JOHN THOMAS Oldest Inhabitant of Brooke County - 1855
Abstracted and contributed to the WVGenWeb, Brooke County Site
By Candice Kelner BryanKelner@compuserve.com Feb. 1999
Please do not repost this information without permission from 
Candice.


Notice:    We had the gratification on Thursday morning of seeing, we think, the 
"oldest inhabitant." His name is Mr. John THOMAS, and his residence on Short 
Creek in the neighborhood of West Liberty, whether in Ohio or Brooke county we 
are not informed, but certain it is, he is a very venerable old man. He states 
his age at 97 last spring, says that he participated in the battle of Saratoga 
in October 1777 and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne. He does not boast
 much of his own personal achievements, but says that he bore his part of the 
trials incident to the struggle for independence and when speaking of "liberty"
 appears to still retain much of the fire of '76. - He came to this country 
seventy-one years ago, and was one of the first settlers in Western Virginia. He 
is now old and palsied and in not very affluent circumstances. He says that he 
is entitled to a pension, but never received one owing to the fact that the army 
roll on which his name was entered was burned at the time the Capitol was 
destroyed by the British in 1814, and he has never been able since to prove his 
claim. - He rode in from Bethany 7 miles in a rough wagon and appears to be 
strong and hearty for his age, possessing all his senses in rather a remarkable 
degree. 
Wellsburg Herald   26 Oct 1855.