John Sanford Brumback was born on a farm J in Licking County, Ohio, on the 4th day of March, 1829. His father descended from an old Virginia family of German extraction, the progenitor of which had come to America in early Colonial times. His mother, Frutilda Bearnes, came from Pennsylvania, whence her parents emigrated to Ohio at an early day. From her he inherited many of his sterling qualities of mind and heart. When he was four years of age his father died, leaving his mother a legacy of six young children and forty acres of undeveloped land having a log house upon it. Since there was nothing with which to rear and educate her four girls and two boys except what could be produced from the soil of this wild land, his mother, like others of that day, no whit discouraged, set bravely to work to eke out a precarious livelihood. In a few years she was called upon to mourn the death of her eldest son, and no other course remained but for her and the four daughters to make their own living, aided by young John's efforts. Because she was unable to spare her only boy from his work, except in the winter season, John's early education consisted of the crude instruction received in a country school, during the few winters he was privileged to attend school at all. He was quick to learn, however, and acquired even in this