from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)--pages 683-685
The biographies of successful men are instructive as guides and incentives to those whose career are yet to be achieved. The examples they furnish of patient purpose and consecutive endeavor strongly illustrate what is in the power of each to accomplish. The gentleman whose life history herewith is briefly set forth is a conspicuous example of one who has lived to good purposes and achieved a definite degree of success in the special sphere to which his talents have been devoted.
David A. Clements, the son of John N. and Mary V. (Hendron) Clements, was born in North Salem, Hendricks County, Indiana, on January 22, 1858. John N. Clements was born in Clements Valley, Kentucky, and grew up and married in that state. Mary V. Hendron was a native of Virginia. Immediately after their marriage the young bridal couple took their honeymoon trip to Putnam County, Indiana. They came through on horseback, following blazed trails, forded rivers and threaded their way through the wilderness. They located first in Putnam County, afterwards going to Boone County, this state, but after a short stay in that county, settled in Eel River Township, Hendricks County, about one and one-half miles south of North Salem, in what was then known as the Round Town neighborhood. There they started pioneer life with their rude log cabin and all that went with it. They lived here until David A. was sixteen years of age, when they moved into North Salem and spent the remainder of their lives. The panic of 1873 brought disaster to the family and the farm had to be sold. John N. Clements and two sons, John E. and George H., were in the Civil War and served throughout that fierce struggle. John N. Clements enlisted three times and was wounded twice and permanently disabled. After the panic of 1873 he recovered his finances and died in comfortable circumstances. He was a stanch Republican all his life and active in the party organization. Religiously, he was a member of the Regular Baptist Church from boyhood, his father being a Baptist minister. He lived to be ninety-one years of age, his wife dying at the age of sixty-five.
David A. Clements received his education in the district schools of his township, and when he was sixteen years of age he moved with his parents to North Salem, where he completed his educational training, after which he started to learn the trade of a machinist and for fourteen years was an engineer at North Salem in a flouring mill. He was then left without a position upon the burning of the mill. He came to Indianapolis, where he worked for about sixteen months in Wasson's department store, following which he was appointed superintendent of the Hendricks County Poor Farm and held that position for six and one-half years, his term ending March 1, 1914. After leaving the county farm he purchased a farm near Brownsburg, where he now resides.
Mr. Clements was married September 14, 1880, to Lettie M. Waters, the daughter of Harney Waters, and to them has been born one daughter, Anna Maude, wife of U.W. Parsons, a lumber dealer of Brownsburg, and they have two children, David Vanuel and Beatrice Pauline. They also had a daughter, Maurine, who died on Christmas Day, 1913, at the age of two years and seven months. Mr. and Mrs. Clements were the parents of three other daughters: Della G., who died at the age of two years; Nellie C., who died at the age of four, and Della C., who died at the age of two years.
The father of Mrs. Clements was born in Kentucky December 7, 1842, and was the son of William and Julia Ann (Waters) Waters. When he was a babe in arms, his parents moved to North Salem, where his father followed farming all his life. In the fall of 1862 Nathan Harney Waters married Rosena Zimmerman, the daughter of John and Nancy (Myers) Zimmerman. He was born near North Salem, his parents coming here from Kentucky. The Zimmermans were a well-known pioneer family and reared a family of fifteen children. For the past ten years Mr. Waters has been sexton of the Fairview Cemetery at North Salem. He and his wife are members of the Christian Church and have been married for more than a half century.
Fraternally, Mr. Clements is a member of the time-honored order of Free and Accepted Masons, and he and his wife both belong to the Order of the Eastern Star. Religiously, Mr. Clements and his family are loyal and consistent members of the Christian Church at North Salem and are interested in all of the work of that church. They have a hospitable home and have a large number of friends and acquaintances who esteem them for their many good qualities.