468                         HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

top of a smaller tree, which would yield to his weight sufficiently to lower
him into the branches of the undergrowth. So he did, taking chances on
so desperate a way of regaining the ground. Aside from bruises and
scratches he reached terra firma by this route all right. At another time,
having climbed a tree in pursuit of three coons, which were perched on
different prongs of the same large limb, he went out on the limb to let
the coons down, one at a time, by cutting off the prongs separately.
While in the act of chopping off a prong the limb began cracking at the
body of the tree, when he sought hurriedly to regain a safe position, which
he succeeded in doing just in the nick of time, as the limb broke away
from the tree and fell. The coons were all caught.
    Standing trees with holes cut in the trunks, from which he had taken
coons, used to be numerous around about the Decker home and the site
of the town of Staunton.
    When he became too old for climbing, he would get up at 3 o’clock
in the morning and go to the woods, his dogs treeing the coons, then he
would build a fire about the tree to keep them from coming down and
shoot them after the break of day; or, when it was not too cold, he would
take off his coat and fasten it about the trunk of the tree to deter the
game from coming down. But he also invented an extension torch-light
pole, jointed like a fishing-pole, so that he could attach joints enough to
run the torch up to the top of a tree and shoot the coons in the glare of
the torch.
    During his latter years, having necessarily abandoned the chase,
he engaged in fur-buying, distributing among the people of Clay county
every winter from $2,000 to $3,000 in exchange for furs.
    By hunting, trapping and fur-dealing he accumulated the means,
mostly, by which he improved his quarter section of land, two and a
half miles south of Cloverland, where he built a two-story brick dwelling
in 1854, one of the first brick buildings in Posey township.

Triple Casualty in Lewis Township.
    Within the period of thirty days, including the latter part of the
month of July and the fore part of the month of August, 1871, Lewis
township lost three of its best citizens—Silas Stout, Jefferson Crist and
Daniel Goble, Sr.
    In hauling a load of lumber to Hartford, Stout’s horses became
frightened in the neighborhood of Centerville and turned suddenly in
the road, upsetting the load of lumber on him, breaking in his chest and
so injuring him internally that he survived but a very few days.
    Crist, who was Goble’s son-in-law, died of disease soon after the
death of Stout.
    On the 2d day of August, Goble rode over to Crist’s on a visit to his
bereaved daughter and family. He had just put his horse in the stable
and closed the door, when he saw the team with which the boys were
hauling oats running away and coming toward the stable, having already
thrown off the load and torn loose the hind part of the wagon. Seeing
his little grand-son playing in the lane, he rushed out to rescue him from
the impending danger of being killed, and while in a stooping position
a front wheel of the partially demolished wagon struck him on the
forehead, breaking his skull, from the effects of which he died within
twelve hours, remaining fully conscious after recovery from the imme-
diate effects of the shock until the last moment. Both son-in-law and