ARTHUR ELMER DeBAUN, the efficient clerk of the Sullivan circuit court, Indiana, was born in Fairbanks township, Sullivan county, March 2, 1870, son of James P. and Rebecca J. (Dilley) DeBaun. His father, who was also a native of the same township, was born March 14, 1839, and died February 10, 1899. Abraham DeBaun, the grandfather, was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, November 27, 1813, and came to Sullivan county, Indiana, in 1831 with his father and mother, Samuel and Mary (Devine) DeBaun. Samuel DeBaun was a native of Virginia, born in 1776, and his father was a soldier in the Revolutionary cause. His powderhorn is now highly prized by Arthur E., of this sketch. Samuel, the great-grandfather, died in Sullivan county, Indiana, in 1833, and the grandfather, Abraham DeBaun, died April 3, 1900. The wife of Abraham, Elizabeth Pogue, was born in Fort Knox, near Vincennes, Indiana, July 28, 1816, and died July 17, 1884. She was five months old when her parents, James Pogue and wife, in the fall of 1816, with two other families, settled in Fairbanks township. These three original settlers and their families consisted of James Pogue, Joseph Thomas, and Leduwick Ernest. The mother of Arthur E. DeBaun, also a native of Fairbanks township, was born in 1845, and died February 1, 1871. She was the daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Johnson) Dilley. Her father was born in Ohio in 1806 and died in 1872; he came from Lawrence county to Sullivan county, and was among the pioneer settlers of that region. Nancy Johnson was born in 1813 in Ohio and died in 1887; she came with her parents to Sullivan county about 1820. The above named were farmers by occupation and helped to start the first enterprises in this part of the state. James P. DeBaun was married twice, his second wife being Sarah Ann Lee, who was born in Illinois, May 23, 1853, and died August 23, 1901. The three children born of the first union were: Iverson W., born 1866, died in infancy; Walter Scott, born January 22, 1868, resides in Fairbanks township; Arthur Elmer, of this memoir. There was no issue by the second marriage. James P. DeBaun was a Democrat of the stanch and uncompromising type and always followed farming. He and his wife were members of the Christian church.


Arthur Elmer DeBaun, who was reared on his father's farm was permitted to attend the public schools, and later entered DePauw University, at Greencastle, where he spent six years, graduating in the Liberal Arts course in the class of 1897. He then followed teaching school for two terms in Fairbanks township. Desiring to follow the legal profession, he took a law course in the Indiana Law School at Indianapolis and was graduated in 1901. In the spring of 1902, he went to Sullivan, becoming deputy county clerk, which position he held until he was seated as clerk, March 28, 1908, being elected to the office in 1906. He is a Democrat, and was elected on that ticket. Mr. DeBaun is a member of the Christian church.