Lafayette Eggleston
The Eggleston family, of which Lafayette Eggleston, a prominent farmer of Paint township, is a representative, dates their ancestry back to colonial times. Bigod Eggleston came over with the Pilgrims in 1630 from England and settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts, and later when Wareham led a number of emigrants to Connecticut he took his family and located at Windsor, in that state. He located at Windsor in 1635, and died there September 1, 1674, being more than one hundred years of age at the time of his death. He came to this country on the English brig, '"Mary and John." He was twice married. By his first marriage he had two sons, James and Samuel, the latter becoming the progenitor of the Egglestons represented in Fayette county. Ohio, today. His second wife was Mary Talcott, and to his second marriage were born seven children, Thomas, Mary. Sarah, Abigail, Rebecca, Joseph and Benjamin.
No less than seven generations intervened between the first members, Bigod Eggleston and Lafayette Eggleston, with whom this narrative deals. The heads of the families in order are as follows : Samuel, the son of Bigod, who married Sarah Disbrough; Samuel, second, who married; Samuel, third, who married Patience Paine, July 5, 1703; Samuel, fourth, who married Abigail Berens; Joseph, who married a Miss Proffer: Arthur, who married a Miss Smiley: Joseph, who married Mary A. Waters, and Lafayette, the son of Joseph and Mary Eggleston.
Joseph Eggleston, the father of Lafayette, was born near Saratoga Springs, in Saratoga county, New York, and was one of the early settlers in New Plymonth, Vinton county. Ohio. Lafayette Eggleston. the second child of Joseph and Mary A. (Waters) Eggleston, was born in New Plymouth. Ohio, on Christmas day, 1854. His older brother was Mathew J. and the younger was James A. He received his early education in Pickaway county, and finished his educational training in the Bloomingburg school in this county. After leaving school he secured a position as clerk in a general store at Yellemburg, remaining here but a year, when he began teaching school in Ross county, this state, near Andersonville, and continued in this line of endeavor until 1875, when he came to Bloomingburg, where he has since resided. He is the owner of a fine farm of two hundred and fifty acres near Bloomingburg, which is largely devoted to stock raising.
Mr. Eggleston was married April 6, 1876, to Mary C. Boies, the daughter of David and Esther R. (Gillespie) Boies. David Boies was the son of William and Caroline (Coggesville) Boies, and reared a family of six children, Eli, William, Erskine, Caroline, Dorothy and Jane. Mr. and Mrs. Eggleston are the parents of four children, Dora, Amy B., Esther and Joseph.
The Republican party has always claimed the loyal support of Mr. Eggleston, although he has never been an aspirant for political office or inclined to take an active part in political affairs. He and his family are faithful and consistent members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Eggleston is a man of genial disposition and kindly impulses, a man who has always sustained an enviable reputation in the community where he lives.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)