Husband John Parker Brest 1 2 3
AKA: John L. Brest 4
Born: 14 Aug 1840 - Plaingrove Twp, Lawrence Co, PA 1 5
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Father: David Brest ( -1879) 5 6
Mother: Catherine Remley ( -1865) 5
Marriage: 3 Mar 1864 7 8
Wife Ruth Ann Rodgers 3 7 9
AKA: Anna Rodgers,4 Ruth A. Rogers 10
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Father: Thomas Rodgers (1809-1859) 7 8 11
Mother: Eva Wise (1794-1888) 11 12
Children
1 M Elden E. Brest 7 8
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2 M Harvey Taylor Brest 7 8
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Spouse: Cora B. Runkle ( - ) 8
3 M Clarence O. Brest 7 8
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Spouse: Minnie Odessa Forney ( - ) 13
4 F Elmira E. Brest 7 8
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Spouse: N. E. Rodgers ( - ) 8
5 M Perry N. Brest 3 7 13
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Spouse: Nettie McFate (1872- ) 3 13
Marr: 14 Sep 1898 - North Beaver Twp, Lawrence Co, PA 3
6 M Scott Stanley Brest 7 14
Born: 11 Jan 1877 - Mercer Co, PA 15
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Spouse: Mabel Victoria Leslie ( - ) 16
Marr: 28 Feb 1906 15
7 M John E. Brest 7 8
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Spouse: Ida Mitchell ( - ) 13
8 F Margaret L. "Maggie" Brest 7 8
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Spouse: Charles Sylvester Meade ( - ) 13
9 M Blaine Brest 8
AKA: Blaney Brest 7
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General Notes: Husband - John Parker Brest
He was born in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, and was reared near the Mercer County line, not far from Plain Grove. He later resided in North Beaver Township and his occupation was farming. He served for over three years in the Civil War, a member of the One Hundredth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and suffered the loss of a leg at the battle of Cold Harbor. In December, 1889, he removed from Mercer County to North Beaver Township, Lawrence County.
He was reared and educated as a farmer boy, in Plaingrove Township, Lawrence County. He had just reached his majority and had made plans for his future which had nothing to do with the battle field, when the Civil War broke out, and he immediately began preparations to go to the front as a soldier. On August 27, 1861, he enlisted first, becoming a member of Company E, in the famous One Hundredth "Roundhead" Regiment, which made such a noble record for courage and efficiency. The commander of his company was Captain Bentley, and Mr. Brest contracted to serve as a private for three years, although at that time the general opinion was that the struggle would not be protracted for so long a period. After the conclusion of his first enlistment, Mr. Brest re-enlisted in the same regiment and same company, in December, 1863, agreeing to serve for three more years. He participated in seventeen battles, many of these being the most important ones in the whole war. His regiment was not at Gettysburg, at that time being at an equally dangerous point, Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was in every engagement in which his regiment took part until on June 2, 1864, when he was so seriously wounded at the battle of Cold Harbor that the field surgeon found it necessary to amputate his shattered left leg on the following day. At the previous battle, at Spottsylvania, his company had lost thirty-nine men of its one hundred, six being mortally wounded and the rest terribly injured, all of the officers down to the corporals being among the victims. Promotions were made from the ranks, and Mr. Brest was made a corporal, but his own injury so quickly followed that he never served in that capacity. He had well earned promotion. When the battle was raging and the captain called for volunteers to go out on the vedette line, a post of the greatest danger, from which even an ordinarily brave man shrank, John P. Brest was one of the first to volunteer, and when the order to charge was given, he was one of the leaders to break into the Confederate line. At the battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, his brigade was massed and his regiment was ordered to charge on the enemy who had captured the first line, and it was the "Roundheads" who swept the Confederates back to the bushes, and Mr. Brest was one of the first soldiers to cross the line and make the opening for the brigade who took possession of the enemy's works. On this occasion he made a notable capture, that of an armed Confederate lieutenant and a private, and at the point of the lieutenant's own sword he marched them to headquarters and delivered them up as prisoners. This sword was preserved among the archives of the "Roundhead" Regiment.
Several days before the battle of Cold Harbor, when the tired soldiers were marching along a Virginia highway, in the wake of a Confederate force, Mr. Brest discovered a Confederate knapsack that had been discarded by its owner. On investigation into its contents he found a small Bible, and this he preserved, and intending to send it home as a souvenir he placed it in his haversack. Being compelled to ford a river shortly afterward, he put it into his knapsack, in order to protect it from getting wet, and this care of the little volume proved to be the saving of his life. When he entered the subsequent battle of Cold Harbor, the little book was in his knapsack, and after he was injured and was lying helpless on the battlefield, with shells shrieking and exploding over him and rifle balls still doing their fatal work all around him, one of the latter struck the knapsack, just where it would have passed entirely through his body had not the holy book caused it to glance off, leaving merely a flesh wound behind. As may be imagined, this Bible became one of the most valued possessions of his children. For eight months after his injury, Mr. Brest was confined to the Harwood Hospital, at Washington, D. C., and then returned to his little farm in Plaingrove Township.
He moved to Mercer County in 1868, purchasing a property on which he resided for some twenty-one years. In 1889 he bought a farm in North Beaver Township, Lawrence County, coming to it at that time, and there he engaged in general farming and fruit growing. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Union Veteran Legion, and belonged also to the Protected Home Circle. In politics he was a Republican, and was one of the two men elected jury commissioners in Lawrence County, his co-worker being a Democrat.