HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      31

flour mill, he moved his sawmill to Clay City. A year later. in 1892, Mr.
Guiri sold his interest in this plant to his brother, organized the Clay
City Manufacturing Company, put up a large mill, and for ten years
was here engaged in the manufacture of staves. During this time Mr.
Guiri organized the Clay City Electric Light Company and the Clay
City Packing Company, and for six years had the management of these
three great enterprises, a part of the time having, in addition, the care
of his brother’s farms and of his lumber business. Disposing of his
stock in the Electric Light and Packing companies in 1902, Mr. Guiri
removed the plant of the Clay City Manufacturing Company to Alexan-
der county, Illinois, whither he also took his family. Within five years
the company had stripped all of the timber from the large tracts of land
that they had bought in that locality, converting it into staves, and now,
in 1908, have a large force of men at work removing the stumpage pre-
paratory to placing the land tinder cultivation. Returning with his family
to Clay City in 1906, Mr. Guiri took charge of the lumber business which
he had previously purchased from his brother, and has since reorganized
the Clay City Electric Light Company, and is here carrying on an exten-
sive and lucrative business, being, in Western parlance, a “hustler.”
    On April 28, 1888, Mr. Guiri married Blanche E. Nickey, who was
born in Whitley county, Indiana, which was likewise the birthplace of
her father, Allen Nickey. Her grandfather, Jacob Nickey, was born, it
is thought, in Virginia, from there coming to Indiana and settling as a
pioneer in Whitley county. Allen Nickey was a practicing physician
during his earlier life, but was afterwards engaged in the lumber business
in Boone county, Indiana, where he also operated a flour mill. He is
now engaged in farming near Tipton, this state. He married Mary
Reed, a native of Whitley county. Mr. and Mrs. Guirl are the parents of
six children, namely: Hazel, Paul, George, Mabel, Clara and Leona.
Politically Mr. Guirl is a Republican, and is now serving as chairman
of the Clay City School Board. Both Mr. and Mrs. Guiri are members
of the Christian church.

    DUDLEY W. BRATTIN, for thirty-eight years a prominent factor in
mercantile circles in Brazil and also prominent in the public interests of
the city, has left his impress upon its development and progress in many
lines. A native of Chillicothe, Ohio, he was born October 26, 1845. His
parents were Thomas S. and Sarah Brattin, both born near Staunton,
Virginia, and the father was known in business circles as a carriage
blacksmith and civil engineer. The great-grandfather of our subject in
the Brattin line came from the north of Ireland to America while this
country was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Brit-
ain, and the grandfather served in the American army in the Revolu-
tionary war, while Thomas S. Brattin with equal loyalty defended the
interests of the country in the war of 1812. The maternal great-grand-
father was also a soldier of the Revolution and was with Washington
during the memorable winter at Valley Forge, where the troops suffered
such hardships and were so in need of supplies that the snow was often
marked by the bloody footprints of the soldiers. The grandfather, John
Wiseman, was a Methodist minister for forty-nine years, being ordained
by Francis Asbury, the first American bishop, in 1785, When the his-
tory of the Wiseman family was published in 1887, mention was made of
more than one thousand descendants, not one of whom was addicted to

Vol. 11—3