Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 26 February 2005

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819

THOMAS VAN DYKE, retired farmer, Franklin, son of Abraham and Mary (West) Van Dyke, was born in Monmouth Co., N. J., in 1807. When 10 years of age, his parents moved to Turtle Creek Township, Warren Co., Ohio, where they bought 100 acres of land; they had thirteen children, our subject being the sixth; his father died about 1825; his mother about. 1857. In 1839, he bought 109 acres in Liberty Township, Butler Co., where he built a fine brick residence and made considerable other improvements, and sold in 1867 and moved to Franklin Township, where he bought 100 acres, where he has made a great many improvements; he also has 640 acres in Mercer Co., Ohio. He was married, in Franklin Township, in 1852, to Jemimah, daughter of John and Eliza Wood, born in Franklin Township; they have had five children—George, Elizabeth, John, Amanda and Edward (deceased—drowned July 15, 1881, in the Miami River, below the hydraulic dam, while bathing). Himself, wife and daughters are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.