HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      277

was a man of hardihood, tenacity and endurance and accomplished a great
deal, both in business and in subduing lands and making the wilderness
bloom as the rose, his home farm covering something more than four
hundred acres, well improved, cultivated and stocked. He was no less
ardent and interested in politics, having taken a very active part in the
nomination and election of Governor Morton and President Lincoln, in
1860. As a delegate to the Chicago National Convention he participated
as one of a party of five in laying the plans for the defeat of Bates, of
Missouri, and the success of Lincoln, of Illinois.
    As vice-president and director of the projected Indianapolis, Eel
River & Southwestern Railroad, surveyed in 1881, Mr. Smith played a
prominent part in the effort to promote and make the enterprise a suc-
cess. He died January 15, 1889, aged 63 years, 10 months and 3 days.

    Isaiah Murphy, native of the state of Maryland, born October 1,
1805, the family moving to Ohio when he was ten years of age, where
they lived until 1828, when they came to Indiana, locating in the western
part of Putnam county, near what is now Oakalla. On the 10th day of
January, 1832, he married Margaret Williams, and ten years later, in
1842, moved over into Clay county, locating on the farm, in Van Buren
township, about a mile south of what is now the town of Lena. Here, on
the 10th day of January, 1882, Mr. and Mrs. Murphy celebrated their
golden wedding, their nine surviving sons and daughters, grandchildren
and great-grandchildren participating. The subject of this sketch was
well and favorably known to a large circle of neighbors and acquaint-
ances in three counties—Putnam, Clay and Parke—for the period of a
half century. He died November 8, 1884, aged 79 years, 1 month and 7
days, survived by his wife and nine of their eleven children. He was
laid to rest at the Oakalla cemetery, Putnam county.

    George D. Teter, native of Ohio, born in Ross county, November 2,
1812, near Chillicothe, then the capital of the state. His parents were
among the early settlers of the Scioto Valley, his paternal ancestry from
the Rappahannock, Virginia, and his maternal ancestry from the central
part of Maryland. In his youth he acquired a good education, considering
the opportunities afforded, and also a taste for hunting, game being
plentiful in the forests of southern Ohio at that time. By self-effort in
the pursuit of learning and experience be earned a reputation as a teacher,
having taught at Staunton and other points after coming to Clay county.
Though somewhat devoted to researches in science and political economy,
his chosen profession was the law, having been admitted to the bar at
Chillicothe in 1835. On the 25th day of November, 1834, he married
Maria L. Tuthill, of his native county. For some years before coming
to Indiana he practiced in the courts of his native county and state, where
he was also a prominent figure in the state militia prior to the time of the
Mexican war. Just before the close of the war he enlisted and was com-
missioned colonel of volunteers, but hostilities had ceased before he
reached Mexico. In 1880 he was nominated by the Democratic primary
for representative and the only candidate on the ticket elected, the county
having gone Republican that year. As a member of the legislature, his
ability was at once recognized by his peers. The point which he empha-
sized early in the session was that, as the rule, there is more danger to be
apprehended from too much than from too little legislation, usually align-