GIDEON G. UPDIKE, located on a well improved farm of forty acres in Section 34, Elizabeth Township, Miami County, Ohio, is engaged in general farming and tobacco raising. He is a native of New Jersey, having been born near the city of Princeton, December 25, 1847, and is a son of Jacob and Johanna (Mount) Updike.

John Updike, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1790, and was married to Mary Updike, who was born in 1786, and, although bearing the same name, was of no blood relationship. They were parents of the following children: Eliza, born in 1810; Johnston, born in 1811; Jacob, born in 1813; Sarah, born in 1816; Lydia, born in 1818; Priscilla, born in 1821; Theodore L., born in 1823; John S., born in 1825; Gideon, born in 1828; Philomen, born in 1830; and one who died in infancy.

Jacob Updike was joined in marriage with Johannah Mount, a daughter of Hezekiah Mount, and their children were: Gideon G., whose name bears this sketch; Matthew G., deceased; and Adeline, wife of Frank Vandeveer of Warren County, Ohio.

Gideon G. Updike first attended school at Cedar Grove, New Jersey, the school building being a small structure, eight cornered and built of niggerhead stone. Upon leaving school he worked on the home farm until he was twenty-one years old, and then came west to Carlisle, Warren County Ohio, where he followed carpentering several years, working in the construction of many houses and barns in that vicinity. In 1870 he returned east and was married, but again took his trade and residence at Carlisle, Ohio. He afterward rented a farm in that vicinity, but after some six years moved to Miami County. He farmed near Troy for six years, then, rented the Kline farm near Casstown, from which he moved to the vicinity of Raper Church, where he farmed for ten years. At the end of that time he moved to the Husler farm near Troy, on which he was located nine years, and from there moved to what was known as the A. P. Barnes farm of forty acres, which he purchased of George Ralston. It is located on the Casstown Pike, three and a half miles east of Troy, in Section 34, Elizabeth Township. He follows general farming and tobacco growing, having about five acres planted to that commodity. He is a Republican in politics, and has always taken a progressive interest in the affairs of the community in which he has resided. He was on the school board of Staunton Township ten years, and is at the present time serving as pike supervisor.

February 16, 1870, Mr. Updike was united in marriage with Louisa Carson, a daughter of Isaac H. and Lydia Ann Carson, and they became parents of three children, as follows: Walter G., who died in infancy; Wilber D., who married Ora DeWeese, daughter of Alexander and Esterline DeWeese, and has a son, Robert F.; and Ada C., deceased wife of Larkin Hole of Piqua, by whom she had a son, Harry. Fraternally, our subject is a member of Franklin City Lodge, K.P., in Warren County. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal at Raper Chapel, and is a director of the cemetery.