HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY	403

New Brunswick, the discharge taking effect in Dalton’s shoulder. For
this offense Owen was sentenced for four years, but pardoned before the
expiration of the time. Dennis was convicted and sentenced for two years
for the stealing of Michael Sappenfield’s overcoat. The theft was com-
mitted by Dennis entering the Sappenfield residence by daylight, in the
absence of the family, and carrying away with him the coat.
Primitive Family Quarters.
	Life on the frontier abounds in experiences of privations and hard-
ships. The early pioneers of Clay county, who braved the exposures and
dangers of the wilderness, did not all live in cabins, many of them, for a
time, occupying more primitive habitations, but little removed from those
of the natives. When James Yocum and Alexander Cabbage came to the
county, about the year 1831; locating within the territory of what was then
Posey township, they improvised shelter and protection for the winter by
cutting down huge poplar trees, the trunks serving as a wall from the
upper surface of which poles were extended as rafters at the desired
pitch, the other end resting either upon the ground or the trunk of a
small tree, on which a roof was laid of clapboards or other material, held
in position by weights laid and fastened upon the top. At the opening, or
front, a log fire was maintained for cooking and imparting warmth to the
family quarters.
	Yocum’s place was afterward the B. F. Shattuck farm, now covered
by the city of Brazil. The Cabbage place was several miles to the north-
west, about a mile and a half north of Williamstown.
Interment of a “Celestial.”
	In the history of Clay county but one Chinaman has been committed
to the tomb. The remains of Tom Yott, who died of typhoid fever
at St. Anthony’s hospital, Terre Haute, Monday, October 5, 1908, aged
30 years, was brought to Brazil over the interurban railroad on the suc-
ceeding day, to be laid away in Cottage Hill cemetery. As Yott was a
Mason, who had attained to the Scottish Rite degree, the body and the
attending services were in charge of E. Lung, the head of the Chinese
Masons of the state of Indiana. The remains of the “Celestial” were de-
posited in the George R. Shultz & Son’s vault for safety and preservation
until such time as the father of the deceased shall leave America to return
to his native country, when it will be taken back home for burial. Quite
a number of Brazilians were attracted to Cottage Hill on the occasion,
curious to witness the obsequies.
Election Incidents at Intervening Scores of Years.
	In 1844, William Townsend and Elias Cooprider, who were at that
time prominent and representative citizens of the north and of the south
end of the county, respectively, were nominated as opposing candidates
for the office of county assessor, the former by the Whigs and the latter
by the Democrats. Townsend won by the small majority of three. The
succeeding year (1845) they were nominated by their respective parties
for sheriff, when Cooprider won by the same majority of three.
	At the presidential election of 1864—the Lincoln-McClellan campaign
—a voter in Sugar Ridge township, a day laborer who did not want his
employers to know how he voted, and being closely watched, in order to
elude them, after having been presented a ticket, absented himself from
the polling place until near the middle of the day, when, on returning, see-
ing that the coast was not yet clear for his approach, he again retired. At