162                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

1872, when it was destroyed by fire August 24th. The interested part-
ners with J. T. Moss were George J. Moss and Charles Brandau. Three
years later (1875) Oliver Cromwell built a mill of less size and capacity
on the same site, which he operated several years, then sold to William
Watts, who moved the mill to Clay City.

    In the year 1859 or 1860, a chair and furniture factory was estab-
lished at this place by Marion Stoops and Samuel Harmon, which was
located on the south side of Main street and immediately west of the
McGinnis hotel corner, which was operated during the Civil war and
for some time afterward. It was a two-story building, the lathe operated
on the ground floor by horse power, and at a later day by steam power.
In its day, this plant turned out a great deal of work.

    The pioneer blacksmiths of the town were William Null and Joseph
Wilgus, succeeded by James Gibbons, Bennett Norton and David Killion.

    There have heen three schoolhouses here, the first a one-room frame
house, built by Trustee Caleb Nash, in 1860, which stood on the south-
east part of the town site, the second, a two-story frame house, on the
square, built by Trustee George Lash, in 1876, and the present two-story
brick, on the same site, built by Trustee Samuel Butt, in 1896.

    The practicing physicians have been J. T. Duffield, Dr. Lazaar, Dr.
Dowden, Thomas C. Green, Dr. Huff, Dr. McMillan, R. Gantz, James K.
Moss. Among the resident population have been three attorneys—A. W.
Lowdermilk, Calvin Calvert, Charles Thrasher.

    The original M. E. church, which stood on the east side of the town,
north side of the road, was built and dedicated in the year 1858, and was
in use for the third of a century. The present church, in the west part of
the town, succeeded the former one in the year 1891. Ground was
broken, and the cornerstone laid, by Rev. C. W. Crook, on the 30th day
of May, the house completed the same year, and dedicated on the 18th
day of December, the services attending having been conducted by Rev.
J.  E. Brant, then of Fort Scott, Kansas. The building committee was
composed of C. W. Moss (deceased), J. C. Moss, M. A. Jones, John W.
Henry, Elmer G. O’Brien (deceased), and John E. Dilsaver.
    The Free Methodist church was built in the years 1903-4 and dedi-
cated on the 8th day of May of the latter year.
    Ashboro Lodge No. 251, I. 0. 0. F., was instituted May 16, 1866,
with a charter membership of ten. There is also a lodge of Rebekahs.
    Ashboro is the nearest town site to the geographical center of the
county. The population of Ashboro, as enumerated in 1882, was 172;
now estimated at 300.

                            CLOVERLAND.

    Cloverland, a town and postoffice on the National Road, in Posey
township, six miles west of Brazil, near the Vigo county line, founded
in 1834, by Charles Modesitt, so named from the growth of native clover
on the site. A postoffice was established at this point in 1850. Prior to
the building and operation of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad,
Cloverland was a business center of considerable importance, from its
location on the great and only overland thoroughfare of that day between
the East and the West. The earliest infant clay plant, or pottery, in the
county was located here. The first steam flouring mill between Terre