Person:John Early (12)

John Early and his wife, Catharine, of Miamisburg raised the orphan Sarah "Melissa" Moyer, whose mother, Magdalena Urmey, died in 1858 and father, William H. Moyer, died in 1859. Melissa probably lived with the Earlys from about 1859 to about 1871, when she married Charles Crockett.

John was a farmer and minister in the German Brethren church.

John & Catherine Early lived in Clear Creek Twp in Warren County in the 1860 census. John Early and David, his brother, had farms near each other in Clear Creek in 1860 census. Sarah Myers is shown living with John Early and his wife in that census.

John & Catherine Early lived in Miami Twp/Miamisburg in the 1870 census. Their son, Alvadore, about thirteen at the time, is described on that census as being "idiotic."

The Earlys had 27 1/3 acres in Warren County in 1875.

Melissa died in 1879, leaving behind her husband, Charles, and two small children, John (five years old) and Clara (three years old).

For some length of time between 1879 and about 1883, the precise dates and duration being unknown, Clara Jane Crockett, and perhaps her brother, John, lived with John and Catharine. Also during that span of years, Clara lived with her father's sister, Mary Elizabeth ("Libby") Crockett Merring, and her husband, David. After Charles Crockett remarried, Clara returned to live with her father.

John & Catherine Early lived by themselves in Miami Twp in the 1880 census. Alvadore was not then living with them, nor were any other children.

From an old history found online: "The Brethren church (progressive), has five congregations in the county outside of the city of Dayton. Soon after the organization in 1883, congregations were gathered at Farmersville, Bear Creek, six miles west of Dayton, and Miamisburg, or rather five miles southeast of that city on the Springboro Pike. At each of these centers new houses of worship were erected, in which services have been maintained ever since. Prominent among the lay leaders in these early efforts were Hon. C. A. Coler, D. R. Wampler, Dr. George Henkle, and Joshua Gilbert at Farmersville. Abram Beeghly, M. C. Kimmel, and Peter Shank were leaders at Bear Creek. The Earlys led by John Early and David Early, assisted by Jerry Neible, were leaders at Miamisburg. These two latter congregations were served in the pastorate for more than ten years by Dr. J. M Tombaugh, now of Hagerstown, Maryland."