HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                          435

to Clay county he entered the employ of his uncle James Keller, a
farmer, with whom he remained for some time. After working for
seven years Mr. Keller rented land and began farming for himself.
His labors were crowned with success, and in 1885, with the money
that he had saved, he bought twenty acres of his present home farm.
The land was then in its pristine wildness, being covered with timber
and brush. Improving the land and erecting good buildings, he has
subsequently purchased other land, having now in his home estate one
hundred and forty-eight acres of rich and productive land, the greater
part being bottom land, his house, however, being situated in a beautiful
natural grove, an ideal location for a home.
    On November 28, 1880, Mr. Keller married Laura Stout. A
daughter of John Stout, she was born in Lewis township, Clay county,
Indiana, October 5, 1862. Her grandfather, Peter Stout, was a pioneer
settler of Lewis township, and on the homestead that he redeemed from
the wilderness spent his declining years. His wife, whose maiden name
was Jane Graveston, survived him many years and married for her
second husband John Lanning. John Stout followed farming in Lewis
township during his active life, which was but brief, his death occurring
while he was yet in manhood’s prime. He married Rachel Jessup, a
daughter of Silas and Nancy Jessup, and she, too, died at a compara-
tively early age, passing away at the age of forty-five years. She was
a life-long resident of Lewis township. Mr. and Mrs. Keller are the
parents of five children, namely: Leora, Estea, Woody, Russell, Ertice
and David Herschel. Religiously Mrs. Keller and her two daughters
are faithful members of the United Brethren church. Politically Mr.
Keller is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, and in 1896 was
elected a county commissioner. lie and his son Woody also belong to
the United Brethren church.

    MARTIN Hyland.__Among those who assisted in transforming
Clay county and its vicinity from its primitive state to one of the fore-
most sections of the state is numbered Martin Hyland, for many years
one of the most prominent farmers of Perry township. He was born in
county Mayo, Ireland, in 1814, a son of James and a Miss (McMannus)
Hyland, who spent their lives in their native land of Ireland. The son,
however, left his home and native land and coming to the United
States located in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1848, where he worked at
his trade of blacksmithing, and soon afterward went from there to
Greggsville, Virginia, to work at his trade for the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad Company. After some years there he was transferred from
place to place on the company’s line until finally, on November 19, 1856,
he landed in Perry township, Clay county, Indiana. He had been
induced to remain in Virginia until after the election in order to vote
for Buchanan for the presidency, and after his arrival in this county he
bought timber land in section 26, also becoming the owner of fifty-six
acres in Sugar Ridge township and eighty acres near Saline, and these,
with his sixty-nine acres in Perry township, made him a large and val-
uable farm. He became the owner of his land in Sugar Ridge town-
ship in 1856, and to his credit it may be said that there was never debt
on his farm. He cleared all of his land and experienced all the trials
and hardships known only to the frontiersman, his busy and useful life
being ended on the 13th of June, i888.