HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      259

L. Sink in the spring of 1874. In 1847 he enlisted for the Mexican service
in Company I, Sixteenth United States Infantry, serving to the close of
the war; in the latter part of 1862, enlisted in Company G. Fifty-ninth In-
diana Infantry, under Colonel Jesse I. Alexander, for the term of three
years, and was honorably discharged at Goldsboro, North Carolina, at the
expiration of his term of service.
    In the spring of 1884 he was elected trustee of Harrison township,
serving one term of two years. For a third of a century previous to his
death Dr. Brown lived on his farm, a mile and a half south of Middlebury,
where the surviving widow still resides, and where he died December 2,
1892, aged 71 years, 4 months and 24 days.

    Ernst Muehier, native of Germany, born June 1, 1832; having re-
ceived a fair education, left home at about the time of his majority, going
to Denmark, thence to Hamburg, and later to Norway, where, in the
month of November, 1861, he married Eliza Olson, a native of that coun-
try. Seven years later he came to America, landing in New York City,
soon thereafter coming to Indiana, locating at Bowling Green, where
he engaged in marble cutting.
    In 1886 Mr. Muehler was nominated as the Democratic candidate for
county treasurer, but defeated at the general election; was nominated
again for the same office in 1888 and elected; was renominated and re-
elected in 1890. At the expiration of his second term of official service
he returned to Bowling Green, where he died several years later.

    Owen T. Stark, native of Lewis township, Clay county, born Septem-
ber 24, 1846, was brought up on the farm, meanwhile acquiring a fair edu-
cation in the public schools. At the age of eighteen he enlisted in the
Thirty-first Indiana Infantry, was with his regiment every day of the
Atlanta campaign, and participated in the battle of Nashville under Gen-
eral Thomas. At Kenesaw Mountain he was wounded by a musket ball,
and later had his hip crushed in a railroad disaster at Columbia, Tenn-
essee. He then accompanied his regiment to Texas, where he was after-
ward discharged from the service and returned home. In 1868 he married
Miss Nancy M. Crist, daughter of Henry W. Crist, one of the good, solid
old pioneers of the county. As an expression of the respect and confi-
dence of his fellow citizens he was twice elected township assessor, and
was three times chosen to assist in the appraisement of the real estate of
the township. Through industry directed by intelligence and tact he
acquired a good, comfortable homestead of eighty acres in his native
township. In 1884 he was nominated and placed on the county ticket
by the Democratic party for recorder, and elected, when he moved his
family to Brazil. Following the expiration of his term of official service
in November, 1888, he continued to reside at the county seat until the
time of his death.

    John Burns, native of Pennsylvania, born in Washington county,
July 28, 1832, where he grew to manhood. On the 28th day of Septem-
ber, 1854, he married Miss Caroline Coulson, of his native state. In
1855 they came to Indiana, locating in the border of Greene county, and
later in Lewis township, Clay county, where he continued to re-
side all through life. On the 5th day of June, 1874, his
wife died, when, on the 21st day of March following (1875) he mar-