USA > Indiana > Clay County > A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2) > Part 43
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GEORGE W. PROCTOR .- While for many years George W. Proctor was an active factor in the business world, he is now living retired, his activity and well directed labors in former years making it possible for him to now enjoy well merited rest. He was born in Montgomery county, Indiana, February 20, 1854, a son of Selvia S. and Margaret Ann (Shannon) Proctor, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. They were married in Montgomery county, Indiana, however. The father came to this state with his father, Catlin Proctor, at an early day, the family locating in Putnam county, where the grandfather of our subject entered govern- ment land, and upon the farm which he there developed Selvia S. Proctor was reared amid pioneer conditions and environments. He was early trained to the work of the fields and eventually began farming on his own account, following that pursuit in Putnam and Montgomery counties. On starting out in life for himself he built a log cabin and established a pioneer home, in which there were no luxuries and oft times the comforts of life were lacking but perseverance and labor brought a change in the conditions which existed in the early days and as his financial resources increased he added to his place many of the comforts that go to make life worth the living. In due course of time the pioneer cabin was replaced by a frame residence and other substantial buildings were added. Mr. Proc- tor was a faithful member of the Christian church and in his political views was a Democrat. He spent the last fifteen years of his life in honorable retirement in Brazil and died in 1901 at the venerable age of eighty-two years, having long survived his wife, who died in 1874 at the age of fifty-four years.
George W. Proctor, reared upon the home farm, worked in the
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fields through the summer months and in the winter seasons attended school until about sixteen years of age. Thinking to find other pursuits more congenial than those of agricultural life, he then engaged in saw- mill work and spent the succeeding eleven years in that line, filling all positions from the saw pit to boss sawyer. He next turned his attention to the carpenter's trade, which he followed for one year in Hendricks county and on the 13th of January, 1881, he came to Brazil, where he engaged as manager of Weavers and Nance's livery business. Seven years were spent in that way and in 1888 he removed to Wichita, Kan- sas, where he was in charge of a livery stable for a year. He next re- turned to Brazil and afterward went to Kentucky, where he was placed in charge of the teams used in logging there. For a year he remained in the Blue Grass state, after which he came once more to Brazil and estab- lished a transfer business of his own, which he conducted with success, soon securing a liberal patronage. In 1893 he admitted J. Frank Smith to a partnership and the relation between them continued until the Ist of November, 1907, when Mr. Proctor sold out to his partner and re- tired from business with a handsome competency sufficient to supply him with all of the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. He has always been a lover of fine driving horses and has one or two good ones always on hand. He to some extent buys and sells fine driving stock but other- wise is living retired, giving his attention only to his invested interests.
Mr. Proctor was married December 21, 1887, the lady of his choice being Miss Ida Bell Harbon, who was born in Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1861. Her father was a steamboat captain on the Ohio river and was also engaged in the lumber business. For almost twenty years Mr. and Mrs. Proctor traveled life's journey together and were then separated by the death of the wife on the Ist of June, 1907. They had but one child, Gertrude, who is now the wife of George H. Smith. Mrs. Proctor was a devoted member of the Christian church and a lady of many excel- lent traits of heart and mind, who enjoyed the warm friendship and kindly regard of all who knew her.
Mr. Proctor belongs to Brazil Lodge, No. 264, A. F. and A. M., Brazil Chapter, No. 59, R. A. M., Brazil Council, No. 40, R. and S. M .. and Brazil Commandery, No. 47, K. T. Both he and his wife held membership in William Black Chapter, No. 80, O. E. S., and were also members of Brazil Lodge, No. 169, Knights and Ladies of Security. Mr. Proctor is likewise connected with Indianola Tribe of Red Men. His business interests have brought him a wide acquaintance and as the years have passed a genial manner, deference for the opinions of others and many good qualities have gained him a very extensive circle of friends.
CHRISTIAN EHRLICH has been identified with the mining interests of Clay county since 1871, and is now operating Posey Township Mine No. 2, and also mine No. 2 at Seeleyville, Indiana. He has been very successful in his coal mining operations, and has become the owner of a pleasant and attractive home at Turner as well as a valuable farm of about three hundred acres in Posey township.
Mr. Ehrlich is a native of the fatherland of Prussia, born May 5, 1843. His father, Jacob Ehrlich, was long numbered among the business men and miners of Posey township, as well as one of the community's early pioneers, but he too was a native of Prussia, Germany, born in
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Christian Ehrlich
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1812. He was well educated in his native land for the miner's vocation, and in that country he was married to one of its native daughters, Minnie Riese, born in 1818. In 1849, with their family of three children, of whom Christian was the oldest, they came to the United States and located in Pennsylvania, where the father was engaged in mining in Potts- ville and Pittsburg until removing to Ohio about 1851. He mined in Wayne county of that state until he came with his family to Clay county, Indiana, in 1854, and from that time until his death he mined in Posey township and vicinity, dying in 1864. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Ehrlich were nine children,-Christian, Julius, Burtus, Charles, Mary and Jacob, and three died in infancy and Charles and Mary are also deceased. Mr. Ehrlich gave his political allegiance to the Republican party, and he was a member of the German Catholic church.
Christian Ehrlich received his educational training in the district schools of Posey township, and he worked in the mines of his father until the latter's death. In 1861 he became a member of the Tenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company F, and served three months, after which he was made a member of the Sixth Indiana Cavalry and served to the close of the war, in the meantime participating in the battles of Rich Mountain, Virginia, with the infantry, and of Richmond, Kentucky, with the cavalry. At the latter engagement he was captured and held as a prisoner of war until paroled and sent to Indianapolis, where he was exchanged, and there re-entered the service and fought in the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta. At Malvern Hill in Kentucky he was captured by John Morgan, but was exchanged after only one night of imprisonment. He was in the memorable battle of Nashville, where General Hood was defeated, and was mustered out of the service at Pulaski, Tennessee. Returning thence to his home in Clay county he located at Staunton and mined there until 1868, when he went west to near Helena, Montana, on a prospecting tour of several days, but was absent altogether about three years, engaged in placer mining during the most of the time. It was in 1870 that he returned once more to Clay county, and has since been extensively engaged in mining operations.
In March of 1871 Mr. Ehrlich was married to Mary Frances Schaffer, who was born in Hamilton, Ohio, but she was young when she came with her parents to Clay county, Indiana, and was reared and edu- cated in Posey township, a daughter of John and Mary Schaffer, promi- nent farmers of this community. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ehrlich,-Alice, Jake, Mary, Katherine, Charley, Emma, Rosie, Blanche, James and Minnie, but the latter was accidentally burned to death while playing in the school yard, her dress having become ignited. Mr. Ehrlich is quite an active political worker, and gives his allegiance to the Republican party.
JOHN PHILIP SCHERB .- The son of an early pioneer family of Clay county, John Philip Scherb is well known throughout this section of Indiana as an upright, honest man, who has been intimately associated with the development of many of its industrial resources. Having lived thus. far within its boundaries, he has witnessed wonderful changes come over the land. In his boyhood days school-houses, fine churches, and costly residences were conspicuous only by their absence. The dense forests roundabout have given way to flourishing cities and towns or to magnificent agricultural estates, producing abundantly of the crops com-
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mon to this locality. As a tiller of the soil, Mr. Scherb has actively assisted in this notable change, and at the same time has accumulated a goodly share of this world's goods, enabling him to live retired at his pleasant home in Clay City. A native of Clay county, he was born August 28, 1851, in Posey township, a son of George Scherb.
George Scherb was born in Germany, November 13, 1838. Left fatherless when thirteen years old, he worked at various employments for a number of seasons. Hearing of the wonderful opportunities for obtaining a living in America, he emigrated from his native land to this country when a young man, crossing the Atlantic in a sailing vessel and being forty days on the water. After spending a brief time in Ohio, he came to Clay county, locating in Posey township, which was then a vast wilderness, owned principally by the government. Selecting eighty acres of canal land, he walked to Vincennes to enter it at the land office. He also purchased a piece of land upon which there was a log cabin, and in this, their first home in this county, he and his family lived for a number of years. Neither railways, telegraph or telephone poles then disfigured the landscape, and but few of the present visible evidences of civilization existed. Terre Haute was the nearest market-place, Brazil being but a hamlet, and Bowling Green the county-seat. Deer, turkeys and other wild game were plentiful, furnishing supplies for the table, and the mother dressed her whole family in homespun of her own weaving and manufacture, while the father, with but a rude cobbler's outfit, made the shoes. With an energetic spirit and a pioneer's axe he began clearing and improving a homestead, and was there successfully employed as a tiller of the soil until his death, January 1, 1892. His wife, whose maiden name was Anna Margaret Fleschman, was born in Germany in August, 1813, and died December 31, 1907. Her father, Conrad Fleschman, was born, reared and married in Germany. After the death of his wife he came with his three children, Anna Margaret, Barbara and George, to the United States. George settled first in Hendricks county, Indiana, and later moved to Illinois, locating near Decatur. His father lived with him in Hendricks county, afterwards making his home with Mr. and Mrs. Scherb, but dying while visiting his son in Illinois. Seven children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. George Scherb, namely: John P .. the special subject of this sketch; George C .; Anna Margaret; Mary E .; Magdalena ; Henry ; and John F.
In the rude log schoolhouse, with its slab benches, which had neither backs nor desks in front, John Philip Scherb obtained his elementary education. Reared to habits of industry, honesty and thrift, he began when a boy to assist in the work of the farm, remaining beneath the parental roof-tree until twenty-eight years old, in the meantime farming a part of the time on his own account. Purchasing a tract of land in 1879 in section nineteen, Harrison township, he began housekeeping all by himself in the frame house which stood upon the place, but, it is need- less to say, he did not remain a bachelor very long. He labored early and late, and each year added to the improvements already begun, placing the land in a fine state of cultivation, rebuilding and enlarging the house, and erecting a large frame barn, his farm becoming one of the best in its appointments of any in the neighborhood. In 1907, relegating the care of his farm to his son Henry, Mr. Scherb removed to Clay City, and is there living retired from business cares, enjoying a well-earned leisure.
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On November 20, 1879, he married Caroline Barbara Steiner, who was born in Harrison township, a daughter of Christian and Mary Ann Steiner. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Scherb, namely : William Otto married Flora Ferguson, and they have one son, Alexander ; Henry E. married Martha E. Schlegel, and they have one son, Estel; Samuel Irving married Effie Krauchi; and Clara Naomi. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Scherb were reared in the Evangelical faith, but are now members of the Free Methodist church.
CAPTAIN CULLEN BRADLEY .- Noteworthy among the venerable and respected citizens of Harmony is Captain Cullen Bradley, who faithfully served his country during his early manhood, and was subsequently for many seasons closely identified with the agricultural interests of Van Buren township. A son of Cullen Bradbury, he was born in Wayne county, North Carolina, May 15, 1828. His paternal grandfather. Cullen Bradbury, Sr., a life-long resident of North Carolina, was of English ancestry.
Born in 1792, in Wayne county, North Carolina, Cullen Bradbury there spent his earlier life, learning while young the trades of both a plasterer and a bricklayer, serving an apprenticeship of seven years at the former and of three years at the latter. Migrating to Tennessee in 1835, he there followed his trades most successfully, building the court house and jail at Smithville and at Woodbury, and working on large buildings in other places. Settling permanently in Wilson county, Tennessee, he resided there until his death in 1848. His wife, whose maiden name was Zilpha Atkinson, was born in North Carolina and died about 1836 in Woodbury, Tennessee. She reared five children, as follows: Cullen, the subject of this brief biographical sketch; Curtis, who lost his life at the battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican war; Martha; Sarah; and Lemuel, who died at Knoxville, Tennessee, at the age of sixteen years.
But seven years old when his parents migrated to Tennessee, Cullen Bradley, as we now know him, was soon afterwards left motherless, and at the age of twelve years was bound out to a farmer. Finding a good home, he lived with his employer until 1848, when he enlisted in Company B, Second United States Artillery. At the December muster of that year it was found that the former clerk had made a mistake in enrolling: the names of Company B, giving the name Bradley instead of Bradbury to the subject of this sketch, a name which he has since retained. At the expiration of his term of five years, Mr. Bradley re-enlisted for five years in Company D, same regiment, and when that term had expired again re-enlisted in the same company, serving until October 23, 1861, when he was discharged so that he might join the brigade that was being raised by Hon. John Sherman at Mansfield, Ohio. Subsequently, when the Sixth Ohio Independent Light Battery was organized, he was com- missioned captain of the battery, which he commanded until February, 1865, when he was mustered out of service. During the time that he was with his comrades Captain Bradley was acting chief of the artillery con- nected with Woods's division of the Army of the Cumberland, taking an active part in all of its marches, campaigns and battles, at all times proving himself a brave and gallant soldier. On his retirement from the army he came to Van Buren township, purchased a farm, and until 1907 devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits. Disposing of his land, he
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then came to Harmony, where he has since resided free from active work and cares.
Captain Bradley married, February 4, 1864, Catherine Mattayaw, who was born in Richland county, Ohio, a daughter of Jacob and Rosanna ( Hetler) Mattayaw, her father being a native of Alsace and her mother of Germany. The Captain and Mrs. Bradley have one child, Mary, who married William R. Crowder, of Rockyford, Colorado, and has three children, Rowena O., William Cullen and Josephine. Gertrude Olive Day, now Mrs. Ora Grimes, of Terre Haute, was a member of the Bradley family from the age of three years until she married.
WILLIAM THOMAS JENKINS was born in Owen county, Indiana, June 30, 1832, but the greater part of his life has been spent in Clay county, Indiana, and he is now living on the farm on which he spent his boyhood days and the remainder of his life. His father, Ezekiel Jenkins, was born in Virginia, January 24, 1795, a son of William and Henrietta (Lewis) Jenkins. In an early period in his life he went to Kentucky and lived there for several years, coming then to Owen county, Indiana, where he owned a farm. From Owen county in 1834 he came to Clay county and bought eighty acres of timber land in section 15, Sugar Ridge township, which he cleared and improved, but after living there for seven years he sold the farm and entered one hundred and twenty acres from the gov- ernment in section 10 of the same township. This land was also covered with timber, but he in time cut away the trees and placed it under an excellent state of cultivation, spending the remainder of his life there and dying on the 22d of September, 1869. He had married in Kentucky Henrietta Woodsmall, who was born in that state February 28, 1792, a daughter of John and ( Preston) Woodsmall, also of that state. Mrs. Jenkins died on the 22d of September, 1868, just one year to the day before her husband. William Thomas was the ninth born of their ten children, two sons and eight daughters, and the only one now living. His brother died in St. Louis, Missouri, as a soldier during the Civil war.
The boyhood days of William T. Jenkins were spent on the home farm in Sugar Ridge township, and he did the most of the clearing of this place, as his father was then in advanced years and previously had spent much of his time as a raftsman on the Wabash and White rivers. The son remained at home with his parents until their deaths, and afterward continued to farm the place, and he has never lived elsewhere since the founding of the family here many years ago. He in time bought thirty- two and a half acres in section 13, Sugar Ridge township, also thirty-two acres in section 9, which he owns in addition to eighty acres of the old homestead.
He married on the 17th of April, 1864, Naomi S. O'Brien, who was born in Hancock county, Indiana, a daughter of George W. and Sarah (Brittan) O'Brien, natives of Ohio. Mrs. Jenkins was born on the 10th of September. 1842, and died on the 4th of February, 1883, leaving the following children: James P., whose home is in Washington township; Laura, the wife of Elsworth Brown, of Sugar Ridge township; Sarah Jane, who became the wife of Duffield Hicks and is now deceased ; Samantha Gertrude, the wife of Charles F. Sprague, of Wisconsin ; Emery S., who is with his father ; and Cordelia Belle, the wife of James Burns, the county auditor of Clay county, and their home is in Brazil. Mr.
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Jenkins is a stanch advocate of temperance and has never used tobacco or liquor in any form. He is an earnest and worthy member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church, and is a Republican in his political affiliations.
REV. JOHN A. HICKS, a minister of the gospel in the United Brethren church, an honored veteran of the Civil war and a retired farmer now. living in Center Point, was born in Brown county, Ohio, May 25, 1842, a son of William and Susan ( Alexander) Hicks, born respectively in Lewis county, Kentucky, and Brown county, Ohio, and a grandson of Peter Alexander, who was born in England. William and Susan ( Alex- ander) Hicks were married in Ohio, and the former was a farmer there until his removal to Bracken county, Kentucky, in the fall of 1865. His death occurred soon after his return to the southland, in 1869. He was four times married, and his son John was the eldest of the three sons and one daughter born to his first wife, who died in 1849.
Rev. John A. Hicks remained at home with his father until his enlist- ment for the Civil war, joining on the 20th of August, 1862, the Fifty- ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company K, and was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland. He took part in the hard fought battle of Stone River, and in that engagement was wounded in the spine by the exploding of a shell, necessitating his confinement in the hospital for three months. He was also in the battle of Chickamauga and in many minor skirmishes, and was discharged at Nashville, Tennessee, June 28, 1865. After the close of the conflict he returned to his home in Ohio, and after his marriage, which occurred soon after his return, resided on a farm in that state until his removal to Johnson county, Illinois, in March, 1868. He farmed there one year, and in the following March came to Sugar Ridge township, Clay county, Indiana, residing for eighteen months two miles south of Center Point. During the following three years he farmed rented land in Washington township, when he came again to Sugar Ridge township, and after another three years moved to a different farm in the same township. The forty acres which he bought in Washington town- ship he has greatly improved, and has also added to the boundaries of the little farm, purchasing at different time eighty acres adjoining, and in the fall of 1907 he added thirty-six acres more, making an estate of one hundred and fifty-six acres, all of which is under an excellent state of im- provement. Rev. Hicks continued his residence on the farm until 1896, when he purchased a residence in Center Point, and there he and his wife now reside alone.
He married, January 7, 1866, Phebe Morford, who was born in Brown county, Ohio, a daughter of George W. and Margaret (Cahill) Morford. The father was born in Bracken county, Kentucky, and was a son of John and Phebe (Sharp) Morford, natives respectively of Eng- land and Pennsylvania. Margaret (Cahill) Morford was born in Brown county, Ohio, and was a daughter of Solomon and Elizabeth (Parker) Cahill, natives of Ireland. Both her grandfathers served in the war of 1812, and Jefferson Davis was an own cousin of her mother. Rev. and Mrs. Hicks have three children, namely: Eugene O., on the home farm ; James D., a rural free delivery carrier and a resident of Center Point; and Nevada A., the wife of J. E. Jenkins, of Washington township. Throughout his active life Rev. Hicks has been an active worker for Christianity, and previous to 1878 was a local minister in the Christian church. Since then he has been associated with the United Brethren
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denomination as a local minister, a class leader and a Sunday-school teacher, having taught a class since 1896. He organized the Sunday- school in the spring of 1869 at Longnecker, and is an earnest and efficient laborer in the Master's cause. He is a Republican politically, and has served his community as a constable and as a justice of the peace from 1902 until 1906. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, James A. Mount Post No. 582, of Center Point, and of the Masonic fraternity, Lodge No. 597, of Center Point.
HENRY KEISER .- Among the energetic and able men who have chosen agriculture as their vocation in life and have succeeded well in their independent calling is Henry Keiser, a progressive and well-to-do farmer of Washington township, Clay county. Coming from substantial German ancestry, he was born January 18, 1849, near Cumberland Gap, Maryland, a son of Herman H. and Margaret ( Poskey) Keiser, who were born, reared and married in Germany, Hanover being the place in which they were born.
Emigrating with his young wife to America in 1847, Herman H. Keiser lived for three years in Maryland, being overseer on a large planta- tion. He subsequently spent three years in Cincinnati, Ohio, there being employed as a drayman. Reared to habits of industry and thrift, he accumulated money, and wishing to invest it in land, came from Ohio to Indiana, locating in Jackson township, Owen county, where he pur- chased eighty acres of land that was in its virgin wildness. From the forest he redeemed a good homestead, and subsequently bought other land, becoming owner of three hundred and sixty acres, much of which he placed under cultivation, and was there an honored and respected resi- dent until his death, October 29, 1889. His widow survived him, and passed away at the home of her son, W. F. Keiser, in Poland August 4, 1906. They were the parents of twelve children, eight of them being sons, and of these five sons and one daughter are now living.
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