228 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

parents of Mrs. Miller, were pioneers of Vigo county, locating in Lost
Creek township, her place of birth, and purchasing the farm on which
they spent their last years. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert E. Sutton have three
children, viz: James H., May C. and Edith L. Mr. Sutton’s fraternal
membership is with the F. & A. M. (Clay City Lodge, No. 562); he is a
Republican in politics.

    Hon.. Ralph W. Moss was born on a farm adjoining Ashboro, in
section 17, Clay county. April 21, 1862, and for a number of years has
been prominent in the business life of this community and active in its
political councils. He is one of the brightest and best senators the dis-
trict has ever had, and was elected to that high office in November, 1904,
for Clay and Owen counties. In the session of 1907 be was elected to
represent Clay and Vigo counties in the state senate.
    The Moss family is one of the oldest and best known in Clay county.
In 1826 George Moss, the grandfather of Ralph W., and a son of George
and Lydia (Bilderback) Moss, located with his parents in Sugar Ridge
township, Clay county, where the senior Mr. Moss entered several hun—
dred acres of timber land. The wife of George Moss, Jr., was Zorada
A.  Jenkins, and among their children was James T. Moss, the father of
Ralph W. He was born on the 6th of December, 1837, in Sugar Ridge
township, and always resided here, a carpenter, contractor and mill
owner. He built a grist mill at Ashboro in 1868, but this was burned in
August, 1871, when full of grain, and he thereby sustained heavy losses.
In his early manhood his father gave him a few acres of land, and he
added to it from time to time until he owned, at the time of his death, a
farm above the average in acreage and one of the finest and most pro-
ductive in the state of Indiana. Mr. Moss never in all his life attended
a show of any kind, and never joined a church or society excepting the
Grand Army of the Republic, his services in the Civil war entitling him
to membership in that order. He enlisted August 11, 1862, in Company
I.  Eighty—fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out June
12, 1865, with the rank of second lieutenant. He served his township
one year as an assessor, and was elected to the state legislature in 1890.
    James T. Moss married Sarah E. Eppert, who was born in Perry
county, Ohio, March 17, 1839, a daughter of Edward and Sena (Wil-
kins) Eppert, natives respectively of Baltimore, Maryland, and Ohio, and
a granddaughter of Jacob and Susanna (Bown) Eppert. The eldest son
of Mr. and Mrs. Moss, Alvernon P., born August 16, 1859, died on the
15th of May, 1891. He always resided on the home farm and had mar-
ried Hattie Grayson, born in Iowa in 1866, and had one child, Harry A.
He was born January 3, 1888, and with his mother now resides with Mrs.
Moss and her son Ralph.
    Ralph W. Moss supplemented his common-school training by attend-
ance of one year at Purdue University, and after the close of his school
days was associated with his father and brother in conducting a general
farming business, and also taught school for ten years during the winter
months. Since his father’s death he has had entire supervision of the
homestead, and since 1905 he has been conducting his cattle feeding on
the principles advocated by the experimental station at Purdue University.
He has never married. and resides with his mother and brothers on the
old Moss farm. He gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party,
and is a member of the blue lodge, chapter, commandery and the Eastern