Christopher L. Oatley

    Christopher L. Oatley, a native of Ohio, was born near Zanesville in Muskingum County, November 14, 1835, a son of James and Elizabeth (Lenhart) Oatley, who were the parents of nine children and native of Pennsylvania and Ohio respectively. The father followed farming in Ohio for over fifty years; he and wife are now dead.

    The subject of this memoir was reared in youth by his parents, receiving a common school education. When a young man he went to Illinois and there engaged in the miller's trade, having previously learned that occupation at Zanesville, but in 1859 he came to Boonville, Indiana, and for three years worked at his trade. In 1862 he purchased a half interest in the Taylorsville Mill, in this county (Warrick), operating the same five years. He then operated a mill one year in Edwards County, Illinois, then returned to Boonville and purchased a half interest in the Elkhorn Mills, which he has retained up to the present time.

    In 1855 Mr. Oatley wedded Miss B. C. Huston, of Zanesville, Ohio, three children being born to their union, only one -Mabel -yet living. Mr. Oatley is a member of the Masonic fraternity and he and wife were raised in the religious faith advocated by the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has been reasonably successful in business ventures, the Elkhorn Mills, in which he is concerned, being one of the best in southern Indiana and equipped with the best and latest improvements in milling. In politics he is a stanch Republican, and although never having aspired to any political prominence he has occupied various minor offices.

Source: History of Warrick, Spencer, and Perry Counties, Indiana, By: Goodspeed Bros. & Co., 1885.