ELIAS RANARD, a prominent farmer and stock grower of Clay township, is the fourth son and sixth child 
of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Massey) Ranard, natives of North Carolina and Kentucky, and of English and 
German descent respectively, and was born in Pulaski county Kentucky, June 4, 1815. He came with his 
parents to Indiana in 1830 and has since resided in Clay township. He was reared upon a farm and at the 
neighborhood schools acquired a fair English education. October 20, 1836, he married in Monroe County, 
Indiana, Jane Nesbitt, by whom he has had born to him eight children--Sarintha, William N, Elizabeth, 
Catharine (deceased), Ella, Nancy Anna, Benjamin F and Warren T (deceased). Mr and Mrs R. are members 
of the Christian Church at Richland, Monroe County. From 1868 to 1871 he was engaged in the mercantile 
business at White Hall, Indiana carrying on his farm at the same time. Mr. R is a self made man and has done 
as much as any other one citizen toward reducing the forests of Indiana and bringing the lands up to their present 
high state of cultivation. He owns two fine farms, most under cultivation fairly improved and well stocked.


DATA ENTRY: Debbie Jennings
"HISTORY OF OWEN COUNTY 1884" CHARLES BLANCHARD, EDITOR. CHICAGO: F. A. 
BATTEY & CO. PUBLISHERS. 1884. F. A. BATTEY. F. W. TEPPLE
CLAY TOWNSHIP IN OWEN CO., IN.
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