HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      267

of land on the west side of Birch Creek, in the Witty neighborhood,
where he lived until the following year, when, in the month of August,
he bought the Levi Cromwell place, on the east side of the creek, now
owned and occupied by A. H. Wright. In moving from Harrison to
Clay county he drove along twenty head of good sheep, which were placed
in the “ox-lot,” to confine and keep them from going astray, where nine-
teen of the twenty were killed in one night by wolves. In 1836 he
brought from Harrison county a bushel of seed wheat, which was the
first sown in the virgin soil of the central part of the county. At one of
the first Old Settlers’ meetings, David Moore made the statement that
Amos Hedge was the first supervisor in Jackson township. While acting
in this capacity he superintended the cutting out of a section of the old
Rockville-Bowling Green road, cut the timber and cleared the way for
the Poland road from the Zenor cemetery eastward to Eel river. On his
place was set out, in the year 1836, the second orchard planted in Jack-
son township, a number of the original trees still standing and hearing.
During the time of the former system of county administration, under
the old constitution, he was several times county commissioner, for which
service the compensation was exemption from work on the roads. About
the year 1856 he brought into Jackson township the first top buggy,
which he had made to order at Annapolis, Parke county.
    The subject of this biographical sketch was an earnest and vigilant
worker in the cause of the pioneer church—one of the earliest United
Brethren preachers in the county. having organized a society at the Zenor
school-house at a very early date and assisted in the organization at
Union and other points. But his work in the church and the spread of
the Gospel was not confined to home territory. Actuated hy the mis-
sionary spirit, his field of labor comprised the wilds of Clay, Owen,
Parke, Putnam, Vigo, Greene and Sullivan counties, over which be
traveled and met his appointments regularly and promptly, consuming
practically all his time. It was no unusual thing for him to be absent
from home several weeks in succession, Many of his appointments were
at private houses, as there were then but few church buildings in all
this territory. As early as 1837 he preached at the home of Thomas
Wheeler, on the Clay, or Wheeler, Prairie. He participated in the or-
ganization of the original Wabash conference of the U. B. church. For
more than a quarter of a century be worked actively and devotedly for
the building up of society and the church with no promise nor hope of
compensation other than that of an approving conscience and the convic-
tion of duty performed. He was frequently heard to say that be did not
realize enough cash from his ministerial work to pay for the horse-shoes
worn out by his travels.
    In physique, Amos W. Hedge was a man of almost gigantic pro-
portions. In physical ability and power be had but few if any peers in
the county. Reminiscently, it is told of him that on the occasion of
the annual election at Williamstown, in pioneer times, when all the north
half of the county voted at that point, the opportunity was afforded him
to give the electors on the ground an exhibition of his prowess in this
capacity. Two “bullies,” as they were known at that day, before either
of whom the man of average stature and strength would have quailed
and sued for peace, met by agreement to decide the disputation between
them as to which was the “best” man. The battle waged fiercely and
blood flowed freely. Stepping up to the combatants, saying, “This is