34                              HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY


member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Cory, to which his wife
and children also belong.

    OLIVER JAMES, M. D.—Noteworthy among the more active and
prosperous physicians of Clay county is Oliver James, M. D. of Cory,
who has a large and lucrative practice to which he is devoted. A son of
Thomas James, he was born July 13, 1841, in Carroll county, Ohio, and
was there bred and educated.
    Coming from English ancestry, Thomas james was a life-long resi-
dent of Ohio, and during his active career was engaged in farming.
He died while yet in the prime of a vigorous manhood, his death occur-
ring in Carroll county in 1854. He married Susan Springer, a daughter
of William and Sally Springer. She survived him many years, marrying
for her second husband John Yingling. She died in Carroll county,
Ohio, in February, 1881. By her first marriage she had seven children,
Oliver, the special subject of this sketch, being the third child in succes-
sion of birth. By her union with Mr. Yingling she had two children.
    Pemaining with his mother until eighteen years old, Oliver James
laid a substantial foundation for his future education in the district
schools. After leaving home he attended school winters and worked as
a farm hand summers for two years. Ambitious then to advance his
education, he studied for two years at the Harlem Springs Seminary, in
Carroll county, after which he read medicine with a prominent physician
for four years. Coming to Clay county, Indiana, in 1866, he practiced
as an tinder-graduate until 1876, when he entered the Indiana Medical
College at Indianapolis, where he was graduated with the degree of
M. D. on March 28, 1877. Immediately after receiving his diploma Dr.
James located in Cory, where he built up a fine practice, acquiring an
extended reputation for skill and ability in his professional work.
    On April 28, 1868, Dr. fames married Eliza Belle Harper, a native
of Carroll county, Ohio, and they had one child, Howard T. James, of
Clay City, Indiana.. Mrs. Eliza B. James died September 14, 1872. The
Doctor married for his second wife, July 22, 1875, Melissa D. Donham
who was born in Perry township, Clay county, Indiana, a daughter of
Abijab and Margaret Donham, natives of Clermont county, Ohio. Of
the four children born of this union, three died in infancy and one is
living, namely, Floy, wife of Charles F. Engle, of Worthington, Indiana.
Dr. James is a member of the Clay County Medical Society and of the
Indiana State Medical Society. Politically he is a Republican, and since
1900 has been a member of the Pension Board of Clay county. Frater-
nally he belongs to Clear Creek Lodge, No. 449, I. 0. 0. F. Religiously
he is a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he
has becn recording steward for many years.

    Dr. WILLIAM H. ZENOR is well known in Brazil and is numbered
among the native sons of Clay county, his birth having occurred upon a
farm a mile west of Bowling Green on the 25th of February, 1837. His
parents were David and Elizabeth Zenor, who for over sixty years lived
upon one farm. The father was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, in
the year 1801, and when twenty-one years of age came direct from his
native state to Indiana, settling in Clay county. His wife was also from
that county. Their farm, which was pleasantly located a mile west of
Bowling Green, comprised three forties, two of which were entered direct