444	HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

wright there until his removal to Terre Haute. In 1868 he went from
there to lola, Allen county, Kansas, on account of ill health, and his death
occurred there on the 12th of June, 1869, his widow afterward returning
to Terre Haute. That city was her home until 1888, since which time she
has lived among her children. She bore the maiden, name of Mary Black
and was born in Delaware in 1826, a daughter of Samuel W. and Lydia
C. (Mann) Black, born in Delaware in 1804 and i8oo respectively.
	George L. Brooks, the second born of the four children of George
and Mary Brooks, two sons and two daughters, was born in Vigo county,
Indiana, April 17, 1863. On the 26th of September, 1885, he was married
to Laura Flockart, torn in Clay county, Indiana, and a daughter of
Thomas Flockart, originally from Scotland. On the 26th of February,
1895, Mr. Brooks wedded Minnie C. Englehart, the widow of Philip Neid-
linger, by whom she had seven children : Ernest and Jacob, who reside in
Parke county, Indiana; Henry and Theodore, of Brazil; Alonzo, of Center
Point; and Bertha and Minnie, of Terre Haute. Four children have been
born to Mr. Brooks by his second union: Earl B., born December 6, 1895;
George W., November 11, 1897; Ivan M., February 8, 1900; and Marie
M., September 13, 1903. Mr. Brooks is a Republican politically, and a
member of the Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows fraternities in Center
Point, Indiana.

	GEORGE DAVIS COBLE.—An excellent representative of the agri-
cultural interests of Clay county, George D. Coble is also identified with
the horticultural interests of this part of the state, a part of his fine farm,
lying in Perry township, being devoted to the growing of fruits. A man
of fine business ability and integrity, he stands high among the practical
and progressive farmers of his community, and is one of its valued citi-
zens. A son of Thomas Coble, he was born December 23, 1849, in Carroll
county, Ohio, and there spent his boyhood days.
	Thomas Coble was born October 17, 1816, near York, Pennsylvania,
a son of Philip and Margaret (Thorley) Coble, natives of Germany. At
the age of twelve years he moved with his parents to Ohio, and there
lived for many years, .as a farmer earning his living by the sweat of his
brow. Coming to Clay county in 1864, he invested his savings in land
in Perry township, in sections twenty-six and twenty-seven, buying two
hundred and forty acres of land. Industrious and energetic, he labored
with characteristic German thrift to improve a homestead, and was here
prosperously employed in tilling the soil until his death in 1890; He
married Catherine Davis, a daughter of Evan and Mary (McGuire)
Davis, natives of Virginia. She survived him, dying November 27, 1902.
at a ripe old age. Of the nine children born of their union but four are
living, two boys and two girls.
	The fifth child in order of birth of the parental household, George D.
Coble was educated in the public schools of Center Point under the in-
struction of William Travis, being there fitted for a teacher during his
two years of study after coming to this county, in 1864, from Ohio. At
the age of nineteen years he began his professional career in his home
district in Perry township, and taught there seven years, after which he
taught four terms in other parts of the county. Establishing himself as
the head of a household in 1873, Mr. Coble purchased one hundred and
sixty acres of the parental homestead, eighty acres of it being in section
twenty-six, and eighty acres in section twenty-seven. Here he followed