454                     HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

in December, 1816, and there grew to manhood, He came with his par-
ents to Perry township in 1835, and here, in section six, his father entered
land for him. He afterwards entered government land himself in section
seven, and upon it built a log house, riving by hand the boards with which
it was covered. He built a puncheon floor and a stick and clay chimney,
and in this humble abode his. children were born. He labored industriously
and perseveringly, and on the farm which he hewed from the wilderness
spent the remainder of his life, passing away in 1877. His first wife,
whose maiden name was Anna Van Cleave, was born in Kentucky and
moved when a girl with her parents to Orange county, Indiana, where she
was brought up and married. She died in 1847, leaving three children,
namely: Charles Galen, the subject of this sketch; James; and Sarah. He
married second Mrs. Martha (Gross) Lee, who bore him seven children,
namely: Joel, John, George, Mary, Laura, Katie and Arminda.
    Brought up in pioneer days, Charles Galen Rector obtained his early
education in the log schoolhouse with its slab benches, learning to write
on a plank placed against the wall, which took the place of the desks of
modern times. The family in his boyhood days, in common with their
neighbors, lived in very primitive style, dressing in homespun made from
material manufactured by the good housewife, who used to card, spin
and weave the flax and wool grown on the farm, and fashion the gar-
ments for her entire family. Traveling was done either with teams or on
horseback, there being neither railways nor canals when he. was a boy.
In August, 1862, Mr. Rector enlisted in Company C, Thirty-first Indiana
Volunteer Infantry, and veteranized in 1863. He remained with his regi-
merit, gallantly participating in all of its hardships, exposures and engage-
ments, until June, 1864, when in front of Kenesaw Mountain, while throw-
ing up breastworks, he was severely wounded by a bullet from a sharp-
shooter, He was first taken to the field hospital, from there being re-
moved to Chattanooga, thence to Nashville, and from there to the Sol-
diers’ Home at Indianapolis, In the fall of 1864 Mr. Rector was trans-
ferred to Company A, Seventeenth Veteran Reserve Corps, and continued
with his regiment until November, 1865, when he was honorably dis-
charged from the service and returned home.
    Soon after his return to Indiana Mr. Rector bought forty acres of
land in Posey township, and in the log cabin that stood upon it he and
his family lived for a few years. Selling out then he came to Perry town-
ship and purchased the land he now owns and occupies in section eighteen.
Here he has a well improved and well appointed farm, with an excellent
set of frame buildings, and is most successfully engaged in general farm-
ing, stock-raising and horticultural pursuits.
    Mr. Rector married first, in 1866, Delilah Boor, a life-long resident
of Indiana. After her death Mr. Rector married Mrs. Phoebe A.
(Foulke) Rector, a sister of Silas Foulke, in whose sketch, on another
page of this volume, a history of her parents may he found. Her first
husband, James Rector, was born in Perry township, Clay county, in
November, 1844, a son of John P. and Anna (Van Cleave) Rector, and
brother of Charles G., the subject of this sketch. After his marriage Mr.
James Rector moved from Perry township to Buchanan county, Missouri,
and seven years later removed to Atchison county, Kansas. Locating
about nine miles from the city of Atchison, he bought land and was there
engaged in farming and horticulture until his death, May 23, 1886. By