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 don’t 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. Luther’s 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. Luther’s 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 Woman’s 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.