ANTHONY A. BRENNEMAN came to Jefferson county (Comanche county then) in September, 1903. He had been a Missouri farmer for many years, by severest economy and hardest labor had managed to accumulate a little money, and on coming here invested it in farming land in the recently opened Kiowa-Comanche country. It is Mr. Brenneman's opinion, spoken gratefully as he reviews his present circumstances, that the rewards of diligence in this southwest country are very much more generous and satisfying than in his former home. In proof of which he cites the fact that he has multiplied his substantial assets by three, and has improved the general situation of the family many fold from the standpoint of climate and health and contentment. On his arrival in the Oklahoma country he bought a half section land less than three miles northwest of the town of Waurika, and after making a living on it for three years sold it for more than three times its cost, and then reinvested in another half section adjoining the one sold. His home place, which he has improved attractively, occupies a sightly elevation overlooking Waurika, and Hastings may also be seen, with a fine intervening view of delightful landscape. At his former home in Clay county, Missouri, Mr. Brenneman had carried on, at Liberty, a grain and feed business four years, at the same time having a farm in Caldwell county. He had also been identified with the farming interests of Caldwell county.
    The Brenneman family was founded by a German ancestor, who came to America during the era immediately following the establishment of American independence. Being Mennonites, their European home has been conjectured to have been one of the Swiss cantons. Pennsylvania was the mother state of the family, and it was there that Christian Brenneman, grandfather of Anthony, was born shortly after the Revolution. He died in Rockingham county, Virginia, during the period of the Civil war, at an advanced age. By his marriage he reared a large family, of whom the following were members: David C., of Rockingham county, Virginia; Franie, wife of Christopher Funk, both of whom died in Rusnville, Virginia; Lydia, who married Isaac Wenger, of Linnville, Virginia; Mottie, wife of Christopher Brunk;Martin, mentioned below; Hannah, wife of Jacob Wenger, and a resident of Kansas; Rebecca, deceased, wife of Jacob Geil, of Edom, Virginia; Esther, wife of Lewis Ridenour, of Indiana.
     Martin Brenneman, who was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, February 9, 1826, became a man of vigorous activities, with plcnty of native ability but ordinary education. Inherited the religious principles of his ancestry, he opposed slavery and also participated in the events of the Civil war only by proxy. His ambition was satisfied after the acquirement of a modest competency, a good home and the comforts of the average household. Brought his family to the west in 1868 and made his home on a farm in Ray county a few years, then moved to Caldwell county where he lived until he passed away, January 24, 1898, just eleven days after the death of his wife, having led an upright and industrious life. His wife: was Susannah, born January 26, 1828, daughter of John K. Beery. The Beerys were among the colonizers of Pennsylvania, the family having been established in America by Abraham Beery, October 19, 1736. Born in Switzerland in 1718, this emigrant landed in Philadelphia when a youth, and later settling in Adams county, married Mary Gochenour. Among their many children was John, born in 1767, who married Barbara Kagy, moved to Rockingham county, after the Revolution, and was the father of eleven children. Among the latter was John K. Beery, born January 4, 1801, and died October 11, 1885, at Edom, Virginia. His wife was Magdalena Wenger, who was born at Edom, Virginia, November 6, 1800, and died April 12, 1876, the mother of fifteen children. At his death John K. Beery left one hundred and twenty-five surviving grandchildren, one hundred and fifteen great grandchildren and one great great grandchild. By the marriage of Martin and Susannah (Beery,) Brenneman there were the following children: Jacob, of St. John, Kansas; Fannie, wife of, E.M. Winger, of Elmira, Missouri; Jennie, wife of W. K. Strope, of Turney, Missouri; Hettie, wife ofJohn Hardman, of Polo, Missouri; Martin D., deceased; Emma, wife of Charles Smart, of Polo, Missouri;Minnie, deceased, wife of Jesse Moyer, Millville; Mollie, wife of C. C. Brewen, of Cowgill, Missouri; andAnthony A.
     After a brief attendance at the common schools Anthony A. Brenneman began the pursuits to which his ancestors had been devoted for generations. A few household goods and a team constituted the chief capital with which he and his young wife began life as renters in Caldwell county, Missouri. They arranged for a place of their own in a few years, and this they tilled until their removal to Liberty, Clay county, Missouri, September, 1899, where they lived four years prior to their emigration, to what is now Jefferson county, Oklahoma. Their stuccess during the twenty-seven years of their continued labor on Missouri farms would average less than three hundred dollars a year, if measured in money, and it is with that as a basis for comparison that they find so much to be grateful for in their removal to the new country of Oklahoma.
      Mr. Brenneman was born in the ancestral home of the family, in Rockingham county, Virginia, February 14, 1852. His wife, Lucretia Winger, was born in Roanoke county, Virginia, May 8, the same year. Her parents were David M. and Ladonia A. (Peterman) Winger, the former a carpenter who died in Ray county in 1858, and the latter died in 1907, aged seventy-nine years. The Winger children were: C. Jefferson, of Polo, Missouri; Lizzie, wife of Leonard Ballew, of Lathrop, Missouri; G. Irvin, of Oklahoma City; J. W., of Dexter, Texas; E. M., of Elmira, Missouri; Mary S., wife of E. A. Sharp, of Liberty, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Brenneman's children are: John L. of Waurika, who married Ora Altman; Oscar H., of Waurika, who married Linnie Altman; and Mollie Myrl, wife of G. E. Evans, of Waurika. The family are Baptists, and their political affiliation is Democratic.