304                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY


City, where he now resides, quietly and peacefully rounding. out his four-
score years, after more than half a century of ardor and activity in the
pursuit of the affairs of a busy life.

    Maston S. Wilkinson, native of Indiana, born in Gibson county, Feb-
ruary 14, 1846, son of Aaron and Lucinda (Montgomery) Wilkinson:
entered Merom College in 1863, at the age of seventeen, where he enlisted
in 1864, in Company F of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Indiana
Infantry, serving five months. At a later date he re-entered college, work-
ing and paying his way, completing the course and graduating in 1874,
when the degrees of B. S. and A. B. were conferred. For the year 1874-
75 he was superintendent of the Brazil schools. For the school year of
1875-76 he taught at Center Point, and for the year 1876-77 at Bowling
Green. The first principal of the schools of that place taught in the brick
building erected by the town corporation. On the 10th day of September,
1876, he married Clara Huff, only child of Shadrack and Lydia Huff,
residing in Sugar Ridge township. To them were born two daughters,
Nellie and Hallie. After having taught several consecutive years at Bowl-
ing Green, he located at Center Point and engaged in merchandising for
a time. The first of June, 1885, he was elected county superintendent,
serving two years. Later he again engaged in the mercantile business at
Center Point, in company with William H. McCullough. Having acquired
an interest in two or more farms, he gave his attention to their cultiva-
tion and improvement for some time after his retirement from business.
In the year 1895 he was honored by election to the faculty of the institu-
tion from which he had graduated, occupying the chair of Latin for four
years, having also been treasurer of the institution during this time. Owing
to declining health he resigned his position and returned home. On the
6th of February, 1901, he died, aged fifty-four years, eleven months and
twenty-two days, survived by his wife, who died February 9, 1903.

    Voorhees T. Lansing, native of Clay county, born at Bowling Green,
July 20, 1860, son of Albertus T. and Phoebe (Smith) Lansing; learned
the typographic art with his father in the Borealis office at Bowling Green
and Knightsville. After the removal of the family from Knightsville to
Brazil he took a position at the case in the office of the Western Mirror,
where he won the reputation of being one of the most expert and rapid
compositors in the state. Soon after the suspension of the Mirror, in com-
pany with Harry Lusk, he launched the Argus-Magnet, which was after-
ward the Democrat. Early in the year 1885 he went to Kansas in the hope
of recuperating his health, embarking in the drug business at Detroit,
Dickinson county, where he was appointed postmaster in the spring of
1887, which, from further decline in health, he was compelled to turn over
to his sister, Bertha C. Lansing. The first of January. 1888, he moved to
Abilene and took a position as compositor in the office of the Sunday
Chronicle, but was compelled to relinquish work in the fore part of the
month of March, and died on the first day of April, aged twenty-seven
years nine months and eleven days. The subject of this hiographical
sketch was a young man of ambition and promise in his chosen field and
work, but the relentless “white plague” had set upon him the mark of an
early victim. In the editorial capacity Voorhees T. Lansing had inherited
a measure of the brilliancy, versatility and dash of his father, the veteran
newspaper man of the county, who wielded a ready and caustic pen.