The Story of a House Jeddiah Brink in HOlmes County, Ohio
When I first saw a picture of this house, identified as being the house of Jedidiah Brink, my great-great uncle, I went to a Facebook group to make inquires. I posted on the "Killbuck Gang" page and several helpful people tried to give directions to the house. One friend on that page even took the time to drive out to the property and take some more pictures. And best of all, the current owner, named Snow, chimed in to the conversation!
By that time, I had been contacted by Susan Brink, whose husband Jim is a distant cousin of mine, descended from Jeddiah Brink. I passed on the directions given to me by people who live in the area and were well aware of the house. ( Township Road 72 south of SR 62 outside of Killbuck, Ohio). Susan and Jim planned a weekend in Killbuck, stopped at the IGA store where a very helpful lady gave them more explicit directions, and off they went. They met with the present owner of the property, who gave them access to the house.
Although he never knew his great-great-grandfather Jeddiah, this trip to see the house was particularly exciting to Jim Brink, who recalls childhood visits to his relatives the Bellar sisters who were the final residents of the house. He remembered his grandfather showing him the spring and sites of other houses that belonged to Brinks, but no longer exist.
Jedidiah Brink's home in Killbuck Township, Holmes County, Ohio as it looks today.
Jamee Parrish, the architect, could see that the porch and the one-story addition were added later. Because of the plain style of the architecture in the two-story house, she concluded it was probably built between 1850 and 1860. Since we know that Jeddiah bought the property in 1863, it is probable that the house was built by the family that previously owned the land, the McElhiney family.
This picture plus interior views gave Jamee two clues to the age of the addition to the house. First, when the original house was built, it would have been standard to have a detached "summer kitchen" for cooking--both to keep the heat out of the house in summer, and to reduce the possibility of fire. Second, do you see that small window just under the roof peak on the addition? It is Gothic style, and that style would have been used between 1860 and 1880. Because of the timing of the birth of Jeddiah's chidlren, we can assume that the addition was built in the 1870's to accommodate his 3rd, 4th, and 5th child.
When Jim and Susan Brink visited the old house, the present owner gave them this summary of the transfers of the land on which the house stood between 1867 when Jeddiah Brink bought the property and 1903 when he and his second wife sold it and moved away from Holmes County. The property then passed through the hands of a Middaugh relative (Jeddiah's mother's family) and then to Joseph Bellar in 1910. Joseph's will left the property to his children and the Bellar sisters were the last occupants of the house. Although I call the house the Jeddiah Brink house for the second owner, the property is still known around Killbuck, Ohio as the Bellar house. But in fact, if our deductions are correct, it was originally the McElhiney house.
