HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                  265

of the board, subsequently declining all proffers of political preferment
and official position.
    During his fifty-five years’ residence in Clay county, he made three
trips back to his native state; the first, in a one-horse wagon, taking his
wife with him; the second, on horse-back; the third, by railroad, bringing
his mother with him on the return. Of the number who came with him
from North Carolina and settled here he survived all his associates who
were grown at the time of coming. In all his business ventures and
experiences, notwithstanding characteristics which his fellow-citizens
denominated “eccentricities,” he reaped an abundant harvest, having accu-
mulated a large estate. All along during life he adhered tenaciously to
the resolution never to engage the services of a physician, up to a very
short time before his death. Within the last few years of his life he had
become, more from necessity than from choice, one of the largest land-
holders in the county. Having heavy deposits in the Commercial bank,
Brazil, at the time of its suspension, to protect himself, by which means
he also aided others interested, he made numerous purchases of realty
from the assets of the institution at the time of receiver’s sale. These
lands lay mostly in Eel river bottom and subsequently advanced materially
in value.
    Clay county can lay claim to no more scrupulously honest man than
Esau Presnell, who acquired no part of his possessions by questionable
means and methods. Though wealthy, he had unbounded confidence in
the native integrity of the poor man, never denying him credit, nor
oppressing him in any manner. At the time of his retirement from
business he held hundreds of notes executed at sundry times by his cus-
tomers in settlement of accounts, amounting to thousands of dollars. But
few of his neighbors knew to any degree of approximate accuracy the
volume of these obligations. To any one who expressed to him a doubt
as to the responsibility or the ability of his debtors to meet their obliga-
tions, he uniformly replied: “They’ll all pay at some time. It is true
that many of these claims could not be collected by process of law, but
by being indulgent, giving them their own time, practically all of them,
from their sense of appreciation and the right, will come up and redeem
their paper.” As an example of his scrupulousness in propriety and
business, at a time within the period of the Civil war, a young lady from
eastern Ohio who was visiting friends at Center Point called at his store
and bought a dress pattern, to be made up and worn on her return trip
to her home, and in paying for it he failed to make the exact change,
lacking five cents, when he said, “I’ll give you the five cents next time
you call.” But the purchaser did not visit the store again, returning to
Ohio very soon thereafter. Some months, perhaps a year later, learning
that the Center Point friend contemplated a trip to Ohio to return the
visit, Mr. Presnell called on her to remind her of the transaction, deliver-
ing to her the five cents, with the request that she be sure not to forget to
hand it over to the lady to whom he owed it.
    In his habits of life and intercourse with his fellow-man, he was as
simple, frugal and unpretentious as the humblest citizen, even-tempered,
inoffensive and guileless. These qualities endeared him to a large circle
of acquaintances and friends, challenging their respect and emulation, in
whose hearts his memory will be always fondly cherished.
    The subject of this sketch died October 29, 1888, at the residence
at Center Point, aged 76 years, 3 months and 14 days, survived by his