charles L. Gilcrest, Des Moines, Iowa, and now hangs in the Iowa State Historical Building. Grandfather's last move was to a farm he bought in Green County, Ohio, a few miles southeast of Xenia, near a little town called Paintersville. Here he died in 1850, in the eighty-first year of his age. Grandfather and Grandmother, Jane Smith were married, probably about 1792, as their first child, Nancy, was born in 1794, and was married before they left Washington County in 1813 to William Brokaw. Grandmother, Jane Smith Gilcrest was born in the old Fort Pitt, where Pittsburg [sic] now stands, in 1774. The fort was built by the English in 1759 and it frequently became a refuge for the surrounding settlers on occasion of the Indian raids
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that were still occasional in those days. It is not improbable that such an event was the cause of her having the old fort for her birth place. Grandmother died December 13th, 1827, before they left the Belmont County farm. Grandfather married again, and his second wife survived him a number of years. Her name was Margaret. She died in Summitt [sic] County, Ohio, and her grave is in a cemetery near Ghent in that county. There were no children by this marriage. While our ancestors are considered to have been of Scottish blood as the name indicates, yet Grandfather's descendants could hardly have been purely so. Grandmother's name was Smith, indicating either German or English, more probably the latter in this case, as the early settlement about Pittsburg [sic] was of English origin. Religiously, being of Scottish extraction, it would be expected that our forebears would be of the Presbyterian order. That was really the case, but Grandfather and his family came early in touch with the Campbells, Thomas and Alexander, in their movement for Christian Unity and hence the restoration of the New Testament order as the only possible ground for it, and joined with them in their first organization. This organization is known in the history of the movement as the Brush Run Church. The little frame meeting house near West Middletown was built on Grandfather's farm, and he and Grandmother, the oldest daughter and her husband, William Brokaw, became charter members of the organization. Grandfather was also chosen as one of the deacons. Later they were of the party of thirty members who moved their membership with Alexander Campbell to Wellsburg, Virginia, when he, Campbell decided to get out of the juris-
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diction of the Redstone Association of the Baptist Church. That association was moving to try him for heresy; but Adamson Bentley, minister of the Baptist Church in Wellsburg, of the Mahoning Association, was more sympathetic in respect to the Restoration Movement and invited them to join with his people. Soon after that Mahoning Association joined with the movement of the Campbells, dropping the name Baptist, and becoming known as Christians only. Quite generally Grandfather's descendants followed in the same line of religious sentiment, while I have found other branches of the family are still very largely of the Presbyterian order."
p.31
"The Family of William Gilchrist
William Gilchrist; Born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, January 10, 1769. Married Jane Smith, in that county, about 1792."
