410                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

    When the war was over he gladly returned to his family, then living
in Clay county. He had been married on the 28th of April, 1856, to Miss
Nancy L. Stunkard, who was born in this county, and is a daughter of
Robert and Lavina Stunkard. Her father was a native of Pennsylvania
and her mother of the state of New York. Mr. Stunkard arrived in
Indiana in 1837 and is therefore numbered among the pioneer farmers
of Clay county. He aided in reclaiming wild land and in laying broad
and deep the foundation for the present development and progress of this
part of the state. His political allegiance was given to the Democratic
party in his early manhood but later he became a stalwart Republican.
    Unto Mr. and Mrs. Henderson have been born eight children, Alma
E., Stewart I., Mary F., Lola, Robert, Annie, William T. and Harley H.
All are living with the exception of Stewart I., who died at the age of
twenty-two years. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal
church and are interested in its work and liberal in its support. Mr.
Henderson gives his political allegiance to the Republican party and has
long been recognized as one of its prominent workers and stalwart advo—
cates in Brazil. He is widely known in Clay county and the good quali-
ties which he has displayed in citizenship, in official relations and in his
business connections have gained for him the unqualified regard of those
with whom he has been associated. He has lived to see the county
develop into one of the progressive districts of this great state and in the
work of upbuilding has borne his part, lending his influence to all that
tends to promote public improvement in material, intellectual, social or
moral lines. Brazil has had no better city treasurer than was Thomas
Henderson, or one more worthy the trust which was reposed in him.

    Samuel T. BUTT—A prosperous farmer and an active citizen of
Sugar Ridge township, with a comfortable homestead located near Cen-
ter Point, Samuel T. Butt is a native of Clay county, born on the 17th
of May, 1863, and received his education while working on the old fam-
ily farm in Jackson township; He is a son of William and Nancy
(Hicks) Butt, his father being a native of Lexington, Kentucky, and his
mother of Clay county, Indiana. The former was born in 1824, and
when he was about six years old. his father (the paternal grandfather)
moved from Kentucky to Putnam county, Indiana, and later to Clay
county, where he spent the last years of his life. William Butt lived with
his parents in Putnam county until he was sixteen years of age, when
(in 1840) he came to Jackson township and entered eighty acres of gov-
ernment land. In 1845, having just attained his majority, he married
and built a log house on his farm, which he had recently purchased and
now commenced to clear and cultivate in earnest. He continued to buy
other agricultural properties in Clay county until he finally owned more
than one thousand acres of such real estate, being then the largest land
owner in Jackson township. He died on the 27th of June, 1903, the
father of five sons and three daughters, and as he had given to each of
his children forty acres of land at the time of marriage, his estate was
eventually reduced to seven hundred and twenty acres. His widow, who
still survives, was born August 10, 1829.
    The parents of Mrs. William Butt were Uri H. and Clara (Purnell)
Hicks, of Randolph county, North Carolina. They were married in that
state, and were very early settlers in Orange county, Indiana. After
residing there for a few years they removed to Cass township, Clay