HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY  299

1812. He was well educated in his native land for the miner’s vocation,
and in that country he was married to one of its native daughters, Minnie
Riese, born in 1818. In 1849, with their family of three children, of
whom Christian was the oldest, they came to the United States and
located in Pennsylvania, where the father was engaged in mining in Potts-
ville and Pittsburg until removing to Ohio about 1851. He mined in
Wayne county of that state until he came with his family to Clay county,
Indiana, in 1854, and from that time until his death he mined in Posey
township and vicinity, dying in 1864. In the family of Mr. and Mrs.
Ehrlich were nine children,—Christian, Julius, Burtus, Charles, Mary
and Jacob, and three died in infancy and Charles and Mary are also
deceased. Mr. Ehrlich gave his political allegiance to the Republican
party, and he was a member of the German Catholic church.
    Christian Ehrlich received his educational training in the district
schools of Posey township, and he worked in the mines of his father
until the latter’s death. In 1861 he became a member of the Tenth
Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company F, and served three months, after
which he was made a member of the Sixth Indiana Cavalry and served
to the close of the war, in the meantime participating in the battles of
Rich Mountain, Virginia, with the infantry, and of Richmond, Kentucky,
with the cavalry. At the latter engagement he was captured and held as
a prisoner of war until paroled and sent to Indianapolis, where he was
exchanged, and there re-entered the service and fought in the campaign
from Chattanooga to Atlanta. At Malvern Hill in Kentucky he was
captured by John Morgan, but was exchanged after only one night of
imprisonment. He was in the memorable battle of Nashville, where
General Hood was defeated, and was mustered out of the service at
Pulaski, Tennessee. Returning thence to his home in Clay county he
located at Staunton and mined there until 1868, when he went west to
near Helena, Montana, on a prospecting tour of several days, but was
absent altogether about three years engaged in placer mining during
the most of the time. It was in 1870 that he returned once more to
Clay county, and has since been extensively engaged in mining operations.
    In March of 1871 Mr. Ehrlich was married to Mary Frances
Schaffer, who was born in Hamilton, Ohio, but she was young when she
came with her parents to Clay county, Indiana, and was reared and edu-
cated in Posey township, a daughter of John and Mary Schaffer, promi-
nent farmers of this community. Ten children have been born to Mr.
and Mrs. Ehrlich,—Alice, Jake, Mary, Katherine, Charley, Emma, Rosie,
Blanche, James and Minnie, but the latter was accidentally burned to
death while playing in the school yard, her dress having become ignited.
Mr. Ehrlich is quite an active political worker, and gives his allegiance
to the Republican party.

    JOHN PHILIP SCHERB.—The son of an early pioneer family of Clay
county, John Philip Scherb is well known throughout this section of
Indiana as an upright, honest man, who has been intimately associated
with the development of many of its industrial resources. Having lived
thus far within its boundaries, he has witnessed wonderful changes come
over the land. In his boyhood days school-houses, line churches, and
costly residences were conspicuous only by their absence. The dense
forests roundabout have given way to flourishing cities and towns or to
magnificent agricultural estates, producing abundantly of the crops com