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Indiana University Studies 
The family trend is downward. Older generations ob- 
tained farms and must have done something to develop and 
hold them. The present generation is only working when it is 
absolutely necessary. The standard of living is so low that 
they can live with very little exertion. Almost all of the chil- 
dren are low morons and bid fair to become a more shiftless 
and degenerate group than the present generation. 
6. The McHaley- Johnson Family 
There lived in 0. County about a century ago an old man, 
Mahlon Johnson. He was a hard-working man who never 
managed to accumulate much of anything but children. A 
physician in the county, who is a very old man, remembers 
seeing him years ago. He was not thought of as feeble-minded 
but was slow, queer, and “harum scarum'' in his plans. He 
married Bessie Harris, a sister of old Grant Harris. In the 
past the Harris family has been a wild, lawless set. At the 
present a part of their descendants are among the most promi- 
nent people in 0, and County H. Others of the direct Har- 
ris descent are the plodders of the community. Mahlon and 
Bessie had 9 children: Addie, Clara, Walter, Myrtle, Otis, 
Thomas, Herbert, Harry, and Frank. 
Addie, commonly called ''Old Add’’, the first child of Mah- 
lon and Bessie, married Robert McHaley, who was also born 
in 0. County. Add is described by the old doctor as hav- 
ing a frowsey head of hair which would not go into a bushel 
basket. It was never combed. She would swear without 
provocation, fight, drink, was licentious, and at times very 
sullen. In his estimation she was undoubtedly feeble-minded. 
Her husband, Robert McHaley, was the first child of James 
McHaley, the son of John and Martha, who came to 0. 
County from North Carolina at the close of the Revolution 
with their sons, John, Luke, and Mark, Robert’s brothers 
and sisters were Stephen McHaley, who is still living in 0. 
County; Benjamin, Hubert, John, William, Mrs. Sarah Means, 
and Mrs. Lantern, all of 0. County. One doctor states that 
there is little feeble-mindedness in this family altho insanity 
and epilepsy are found in a small degree. The feeble-mind- 
edness is confined to the descendants of Robert. 
Robert was alcoholic and lazy. He was a cooper by trade, 
but he never worked regularly. He and Add had 8 children : 
