HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      471

county, Indiana, where his father lived for six years before moving to
Clay county, and after coming here he cleared eighty acres of land in
Posey township and fenced and improved a farm of one hundred and
sixty acres. In 1881 he sold the old homestead and bought two hundred
and ninety-two acres of his present homestead. Since then he has sold
and deeded away a part of the tract, owning at the present time about
two hundred acres. He raises the best grade of stock, making a specialty
of Berkshire hogs and short-horn cattle, and he also does a large dairy
business, owning about thirty milk cows and about twenty-eight head of
young cattle. He takes a prominent and active part in the public life of
his community, voting with the Democratic party, and during the long
period of seventeen years he has served his township as a supervisor.
    The marriage of Mr. Tiefel was celebrated in Posey township on
the 29th of August, 1858, when Mary Elizabeth Nolte, a daughter of
Adam Nolte, represented elsewhere in this history, became his wife. She
was born in Germany and was but six months old when brought by her
parents to the United States, and when she was ten years of age she came
with them to Indiana. They have had eleven children, of whom four
died in infancy, and those living are Magdalena, John Frederick, Mar-
garet, Jacob T., Henry L, William M. and Edward L., all born and
reared in Posey township. The eldest son, John Frederick, is the present
candidate (1908) for the office of commissioner of Clay county. Mr.
Tiefel is a member of the Lutheran church.

    OSWALD THEODORE CARRITHERS is a member of one of the first
families to seek a home in Clay county, and he is now numbered among
the county’s most prominent farmers and stock raisers, owning a val-
uable and well improved homestead in section 36, Jackson township. He
was born in Washington township, Clay county, August 15, 1850, and is
a grandson of Thomas and Sarah Carrithers, who came from Kentucky
to Vigo county, Indiana, in an early day, and from there to Clay county.
They were among the first to establish their home here, but subsequently
moved around a great deal.
    Among their children was James Carrithers, who was born in Vigo
county, Indiana, April 12, 1827, and was reared principally in Clay
county, having come here with his parents when small, and he remained
with them until his marriage, working at different occupations until he
finally purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Washington
township, which he cleared and improved. In 1860 he traded his Wash-
ington township farm for two hundred and eighty acres in Jackson town-
ship, of which he cleared a large amount and improved, but in 1872 he
left the farm and lived in Center Point until 1880, when he returned to
the homestead and died there in his seventy-second year. His wife,
Mahala E. Walker, was born in Washington township, Clay county, a
daughter of Nathan D. Walker, one of the earliest of the pioneers of the
county. Of the eight children of this union, two sons and six daughters,
all were born in Clay county, and four are now deceased. Mr. Carrithers,
the father, gave his political support to the Republican party, and was a
member of the Masonic order.
    Oswald T. Carrithers, the first born of the eight children, received
his education principally in the schools of Jackson township, and on the
16th of April, 1874, he was married to Mary Euphronia Kennedy, born
in Ohio March 22, 1865, a daughter of Dr. William J. Kennedy, a farmer,