JOSEPH D. ARMSTRONG.—Prominent among the native-born citizens
of Perry township, Clay county, is Joseph D. Armstrong, a man of cul-
ture and talent, who has long been an important factor in advancing the
educational status of this section of the state, and is also identified with
its agricultural development and progress. A son of George Dallas
Armstrong, he was born in this township November 10, 1878. His
grandfather, George W. Armstrong, was a native of Ohio and a son of
George Armstrong, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
    An ambitious student in the days of his youth, Joseph D. Armstrong
took advantage of every offered opportunity for advancing his early
education, attending first the district schools and afterward the Terre
Haute High School and the Indiana State Normal School of that city.
Fitted for a professional career, Mr. Armstrong began teaching in 1901,
and has taught school every year since, being a successful and popular
educator. While living at home he became well versed in the agricultural
arts and sciences, assisting his father in the management of the home
farm, and since his marriage has carried on general farming on his own
account, and is also interested to some extent in breeding and raising
stock. He has a finely improved farm, it being a part of the parental
homestead, which came to him by inheritance, and in its care he is
meeting with a due meed of success.
    Mr. Armstrong married, in 1899, Mary Fagan. She was born April
2, 1880, in Perry township, Clay county, which was, likewise, the birth-
place of her father, Robert Fagan. Her grandfather, Stephen Fagan,
was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, where his father, George Fagan, a
pioneer settler, improved a homestead, on which he and his wife, Maria
(Woodruff) Fagan, spent their last years. Stephen Fagan came from
Ohio to Indiana in 1850, locating in Perry township, where he took up
a tract of prairie land, from which he improved a homestead and on
which he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death. His wife,
whose maiden name was Eliza Donham, was born in Clermont county,
Ohio, a daughter of Robert and Ruth Donham. The youngest of a
family of eleven children, Robert Fagan came with his parents to In-
diana, and for many years was a highly esteemed and respected resident
of Perry township. Subsequently, on account of failing health, he started
for Texas, but died before arriving at his point of destination. He mar-
ried Nancy Staggs, who was born in Perry township, Clay county, a
daughter of Franklin and Rachel (Reece) Staggs. She survived him,
and married for her second husband Charles D. Jackson, of Perry town-
ship. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong has been blessed by the
birth of two children, Floy E. and Linda Argatha. Religiously Mrs.
Armstrong is a member of the Christian church.