212                         HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY


Brazil, where he grew to manhood, meanwhile attending the public
schools of that day. At the age of seventeen he held a clerkship in the
general store of Fletcher & Payne, Brazil. In 1868, at the age of twenty-
five years, he left Clay county for the west, stopping first in Pottawatto-
mie county, Kansas, where, on the 5th day of May, 1870, he married
Miss Mary Edwards, with whom he had four children. Soon thereafter,
perhaps within the same year, he moved to Morris county, locating at
Dunlap. In 1885, under the first administration of President Cleveland,
he was appointed postmaster at Dunlap, which he held during the term
of four years. In the fall of 1890 he was elected clerk of the district
court for Morris county, serving the term of two years. 1891-92, during
which time he resided at Council Grove, the county-seat. After the
expiration of his term of service, the family returned to Dunlap. where
he died five years later, February 11, 1898, aged 55 years, survived by
his wife and four children. One son, Luther C. Kidd, resides at Council
Grove.

    George W. Ellenberger, native of Fayette county, Pennsylvania,
born May 20, 1834, the family moving to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in
September, 1843, where the subject of this sketch attended the public
schools. and afterward taught one or more terms: married Miss Sarah
Engle, March 12, 1863, at Shanesville, Ohio: came to Clay county at the
close of the same year, locating at Center Point, where he engaged at
carpentry and cabinet-making; moved to Middlebury in the summer of
1870, where he established a shop, for the manufacture and repair of
household furniture.
    In 1872 he was nominated by the Republican party for county com-
missioner for the third district, to which be was chosen at the succeed-
ing general election, serving the term of three years, from. 1873 to 1876.
In the fall of 1883 he moved to the state of Michigan, locating at Sturgis,
where he has for the quarter of a century past been employed in a furni-
ture factory.

    J. Orley Ellenberger, the surviving son in this family, a native of
Clay county, born at Center Point, July 6, 1869, known at Middlebury in
his boyhood days, who married Miss Jennie Brown, at Connersville,
Indiana, May 23, 1901, who also lives at Sturgis, has won an enviable
reputation and distinction as a designer and carver in wood, having
worked in this capacity in some of the largest furniture manufacturing
plants in the United States.
    Father and son have prospered in their adopted state and city, both
having comfortable, desirable and valuable suburban residences.

    John W. Stewart, native of Vigo county, Indiana, born March 4th,
1851, the family locating in Dick Johnson township, Clay county, in the
fall of 1859, where his boyhood days were spent in helping to open a
farm and at such other employment as was usual with farmers’ sons
of half a century ago, attending the rural schools during the winter
seasons. From this source and a brief course at the Friends’ Academy,
at Bloomingdale, Parke county, be acquired his education. On leaving
the academy he took a position as office deputy under Sheriff John
Weber. At about 18 years of age he began teaching in the public