HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      309

    From a tribute to his life and memory, written soon after his death
and burial, by A. S. Lowdermilk, who was a schoolmate at the old log
school-house, on Birch creek, close by the Zenor cemetery, the follow-
ing quotation is made as the concluding paragraph: “Homer Hicks has
quit the mortal walks of men; his body has been borne away by the
hands of loving friends and brethren to the retirement of the cemetery
at Bowling Green. We seem to hear, at it were, a voice from the grand
old trees standing like sentinels and keeping watch over the inhabitants
of that Silent City of the Dead, saying, ‘Come hither and rest under the
shadows of our branches, where Mother Earth chimes a welcome to a
deep and sweet repose within her bosom,’ and the wind sighs mourn-
fully, as though to say, ‘I will sing a dirge while the coming spring-
time grows a grass-fringed scarf over thy bosom and the modest-blue-
eyed violet blooms beautifully around thy resting-place.’ While his
body is hidden from our anxious gaze and the spirit has returned to
God who gave it, his memory, like the ever green fern peering from
under the snows of coming winter, will ever remain fresh and green
in the garner of our affections."

    J.E. Brant, a native of Ohio, who came with the family to Owen
county, Indiana, in his boyhood, locating in the western part of the county,
near Patricksburg, where he grew up on the farm, attending the public
schools, and in his early manhood entered Asbury University preparatory
to engaging in the ministry of the M. E. church. His first assignment
was to the pastorate of the Ashboro church, at about the time of the open-
ing of the Civil war. His second appointment to duty located him at
Prairieton, Vigo county. In 1862 he raised a company of volunteers,
mostly Clay county boys, who were organized on the 15th day of August,
he himself made captain, and mustered into the service on the 2d day of
September, as Company I, Eighty-fifth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer
Infantry. From captain he was promoted to major, the title clinging to
him all through life, and from major to lieutenant colonel. After the war
he married Mary A. McAllister, eldest daughter of Dr. R. B. McAllister,
a well known physician in both Owen and Clay counties. In the latter
years of the sixties and up to 1870 he was again located in Clay county,
as pastor of the First M. E. church, Brazil, when he initiated the move-
ment for the raising of the funds for the building of Hendrix Chapel.
Both personally and professionally, Emery Brant was a familiar character
with Clay county people, having preached frequently at Wesley Chapel,
Jackson township, Center, Perry township, and at other points. While
in the army, he officiated also as chaplain, He was also a presiding elder,
and of high standing in the church generally. He died at Bloomington,
February 21, 1904, survived by his wife, who still resides there. His
remains rest in Rose Hill cemetery at that place.

    Dempsey Seybold, son of Dempsey and Elizabeth (Kerr) Seybold,
natives of Pennsylvania, of German and Irish descent, respectively, who
emigrated from Kentucky to Indiana in 1818, locating in Parke county,
entering a quarter section of land, on which the father soon afterward
established a trading post and store. Here the subject of this sketch was
born, September 8, 1828. Dempsey Seybold, Sr., was a soldier of the
War of 1812, a Whig in politics, a man of industry and integrity, who
died in the month of June, 1835, a victim of cholera, aged 44 years, and