1827 William G Brenizer was born on February 26 in Maryland to parents Jacob Brenizer and Margaret Griffith. [1]
1850 B.A. [Buly?] Shaw (age 15) lived with John Shaw (age 52) and Pamela Shaw (age 40) in Westfield, Morrow County, Ohio. [2]
1851 On November 19, William G. Brenizer purchased 40 acres in section 11, Twp 7, Range 18 (Morrow County) from William Aldrich. Witnessed by Jacob Brenizer.
1853 On March 5, William G. Brenizer and Buly Ann Brenizer sold land in Morrow County, Ohio to John Shaw.
1860 On December 22, Buly Ann Brenizer (no husband was named) purchased land in Morrow County, Ohio from John and Pamela Shaw for $10.
1860 Wm Brenizer (age 32, born in Maryland) lived in Westfield Twp, Morrow County, Ohio, in a household with Julianna Breniger (age 25), and Nelson O Breniger (age 6). [3] Pamela Shaw (age 53) lived nearby.
1864 William G Brenizer and Finley carried out a land transaction in Morrow County, Ohio.
1867 William G Brenizer purchased land in Morrow County, Ohio from Beck.
1870 William Brenizer (age 42, born in Pennsylvania) lived in Westfield Twp, Morrow County, Ohio, in a household with Ruby Brenizer (age 33), Nelson Brenizer (age 16), William C Brenizer (age 3), and Leonora Husted (age 4). [4]
1880 William Brenizer (age 53, born in Maryland, married) lived in Westfield Twp, Morrow County, Ohio, in a household with Buly Brenizer (age 45), and Clarance C. Brenizer (age 13). William Brenizer's father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother was born in Maryland. William Brenizer's occupation was farmer. [5]
1880 William G Brenizer sold land in Prospect to John Boyd for $500. [6]
1900 William G Brenizer (born in Maryland in Feb 1826, married for 40 years) lived in Cardington Twp, Morrow County, Ohio, in a household with Bulah H Breinsiger (age 65). William G Brenizer's parents were both born in Maryland. Bulah H Brenizer had had 3 children, 2 still living. [7]
1910 William Brenizer (age 83, born in Maryland, widowed) lived in Cardington Twp, Morrow County, Ohio, in a household with Jane I Irvin (age 63). William Brenizer's father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother was born in Maryland. William Brenizer could read and write. William Brenizer's occupation was retired, Farmer. [8]
1910 Wm G Brenizer, widowed, died on December 20, at age 83, in Shawtown, Cardington Twp, Morrow County, Ohio. Wm G Brenizer, son of Jacob Brenizer and Margaret Griffth, was born on February 26, 1827, in Maryland. Wm G Brenizer's occupation was Farming. [9]
A biosketch reports [10]:
William G Brenizer, farmer, and stock-raiser; P. O., Westfield; with his parents, Jacob and Mary (Griffith) Brenizer, is a native of Maryland, and was born Feb. 26, 1827. When two years of age his parents moved to this township and settled on a farm then owned by John Elliott, on the Whetstone river; and in 1831, moved to a farm of their own, where they spent the balance of their lives. On arriving at his majority, William went to work in the fanning-mill business, as did many other citizens who have figured prominently in the history of this township after one year here he spent, two years in a factory in Indiana; one year in Newport, Ky., and one in Lima, O., in the same business. He then sold lightning-rods one year. At the age of 26 he married Miss Buly Ann Shaw, who was born Nov. 9,1834. She is the daughter of John Shaw, who was born July 9, 1797, and Pamelia (Messenger,) born Apr. 10, 1807; her father was for many years a prominent man in the township, holding the offices of Trustee, Clerk and Justice of the Peace, and one of the founders of the United Brethren Church; at the time of his death he was the largest land-holder in the township, owning about 600 acres. The death of Mr. Shaw occurred June 6, 1860. Mrs. Shaw had died Aug. 9, 1854. Mr. and Mrs. Brenizer have raised two children-Nelson 0., born Apr. 9, 1854; graduated at the Otterbein University, Westerville, O., and the Homoeopathic College of Medicine, Cleveland 0., in 1877, and is now a practicing physician in Prospect, O. William, born Sept. 10 1867, is a youth of rare promise. Mr. Brenizer has a good, well water .... ed farm of 100 acres, with good buildings and choice fruit; and besides the home farm another tract of 50 acres. He is now serving the township the third term as Trustee; is a member of Cardington Grange and a Trustee in the United Brethren Church. He enlisted during the Rebellion, and served nearly three years in the 88th O. V. I
A biosketch reports [11]:
William Griffith Brenizer - A venerable and highly respected man was taken from the community, when the close to the holiday season of 1910, William Griffith Brenizer, a man long and favorably known here, passed on to the Undiscovered Country. Although a native son of Maryland, he had passed practically his entire life here and among his other distinctions was his record of having given valiant and faithful service as a soldier in the northern army at the time of the Civil war. Mr. Brenizer was bon. February 26, 1827, and thus at the time of his demise on December 21. 1910, he was thirteen years beyond the psalmist's span of life. He was the son of Jacob and Margaret (Griffith) Brenizer, both of whom were natives of the state of Pennsylvania. They removed to Maryland and when the subject was an infant but two years of age they came across the intervening hills and vales as pilgrims to Morrow county. Ohio. Mr. Brenizer was one of a family of eleven children. The father, Jacob Brenizer, was long a representative agriculturist in Westfield township and his demise occurred October 25, 1869, his wife, Margaret surviving him for nearly a decade, or until March 31, 1879.
William Brenizer was reared under the invigorating influences of farm life and he early became associated with his father in clearing and cultivating their farm of eighty-seven acres. He completed the curriculum of the district schools, to which his father furnished wood in order to pay for his children's tuition. When a young man he worked in the fanning mill factories and he was employed in this business for two years in Indiana, one in Newport, Kentucky, and one in Lima, Ohio. When twenty years of age he went into the cabinet business, with which he was identified for a period of five years, at the expiration of which he turned his attention to agriculture. He purchased a tract of fifty acres of land in Westfield township, which he subsequently sold. In 1853 he bought a tract of one hundred acres in the same township, later adding thereto until he owned an estate of two hundred very valuable acres.
At the beginning of the Civil war Mr. Brenizer was a strong sympathizer with the cause of the Union and in 1862 he enlisted as a soldier in Company C, Eighty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served until the close of the war. For some time previous to his death he received twenty dollars a month pension as a reward for his former services, and he was a member of St. James Post, No. 82, Grand Army of the Republic. In addition to his farm, Mr. Brenizer owned a beautiful home in Cardington where he resided from the year 1890.
On February 17, 1853, occurred the marriage of the subject to Miss Beulah Ann Shaw, a daughter of John and Permelia (Messenger) Shaw, Reverend Deerholt performing the ceremony. Mrs. Shaw's parents were prominent and influential citizens of Westfield township where the father was an agriculturist. The subject and his wife became the parents of two sons: Nelson 0., was born in 1854, and received his higher education in Otterbein College at Westerville, Ohio, being graduated from that institution with the class of 1878. After two years in a medical college in Cleveland, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine and is now engaged in the active practice of his profession in Austin, Texas. William C., the second son, who was also afforded excellent educational advantages in his youth is now a farmer in West- field township. Mr. Brenizer's wife. Beulah A., preceded him to the spirit land July 31, 1909, her death being deeply mourned by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
In politics Mr. Brenizer gave his allegiance to the cause of the Republican party and he held the office of county commissioner at the time of the building of the jail at Mount Gilead, the judicial center of Morrow county. He was converted in 1844 and baptized in June of the same year by Reverend Mr. Moon. Three years after their marriage he and his wife joined the United Brethren church at Fairview under the pastorate of Reverend F. Clymer. He was a constant worker in his church and he held at different times all the offices in the local church, only giving them into other hands when old age came upon him. Although Mr. Brenizer had attained to the great old age of eighty-three years, nine months and twenty-five days, his age rested but lightly upon him and to the last he retained in much of their pristine vigor, the alert qualities of his youth. He was a man of genial disposition and much kindliness of character and he held high place in the confidence and regard of his fellow men. Besides his sons and daughters-in-law, he left to mourn him, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, two sisters, and a large number of relatives and friends.
The Cardington Independent in an appreciation of his life concluded with this paragraph: 'The services were held Friday forenoon. A short service was conducted at the home by the Grand Army of the Republic, of which post he was a member, and afterward the body was taken to the Fairview church where his pastor, Reverend J. G. Turner, conducted the service in the presence of a large and attentive audience. The choir furnished excellent music. The body was interred in the cemetery near by to await the resurrection. He will be greatly missed by his children, grandchildren, friends, the church and his fellow citizens.'
[1] Abraham J. Baughman, Robert Franklin Bartlett, History of Morrow County Ohio, a Narrative Account, Vol. 2 (1880), 771, [GoogleBooks], [HathiTrust].
[2] United States Federal Census, 1850, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[3] United States Federal Census, 1860, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[4] United States Federal Census, 1870, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[5] United States Federal Census, 1880, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[6] Newspaper, Marion Daily Star, Marion, Ohio 1880 10 June.
[7] United States Federal Census, 1900, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[8] United States Federal Census, 1910, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[9] Ohio Department of Health, Ohio, Death Certificates, 1952769, [FamilySearchImage], [FamilySearchRecord].
[10] William Henry Perrin, J. H. Battle, History of Morrow County and Ohio (Chicago: O. L. Baskin & Co., 1880), 633, [GoogleBooks], [HathiTrust].
[11] Abraham J. Baughman, Robert Franklin Bartlett, History of Morrow County Ohio, a Narrative Account, Vol. 2 (1880), 916, [GoogleBooks], [HathiTrust].