HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      227

was located, on his own request, at Bowling Green, where he engaged
in the practice of the law, and in the latter part of the fifties embarked
in the mercantile business, removing later to Terre Haute, where he con-
tinued in the dry goods trade. While living at Bowling Green he was
postmaster during the latter part of the administration of James
Buchanan, and, also, at a time, one of the three school examiners of the
county. Selling out his business interests at Terre Haute, he again
entered the ministry, being admitted in 1869 to the Illinois Conference,
and serving faithfully and efficiently a number of charges in that con-
ference for the period of fifteen years, when, in 1884, he was granted
the superannuated relation, after which he resided near the city of
Quincy, Illinois, engaged in market gardening, mainly the cultivation of
small fruits and berries for the Quincy market. Mr. Ash was a brother
of Mrs. R. M. Wingate. In 1846, he married Miss Elizabeth Conwell,
daughter of Rev. Isaac Conwell, of Liberty, Indiana.
    More than two years before his death he lost his eyesight, and sub-
mitted to a surgical operation for the removal of both eyeballs. On the
last day of the year 1902 he was stricken with paralysis, which rendered
him helpless, and he lingered until the 18th day of July, 1904, when he
passed away, aged eighty-one years, ten months and twenty-nine days.
He is survived by his wife and five of their ten children—Isaac C. Ash,
Dr. J. M. Ash, Mrs. C. W. Monson, and Rollin and Anna, who had
continued to live with and care for their father.

    Elias C. Kilmer, a native of Holmes county, Ohio, born near Wines-
burg, May 8, 1848, came to Clay county with his parents in 1857, locating
in Harrison township. Up to the age of twenty years he assisted his
father on the farm and at the saw-mill, attending the public schools when
he could be spared during the winter season; later he attended the Center
Point graded school and the State Normal, each one term. At twenty-
one years he began teaching and taught several years in the public
schools of Bowling Green and of Harrison township, meanwhile, during
the summer months, serving as deputy in the recorder’s office under
Peter T. Luther. In 1872 he was placed on the Democratic county ticket
for surveyor, but, notwithstanding his personal popularity, was defeated
with the ticket generally. During the succeeding four years he again
turned his attention to teaching and saw-milling. In the month of
October, 1875, he married Miss Alice Frump, daughter of ex-County
Treasurer John Frump, of Washington township.
    In 1876 Mr. Kilmer was nominated by his party for clerk of the
Clay circuit court and elected by a large majority, attesting his personal
strength all over the county. Within the first year of his service in this
capacity the county records were removed to Brazil. Having faithfully
and efficiently served his term of clerkship and retired from the office,
he was nominated in the spring of 1881 on the Citizens’ ticket for mayor
of the city of Brazil and elected against a usually large Republican
majority. This position he filled with honor and credit for the term
of two years, and soon thereafter, his health declining, removed to Clay
City, where he died, January 30, 1885, of the fell destroyer, consumption,
aged thirty-six years, eight months and twenty-two days. He was laid
to rest in Cottage Hill cemetery, Brazil, having been preceded in burial
there by two infant children.