452                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

the country to a greater extent than any man now (1908), thus engaged
in Clay county. He is engaged also in drilling wells for mines. His
services have been in constant demand and continuing in this line of busi-
ness to the present time he has become well-to-do.
    On the 3d of December, 1896, was celebrated the marriage of John
B. Mershon and Miss Grace Weatherwax, who was born in Owen county,
Indiana, and was a daughter of John and Magdalena Weatherwax. The
father was born in New York and died at the age of seventy-one years.
He was one of the pioneer gold seekers to California, and served in the
Fifty-fourth Indiana Regiment during the Civil war. The mother’s birth
occurred in Germany. She still survives and is now a resident of Clay
county. Mr. Weatherwax was one of the pioneer farmers of Owen and
Clay counties and aided in the agricultural development of this section of
the state while reclaiming wild land for cultivation. Unto him and his
wives, he having married three times, were born thirteen children, of
whom Mrs. Mershon is the youngest. By her marriage she has become
the mother of two daughters and a son: Charlotte M., Verna E. and
John Furnnace.
    Mr. Mershon gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party,
but an active business life has left him little time for co-operation in
political work. He is a faithful and valued representative of the Masonic
fraternity, belonging to Brazil lodge, No. 264, A. F. & A. M.; Brazil
chapter, No. 59, R. A. M.; Brazil council, No. 40, R. & S. M.; and Brazil
commandery, No. 47, K. T. He has many warm friends in the city where
his entire life has been passed, gaining that regard which is given in recog-
nition of sterling qualities. In 1907 he purchased Orchard place,’ the
most beautiful home in Clay county.

    JOHN A. FALLS, a retired farmer of Posey township, was born in
Muskingum county, Ohio, July 8, 1829. His father, John W. Falls, was
born in either Ohio or Virginia, but was reared in Ohio and was there
married to Mary Marks, a native daughter of the state, Four children
were born to them in Ohio—Mary Jane, John, Susan F. and Hester Ann.
Mr. Falls, the father, went to Charleston, Illinois, in his later life and died
there, He was first an old-line Whig in his political affiliations, finally
transferring his allegiance to the Republican party at the time of its or-
ganization, and he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. The
father of John W. Falls was born in Ireland.
    John A. Falls came to Indiana from Ohio in 1850, where he was born
and educated, and located in Cloverland, resuming at once his former trade
of a potter. After several years at that occupation he obtained a half
interest in the business with which he was connected. In company with
William Carpenter he later bought seventy-one acres of land in Posey
township, of which they cleared about ten acres, and finally Mr. Falls
bought his partner’s interest in the land and is now the owner of the entire
seventy acres. He has also bought other lands in Posey township, and
now has in all about one hundred and forty-five and a half acres and
property in Cloverland. About 1902, however, he retired from the active
work of the farm.
    Mr. Falls married, June 26, 1857, Katherine A. Carpenter, who was
born in Pennsylvania October 2, 1836, and was but three years of age
when brought by her parents to Clay county, Indiana. Her father was
George Carpenter, one of the early pioneers of Cloverland, where Mrs.