This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg//4h.2ADI/1685 Message Board Post: 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. NOTE: 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: Other surnames mentioned in the biography Charles S. Royce are, Royce, Neill, CHARLES S. ROYCE. One of two elementals create the successful lawyer—great talent or great industry. Emerging from the former condition are the minority, who lend brilliancy, emphasis and color to a profession resting upon the dry rocks of fact, while to the latter and predominating class is given the task of upholding the solid pillars of jurisprudence, and of maintaining, when guided by the ideals which animated the framers of the old Roman cincia law, those tenets which secure the greatest justice and the greatest liberty of mankind. Of the men who have contributed to the professional prestige of Ripley County, one who occupies a position of leadership in his community is Charles S. Royce, who has been engaged in practice at Versailles since 1910 and during the past two decades has been successfully identified with much important litigation. Mr. Royce was born on a farm in Ripley County, Indiana, in 1865, and is a son of William W. and Samantha F. Royce. His pate! rnal grandfather was Sardius Royce, a native of Vermont, who left his birthplace in New England when still a youth and made the long, tedious and dangerous journey across country to the virgin soil of Indiana in 1830, where he took up undeveloped land in Jefferson County and through years of hard and ceaseless work developed a well-improved and highly productive farm. There he spent the rest of his life in the vocations of saw-milling, farming and stock-raising, and when he died was, known as one of the substantial citizens of his community, respected everywhere for his high personal character and good citizenship. William W. Royce was born on his father’s farm in Jefferson County, Indiana, and obtained his educational training in the public schools. Reared on the home farm, he was thus engaged in the tilling of the soil at the outbreak of the war between the states, when he volunteered for service as a private in an Indiana volunteer infantry regiment, with which h! e served valiantly. After the war Mr. Royce became interested in the m anufacturing of lumber, staves, shakes and headings, which occupied a good part of his time. He was a public-spirited citizen who did not look for personal preferment in politics and had his chief interests in his home and his business. One of his brothers, John Royce, was also prominent in the lumber business, and furnished the timber for the old plank road running from Versailles to Madison. One of a family of five children, Charles S. Royce received his early education in the public schools of Ripley County, then pursuing a course in the State Normal School at Terre Haute. Later he became a student in the University of Indiana, and in 1882 began teaching in the rural schools. In 1807 he was elected county superintendent of schools of Ripley County, and in 1899 was reelected for a four-year term, following which he engaged in the insurance business. While thus engaged in building up an agency of his own Mr. Royce employed his spare time in the study of law,! and finally was admitted to the bar in 1909. He kept up his insurance business for a year, but by 1910 had become so well settled in a substantial legal practice that he disposed of his insurance business. During the time that he has been engaged in practice at Versailles, Mr. Royce has been retained as counsel in much important litigation, in which he has shown himself well grounded in all departments of his calling. He has never been a specialist, being equally at home in all branches of jurisprudence, and a student of every phase of his calling. He had a wide acquaintance and many friends in his profession, and is a member of the Ripley County Bar Association and the Indiana State Bar Association. For three terms, from January 1, 1917, to 1923, Mr. Royce served in the capacity of prosecuting attorney of the Sixth Judicial Circuit. He is a life member of the American Red Cross Society and a member of the Ripley County Historical Society. In all of the movements for the b! enefit of his adopted community and its people Mr. Royce has taken an active and constructive part, giving of his time, ability, means and energy. Mr. Royce was united in marriage with Miss Monta Neill, a native of Jennings County, Indiana, and to this union there were born four children: Mary Samantha, a graduate of the University of Indiana, class of 1929, who resides with her parents, and three sons, who are deceased.