"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.
PAGE 934

THOMAS M. FRANKLIN, farmer and stock raiser, eldest son and second
child of William and Sarah (Ritter) Franklin, natives of North Carolina
and Kentucky respectively, and of English extraction, was born in Owen
county, Indiana March 29, 1841.
He was reared upon the farm now owned and occupied by him and educated
at the public schools of his neighborhood. October 10, 1861, he enrolled
at Spencer, Indiana as a private soldier in Company A, Fifty-ninth
Indiana Volunteer Infantry under Capt. (later Gen.) McNaught and 
served up to April 4, 1865 when he was honorably discharged at 
Wilmington, North Carolina. While in the service, he participated in 
the seige of Vicksburg, the battle of Missionary Ridge, and was one of
the 60,000 men who went with Sherman from Atlanta to the sea.
October, 1868, he went to Missouri and remained twelve years engaged
in the meantime at farming two years and ten years at mining, returning
to his native place in the fall of 1880; he is now quietly leading the
life of a bachelor upon his farm, which consists of 149 acres, all in
cultivation, well stocked, and fully equipped with the necessary 
agricultural implements. In politics, he is an active, wide awake
Democrat and cast his first vote for President for Horace Greeley.

DATA ENTRY: Debbie Jennings