NATHAN J. SILLS.-Among the business men of prominence in Jackson township is numbered Nathan J. Sills, who follows both farming and mining. He is also numbered among the native sons of Jackson township, born on the 20th of February, 1864, to David and Elizabeth (Bogard) Sills, both of whom claimed Kentucky as the commonwealth of their nativity. They came with their parents in an early day to Indiana, the Bogards locating in Vigo county and the Sills in Jackson township, Sullivan county. After attaining to mature years David Sills began farming for himself, and continued in the occupation until stricken with paralysis in about 1874, his death occurring four years later in 1878. The last four years of his life were spent on the farm on which his son Nathan now lives. His widow is now residing near Lewis in this township, having reached the advanced age of eighty-six years.
The educational training of Nathan J. Sills was received in school No. 1 of Jackson township, and when but fifteen years of age he was obliged to begin the battle of life for himself, for his father was an invalid and much of the support of the family fell upon his young shoulders. He remained at home until he was twenty-one, after which he rented a farm in Clay county for one season, and then returning to the home farm worked in the mine as well as superintending the work of the farm. In 1892 he bought thirty-seven and a half acres of the old home place, to which he later added twenty acres adjoining, and hr still continues to work in the mine and look after his farming interests.
On the 26th of March, 1885, Mr. Sills was united in marriage to Miss Ella Willie, who was born in Owen county, Indiana, June 20, 1864, a daughter of John E. and Magdalena Everhart Willie, the father a native of Germany and the mother of Switzerland, and both are now deceased. They came to Sullivan county, Indiana, about 1868, where the father's death occurred in 1900 and the mother's many years previously, in 1887. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sills, namely: Winnie Myrtle, the wife of Frank Fulfard, a miner at Bicknell, Knox county, and they have two children, Alsie Lucile and Carl Francis; George Francis, who is with his parents; Flora Ethel, the wife of Harry Keenan, a miner and electrician at Jackson Hill; and Ernest Burton, deceased. Oscar Willie, a son of Mrs. Sills by a former marriage, also resides in this home. Mr. Sills is a member of the United Mine Workers of America, and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church.