HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                          131

time went with his son to Jackson township, where he lived until more
than ninety years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth
Lucas, died two years before he did. Reared on the home farm in Cass
township, George W. Latham subsequently lived for a few years in Jack-
son township, after which he sold the farm that he there owned and
returned to Cass township. Buying land, he cleared and improved a
homestead, on which he was employed in tilling the soil until his death,
at the age of seventy-four years. He was a man of prominence in the
community, and for twenty years served as a justice of the peace. His
wife, whose maiden name was Lucinda Wilkerson, was born in Cass
township, a daughter of Robert and Catherine (Moffit) Wilkerson, the
former of whom was born in Ireland, of Scotch ancestry, and was a
pioneer settler of Cass township. George W. Latham’s first wife died
at the early age of twenty-nine years and he married for his second wife
Rhoda Slack, who is still living, being now eighty-five years of age.
    Six children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Diel, namely: Myra
Ella, Sarah Lucinda, Rhoda Annis, Mary Elizabeth, Clarissa Catherine
and Olive May. Myra Ella is the wife of Lawrence Loudermilk, and
has four children, Bessie, Myrtie, Ray and Hester. Sarah Lucinda, wife
of Daniel Meyers, has eight children, Gertie, George, Mabel, William,
Edith, Leora, Dewey and Bernice. Rhoda Annis, wife of Charlie Bennett,
has three children, Grace Belle, Fred and Fredie. Mary Elizabeth mar-
ried Leander Overton, and they have one child, Elsie. Clara Catherine
married William Schiele, who died in 1898. She lived but two years
longer, dying in May, 1900, and leaving one child, David William Schiele.
Olive May is the wife of John Nevins. Three of the grandchildren of
Mr. and Mrs. Diel are married, Bessie Loudermilk having married
William Beasley ; Myrtie Loudermilk is also married and Gertie Meyers
married Frank Nyer and has two children, Janice and an infant.

    ULRICH SCHLATTER.—AS proprietor and manager of a well-tilled
farm in Van Buren township, Ulrich Schlatter is identified with the ad-
vancement of the agricultural prosperity of Clay county. For many
years he has been a resident of this vicinity, and is in all respects con-
sidered a valuable citizen of the township, fulfilling his duties and obli-
gations as such with commendable fidelity. A son of John George
Schlatter, he was born October 31, 1857, in Owen county, Indiana, of
honored German ancestry.
    John George Schlatter was born, bred and educated in Wurtemberg,
Germany. In early manhood, seeing but little opportunity for accumu-
lating wealth in the Fatherland, he turned his face towards America,
and after a sixty days’ passage on a sailing vessel arrived in New York
city, he and his brother Martin being the only members of the family to
cross the Atlantic. Proceeding westward to Ohio, he lived there until
after his marriage, when he came to Owen county, Indiana, where for a
time he was employed in farming on a tract of rented land. In 1871 he
came to Clay county, and for a number of years lived in Harrison town-
ship, from there removing to Harmony, where his death occurred at the
age of seventy-two years. The maiden name of his wife was Magdalena
Schepper. She was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and died at her home
in Indiana, aged three score and ten years. She reared a family of eight
children, namely: William, Catherine, Mary, John, Ulrich, Barbara,
Henry and Rosa.