The following is an excerpt from Miseal Deaver and his Descendants, by Lester Granville Holcombe, pages 43 and 44. Mr. Holcombe was the son of Charles Wesley Holcomb, and grandson of George Reed Holcomb.

George Reed Holcomb bought 80 a. of land from Joe Hansley who had acquired it as a land grant for services in the Revolutionary War. This farm lay to the east of Rt. 87 between Deer Run Crossing and Sayre, Ohio. George and Martha began housekeeping there when married, and all their children except the youngest, Elliot, were born there. A few years prior to the Civil War, he sold this property to J.H. Davis who later became a casualty in the battle of Shiloh. He was nicknamed "Peg Leg" Davis. George and Martha then bought a farm on the Zanesville-Athens Post road, a few hundred yards north of the crossing of the Marietta-Somerset Post road, two an a half miles southwest of Sayre from Seth Bullock. Their holdings were later increased to 174 a. One acre was occupied by the district school #5, known as Breece School.

Gen. Morgan's Confederate Raiders passed that way on the evening of July 22, 1863. George and Martha, driving their only horse, had left just ahead of the advance guard of the Raiders. They were going to his father's home where one of their children was ill. (Poster's note: Their two daughters, Electa Corrine and Susannah Hoover, died July 10th and 12th 1863, perhaps from the same illness.) They left the ridge road only a few minutes before the Raiders passed, otherwise their only horse would have been confiscated. When the Raiders arrived at the farm, the boys had just finished churning. They dropped everything and ran out front to see the Raiders, who soon checked the barn for horses, consumed the butter and milk, and a batch of newly baked bread left to cool in the kitchen. After searching the place for fresh horses, they were loading their mounts with hay and corn when the officers of the main group arrived. The order was to move on immediately as the pursuing Union Army was only six hours away. The soldiers were exhausted and some slept in their saddles. They passed to the northeast through Porterville and camped for the night on the John Weaver farm in Deerfield Twp., Morgan Co. During the setting up of camp, an officer with a beard and mustache swung from his mount to the ground and with the cramped gait of one long in the saddle, went to the house door where Weaver and his family stood, fear and astonishment written on their faces. "We are putting a guard around your house," the officer said. "You and your family will not be molested, but you must not come out until we are gone." The officer entered the house and going to a bedroom, pulled the straw tick from the bed and dropped it on the floor. He threw himself upon it and at once fell asleep. The officer was John Morgan, General of Cavalry, Confederate States of America; the ragged young troopers that surrounded the house and camped in the yard and fields were the renown "Morgan's Raiders."