262                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

held the first Monday in August, he was elected sheriff on an independent
ticket, and at the expiration of the term of two years was re-elected by the
Democratic party. On the 11th day of April, 1850, he married Elizabeth
Adams, of Parke county, daughter of Samuel C. Adams, the family mov-
ing to Clay county two years later, locating on the hill near the Grimes
church, Sugar Ridge township. To them were born three children—Lewis
K., Albert W. and Alice J.. the mother dying on the 13th day of May,
1855. On the 21st day of April, 1857, he married Mrs. Eliza Ann (Sey-
bold ) Dunagan, daughter of Dempsey Seybold, Sr. at one time an associate
judge of the Parke county circuit court. To them were born nine chil-
dren, of whom one son and five daughters survive. After his retirement
from the sheriff’s office, he engaged in farming and saw-milling until the
breaking out of the Civil War, in 1861 when he again enlisted in the
service of his country, as captain of Company G, Forty-third Indiana In-
fantry, serving until the close of the war, in 1865 Having been taken
prisoner on the 25th day of April, 1864, he was detained at Camp Ford,
Texas, until the 25th clay of February, 1865, then exchanged. In April
following he was promoted to major of his regiment, and discharged the
1st of September following. While in the service he took part in the
siege of Madrid, the battles of Island No. [0, Fort Pillow, Memphis. St.
Charles, Pemberton, Helena, Little Rock, Elkin’s Ford and Mark’s Mill.
On returning home he resumed the work of the farm until 1871, when he
went to Alabama and operated a saw-mill for three years, returning again
to the farm in 1874, occupying the old family homestead until the time
of his death. In the burning of the Ashboro flouring—mill, in August,
1872, he sustained a loss of several thousand dollars.
    “Major Moss,” as he was almost universally known after his Civil
War service, was a life-long Methodist, a Mason and Odd Fellow, a stead-
fast friend and patron of the cause of popular education, a reformer and
a public-spirited citizen of much more than average information and in—
telligence. who had the courage of his convictions at all times. On the
political issues involved in the Civil War and leading up to the conflict he
was an ardent Republican, breaking faith with the party on the financial
and other economic questions after the war, when he aligned himself with
the Greenback party, the anti-monopolists, and later the Prohibition party.
He died August 23, 1900, age So years, 3 months and 29 days, survived
by his wife, who died May 16, 1904.

    John U’. Ecret, native of Salem county, New Jersey. born Septem-
ber 15. 1823, was reared on a farm in his native state, and at twenty—two
years of age made the start in life for himself at farming and day labor
came to Clay county in 1850, locating at Bowling Green working
in a cabinet shop for one year, then took the position of office deputy
under Clerk of the Court George Pinckley, where he continued about
three years. Then he engaged in canal boating in command of the
boat “Belle of Bowling Green, which made regular trips to
Lafayette and Toledo, until the spring of 1861, when in command
of the ‘Ohio,’ he took out from Bowling Green the last shipment
of products by navigation. Again, he became offfice deputy, under
Clerk of the Court Dillen W. Bridges, from which he retired at the
expiration of one year because of impaired sight as the effect of
neuralgia, resulting in the loss of his right eve. In the month of July,
1863 while at work in the office under Sheriff John H. Davis. he en—