JAMES C. STOCKTON was born in Tippecanoe County, Ind., October 19, 1847 and is the eldest of the seven children born to Charles L. and Elizabeth J. (Eastburn) Stockton, natives of Virginia and Ohio respectively. When only four years of age, Charles L. Stockton was brought by his parents to Wayne County, this State, and a few years later, in 1822, to Tippecanoe County, then an unbroken wilderness There his father entered a large tract of land-the same on which the city of La Fayette now stands-and when a lad of ten or twelve Mr. Stockton carried water for the men who erected the first log cabin on the site of that city. On reaching his majority, he followed teaming for several years, after which he bought 240 acres of land in the northwest part of the township, then quite wild, built a log cabin of the most primitive character, but subsequently developed the farm on which he yet resides. He began life with no capital, save an ax and a stout heart, but acquired property, outside his homestead, amounting to 1,340 acres; he was married when thirty-five years old, and is now seventy-one, and has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for many years. James C. Stockton finished his education at the Battle Ground High School, and until twenty years of age was employed on the home farm; he then married, farmed a year in Tippecanoe County, and in April, 1869, moved upon a tract of 1,020 acres of wild land in this township, and owned by his father. In March, 1872, his father deeded him 140 acres of this tract, which he has increased to 280 acres. January 23, 1868, he married Catherine E. Miller, a native of Seneca County, Ohio, and daughter of William and Mahala (Groves) Miller. To this union have been born nine children, of whom five boys and three girls are yet living. Mr. Stockton is W. M. of Octagon Lodge, No. 511, A. F. & A. M., is a Democrat, and from 1874 to 1878 was Justice of the Peace, and both he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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