150 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

was 432; for 1890 it was 467, just one more than that of 1860, thirty
years before, which was 466. It is here given from personal recollection,
not by authority, that the limit was reached in 1870, when it was 551.
    The history of Bowling Green is found, in part, in the chapters on
county-seat, court-house, re-location, etc.

                            CENTER POINT.

    Center Point, in Sugar Ridge township, the largest town in the cen-
tral part of the county, on the Upper Bloomington road, ten miles south-
east of Brazil. the terminus of the Center Point division of the Vandalia
railroad, founded in 1856, by Martin H. Kennedy. The original plat com-
prised but sixteen lots, to which the proprietor made an addition of fifty—
six lots, just two years later. This place was so named from the post-
office, which had been established previously, in 1854, at a point practi-
cally central within the territory of the county. Located on the Bowling
Green—Brazil mail route, Center Point had the advantage and benefit of
daily mail delivery from its founding and all along through its history,
which cannot be said of any other town in the county not on a railroad
line, excepting the former county seat. Desirous of seeing the town
improve, the proprietor sold lots at reasonable prices and on payments
to suit purchasers. And having a saw-mill on his premises, he provided
lumber on the same terms to those wanting to improve their lots, be
himself making improvements for sale or rent. The first house erected
after the town-site had been platted is said to have been put up by Joseph
Ridinger, who was the pioneer hotel keeper. The first postmaster was
B. H. Shrewsbury, and those succeeding him, down to the present time,
Zeno Hinshaw, Esau Presnell, John H. Reeder, Henry M. Pierce, W. H.
H.  Holly, John Helton, Emery Fisher, W. H. McCullough, Willis N.
Card. M. A. Perry.
    Shrewsbury was also the first merchant, followed by Presuell &
Kennedy, Silas Watts, M. H. Kennedy & Son, Gonter Brothers, John
Watson, A. R. Jethrich, Pierce, Carpenter and Burtuer, W. B. Ferguson,
William Peacock, W. J. Kennedy, J. W. Senseney, John C. McGregor,
Krytzer & Brewer, George Grimes, John H. Reeder, John L. Kennedy,
Emery Fisher, M. S. Wilkinson, Weaver, Getz & Co., J. G. Ferrell,
Robert Perry, Wilkinson & McCullough, Scharf & McCullough, Miller
& Rentschler, Zeller & McClelland, W. W. Risher, Woolf Brothers,
Julian Ury, Lancett Brothers, J. F. Dierdorff.
    The practicing physicians have been: John C. Gilfillan, J. T. Duffield,
Wm. J. Kennedy, M. C. Mendenhall, R. C. Black, Dr. Witty, Dr. Dale,
Wm. M. Harris, A. E. Rundell, G. A. Finch, E. R. Gamble.
    The town of Center Point was incorporated in the year 1869, with
a population of 300, by this procedure coining into possession and exclu-
sive control of its school property The original two-story frame school-
house was built in 1866 and occupied for school purposes for the period of
twenty-nine years, until the year 1895. when the present brick house was
built and dedicated in the month of October.
    The first house of worship on the site of this place was the United
Brethren church, which stood on the east side of the town and on the
north side of the Bowling Green road, erected in 1852, four years before
the founding of the town, claimed to have been at the time the largest
auditorium in the county. At the time this house was built it was the
usage to stack the lumber on the ground and kiln-dry it, using one
or more stoves. While in process of seasoning, by some accident, or