FRANCIS S. DRAKE, son of Alden and Phytinda (Reynolds) Drake, was born in New Jersey September 4, 1823. When but four years old, Francis was bound out to farmer Leverett Seymour, who sent him to school in the winters till fifteen, keeping him at work in the summers, and holding him until past twenty. June 19, 1844, he married Sarah Langworthy, who became the mother of two children - Emily E. and Julia J., an died May 7, 1851. In March, 1853, Mr. Drake moved to Ohio, where he worked in a saw mill, and at bridge-building until December 10, 1854, when he came to Francesville and engaged in carpentering for about two years. September 30, 1856, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary (Watson) Waples, and to this union have been born six children - Ada L., June 26, 1857; Nathaniel W., April 5, 1859; Edwin L., August 9, 1860; Hester F., December 21, 1863; Millie E., January 1, 1870, and Guy B., December 14, 1875. Mr. Drake kept a hotel in the village about two years, and then purchased a small farm which he has increased to eighty acres. In 1856, he was elected Justice of the Peace, and was again elected in 1880 for four years. His grandfather, Noah Drake, was a soldier of the Revolution; his father served in the war of 1812, and Mr. Drake himself enlisted in 1862, in Company B, Eighy-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry; was at the battle of Chappell Hill, and in 1863 was discharged on account of sickness. He taught school about nine terms in District No. 5, and was the first to teach in the new house in what is now known as that district. He is an Odd Fellow and a Republican, and his wife is a member of the Free-Will Baptist Church.

"Counties of White and Pulaski Counties, Indiana - Salem Township" by F.A. Battey & Co. - published in 1883