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The following is from, Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.;
page 429-430:
"THOMAS H. BRINKER, M.D. Thorough and extensive preparation is one of the essentials in any profession,
and such a preparation was made by Dr.Thomas A.[sic] Brinker before entering upon the practice of medicine which he successfully
pursued at Pleasant Unity until he retired from active professional life. He is a son of Henry and Susanna (Thompson)
Brinker and was born on the homestead farm in Unity township, Westmoreland county, Pa., May 14, 1818. His great-grandfather,
Jacob Brinker, emigrated from Switzerland to this country where he located in Northampton county, Pa., and engaged in the
flouring-mill business. He furnished the Revolutionary army with flour for which he was ever paid. In 1792 he
removed to near the site of Manor station, where he took up a body of land, besides six hundred acres of land in another portion
of the township. He had five children: Henry and George who received the six hundred acre tract between them; Jacob,
who inherited the Manor land; Abraham, who received a tract of his father's Kentucky land; and Susan. Henry Brinker
(grandfather) came with his father from Switzerland, married Margaret Wise in Huntingdon county and died in Unity township
January 6, 1849, aged eighty-eight years. His wife died in December of the same year, aged ninety-two years. They
were early settlers of this county, members of the Reformed church and repaired to a neighboring fort several times on account
of Indians. One of their sons was Henry Brinker (father) who was born April 9, 1788, and died September 1, 1851, from
the effects of a cancer. He was a republican, a member of the Reformed church and owned a farm of three hundred acres
of land in Unity township. He was a man of delicate health. He married Susanna Thompson who died October 19, 1879,
aged ninety-eight years. They had five children: Dr. Thomas H., Harriet, Statira (dead); Hattie J. and Susan M.
"Dr.
Brinker was reared on his father's farm, was a school-mate of Gov. Geary and went to school to Richard Geary, the Governor's
father. He read medicine with Dr. Christopher Wolf in 1842, attended one course of lectures at Jefferson Medical college
in 1843, then resumed the further study of medicine with Dr. Albert Marsh of this county, and April 13, 1844, accompanied
the latter physician to Pittsburg. In the fall of 1845 he returned to Jefferson Medical college from which institution
he was graduated March 21, 1846. Immediately after graduation he located at Pleasant Unity where he was engaged in the
active and successful practice of his profession until April 1, 1852, when he retired from active practice. He then
went on the home-farm where he remained until August, 1885, when he returned to Pleasant Unity and has resided ever since
at that place. He owns one hundred and fifty acres of the home-farm besides valuable property at Pleasant Unity.
"On
October 22, 1846. Dr. Brinker married Margaret Bear, daughter of Adam and Catherine Bear, of Mt. Pleasant township.
Dr. and Mrs. Brinker have three children: Mary, Ada, and Ira.
"Dr. Thomas H. Brinker is a republican and has
served as school director. He is a member and has repeatedly served as a deacon and elder of St. Luke's Reformed church.
He is pleasant in manner, kind in disposition and remarkably intelligent and entertaining in conversation."
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