HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                          143

Reynolds, 0. H. Hayden. John T. Gardner is now the oldest attorney in
points of residence and practice here.
    The individuals and firms who have done businesss at this place in
the various channels of “trade and commerce” during the practically
thirty-seven years of its history number many more than any one would
be ready to believe at first mention and thought along this line. About
all branches of mercantile pursuits have been represented—dry goods,
groceries, boots and shoes, clothing, hardware implements, notions, drugs
and medicines, confections, millinery, etc., etc. The following enumera-
tion (which is not given in regular order) comprises all that can be
recalled from recollection: Eli Cooprider, Harrison J. Long, Hale &
Co., Baker & Row, Burger Brothers, John Long & Son, H. Grismer &
Co., Ackelmire & Co., Storm Brothers, John Fleshman, James F. Hyatt,
D. C. Middlemas, J. W. Danhour, Geo. J. Kayser, L. C. Castang, M. L.
Jett, Graber Brothers, William I. Warner, Black Brothers, James H.
Witty, Kilmer & Son, F. M. Dorothy, John W. Hays, A. L. Witty, D. T.
Cromwell, Smith & Rader, William Barker, Kayser & Black, Cooprider
& Fulkerson, W. H. Long, Joseph C. Wilbur, C. A. Whitesell, Mrs. Reed
& Long, S. C. Sadler, R. Bryson, Marshall Zenor, John T. Wiley, Martin
Jensen, John B. Vial, Samuel White, W. C. Duncan, Hyatt & Long,
Joseph Lieber, Joseph White, Dellafield & Son, Griffith Brothers, John
W. Brenton, Charles Knox, Travis & Oberholtzer, A. J. Fulkerson, Ovid
Pinney, Cook & Holland, George Markle, F. C. Watts, Ingram & John-
son, Burger & Terry, John Woollen, Charles Seigel, Cummins Brothers,
Charles Nattkemper, John Grafe, H. H. Hyatt, Miss Angie Barcus and
Mrs. Clementine Allee, Fred Yung, McConnell & Conley, Travis & Tra-
vis, The Brosius Co., N. A. Harris, Miss Lou Weaver, Muehler & Notter,
Frank & William Brothers, William C. Wiltse, Smith F. Auld, Bar-
cus, J. H. Bence, Bence & Brown,. The Co-operative Co., Schauwecker
& Crabtree, Wilson & Morris, C. C. Fesler, Wm. F. Baumgartner, Damer
Brothers, Mrs. Natalena Dorothy, John W. Kester, Smith & Schaefer,
The Farmers Hardware Company (incorporated), Bonham, Goshorn &
Row, M. S. Burger, Schauwecker & Son (The Exchange), The Ideal
Stores.
    There were five coal shafts, or mines, on the immediate borders of
the town: The Markland, on the Henry Cooprider place, operated by
Woodruff & Trunkey, which began hoisting in the fall of 1873; Keeler’s
Diamond Mine; The Brier Hill; The Company Shaft, on the Church
land, put down and operated by John Woollen, John W. Hays, Silas
Kauble and others, and the “Apple Butter,” put down by James Burnham,
with whom M. S. Burger was associated, who were succeeded in the oper-
ation of the industry by Peter Andrew. The first three named were on
the west side of the E. & I. Railroad, and the other two on the east side.
Not any one of them is any longer operated. Clay City was also the
shipping point for the product of the Lancaster and the Harrison mines,
along the county line, three miles east. Aside from the numerous slopes
and banks, there have been fourteen coal shafts in Harrison township,
from only one of which coal is now being produced.
    At the time of putting down the Brier Hill shaft, which was done in
1889, Barton A. Cusick, who superintended the work, lost his life, on the
31st day of October, by accidental precipitation to the bottom of the
excavation. He was a resident of Clay City, where the surviving family
still reside, and was 41 years of age. As superintendent he was ever