HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                          225

    LEWIS LUTHER—Among the veteran agriculturists of Clay county
none is held in higher respect than Lewis Luther, now owning and occu-
pying a well-kept farm in Lewis township. Industrious and enterprising,
he toiled early and late during the active years of his career, and through
his own unaided efforts achieved success in his undertakings, arising from
a modest position to that of one of the representative men of his com-
munity. A son of Thomas Luther, he was born in Randolph, North
Carolina, April 24, 1824, of German ancestry. His grandfather, Jacob
Luther, was, without doubt, born in Germany. For many years he resided
in North Carolina, but came from there to Clay county, Indiana, and both
he and his wife here spent their last days with their child, their bodies
being laid to rest in the pioneer burying-ground at Bowling Green. He
reared a large family, nearly all of whom settled in Clay county.
    Thomas Luther was born, bred and married in North Carolina, liv-
ing there until 1826. Then, with his wife and two children, he joined a
small band of emigrants just starting westward, the party making the
overland journey to Indiana with teams, two horses to a wagon, bringing
with them all of their worldly possessions and camping and cooking by
the way. Arriving in Clay county, Thomas Luther settled in Bowling
Green, the county seat, which was then a small hamlet, with no frame
structures, the dwellings, business houses, county jail and court house all
being constructed of logs. He was a blacksmith by trade, but had no
opportunity to show his skill in that line for quite a number of years,
there being but little call for that kind of work. Deer, wild turkeys,
squirrels and other kinds of game abounded, and for awhile he lived
principally by hunting. He subsequently worked in a saw mill and a
grist mill, and after awhile established a home and a smithy at Rawley’s
Mills. In 1838 he started with his family for Arkansas, but on account
of bad roads made a temporary stop at Saint Louis, Missouri, where he
was taken ill, and died in February, 1839. His widow and her seven
children immediately returned to Clay county, being accompanied by a
widowed sister and her family, the two brave women putting all of their
belongings into a wagon drawn by one horse, while they and their chil-
dren walked almost all of the way home, being several weeks in making
the trip. The mother settled with her family at Rawley’s Mills, and with
the aid of her children, all of whom were good workers, kept the family
together. The mother, whose maiden name was Martha Bingham, subse-
quently married for her second husband Levi Reed.
    Lewis Luther began to be self-supporting at an early age, and in
addition to helping his mother somewhat had at the age of nineteen years
saved about forty dollars. The man whom his mother was soon to marry
then gave him twelve and one-half dollars and he entered forty acres of
government land in Lewis township, in section nineteen. He continued
working by the month, however, at first receiving seven dollars a month,
then eight dollars, besides his board, his wages finally being raised to nine
dollars a month and board. During the time that he was thus employed
Mr. Luther built a hewed log house on his land, and there his mother
and her family lived until she married again, In the course of a few
years Mr. Luther sold his land for one hundred and thirty dollars, and
bought fifty-four and one-half acres in the Eel river bottoms. There he
built a log house, but before it was occupied sold that tract and purchased
prairie land in section twenty, Lewis township. After his marriage he
began farming on rented land in this township, and continued until 1852,