JAMES DRURY, who devotes his farm of twelve and one-fourth acres to growing grain and tobacco and raising hogs for market is a well known citizen of Elizabeth Township, Miami County, having resided on his present place for a number of years. He was born October 8, 1849, in Perry County, Ohio, and is a son of Eli Harrison and Mary Ann (Stourtts) Drury.

The first member of the Drury family to establish himself in Miami County was John Drury, the grandfather, who came from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, locating first at Columbus, but later opened a boarding house in Miami City, where he subsequently died. He married Anna Pinkerton who also died at Miami City, and both of them were buried in the McKendree Cemetery. They had the following children: James, Eli H., Harman, Elizabeth, Eliza Ann and Susanna.

Eli Harrison Drury is a retired farmer and makes his home with his son, George G. Drury. In his earlier years he was a dry goods merchant and later engaged in agricultural pursuits. He married Mary Ann Stourtts, a daughter of John Stourtts, and they had the following children: James; John, deceased; Alice Ann, who was married (first) to Joseph McGraft, and (second) to James Snyder; Thomas Jefferson; George Grant; and Mary Effie, who married William Beek. The mother of this family is deceased.

James Drury obtained his education in a country school not far from Miami City and then went to work on the farm and has followed farming ever since. After his marriage be rented a number of farms in Miami County, living on each one as long as he found it profitable. For fifteen years before coming to his present farm he operated the Shellenbarger farm in Bethel Township. All the buildings now standing on his place he either remodeled or entirely constructed. He has made many improvements, one being the setting out of a fine orchard of some forty trees. Mr. Drury has had so long an experience as a farmer that all methods are known to him and his judgment enables him to get more substantial returns from his small farm than do many on much larger acreage. His farm lies on the McNeal Turnpike, southeast of Troy.

On October 3, 1871, Mr. Drury was married to Miss Margaret Nothstine, a daughter of William H. and Mira (Swager) Nothstine, and they have had eleven children born to them, namely: Charles E.; Marv A., who is now deceased; Nora Viola, who married John Williamson, and has had four children: Ruth, Andrew, Minnie and Edna, deceased; Lydia Jane, who married Oscar J. Bowers, and has two children, Ralph M and Carl F. (they live near Christiansburg); William H.; Lulu, now deceased; John J., who is a student in the class of 1909 in a commercial college at Dayton; Bessie Lavina, who married Firman C. Jenkins, of Bethel Township, and has one child, Goldie Leona; Amanda May, who married Frank Zenz, and has two children, Carl E. and Mabel M.; Maude Effie, who married Carl M. Lamka, and Harry, who died in infancy.

Mr. Drury, like his father, is a stanch Republican. He has always taken a good citizen's interest in public matters and at different times has served as school director.