History of Old Vincennes And Knox County, Indiana Greene Volume l & 2 1911 Surnames in this biography are: Shake, Wyant, Jarrell, Johnson, CURTIS GROVER SHAKE. Among the youngest of the practicing attorneys of Knox County Curtis Grover Shake is in the opinion of his friends one of the most highly promising. Born in this county in 1887, Mr. Shake is now twenty-three years of age. It was in August 1910, that he entered actively upon the pursuit that he has chosen as his life work. It is doubtful whether any young lawyer of western Indiana ever began practice under more favorable auspices or with a more creditable record as a student in school and college, and therefore his course will be noted by many with an interest, which is not ordinarily awakened. Mr. Shake is a son of D. W. and Frances (Wyant) Shake. The father was born in Sullivan County, Indiana, in 1860, and engaged in farming. The mother is a native of Knox County and was born in 1860. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Shake: Curtis G., our subject; Lyman G.; Bert; and Arman, all at home. Mr. Shake seems to have been unusually fortunate in his ancestry. His great-grandfather, James Jarrell, was a native of Virginia and fought in the Revolutionary war. He was with George Rogers Clark at the capture of Vincennes and was given a land grant in Kentucky by the government in recognition of his services. He came to Indiana as one of the early settlers and also participated in the war of 1812. There were two grandfathers in the Civil War-John Shake and William Wyant. Grandfather Wyant was a member of the first military company that left Vincennes in the Civil war and was in the Twenty-fourth Indiana Regiment of Volunteers. He was wounded at the Siege of Vicksburg and a brother of Mr. Shake's great-grandmother, Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was the slayer of the Indian Chief Tecumseh in the battle of the Thames and was afterward elected vice president of the United States. Having received his preliminary education in the common schools, Mr. Shake became a student at Vincennes University, from which he was graduated in 1906. After teaching school for two years he entered the law department of the State University at Bloomington, Indiana, and was graduated in 1910, since which time he has engaged in practice with offices in the new La Plante Building. Before entering college Mr. Shake studied law under Cullup & Shaw, of Vincennes. As a student he showed remarkable proficiency, completing his high school course in three years, and while at Vincennes University he won every oratorical prize that was offered in that institution, among others being the winner of the Gould gold medal in igo6. This medal has been awarded annually by Major William P. Gould since 1885. He was the winner of the third prize in the Indiana State Oratorical contest in 1908 and was a member of the college debating team for two years and orator of the graduating class of the Indiana University June 20, 1910. While at college he was president of the Oratorical Association and also of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was recognized as being a natural orator of unusual force and great fluency. During his college years he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, a legal fraternity known as the Phi Delta Phi, and an oratorical society, the Delta Sigma Rho. By virtue of his ancestry he holds membership in the Sons of the American Revolutionist and he is also identified with the F. & A. M. Politically Mr. Shake is affiliated with the democratic party and as a believer in the inspiration of the Bible, he accepts the teachings as expounded by the Christian church. In the various relations of life Mr. Shake has so far discharged his duties most creditably and, judging by the beginning he has made, there is little doubt that he will continue along the lines of the high ideals, which have had a controlling influence in his career. In concluding this brief personal sketch it may be appropriate to quote a few words as showing the spirit by which our subject is actuated, from the address of Mr. Shake to his classmates, in 1910. In that address he said: Choose a work worth while-one which offers an opportunity for personal success and which will at the same time make the world better; then bring to that work all the inspiration and earnestness of one who believe he has a holy mission to perform.