ELIAS BARNHART, one of Concord Township's most substantial citizens, who resides on his splendid farm of 240 acres, which is situated on the Swailes Turnpike Road, about two and one-half miles southwest of Troy, Ohio, was born March 18, 1845, in Montgomery County, Ohio, and is a son of Tobias and Sarah (Basore) Barnhart.

The parents of Mr. Barnhart were born, reared and married in Pennsylvania. When they decided to move to Ohio, hoping to secure better farming land than they then owned, they procured great wagons and in them the family and household possessions were brought over the mountains and across the State line and into Montgomery County. Tobias Barnhart bought a small farm near Dayton and while he resided on it took his produce to the market in that city, over roads which no township supervisor or road overseer would countenance at the present day. Finding better farm conditions in Miami County, in 1849, he removed his family to Concord Township and bought 160 acres of the present farm, from a Mr. Dilts, and on this place he passed the remainder of his life. He erected the present comfortable residence after the railway line was built. His death occurred when he was aged eighty-six years, he having survived his wife for sometime. They had eight children, namely; William, Tobias and Benjamin, all three now deceased; David, who lives in Miami County; Elias; Susan, who is the widow of James Westfall; Catherine, who is the wife of Jacob Harlacher, of Miami County; and Sarah, who resides at Plesasant Hill.

Elias Barnhart was about four years old when his parents came to the present farm and his memory goes back to the long journey in the covered wagon and his ambition to ride on the top of it. With his twin sister, Sarah, he attended the district schools and they were the youngest pupils there. He lived at home until after his marriage and then bought eighty acres adjoining his father's farm of 160, on the west, and purchased the homestead when his father died. He put up all the excellent buildings on the eighty-acre tract and keeps his whole big farm in fine condition. He carries on a general line of agriculture and gives some attention to growing tobacco.

In January, 1871, Mr. Barnhart was married to Miss Rebecca Long, a daughter of Israel Long, who brought his family from Pennsylvania to Miami County. Mr.and Mrs. Barnhart have two children: Ida May, who is the wife of Charles Chase, a well known artist residing at West Milton; and Charles, who operates the eighty acre farm. Mr. and Mrs. Barnhart are members of the Christian Church and his attendance has been so regular that he secured a medal, in the shape of a gold button, as proof of it. He has seldom cared to leave Miami County and while he enjoyed a trip to Florida in 1907, he was glad to return home. He is a Republican in his political sentiments but has never cared to seek public office.