This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it just has the insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just thought I would share. I do not know anymore about these families or these surnames. I don’t know if there is any additional mention of this family in the book, it has no index. I do not want to sell this book. I am typing the biographies from it. Typed by Lora Radiches: Surnames in this biography: Travis, Brand, Powell, Closser, Bonaparte, Churchhill, Muller, McGowan, Mansfield, HON. JULIUS C. Travis since 1921 has been an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Indiana. Mr. Travis still retains his home at LaPorte, where he is known for his diversity of interests, business as well as professional, and it was in Northern Indiana that he laid the foundation of his very successful career as a lawyer. Judge Travis was born in Pleasant Township, LaPorte County, Indiana, July 31, 1868 where his people since pioneer times have been factors in the history of LaPorte County and that section of Northern Indiana. Prior to coming to Indiana his Travis forefathers lived in New York State, at the community of Sleepy Hollow. A son of Joshua Travis was John Travis, who moved to Western New York, living in Chautauqua County. He and his wife, Sally, reared a family of nine children. Curtis Travis, grandfather of Judge Travis, was a son of John and Sally and was born at Sleepy Hollow, New York. In 1882 came west from Chautauqua County, locating in LaPorte County, and was one of the first settlers there. He entered a Government homestead, and by his individual labors improved a farm from a portion of the wilderness. There he lived, earning and enjoying he respect of his neighbors and in many ways impressed his abilities and influence on the community. He started and operated one of the first saw mills in Northern Indiana. In religion he was a Methodist Protestant. He was sufficiently interested in his religion to take active steps to establish a church and secure preaching services. In his sawmill he made the lumber for the construction of the first church of that denomination and also built a parsonage. He went to New York and secured a preacher, who soon moved away, and he secured another preacher in the same way. Curtis Travis had a great love for fine horses, a trait which has been characteristic of the family for generations. He owned several fine stallions and was one of the leading breeders in that section of Indiana. The parents of Judge Travis were Wesley and Mary Rebecca (Brand) Travis. His father was born in LaPorte County, in 1835, and died in 1902, at the age of sixty-seven. His mother was born in Chautauqua County, New York, and died in 1919, at the age of eighty-seven. She was a daughter of Morrell and Sarah (Powell) Brand, natives of New York City, and granddaughter of Samuel Brand, of New York City, whose father, Benjamin Brand, was a native of England, followed the sea, became captain of a vessel and lost his life when he went down with his ship. Mary Rebecca Brand was well educated in New York and came to Indiana to teach school. Here she met and married Wesley Travis and left school work to become the wife of a farmer. Julius Curtis Travis attended township grade and high school in LaPorte and in 1888 entered the University of Michigan, where he studied in the literary department and in 1894 was graduated LL. B. He began practice in the City of LaPorte, in 1894; during 1898-99 he served as prosecuting attorney of the Thirty-second Judicial Circuit, being appointed by Governor Mount. He was also a member of the City Council, city attorney, and by appointment served four years as county attorney, resigning to go on the Supreme Bench in January, 1921. He was for ten years secretary of the LaPorte County Republican county committee, and later was chairman, being a member of the committee altogether for twenty-one years. Judge Travis is a member of the LaPorte County, Indiana State and American Bar Associations, the American Law Institute. In 1892 he helped organize and became the second secretary of the American Republican College League. Along with a busy law practice Judge Travis has had a part in the commercial and industrial life of his hometown. In 1902 he started the Rustic Hickory Furniture Company at LaPorte, serving as president until 1922 and is still a director of the company. He organized in 1912 the LaPorte Lumber & Coal Company and was its treasurer until 1921 and is now president. In 1919 he organized the Peterson Hardware Company of LaPorte and has served it as secretary. His chief hobby is live stock farming. He owns a 420-acre stock farm in LaPorte County and up to 1926 gave it his personal supervision. For several years he was a breeder of Shropshire sheep, but the farm is best known for its herd of pure bred registered Shorthorn cattle. Judge Travis married, September 10, 1896, Miss Ethel Rebecca Closser, of LaPorte. She is a daughter of Jerome Bonaparte, a native of LaPorte County, and Ophelia Viola (Churchhill) Closser, a native of New York. His grandfather, Nicholas Closser, was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1812. In 1815 the Closser family moved to Warren County, Ohio, and in 1825 to Indianapolis, where Nicholas Closser became a pupil in the first Sunday school organized in Marion County. Afterwards he moved to Northern Indiana and became a farmer in LaPorte County. Judge and Mrs. Travis have four children. -The oldest, Dr. Richard Churchill, was educated in the University of Michigan and is now a practicing physician at Reading, Pennsylvania. He married Audrey Muller, of Baltimore. The daughter, Elizabeth, is the wife of Malcolm E. McGowan, formerly of Steubenville, Ohio, who now operates a dude ranch located a hundred miles northwest of Lander, Wyoming. Howard Powell Travis is a graduate of Howard College and Harvard Law School, and is practicing law at Indianapolis. He married Pauline Mansfield and has two children, Howard Powell and Curtis Sumner. Julius Curtis Travis, Jr., was a student in the Park Preparatory School at Indianapolis, and is now a student of Lake Forest Academy. Judge Travis is a Swedenborgian in religious belief and served as an official of the church at LaPorte. He is a member of the Kappa Sigma, Knights of Pythias, and the Columbia Club of Indianapolis