Abraham Melott
Abraham Melott is a prominent and influencial citizen of Knox Township, Holmes County. His father, John Melott, was of French descent, but was a native of Germany, from which country he came to the United States when young. In Lancaster County, Penn., he married Miss Catherine Bittner, and from there they removed to Centre County, same State. Of their ten children, Abraham was the ninth, born March 17, 1812, near Howard, Centre County, Penn. The father, John Mellot died in 1815.
In 1832 the subject of our sketch, with one other, started on foot for Ohio, which was then the "far West," bringing his property in a valise strapped on his back. He landed in Nashville, Holmes County, and in the spring of 1833 commenced in the boot and shoe trade, which he followed for forty-five years. February 9, 1837, he was married to Miss Margaret Siggafoos, with whom he lived most happily for thirty years, when she died and went to meet three of the nine children who had been given to them. The eldest son, Sylvester C., who had been a member of Company I, One Hundred and Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, died at Russellville, Ky., while defending the flag of his country. Mr. Melott was again married, on this occation, in 1869, to Mrs. Lucy Ann Sill, widow of Cook D. Sill, and daughter of Jonathan Harriss. Mr. Melott is now in his seventy-eighth year, and is engaged in the nursery and small fruit business, to which he has devoted his farm of 120 acres for the past twenty-five years.
While not rich, the Lord has favored him and given him a long life, good health and enough of wealth to supply all desires. In January, 1841, he was converted, and gave his name to Rev. Samuel Urety, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which church he has consistently belonged for over forty-eight years, most of the time as an official member.
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Wayne and Holmes, Ohio, J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1889