Individual Details

The following article appeared in the Cumberland Echo in the year 1925

SOME INTERESTING HISTORY

In connection with the centennial of the Brookfield Baptist church held last Sunday the following historical sketch will be read with keen interest by our readers:

Thomas N. Muzzy was the first Yankee settler to come to this section from New England. He settled on the farm now owned by John Hunter and spent his life there. He was the father of three sons and one daughter. His sons Jerry and Edwin Muzzy bought land adjoining their father's farm, built a house and dug the well on the land now owned by James Nelson. While the old house no longer stands it is said the well is still in use and is a good one. Elineas Muzzy bought land near Renrock and lived in that neighborhood. The daughter Celesta Muzzy, was married to Eli Draper, whose father, John Draper, also came from Massachusetts and settled on what is still known as the “Old Draper Place” and belongs at present to Mrs. J. M. Scott. Dr. Draper for many years a prominent resident of this place was a brother to Eli Draper.

When the Brookfield Baptist church was organized the Draper families were also connected with it and Elineas Muzzy was later deacon in the church. It has always been presumed that the prominence of the Muzzy and Draper families accounted for the church which was organized near Renrock erecting its building so far down the valley toward Cumberland.

Ezeliel Dye was the original promoter of the organization and called the first meetings in his home, a hewn log house on his farm comprising land now owned by the Tildens and J. P. Rex, and located about where the Rex residence now stands. Mr. Dye is buried in the old Dye cemetery which is along the line between these farms. He was married three times and each time married a widow with children. These with the children born to them constituted a family of 24 children who were in the home at one time. It is said that at that time and under the same circumstances there were in the Renrock neighborhood three families whose combined children numbered 72.

David Green of Spencer township, Worcester County, Mass., came out to the neighborhood soon after the Muzzys located and being pleased with the country returned to his old home and after marrying his first wife, Miss Augusta Brown of Charlton Depot, Mass., on the railroad between Springfield and Boston, they set out in a one-horse wagon, driving all the way back to the Renrock neighborhood where he entered land still known as the Green farm and now owned by his son D. J. Green, who is proud of the old sheepskin deeds which are hanging in his home bearing the signatures of the presidents. As incidents of their trip they were robbed three times while enroute. In the first year of its existence Mr. Green and his family joined Brookfield Baptist congregation and down to the present day the church has had the support and influence of all its generations. David Green went into the dairy business on what was considered a large scale and the farm has always been a cattle farm. His wife died leaving him with one son, Edward F. Green, late of Cambridge, Ohio. In order to preserve his home he took the twin Throckmorton girls, who were orphans and kept them until the time of their marriage, they remaining in his home after his second marriage.

Through Rev. Ward who came from Xenia and was pastor of the Brookfield Baptist church, Mr. Green was given a letter of introduction to Mrs. Mary Pearson, of Xenia, a widow whose maiden name was Mary Adsit, and who was a native of Dutchess county, N. Y. Forming her acquaintance they were soon after married and came to Mr. Green's home at Renrock to live. To them were born twin children, David J. Green, of this place and Mrs. Mary Shiveley, of Tulsa, Okla., both living and Louis H. Green, who as a young man entered the service of his country, service through the civil war and later settling in Fort Smith, Ark., where he later died and is survived by his only child, a daughter. Mr. Green spent the rest of his life on the Green farm, always an influential citizen, and earnest member of the church, consistent to his religious belief and teachings.

Of the Throckmorton girls mentioned above, Sally married Henry Bartlett, a pioneer from West Virginia, who migrated to this country with the Knowlton and Dunbar families and entered land in Brookfield township. His descendants still live in the same neighborhood. Cassie married Will Prouty, a son of Russel Prouty, who lived on the present Russel Prouty farm. Here they raised a family of nine boys, Elliott, Russel, Eli, Watson, William, James, Lincoln, John, Jackson and three girls, Malona (Bane), Mary (Perkins) and Clara.

D. J. Green and his sister were twins and when they came into the home it was necessary to have a double cradle, so the father had one built, a long bench-like affair, with a seat for the mother, and a place at each end for an infant, the front railings being movable.

After the marriage of Cassie Throckmorton and the birth of her first children who were twins, (Elliott and Malona), William Prouty went to the Green home and borrowed the twin-cradle. From that time on it had been in the Prouty family and carefully preserved, until a few years ago, Russel Prouty gave it to D. J. Green's son David E. Green of Cleveland, who has it as a priceless treasure in his beautiful residence in Cleveland. He also has as a treasured heirloom, the letter of introduction given to his grandfather by Rev. Ward, when the elder Green went to meet for the first time she who later became his second wife.

Birth	30 Sep 1815	Brookfield Township, Morgan, Ohio, United States
Marriage	15 Mar 1844	Morgan, Ohio, United States - Casander "Cassie" Throckmorton
Census (family)	24 Sep 1850	Brookfield Township, Morgan, Ohio, United States - Casander "Cassie" Throckmorton
Census (family)	Jun 1860	Brookfield Township, Noble, Ohio, United States - Casander "Cassie" Throckmorton
Census (family)	26 Jul 1870	Brookfield Township, Noble, Ohio, United States - Casander "Cassie" Throckmorton
Death	12 Sep 1871	Noble, Ohio, United States
Burial		Brookfield Cemetery, Noble, Ohio, United States

Spouse	Casander "Cassie" Throckmorton (1822 - 1895)
Child	Elliott Prouty (1845 - 1932)
Child	Malona Frances Prouty (1845 - 1913)
Child	Eli Prouty (1847 - 1924)
Child	James Prouty (1848 - 1913)
Child	Russel Prouty (1850 - 1941)
Child	Watson Prouty (1852 - 1916)
Child	Clarissa "Clara" Prouty (1855 - )
Child	William Prouty (1857 - )
Child	Josiah Prouty (1859 - )
Child	Lincoln Prouty (1861 - 1940)
Child	Mary Prouty (1863 - 1938)
Child	John B Prouty (1864 - )

Father	Russel Prouty (1791 - 1855)
Mother	Clarissa Watson (1790 - 1868)
Sibling	Russel Prouty Jr. (1815 - 1868)
Sibling	Liberty Prouty (1819 - 1822)

Notes