Nicholas Jacob Fast ^{3 4 5 6 7}

  General Notes:

A BIOGRAPHY OF NICHOLAS JACOB FAST, by Larry Overmire (3rd great nephew), Aug. 2008:

Nicholas Jacob Fast was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, on June 11, 1786, the second of ten sons (and five daughters) of Revolutionary War hero Christian Fast and his wife Anna Barbara Mason. No doubt he was named after his paternal grandfather, Nicklaus Fast, who immigrated from Germany in 1750 on the "Royal Union."

At the age of 21, he married Barbara Blosser, the daughter of John Jr. and Mary Catherine (Clemmer) Blosser in German Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on April 16, 1807, one of three Fast brothers who married three Blosser sisters. Nicholas and Barbara had 12 children.

Nicholas and Barbara went by flatboat with other members of the Fast family to Ohio about 1815, settling in Richland County, the same area where Nicholas's father Christian had been held captive by the Delaware Indians years earlier during the Revolution. These Delawares were elated to find Christian alive and well, as they presumed he had died those many years ago. They considered him one of their family. George Hill, in his 1880 History of Ashland County, related the following story:

"In the fall of 1819, old Thomas Lyons and a party of Delawares had a feast, on what is now known as the John Freeborn farm, southwest of Savannah, to which Mr. Fast and his sons were invited. Being unable to be present, his sons Nicholas and Francis, aged respectively twenty-five and fifteen, attended. The feast was in their camp. There were present some fifty or sixty Indians, and no whites, except the Fasts. A large black bear had been roasted and boiled. The body being roasted, was cut into small slices, and handed around on new bark plates. The head and feet, unskinned, were boiled in a copper kettle, and a sort of soup made there from which was handed around in wooden ladles. Nicholas and Francis partook, courteously, with the Indians. The roast was elegant, but the soup was not relished. At the conclusion of the feast, Lyons insisted on painting Francis, Indian fashion. The boy readily submitted, for the fun of the thing. 'Old Tom' laid on a good coat of Vermillion, which gave him the appearance of a young Indian. The paint was so adhesive that, when he returned home, he was unable to remove it for a long time; and was afterwards known as 'Indian Frank.' Billy Montour, Jim Jirk, Monos, Jonacake, George and Jim Lyons, Buckwheat, Billy Dowdee, Captain George, and other well known Delawares, were at the feast."

In 1823, Nicholas and his family moved to Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio. In 1832 he purchased 325 acres in Troy Township, Ashland County and established his farm there.

Nicholas passed away in Troy on Dec. 14, 1868, at the age of 82. He was buried in the Nova Cemetery in Ashland County.
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  Noted events in his life were:

• He appeared on the 1850 US Census in Troy Township, Ashland County, OH on 5 November 1850. ⁵

1850 US Census
Page 383B, Dwelling 47, Family 47
Troy Township, Ashland County, Ohio
Nicholas Fast..64..PA..Farmer
(Living with wife.)
.

• He appeared on the 1860 US Census in Troy Township, Ashland County, OH on 9 June 1860. ⁶

1860 US Census
Page 32, Roll 930, Dwelling 257, Family 248
Troy Township, Ashland County, Ohio
Nicholas Fast..74..PA
(Living with wife.)
.

• He was buried after 14 December 1868 in the Nova Cemetery in Nova, OH.

Find A Grave Memorial #28970906
. ⁷

Nicholas married Barbara Blosser, daughter of John Blosser and Mary Catherine Clemmer, on 16 April 1807 in , Greene County, PA.^{1 2} (Barbara Blosser was born on 9 May 1788 in York County, PA,^{8 9} died on 13 September 1870 in Kansas ^{2 9} and was buried after 13 September 1870 in Oswego, KS ⁹.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• They appeared on the 1850 US Census in Troy Township, Ashland County, OH on 5 November 1850. ⁵

1850 US Census
Page 383B, Dwelling 47, Family 47
Troy Township, Ashland County, Ohio
Nicholas Fast..64..PA..Farmer
Barbara Fast..68..PA
.

• They appeared on the 1860 US Census in Troy Township, Ashland County, OH on 9 June 1860. ⁶

1860 US Census
Page 32, Roll 930, Dwelling 257, Family 248
Troy Township, Ashland County, Ohio
Nicholas Fast..74..PA
Barbary Fast..68..PA
.