HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                              443

Masons; of Brazil Chapter, No. 59, Royal Arch Masons; of Brazil Corn-
mandery, No. 47, Knights Templar; of Colfax Lodge, No. 612, Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows ; and of Iron City Encampment, No. 11.
Both Mr. and Mrs. John are members of Knightsville Lodge, No. 328,
Daughters of Rebekah, and Mrs. John belongs to Knightsville Chapter,
No. 238, Order of the Eastern Star.

    WINFIELD S. CARPENTER, a retired farmed of Posey township, was
born on the homestead on which he is now living January 30, 1850. His
father, George Carpenter, who for many years was one of the most prom-
inent farmers of Posey township, was born in Bedford county, Pennsyl-
vania, where he was reared and later married to Elizabeth Anderson, a
native of that commonwealth, and they became the parents of nine chil-
dren, three sons and six daughters, four of whom were born in Pennsyl-
vania and five in Posey township, and Winfield S. is the eighth child and
third son of the family. George Carpenter was a Pennsylvania farmer
until 1839, when he emigrated with his family to Indiana and located on
the present homestead of his son Winfield, buying about one hundred
acres of land, of which he cleared a ‘goodly portion and farmed his land
until’ his death, He was a Republican in politics and a member of the
United Brethren church.
    Winfield S. Carpenter attended in his early youth the schools of
Posey township, and passed from the district schools to the Asbury Uni-
versity at Greencastle, He was married in 1877 to Lottie Rider, who was
born and reared in the state of New York, and subsequently came with
her parents to Clay county, Indiana, where her ‘father followed his trade
of a brick mason, Mr, and Mrs. Carpenter have two children, Margaret
E. and Sara E., and the elder is the wife of John L. Butsch, a pharmacist
and chemist. Throughout the years of his maturity Mr. Carpenter has
supported and upheld the principles of the Republican party, and in i888
he was elected the clerk of the Clay circuit court and served for four years
in that ‘position. He was a director of the Indiana Reformatory at Jef-
ferson ‘from 1896 until’ 1900, and has attained prominence in the ‘public
life of this section of Indiana. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity
and of the United Brethren church.

    GEORGE L. BROOKS.—During a number of years past George L.
Brooks has’ been identified with the business interests of Clay county.
He began learning horseshoeing and carriage making and repairing when
but a lad of fifteen years, immediately after leaving school, and worked in
Terre Haute until he had reached the age of twenty-four. Coming thence
to Clay county, Indiana, in 1900, he began horseshoeing, blacksmithing
and general wagon repairing in Center Point, and from January of 1903
until September of 1907 he was in business with a partner, but at the latter
date bought his partner’s interest, and is now the proprietor of the only
establishment of its kind in Center Point.
    Mr. Brooks is a descendant of the mother country of England, his
paternal great-grandparents having founded the family in the United
States and located in New York. His son, James Brooks, located in an
early day in Oakland, Coles county, Illinois, He was born in New York,
and was married in Fontanet, Indiana, and among their children was a
son George, who became the father of George L. George Brooks was
born in Ohio in 1828, and moving to Parke county, Indiana, was a mill-