194 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

cultural interests of Clay county, Owning and occupying a well improved
farm in Van Buren township. A son of French Lewis Triplett, he was
born October 3, 1832, at Virginia Ridge, near Roseville, Muskingum
county, Ohio. His grandfather, Thomas Triplett, was born near Hatch-
ers Mill, Loudoun county, Virginia, being, according to tradition, the
descendant of one of two brothers, John and Thomas Triplett, French
Huguenots who came to America in colonial days to escape religious
persecution. He had two sisters, Mary Ann and Sarah, and two broth-
ers, Greenbury and Frederick, who emigrated to Kentucky, becoming
pioneers of Breckenridge county, where many of their descendants are
still living. The grandfather, a life-long farmer in his native county,
married Phehe Luncford, a daughter of Rolla Luncford, also a life-long
resident of Loudoun county. She survived her husband many years, and
came to Indiana to spend the closing days of her life, dying at the home
of her son, near Brazil, in at the advanced age of ninety years.
She reared eleven children, namely: Burr, Sabra, Nancy, Mahala, Eliza-
beth, Sanford, Delilah, French L., Maria, Leroy and Jane.
    French Lewis Triplett, born December 12, 1806, was a young boy
when his father died, and but sixteen years old when his mother migrated
with her family to Ohio, making the removal with teams, a mode of travel
necessarily slow and at times dangerous, and settled in Muskingum
county. Selecting farming as his life occupation, he subsequently bought
his father-in-law’s homestead of two hundred acres located in what is
now Clay township, residing there until 1856. Selling out in that year,
he came to Clay county, Indiana, and purchased a partly improved farm
situated two miles from Brazil, in Van Buren township. After living
there a while he sold his land to a coal company and bought a farm in
Dick Johnson township. A few years later be sold that farm and moved
to Brazil, where he spent the remainder of his life, passing away March 2,
1887, in the eighty-first year of his age. He married Sarah Baird, who
was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of John Baird, who
was born in the same state, of German stock. Mr. Baird moved with his
family to Ohio, locating in Muskingum county as a pioneer. Securing a
tract of timbered land at the head of Brush Creek, he with the assist-
ance of his sons cleared a farm, and while still owning that he bought
another ranch near Zanesville, on which he resided a number of years.
Having in the meantime acquired a competency, he sold that land and
moved to the city of Zanesville, where he lived retired from active busi-
ness cares until his death, at the age of seventy-six years. His wife,
whdse maiden name was Margaret Baumgartner, was born in Pennsyl-
vania, of German ancestors, and died at a good old age in Zanesville.
Mrs. Sarah (Baird) Triplett died on the home farm in Dick Johnson
township when sixty-four years old. She bore her husband eleven chil-
dren, as follows: John, the special subject of this sketch; Thomas; Deli-
lah; Martha; Greenbury; Burr; Bushrod; Lucinda; Elizabeth; William;
and Minerva A. Three of the sons, Thomas, Burr, and Bushrod, served
as soldiers in the Civil war.
    Attending the subscription schools of early days, at a time when
from sixty to seventy-two days, according to the money raised, consti-
tuted a school year, John Triplett obtained a practical common school
education. Subsequently assisting his father in clearing and improving
the land, he remained at home until after attaining his majority. In
June, 1854, beginning life on his own account, he started on a westward