54                  HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

He married first Patience Dalton, who spent her entire life in Harrison
township, dying in 1840. He married second Mrs. Susan Neal, who sur-
vived him a number of years. His children were all by his first marriage,
and of them six grew to years of maturity, namely: Joseph, Elizabeth,
Oliver, William, Sampson and Henry. During the Civil war William
enlisted first in Company A, Forty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and
later in Company F, One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Indiana Volun-
teer Infantry, served until the close of the war, and died soon after receiv-
ing his honorable discharge from the army. Sampson served in Com-
pany B, Twenty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, was captured at Tyler,
Texas, and remained a prisoner eleven months and seven days. Henry
served in the same company, and died while in the army.
    Born and reared in pioneer days, Oliver Griffith well remembers the
hardships and privations endured by the early settlers of this part of the
country, and the strenuous labor that he, as a boy, performed while assist-
ing his father to clear a homestead. For many years after his birth there
were no railways in the state, and no convenient markets. Indeed! Why
should there be? There was very little to sell, the people being what
might be termed home livers; that is, they produced almost everything
they ate or wore. Corn bread and wild meats were the principal articles
of food; and the father raised, pulled, broke and hackled the flax which
the mother carded spun and wove into the homespun from which she
fashioned garments for the whole family. Sugar was made from the
sap of the maple tree, and the head of the household was oftentimes his
own cobbler. Mr. Griffith says that he was quite a lad before he had a
pair of shoes, and that his first ones were made for him by his grand-
father, who tanned the leather himself. In order to pay for these shoes,
Oliver pumped the bellows for his grandfather, who was a blacksmith as
well as farmer and cobbler, a whole spring, summer and fall. Those
shoes, so hardly earned, were worn when the ground was covered with
snow, at other times being carefully wrapped up and put away, to be
given, when he outgrew them, to a younger brother. In going hunting in
cold weather, he used to warm a board to take along, and when the dog
started a rabbit he would place the board on the ground, and keep his
bare feet on it while waiting.
    From early boyhood Oliver Griffith worked with his father, and for
weeks at a time would split rails that sold at twenty-five cents a hundred,
that being one of the ways the brave pioneers had of securing ready
money. Occasionally his father would take one or two hogs, some furs,
venison and honey to Terre Haute, trade them for coffee, salt, needles,
thread, and such other small articles as must be had, taking two days to
make the trip. During the winter of 1848 Oliver lived with William
Edmundson, and worked for his board and attended school for three
months, getting up at four o’clock in the morning to d0 his chores, and
afterwards walking five miles to the school, which was the only one that
he ever attended, having obtained his education by good reading and
observation. He is an intelligent reader, keeping abreast of the times in
regard to current events, and for many years has kept a daily record of
things of importance and interest. Growing to manhood, he was for a
number of years employed in farming by the month or year. In 1856
he worked for Christopher Trinkle, receiving at the end of the year, in
addition to his board, fifty dollars in cash and two suits of clothes. A
part of the next year he worked for Joseph Liston, and then returned to