HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY  261

twenty-four years of age he was appointed postmaster at Bowling Green,
under the administration of President Pierce, serving, consecutively, five
years. For several years he was proprietor and editor of the Clay county
Democrat. At clerical work Mr. Thompson was an expert, an all-round
efficient and useful aid in the various county offices, his services always
in demand, having been deputy, at different times, tinder Auditor Osborn,
Clerk Pinckley, Recorder Riddell and Treasurer Staggs. In the Democratic
county convention, held at Ashboro, August 18, 186o, he was nominated
for recorder and elected, serving the full term of four years. In the year
1864, at the Democratic county convention held at Center Point, he was
nominated for clerk of the Clay circuit court and again elected. At the
close of this term of official service he engaged in merchandising in com-
pany with E. B. Peyton, buying R. M. Wingate’s interests in the busi-
ness. Three years later, when James Black returned from Terre Haute,
he bought out Peyton’s interests, when the firm name became Black &
Thompson, later Black & Co., and still later Thompson & Thompson, until
at some time in 1886, when the firm went out of business. This house did
a retail business of from $50,000 to $100,000 a year.
    During the years of his business career at Bowling Green, Mr.
Thompson was for three years a member of the board of town trustees,
and for several terms a member of the board of school trustees. On
Friday, the 12th day of October, 1860, ten days after his election to
the office of recorder. he married Catharine E. Geiger, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Paul J. Geiger, of Bowling Green, on his thirty-first birthday,
who died soon thereafter. On the 26th day of October, 1863, he married
Sarah J. Smith, of Bowling Green. On the 24th day of November, 1876,
he married Miss Nellie Brown.
    In the month of September, 1886 after a residence of forty-four
years at Bowling Green, including more than the third of a century of
active pursuits, public and private, Mr. Thompson located at Terre Haute,
where for twelve years lie was sceretary of the Board of Trade. When
the ministers and leading citizens of the “Prairie City” organized for
the purpose of building and maintaining a Protestant hospital, about the
year 1894 or 1895, after selecting J. A. Parker as president. Mr. Thomp-
son was chosen secretary, in which capacity he officiated for the period
of seven years. He is now engaged in insurance, as solicitor and under-
writer, in which he had experience, also, while at Bowling Green. At
the time of the appointment of W. W. Carter as revenue collector under
the administration of President Arthur, Mr. Thompson became one
of his principal bondsmen.

    Charles W. Moss, native of Kentucky, born in Shelby (now Spencer)
county, April 24, 1820, son of George and Lydia (Bilderback) Moss, na-
tives of Virginia and Kentucky. respectively. The family emigrated to
Indiana in 1823, locating in Monroe county, near Bloomington, where they
lived eight years, coming to Clay county in 1831, locating in the central
part of the county near what is now known as Center Point. The sub iect of
this brief biographical sketch, while aiding his parents in providing a home-
stead, also improved the meager opportunities afforded for acquiring an
e(lucation. In 1846 he enlisted in Company A, Second Indiana Volunteers,
for one year’s service in the Mexican war, and participated in the battle
of Buena Vista. At the expiration of his time of service, the following
year, he was discharged at New Orleans. At the annual election of 1847,