HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                          367

    When Mr. Frump came to Clay county seventy-three years ago the
family located in a forest well stocked with deer, wild cats and wolves,
and the father, with his assistance and the help of everyone to the limit
of his capacity, commenced the erection of a log house and the clearing
of the eighty acres which was to constitute the farm. Their supplies were
hauled from the vicinity of Terre Haute. At the age of seventeen his
father gave him his “freedom,” but a search for work among the farmers
of the neighborhood indicated that there were neither surplus labor nor
funds in circulation, so with three other young men the fortune-seeker
walked to a locality in Vigo county near Fort Harrison. They tramped
along all day without anything to eat but frozen turnips, and at night
John Frump stopped with a farmer named David Sassene, who hired
the grateful youth at ten dollars per month. Mr. Frump remained thus
employed for about two years, but during this period (in the spring of
1842) made a trip to New Orleans with his employer, their mode of con-
veyance being by a flat boat down the Ohio and Mississippi. Upon his
return to Clay county he traded in stock, split rails and otherwise busied
himself for about three years. In 1845 he entered forty acres of land in
Dick Johnson township, paying for it in stock at the rate of two dollars
per acre. Later he purchased eighty acres in Van Buren township, for
which he paid two horses and the remainder in cash—the latter being
earned by splitting rails at twenty-five cents per hundred and cutting
cordwood at twenty cents per cord. Having paid for his eighty acres, he
added a “forty” through much the same process. As illustrating the
advance in land values in about twenty years, it may be stated that in
1868 Mr. Frump sold forty acres of his farm at one hundred dollars per
acre. In the same year he bought four hundred and forty acres in sec-
tions 25, 30 and 36, Washington township, which comprised his present
homestead of two hundred and eighty acres. About five acres of the
farm be transformed into an orchard, which bears a variety of fruit, and
in 1876 he erected his present residence of eleven rooms, constructed of
home-made brick, with sandstone trimmings and pronounced the finest
house of the kind in Washington township.
    During the earlier years of his residence in Clay county Mr. Frump
was an active Democrat and held many offices, both because of his popu-
laritv and real ability. He cast his first vote for James K. Polk in the fall
of 1844; held the offices of constable and trustee of Van Buren township
(the latter for ten years) and served as county treasurer of Clay county
from September, 1856, to September, 1869. In all these offices he was a
model of precision, faithfulness, honor and general efficiency. He is still
a Democrat, but for many years has taken no active part in politics. His
identification with the Christian church, on the other hand, is as earnest
and steadfast as ever. At the organization of the church at Bowling
Green, in the late ‘sixties, he became an elder, and continued to hold the
office for about seven years. He is now a member of the Washington
township church at Bellair.
In March, 1848, Mr. Frump wedded Miss Betsy Jane Matthews,
daughter of William and Susan (Storm) Matthews, of Parke county,
Indiana. The father was a native of Tennessee and the mother of Ohio,
and they were married in Parke county. Afterward they spent some
time in western Illinois, and returned to Bowling Green, where they died
and were buried. Mrs. Matthews spent her last days at the home of Mr.
Frump. John Frump has become the father of five sons and six daugh-
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