HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      161

a pioneer of Adair county. Enlisting as a soldier during the war of 1812,
he died while in service.
    Born July 17, 1802, in Adair county, Kentucky, George. Green Mc-
Kinley was there bred and educated. Commencing. life for himself when
young, he rented land in Kentucky and, was there: employed, in tilling the
soil for a number of years. Building a flat boat in 1828, he took his
crop of corn down the river to market,being accompanied by his wife
and children. Selling his entire crop and the boat at Nanchez, he
returned to his Kentucky home, packed all of his belongings into a cart,
hitched on a pair of steers, and immediately started for Indiana.His
two small children rode in the cart, while his wife rode a small mare.
Arriving safely in Clay county with, the four hundred dollars in silver
which he had received for his corn and boat, Mr. McKinley entered two
tracts of government land, one in section twenty-seven and one in sec-
tion thirty-four of what is now Van Buren township. 0n the latter he
built a log house, in which the family lived for some time. The settlers
were then few and far between, there being but two families nearer than
Eel river, ten miles away, and for a number of years Spencer, in Owen
county, was the nearest post office.
    A man of great enterprise, energetic and public-spirited, Mr. Mc-
Kinley was what is now popularly  called “a live wire.” He was ever
interested in local progress and improvements, and was among the fore-
most in advancing all enterprises of public benefit. When the National
Road was completed he built a brick house and a large barn, and opened
a stage station, which he kept for several years. He was one of the
prime movers in the building of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and was
largely instrumental in having the Vandalia Railway put through here.
At the time it was to be built there were two proposed routes, one being
through Parke county, that being the one favored by other contractors,
who refused, to consider any other way. Mr. McKinley, who was, decid-
edly in favor of the Clay county route, attended a meeting of the direc-
tors and came forward and took the contract for building through this
section of the state, giving the required bonds, and thus securing a rail-
road for this county. No individual did more and few if any, did as
much as he in promoting and advancing the welfare of Clay county, and
his name will ever be remembered most gratefully for generations to
come. He was the first postmaster at Harmony, where the ‘first’ post
office in Van Buren township was established. He was a man of strong
character, an ardent Christian, and a, valued  member of the Methodist
Episcopal church, contributing generously towards its support  and
advancement.
    Mr. McKinley married first Barbara Belk, who was born April 1
1799, in Adair county, Kentucky, and died October 4, 1856, in Clay
county, Indiana. She was the mother of four children, as follows:
James; Polly Ann; Eliza Jane, now Mrs. Pell ;and Rhoda .Mr. McKin-
ley married second Hannah Haymaker, by whom he had three children,
Victoria, George and Kansas.
    On December 7, 1852 Eliza Jane McKinley became the wife of
Richard Dudley Pell. A native of Kentucky, he was born in Lewis
county, a son of John and Rebecca (Ales) Veil. Further parental his-
tory may be found on another page of this work in connection with the
sketch of William F. Pell. Coming to Indiana when Pell
acquired a good education for those days and was subseqnently one of