HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      155

central part, built by Trustee John Triplett, in 1873. The present two-
story brick house, in the southwest part of the town, was built by Trustee
Philip Roberts in 1904.
    Two churches are maintained at the place—the United Brethren and
the Methodist Episcopal. Soon after the erection of the first two-story
schoolhouse, the United Brethren bought the vacated building in the
north part of the town, which was repaired and converted into a house
of worship, to which an addition was built about 1893.
    In the year 1857, or 1858, an M. E, church was built on the National
Road, north side, within a half mile east of the “Harmony Crossing,”
where the Congregation met for worship for twelve or thirteen years,
then moved the house onto the town plat and continued to use it for
another period of ten or twelve years.
    The present brick structure, in the central part of the town, was built
in 1880-81, which bears the name of “McKinley Chapel,” in honor and
memory of George G. McKinley, a long-time member of the society and
a very liberal contributor to the building fund, who died on the 12th day
of April, 1881, the funeral services held in the new chapel, though not
then yet completed, on the 14th day of the month.
    Harmony had three attorneys—Esau Preston, John J. Stephenson,
A. J. Rodifer.
    But few industries have been operated at this place. In 1869, Samuel
Brown located here from Center Point and founded a clay plant for
the manufacture of pottery, alongside the railroad, and later on another
was located and operated on the south side of the town. In 1872, the
Brown Brothers, in company with Silas Terry, built the “Eagle” flouring
mill, modern in finish and capacity, which began work September 1st and
was operated for perhaps twenty-five years, but for a part of the time
produced only feed.
    The fraternal societies maintained here are: Clay Lodge I. 0. 0. F.
No. 368, instituted in 1871, with a charter membership of 9, now
numbers 160. The Encampment, instituted on the 17th day of March,
1873, has a membership of 100 or more. Shasta Tribe No. 283, Improved
Order of Red Men, instituted April 9, 1898, has a present membership
of 329. The Modern Woodmen, instituted in July, 1908, with a member-
ship of 17.
    An impetus to the growth and development of Harmony was the
location and operation of the Planet furnace, about a mile northeast of
the town, planted by the Indianapolis Coal and Iron Company, in 1867,
which gave employment to as many as forty or fifty men, many of whom
owned or rented homes in the town, expanding its area and population.
This iron industry was maintained here five or six years, then suspended
and the plant moved elsewhere.
    With its 1,500 population, Harmony is the largest unincorporated
town in Clay county, and the largest town of its name anywhere in the
United States.

                        KNIGHTSVILLE.

    Knightsville, a town and postoffice in Van Buren township, on the
Vandalia Railroad, two miles east of Brazil, fifty-five miles west of
Indianapolis, and eighteen miles east of Terre Haute, laid out by Dr.
A.  W. Knight, of Brazil, on his premises, in 1867, and named for him-
self. This place was the site of the iron works—furnace and rolling
mills—of the Western Iron Company, planted in 1866, a year in advance