I am trying to learn how to use my scanner to convert printed material into
word processor text, and was successful in reading the County History and
converting the Travis bio into ASCII. Bio follows:
Blanchard, Charles, editor. County of Clay, Indiana: Historical and
Biographical. Chicago: F. A. Battey & Co., Publishers. 1884.
pp. 440-441.
WILLIAM TRAVIS was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, April 25,
1838. His father, John S. Travis, and his mother, whose maiden
name was Hannah Kline, were born in eastern Pennsylvania, the
former being of English, and the latter of German parentage. In
1833, the family emigrated to Ohio. The subject of this
biographical sketch is the youngest of seven children, five
brothers and two sisters. The first ten years of his boyhood
were spent on the farm. From the age of nine to that of fifteen
years, he attended the public schools in the winter season, and
at times, select schools in the summer. At the age of sixteen he
began teaching in the public schools. In his eighteenth year he
learned the plasterer's trade, at which he worked in the summer
time, up to 1865, teaching in the winter. In the latter part of
the year 1857, he married Miss Susan Zimmermann, of Swiss
parentage, who was born and raised in the same neighborhood. In
October, 1859, he removed to Clay County, Ind., and located at
Brazil. Two years later he located at Center Point. At the June
term of Commissioners Court, 1864, he was appointed School
Examiner for the county for the term of three years. Having been
legislated out of office in March 1865, he was re-appointed in
June following for three years. In 1865, he organized and
established a private school at Center Point which, under his
management and instruction, attained a higher degree of
efficiency and popularity than any other educational enterprise
ever yet instituted and conducted in the history of the county.
In 1867, he was announced before the Democratic County Convention
a candidate for Auditor, receiving 29 votes, his successful
competitor leading him by 8 votes in a total of 66. In 1868, he
was before the Democratic Convention a candidate for Clerk of the
Clay Circuit Court, receiving 22 out of 66 votes, in a ballot for
three candidates. In April, 1869, Mr. Travis entered the field
of journalism, publishing the Sunbeam, a monthly paper devoted to
education and general information. A year later he bought the
Constitution office at Bowling Green and became proprietor and
editor of the recognized Democratic paper of the county. At the
expiration of the second year, the Sunbeam was discontinued,
several hundred dollars having been sacrificed in its
publication. In June, 1871, he was again appointed to the office
of School Examiner, and was again legislated out of office in
March, 1873. On the first of April, 1874, he sold out the
printing office and retired from the publishing business. In
November, 1874, he removed to Middlebury and engaged in teaching,
where he now lives. In 1875 and 1876, he published the Martz
Eaglet. In July, 1878, in company with T. J. Gray, he
established the National Index at Brazil, which he edited for one
year. In February, 1881, he established the Clay City
Independent, in the publication of which he has since been
engaged. Mr. Travis is the father of eleven children, eight sons
and three daughters, nine of whom are living. The oldest, a
daughter, is married and lives at Clay City. The second, who is
the oldest son, is a resident of Clifton, Dakota.