Thanks so much. Nicholas and George are my husbands family. The spelling
should be "Crist". Is it Grist in the book or hard to read. Again Thanks.
Wanda Crist
04:48 PM 11/24/2002 -0700, you wrote:
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Luther, Stroud, Bowman, Matson, Grist, Gobel, Biggs, Barton,
Sherfey, Weinland, Randall, Scovill,
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/xh.2ADE/1607
Message Board Post:
This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay;
it just has the insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not
researching this family, just thought I would share. I do not know anymore
about these families or these surnames. NOTE: I donât know if there is
any additional mention of this family in the book, it has no index. I do
not want to sell this book. I am typing the biographies from it.
Typed by Lora Radiches:
Surnames in this biography are: Luther, Stroud, Bowman, Matson, Grist,
Gobel, Biggs, Barton, Sherfey, Weinland, Randall, Scovill,
HON. PETER T. LUTHER in his profession as a lawyer and as a public
official and citizen was an interesting link between the modern present
and the rather remote past of Clay County. At the time of his death, on
August 29, 1929, citizens revived many memories of this veteran lawyer,
who had spent more than sixty years in the harness as a practicing
attorney and had been repeatedly honored with the dignities and
responsibilities of public leadership both in office and in his party. Mr.
Luther was born in Clay County, October 18, 1844, and was nearing his
eighty-fifth birthday when he died. His parents were William and Charlotte
(Stroud) Luther, and he was the last survivor of their eleven children.
His father was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, October 27, 1804,
and came when a youth to Indiana, and married a girl from Crawford County,
this state. About 1828 they located on a farm in Harrison Township, Clay
County, and were among the industrious homemakers and pionee!
rs of that region. Peter T. Luther grew up on the home farm, made the
best of his advantages in the public schools, and when nineteen years old
began teaching. Teaching enabled him to pay his expenses while in Indiana
University. In 1866, after returning home, he was nominated by the
Democratic Party as candidate for county surveyor. He was elected and
served two years, and during the winter resumed teaching. In 1868
he was elected county recorder for a term of four years. His first defeat
as a candidate for office came with the landslide of 1872, which
swept all of the Republican nominees into county offices. At that time he
was candidate for clerk of the Circuit Court. He was deputy sheriff from
October, 1878, until October, 1880. Mr. Luther was regarded as one of the
old warhorses of the Democratic party of the Fifth District. He described
himself as a dyed in the wool, rock-ribbed Democrat. He was very proud of
his party regularity, and could ne!
ver understand a man who would scratch a ticket or move from one party
affiliation to another. It is said that he never missed a local political
meeting of his party and for more than fifty years had stumped the county
in every political campaign and had often been drafted by the district and
state committees. He was never too busy or too tired to lend his services
to his party whether as a precinct worker or as a political orator. After
his last term in office Mr. Luther joined another former recorder, L. J.
Bowman, in an abstract business. Mr. Bowman retired in 1882 and was
succeeded by Charles E. Matson, and the firm of Matson & Luther continued
for seventeen years as a law firm and also as abstractors of title and
real estate dealers. With the retirement of Mr. Matson, in 1899, Mr.
Luther was joined in the law and the abstract business by his son, William
P. Luther, and the firm of Luther & Luther continued until the death of
the senior partner. Mr. Luther was also vice !
president and a director of the Davis Trust Company, was president of the
Clay County Building & Loan Association, and owned and operated a large
farm in Harrison Township. For several years he was in the newspaper
business at Bowling Green and Brazil. A native son of Clay County,
he was extremely interested in every- thing pertaining to its
history, and be supplied a great deal of valuable information to
the county centennial committees when the centennial celebration
was held. He was prominent in fraternal orders, holding high offices and
for many years attended grand lodge meetings. Mr. Lutherâs death
occurred on the sixty-second anniversary of his wedding. He married,
August 29, 1867, Miss Mary Elizabeth Grist, daughter of Nicholas and Sarah
(Gobel) Grist, and a granddaughter of Nicholas and Nancy (Biggs) Grist,
while her great-grand-father was George Grist. Her grandfather, Nicholas
Grist, was born in Kentucky, came to Indiana and first !
settled in Clark County and afterwards in Clay County. He served with the
Kentucky Volunteers in the War of 1812. Nicholas Grist is buried in the
Friendly Grove Church Cemetery in Lewis Township, Clay County. Mrs.
Lutherâs father, Nicholas Grist, was a farmer and stock raiser who spent
all his life in Lewis Township, and both he and his wife are buried in the
Friendly Grove Church Cemetery. They had nine children, Mrs. Luther, David
T., Eunice, Sarah, Matilda, Rebecca, James, Rachael E. and one that died
in infancy. Mrs. Luther, her brother David and her sisters Eunice and
Rachael are the only survivors. Mrs. Luther was born March 7, 1847, in
Clay County, attended the common schools and received tutoring at home,
and during all her residence here has been active in social welfare and
civic work, being the only living charter member of the Womanâs Reading
Club of Brazil. She resides at 617 Meridian Street in Brazil. Mr. and Mrs.
Luther had five children; Minn!
ie L. is the wife of William E. Barton, of Indianapolis. William P.
married Mary M. Sherfey, and they have two children, William, a graduate
of the Indiana University, A. B., with the class of 1929, admitted to the
bar in 1930 and now associated with his father in the law firm of Luther &
Luther, and Lois Helen, a graduate of the DePauw University and the New
England Conservatory of Music at Boston. Nellie L., the youngest daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Luther, is the widow of Harry E. Weinland, who for
many years was a prominent druggist of Brazil, in the firm of Schultz &
Weinland. They had two children, Joseph L., a graduate of Purdue
University, and Mary E., a graduate of the class of 1981 from the
Brazil High School. The two deceased children of Mr. and Mrs. Peter T.
Luther are James C., who died in childhood, and one who died in infancy.
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