HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      535

the Stallcup, later, the Leslie neighborhood. This society, known as
Ebenezer, built the pioneer frame house of worship in the north end of
the county, erected and dedicated, as nearly as now known from recollec-
tion, in the year 1855. The name given this church is from Bible
terminology. “Ebenezer” was the place at which the army of Israel was
encamped on going out to battle with the Philistines and, also, that of the
point marked by the stone monument erected between Mizpeh and Shen
in commemoration of the victory achieved over the enemy. Ebenezer
means “the stone of help.” Shiloh was the pioneer Methodist Episcopal
church of the hewn-log type, on the old Bowling Green-Brazil road, a
half mile or more east of the town of Center Point, on the old Henry
Lash place, built, as remembered, in the same year as Ebenezer, and
occupied until the year 1873, when a neat, substantial frame structure
was built on the southeast quarter of the Center Point town-site. Then
the abandoned house and the plat of an acre and a half of ground on
which it stood was advertised for sale at auction, on the 14th day of
June, 1873, by the board of trustees—John Fisher, James N. Laughlin,
Lemuel C. Kennedy, John C. Gilfillan, John Williams and William
Jenkins—purchased by John C. Gilfillan. “Shiloh” was also a selection
from Bible terminology, the name of a town of Ephraim, where the
sanctuary of the ark was under the priesthood of the house of Eli.
Because of a disagreement, or strife, between the ministry and the laity
of the Ebenezer society, whereby the organization was weakened, the
details of which are not sufficiently familiar to be here recounted, it was
practically disbanded and the house sold to the United Brethren, at some
time prior to 1880, perhaps as early as 1875, who repaired it and are
still occupying it.
    Practically, Ebenezer and Shiloh are but memories, or reminiscences,
in the church history of the county, where were witnessed the conven-
tional old-time revival scenes unknown to the spirit and usages of the
present time.

                        Sheepskin Land Titles.
    Davis H. Walker, of Washington township, has in his possession
three patents issued by the United States government to his father and
grandfather in the purchase of lands at a very early day. The first in
order is signed by President John Quincy Adams, dated April 8, 1825,
conveying to his father, Daniel D. Walker, eighty acres described as
lying in Owen county, as the organization of the new county of Clay
was not then yet in working order. The second one is signed by Presi-
dent Andrew Jackson, dated January 4, 1831, conveying to Davis D.
Walker eighty-six acres, and the third one signed by President Martin
Van Buren, dated February 1, 1839, conveying to Richard Walker forty
acres. Richard Walker was the father of Daniel D. Walker and grand-
father of Davis H. Walker. The amount paid for these three tracts of
Washington township land, amounting to 206 acres, at the government
price of $1.25 per acre, was $257.50. In the month of March, 1909,
twenty-seven acres of it sold for $4,600, or $170.37 per acre.

                First Flour from the “Peerless” Mills.
    The flouring-mill now being operated at Clay City was built by
R.Bryson and the Black Brothers in the year 1889, and was put in
operation on Thursday, the 19th day of December of the same year.
As is usually the case, the starting of the wheels of this new industry