HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      157

attorney at law. Robert Cowan, who came to the place as a barber, read
law at leisure hours and between shaves, and was later admitted to the
bar.
    A number of fraternal organizations are maintained here: Knights-
ville Lodge No. 409 F. & A. M., instituted May 24, 1870, of which David
Lamond was first Master, has a membership of 180; Colfax Lodge No.
612, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Lodge No. 186, Knights of
Pythias, instituted March 10, 1888; present membership 147; Rawley
Temple Pythian Sisters; Improved Order of Red Men; Eastern Star;
Rebekahs; Pocahontas, and an Encampment—all represented to be well
sustained and in flourishing condition.
    Knightsville is situated at the junction of the Center Point division
of the Vandalia railroad with the main line, eight miles from the terminus.
    Other than its iron plant and coal mines this place has had no
substantial industries more than the mechanical shops usually kept up at
local centers of population and trade.
    The flouring mill originally built here by a co-operative or joint stock
company met the same fate as that of fifty per cent of the steam flouring
mills of the county—was swept away by fire May 10, 1907.
    The first mineral or artesian well boring in the county was put down
at this place in 1872, the drill starting about the 15th of April.
    The population of Knightsville as shown by the census of 1890 was
1,148; by the census of 1900, 1,171.
    After sixteen years of municipal government, resident taxpayers of
this place becoming dissatisfied, with conditions, began the agitation of
the undoing of the incorporation, which resulted in the formal submission
of the matter to the qualified electors of the territory. By a vote taken
the first of June, 1888, it was popularly decided to sustain the organization
and go on with the town government.

                            CARBON.

    Carbon, a town and postoffice in the north part of Van Buren town-
ship, near the Parke county line, six miles from Brazil, at the crossing
of the Indianapolis & St. Louis and the Central Indiana Railroads, the
halfway point between Terre Haute and Greencastle. This place was
founded by the Carbon Block Coal Company in the year 1870, so named
from coal, which is largely carbon. The postoffice was established in
1871, and made a money order office in 1892. Carbon is the most popu-
lous and commercially important town in the county north of Brazil.
A considerable area of the south part of Parke county is commercially
tributary to this place. Carbon was incorporated in 1875, with a popula-
tion of 500. There are seven other towns and postoffices on the map of
the country bearing this name, all located in the coal fields and so named
for the same reason. Carbon has a weekly newspaper, “The Chronicle,”
now in its eighteenth volume. It has also a state bank, incorporated
August 26, 1904, which began business January 18, 1905.
    The postmasters at this office have been: B. F. Witty, James H.
Throop, William Hayward, Barney Gallagher, Thomas Anderson, T. E.
Beeson, Ben. F. Beeson.
    The individuals and firms who have done business here from the
time of the founding of the town, including the present, may be enumer-
ated as follows: A. L. Witty, B. F. Witty, W. E. D. Barnett, James H.
Throop, Elisha Adamson, John J. Webster, Charles Stryker, John
Syester, H. D. McCormick, Hamilton & Craig, J. D. Bence, John Craig,