HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                          507

court, put up a brick residence building on Eel river, opposite the mouth
of Birch creek, on what was later and for many years known as the
Daniel Harris place, at as early a date as 1831 or 1832. This, as remem-
bered, was a two-story house, with several rooms on either floor, and
with porches both above and below. A surviving daughter of John
Picard, an early pioneer, who settled at the Old Hill in 1835, and who
was elected county treasurer in 1850, says that this house was occupied
by Rawley at the time that her family came to the county. The life-time
of this building, as represented, was cut short by neglect and indifference
on the part of the proprietor, who suffered it to go into decay and
abandonment. In later years it was taken down by degrees and the
brick hauled away at intervals and used for various purposes. The only
vestige there is at this day in evidence of this improvement of three
quarters of a century ago are the bats and brick-dust turned up by the
plow in the immediate locality, where the brick were burned for its
construction.
The First English United Brethren Preacher.
    The first English preacher in the United Brethren church in this
country was John McNamar, grandfather of A. J. McNamar, and
William and Henry McNamar, all of whom lived at Bowling Green
thirty-five years ago. John McNamar was born in Virginia in 1779, in
the midst of the Revolutionary struggles, one hundred and thirty years
ago, and reached the age of manhood in the closing year of the eighteenth
century. He was of Scotch-Irish extraction and possessed a very wiry,
tenacious physical constitution. At what age he removed to Ohio we
have not learned, but in the early part of the nineteenth century he was
engaged in school teaching at Fairfield, Greene county. A number of
German United Brethren, living at Germantown, Montgomery county,
had heard of McNamar as a successful teacher and resolved to procure
his services in their vicinity. Several teams went from Germantown
over to Fairfield to transport his family and goods and, on their arrival
at his house, found him, with a number of his neighbors, engaged in
dance and song as a farewell to the schoolmaster of the neighborhood.
The teaching and example of the simple German Christians exerted
an influence upon him, and in 1813 he was taken into full fellowship
in the church. Very soon after this, probably the same year, he was
licensed to preach by the Miami Conference, held in Fairfield county.
In 1814 he entered vigorously into the work of the ministry in which
he continued faithfully the remainder of his life. About the year 1836
he removed to Clay county, Indiana, and settled three miles south of
Bowling Green, on what has since been known as the Orman place,
on the county line. Afterward he removed to Owen county, near
Jordan Village, and settled on forty acres afterward owned by the
Ecret family. Here he lived until his death in 1846. The church history
says he died in Clay county, but this is a mistake. He was taken sick
somewhere in the southern part of the state while actively engaged in
his ministerial work, brought home, and died soon afterward. He was
buried on his own land.
    McNamar was, in some respects, a remarkable man. At one time
he had general supervision of the church in southern Ohio and Indiana
and, in fact, he planted the seed which grew and ripened into permanent
organizations throughout the country. He used very good language
in his preaching and was a forceful speaker. Nothing deterred him