254 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

built some of the first houses in the town of Brazil. On first coming to
the county he worked for Harvey D. Scott, who was then building the
original Cunningham house, a mile west of Brazil, afterward the Dr.
Usher place, and for fifty years past known as the Stough place.
    The subject of this sketch was married three times, first in 1844, his
wife dying in 1857; then in 1859, the second wife dying in 1870; then
again in 1873, the third wife dying in 1881. Mr. Stewart was a devoted
and voluminous reader, well informed, a ready talker on a great variety
of topics and a genius in his line. He lived in Van Buren township, was
an uncompromising Democrat, and was several times named in party
conventions for nomination to county office. By way of identification he
was universally known as “Yankee Bill Stewart,” because of his New
England nativity and ancestry.

    Charles B. Hyland, native of Clay county, born April 21, 1857; grew
to manhood on the farm, on the Sugar Ridge-Perry township line, where
he attended the public school. Having learned the marble-cutting trade
he established a shop for the nianufacture and sale of monuments on the
home place, on the Lower Bloomington road, two miles west of Ashboro,
the first of June, 1879. Having closed out this business at a later date,
he located at Terre Haute and in 1885 was installed on the police force,
then promoted successively to sergeant, captain, chief of detectives, and
for a time superintendent of the force. Died July 18, 1908, aged 51 years,
2 months, 27 days. Deceased was a brother of ex-County Auditor Thomas
Hyland. A wife and a daughter survive him.

    Larkin Lank ford, native of Kentucky, born October 14, 1808, came
to Clay county in 1830, locating on land now included within the plat of
Clay City, east side. Here, alongside the old Bowling Green-Brunswick
road, he put up one of the pioneer blacksmith shops of the south end of
the county, where he blew the bellows and wielded the hammer for a
third of a century. He was known familiarly within the circle of his
personal acquaintance as “Doc.” Lankford, for the reason that he pulled
teeth and made some pretentions to the practice of medicine at an early
day, before the coming of the regular, professional practitioner. His
wife having died in 1848, he lived a widower for thirty-four years, all
the while occupying the original hewn-log house on the opposite side of
the road from the shop. Death stole upon him very suddenly and unex-
pectedly in the years of his retirement, when, on the morning of March
18, 1882, seated in his wonted chair, in front of the old-fashioned fire.
place, in his usual health, without any warning he fell forward into the
fire and was dead when taken out, aged 73 years, months and 4 days.
In compliance with his request and directions, as given out ten years
before, he was buried on his own ground. He was survived by his three
sons, all of whom have since died—John Russell Lankford, Henry Lank-
ford and William Lankford. His smithy, a well-known land-mark prior
to the building of the Terre Haute & Southeastern Railroad and the
founding of the town of Clay City, stood near the crossing of Lankford
and Fifth streets, on ground now crossed by the sidewalk.

    A.  J. Baber, son of Robert and Katie (Wiles) Baber, the father a
native of North Carolina and the mother of Kentucky, who married and
came to Indiana on horseback in 1819. In a brief autobiography in his