ASHTABULA COUNTY OHIO 
***************************************************************************

Transcribed by Cherre Loftus Flynn.

THE HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO
        WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
           OF ITS PIONEERS AND MOST PROMINENT MEN
          Published in Philadelphia by Williams Brothers in 1878


 "THE REVERAND J.B. BARTHOLOMEW.  It seems but simple justice that this
 gentleman should be placed on record in this volume, he being the pioneer
 minister of his faith in Ashtabula County.  Born in Bristol, Connecticut, April 8,
 1807, he was the eighth child of Jacob and Rebecca Beach Bartholomew, who
 removed to Ohio in 1810, locating in Farmington, Trumbull County, and were
 among the pioneers of this township.  His educational advantages were of course
 meagre, the clearing of the forest being considered of prime importance.  At the
 age of twenty-one, he found himself broken down with labor, and has remained an
 invalid until the present.  At the age of twenty three he married Martha Reeves,
 and until 1846, passed much of his time in travel.  In the above year he came to
 Eagleville, where he still resides.  In 1844, he was ordained a minister of the
 Disciple Church, and sent out as an evangelist.  Called to Eagleville, March, 1846,
 by a class of twenty five, Mr. Bartholomew raised this church to a membership of
 one hundred and ten in three years.  Through his efforts during this time
 churches were established in Saybrook, Geneva, Trumbull, Footville, Hartsgrove,
 Denmark, Orwell, Rome and many other points, making a total of seventeen.  Truly
 he has done a noble work for his Master.  In his township, he has been a justice of
 the peace for fifteen years, and postmaster for perhaps the same length of time."