HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      279

sincere and profound sympathy, and that we will cherish the memory of
his many noble traits of character that endeared him to all who knew
him.”

    Henry W. Crist, native of Indiana, born in Clark county, August 17,
1821, son of Nicholas and Nancy (Biggs) Crist, both natives of Ken-
tucky, respectively of German and Irish descent. In 1831, when the sub-
ject of this sketch was ten years old, the family came to Vigo county,
where the mother died soon thereafter. In 1836 or 1837 they moved over
into Clay county, locating in Lewis township. His home training was
that of the farm, attending the public schools during the short winter
terms, acquiring a fair education for that day. On the 18th day of Feb-
ruary, 1843, he married Miss Lucinda Liston, who died March 2, 1866.
To them were born nine children, seven of whom survive—three sons
and four daughters. Mrs. Lucinda Crist was the daughter of “Uncle Joe
Liston,” said to have been the first settler within the territory of Vigo
county, coming there seven years in advance of its organization. Mr.
Crist, who is now in his 88th year, has witnessed the development of
Lewis township from its infancy, with which he has all along been closely
identified, industriously, socially, religiously and politically, an exemplary,
useful citizen, whose daily life (as the candle not hidden under the
bushel) has reflected the many Christian virtues.

    James Ferguson, son of Hugh and Mary (McArthur) Ferguson,
native of Ohio, was born in Clermont county, November 21, 1806. The
parents erected their cabin in the wilderness and began life within three
miles of the Ohio river, where the town of New Richmond now stands.
The paternal great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch settled on the
Monongahela river, twenty miles above Fort Duquesne, afterward Fort
Pitt, about the time that the English wrested it from the French. Here,
confronted by all the privations of the frontier, impelled by stern neces-
sity, this family of ten bestirred themselves to secure a livelihood. Henry
and Isaac, the latter the grandfather of James, became the pioneer traders
of that part of the country, and made twenty-two round trips with their
pack horses loaded with peltry, furs and ginseng, to Philadelphia, bring-
ing back in exchange tools, wares and other necessities, before there were
any wagon roads. In 1784 Isaac Ferguson started westward, tarrying
awhile at Wheeling, because of danger from hostile Indians beyond the
Ohio river. Later, however, he boarded a crude box-like boat with his
household and proceeded down the river to the point now known as
Maysville, Kentucky, thence to “Bryant’s station,” a picketed enclosure
for protection from the assaults of the natives. At this time Hugh, the
father of our subject, was about ten years old. In this fortification were
quartered also, at practically the same time, several other families who
Were the immediate ancestry of a number of the pioneers of Clay county—
the Donhams, Bryants, Fagans, Hixons and others. In 1798 Isaac Fer-
guson crossed the Ohio river eighteen miles above what is now Cincin-
nati, where, by the help of his sons, he built a cabin and cleared up fifteen
acres of bottom land, which he planted in corn. Two years later James
McArthur, from Morgan’s Station, Kentucky, crossed the river and set-
tled at a point sixteen miles northeast of Cincinnati. Here, in the month
of February, 1805, Hugh Ferguson and Mary McArthur were married.