Blackford County Biography Ref. Page

JOSEPH WISE. To the enterprise and industry of such strong and forceful men of Blackford county as Joseph Wise is due the continued prestige of this section of the state in agriculture and stock raising. Although not a native of this county, he has spent the entire period of his active career within its limits, and through a life of industry and consecutive effort has become the owner of a number of valuable properties, among them the home farm located on section 3, Licking township. Mr. Wise was born December 23, 1859, in Wayne county, Indiana, and is a son of Andrew and Catherine (Brier) Wise.

Andrew Wise was born on the River Rhine, in Switzerland, and belonged to a family of good stock, but when about twenty years of age decided to seek his fortune in the United States and accordingly made his way to this country in a sailing vessel. Later, becoming homesick, he returned to his native land on a visit, and when he again came to America, during the early ‘fifties, the voyage was a most thrilling one, the crew mutinying and everyone giving themselves up for lost. The captain, however, regained command of the ship and succeeded in taking it safely into the port of New York. Mr. Wise was a tanner by trade and traveled extensively all over the country in the pursuit of his vocation, but finally located permanently in Wayne county, Indiana, where he established a tannery. Following the close of the Civil War he disposed of his interests there and came to Blackford county, locating on a farm of eighty acres in Washington township, which was partly improved and had a log cabin. For this property he paid $1,000, later he bought forty acres more for $400, and still later bought an additional 100 acres, for which he paid $1,200. There he continued to make his home until eight years before his death, when he went to Hartford City, and there spent the evening of his life, passing away in 1904, at the age of sixty-eight years. He was a stanch democrat and a good citizen, a strong minded man and one well read and with a broad knowledge of important matters. Mrs. Wise survived him until 1907, and died at her home at Hartford City at the age of sixty-nine years, in the faith of the Presbyterian church, although her husband was of the Roman Catholic faith. They were the parents of three children, as follows: Mary, who is the wife of Daniel Knox, a farmer of Washington township, and has four sons and two daughters; Joseph, of this review; and John, a farmer and owner of 120 acres of good land, the old homestead in Washington township, who is married and had two daughter, of whom one died at the age of eighteen years.

Joseph Wise was given his education in the district schools of his locality, and when he became of age purchased 100 acres of land, at thirty-three dollars an acre. He lived upon this tract for some years, and is still the owner thereof, but later moved from Washington township to Licking township, where he bought forty acres of land for $1,600, and an additional forty acres for $1,500. Later he was compelled to pay $6,000 for a tract of eighty acres, and $2,300 for forty acres, and in addition to these properties he also has the homestead of 120 acres, for which he paid $15,000, and on this is located a large barn, 112 x 36 feet, with an "el" 50 x 30 feet, a modern eight-room residence with all conveniences, and substantial outbuildings of every character. This farm presents a very attractive appearance, the barns and outbuildings being all painted red and the house white, everything is in a good state of repair, things are neatly and systematically arranged, and the whole property shows the presence of good management and thrift. Mr. Wise also owns six homes in Hartford City, including his own residence on North Jefferson street. In addition to general farming he is an extensive grower of graded stock and a breeder of high grade hogs, cattle and horses. He has gained success through a life of industry, energy and honorable dealing, and has gained not alone material success, but the universal esteem and regard of those with whom he has come in contact either in a business or social way.

Mr. Wise was married in Blackford county to Miss Catherine Hiser, who was born in this county, in 1857. Her father, Peter Hiser, was a native of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and was a young man when he emigrated to the United States and settled in Blackford county, in the wilds of Harrison township. There his father secured government land, and both father and grandfather passed the remainder of their lives there, the former dying some twenty-six years ago, at the age of seventy years. The mother still resides with her sons on a farm in Harrison township and is nearly ninety years of age. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Cale and she was born in Indiana of German parents. Mr. and Mrs. Wise have the following children: John L., who is engaged in operating one of his father's properties in Washington township, married Katie Walker, and has two children, - Lester and Dorathe; William, residing at home, a graduate of Depauw University, who is now taking a medical course in the Indiana Medical College, Indianapolis; and Corra, aged fifteen years, who is a student in the Hartford City High school. Mr. and Mrs. Wise are faithful member so the Lutheran church. He is a democrat in his political views and gives his influence to the support of good men and measures.

Blackford and Grant Counties, Indiana A Chronicle of their People Past and Present with Family Lineage and Personal Memoirs Compiled Under the Editorial Supervision of Benjamin G. Shinn
Volume I Illustrated
The Lewis Publishing Company Chicago and New York 1914
Submitted by Peggy Karol

BENJAMIN A. VAN WINKLE. There are elements in the personality of this prominent business man and popular citizen of Hartford City, Blackford county, where he is treasurer and general manager of the Hartford City Paper Company, which represents one of the most important industrial enterprise of the judicial center and metropolis of this fine county. All who have know Mr. Van Winkle know that he is big of physique, mind and heart, and those who know him best realize that we do not in the least falsify the facts in this statement, and they also realize that he is possessed of great business acumen and executive ability. Such men have friends because they deserve them, and the direct, sincere and kindly nature of Mr. Van Winkle has given to him a host of valued and appreciative friends. As a citizen he is broad-minded and progressive, and gives to Hartford City his co-operation in its business and civic activities.

As the name indicates, Mr. Van Winkle is a scion of sturdy Holland Dutch ancestry, and the original progenitors of the American branch came from Holland with that distinguished colonist, Peter Stuyvesant, a gallant soldier and the last of the Dutch governors of New York. Representatives of the Van Winkle family were numbered among the early settlers of New Amsterdam, from which quaint old town was developed our great national metropolis, and few are the English speaking folk who do not recall with pleasure the use of the family cognomen by Washington Irving, in his famous tale of the trials and vicissitudes of "Rip Van Winkle." Simeon Van Winkle, great-grandfather of him whose name introduces this review, finally went from the old Empire State to North Carolina, and about the time Daniel Boone initiated his labors in settling colonies in Kentucky, Simeon Van Winkle and his wife were numbered among those who followed the gallant frontiersman into the wilds of the Blue Grass State, which was at that time a part of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Van Winkle made the long journey on horseback and for several years they resided in the same colony as did the members of the Boone family. Later Simeon Van Winkle extended his pioneer experience and labors in the Territory of Ohio, whither he made his way about the year 1800, transporting his family and household effects with teams and wagons. In Ohio he entered claim to a full section of heavily timbered land, which he obtained from the government, and in the wilderness he erected his primitive log house, after which he essayed the arduous task of reclaiming his land to cultivation. He found the Indians of the locality to be mainly of the tribe of which Chief Bigfoot was the head, and one of his few white neighbors was Adam Poe, who later met the Indian chief in personal combat and succeeded in extinguishing the life of his dusky foeman.. The Van Winkle family lived up to the full tension of the dangers and hardships of pioneer life in the old Buckeye State and they did well their part in aiding the forward march of civilization in that now opulent commonwealth. The old homestead was in the central western part of the State, and there Simeon Van Winkle died at an advanced age, his widow having been past ninety year of age at the time of her death. They became the parents of twelve children, the major number of whom attained to years of maturity , and even the brief data here incorporated indicate how long and prominently the family name has been identified with the annals of American history. Of the sons who lived to lend new honors to the patronymic were David, John, Jesse, Robert, and James, and there were other sons as well as daughter, who reared families of their own and gave to the name of Van Winkle worthy representatives in divers sections of the Union.

Jesse Van Winkle was born in Preble county, Ohio, near the present village of West Alexandria, and the year of his nativity was 1805,- nearly seven years prior to the admission of Ohio to the Union. He was reared to manhood on the old homestead and as a young man he wedded Miss Margaret Howell, of Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, in which vicinity he thereafter gave his attention for several years to agricultural pursuits, a number of his children having been born in that county, including Austin, William and Robert. In 1832 Jesse Van Winkle removed with his family to Madison county, Indiana, where he purchased a tract of land that had been partly reclaimed, the former owner having been William Gale, and the property being in Adams township. The family here endured also the vicissitudes of pioneer life, their domicile being a rude log house of the type common to the locality and period, and the father, with the assistance of his sturdy sons, developed a productive farm, this old homestead continuing to be his place of abode until his death, in 1870. His widow was eighty-five years of age at the time of the close of her life, and in 1888 this noble pioneer woman, venerable in years, had the distinction of completing entirely by hand an old-fashioned patchwork quilt which she presented to her great-granddaughter. On the quilt she inscribed her own name and also that of the recipient, a daughter of Benjamin A. Van Winkle of this review. Mrs. Margaret (Howell) Van Winkle was a woman of strong character and indefatigable industry, and she had special skill in various lines of handicraft, as shown by the fact that in earlier years she was accustomed to weave hats from rye straw grown under the primitive conditions in Indiana. She not only bleached and wove the straw, but formed the same into hats that represented the height of style for the women of the pioneer days, her skill in this domain causing many of her neighbors to avail themselves of her artistic talent. Both she and her husband were prominent pioneer members of the Christian church in Indiana, and their home was made a place of hospitable welcome and entertainment for the itinerant preachers of the early days. Of the twelve children ten attained to maturity.

Rev. William Van Winkle, son of Jesse and Margaret (Howell) Van Winkle, and father of him whose name initiates this review, was born in Preble county, Ohio, in the year 1828, and thus he was a child of four years at the time of the family removal to Madison county, Indiana, where he was reared to adult age on the pioneer farm and where his educational advantages were those afforded in the primitive schools of the day, these being maintained principally on the subscription plan. In his youth he abandoned the work of the farm and served a practical apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade, in which he became a skilled artisan. After his marriage he continued to work at his trade for a few years, in Madison county, and in the meanwhile he had devoted much thought and study to the preparing himself for the ministry of the Christian church. As a clergyman of this denomination he thereafter labored with much of consecrated zeal and devotion in Madison, Delaware, Henry, Hamilton and Rush counties, and his kindliness, ability, and earnest desire to aid and uplift his fellow men gained to him the loving affection of those who came within the sphere of his influence. Early in life he had given special attention to the study of medicine, and later he attended lectures in the Indianapolis Medical College. At the age of forty-five years he engaged in the practice of medicine at Clarksville, Hamilton county, where he had held his last regular pastoral charge, and he proved successful as a physician, the while there came frequent requisitions for his services as a minister. He retired from active labors in 1886, and his death occurred in 1896. He was a man of fine mind and noble character, and his memory is revered by all who came with the ever widening angle of his benignant influence.

Rev. William Van Winkle was thrice married, the maiden name of first wife having been Judd. This wife died within a few years after their marriage and was survived by her second child. Theodore P., who was but three months old. Theodore P. Van Winkle is now engaged in the drug business at Hartford City; he married Miss Mary Halpin and their only surviving child is Ray, who is in the employ of the Hartford City Paper Company. For his second wife Rev. William Van Winkle married Miss Ellen Lanham, who was born in Ohio but reared and educated in Madison county, Indiana. She was summoned to the life eternal at the age of forty-five years, a woman of pure and lovely character, and of her five children four are now living, - Benjamin A. is the immediate subject of this review; Alice, who is the widow of Abraham Caylor and resides in the city of Anderson, Madison county, all of her children being deceased; Loretta is the wife of Jesse Mills, a prosperous farmer of Hamilton county, and they have two sons and two daughters; Mary A. is the wife of Byron Whitsel, a farmer in the State of Oklahoma, and they have several children; Margaret died at the age of ten years. Rev. William Van Winkle chose for his third wife a widow with two children, and they became the parents of two children, her death occurring in 1890.

Benjamin A. Van Winkle was born on the old Reason Sargent farm in Adams township, Madison county, Indiana, on the 19th of December, 1853, and he was reared in that county and at Newcastle, Henry county, in which city he attended the public schools, later having been a student in a select school at Frankton, Madison county. After devoting his attention for a time to teaching in the district schools he entered the State Normal School, where his application further fortified him for the pedagogic profession. He later became principal of the public schools of Fortville, Hancock county, where he thus served during the three years from 1875 to 1878, and in the autumn of the latter year he came to Hartford City, Blackford county, where he was associated with his half-brother, Theodore P. Van Winkle, in the drug business for four and one-half years. In 1883-4 he was editor and publisher of the Hartford City Telegram, for two years thereafter he conducted a furniture store in the city, and for the ensuring two years he was here engaged in the retail grocery trade.

In the autumn of 1890 Mr. Van Winkle accepted the position of bookkeeper for the Utility Paper Company, manufacturers of straw paper, and after becoming a stockholder of the company he had charge of its branch at Eaton, Delaware county, where operations were conducted under the title of the Paragon Paper Company. In 1900 Mr. Van Winkle disposed of his interest in this corporation and become associated with Chicago men in the building and operating of the Chillicothe paper mills, at Chillicothe, Illinois. He had charge of the operation of these mills for two years and then returned to Hartford City, where he became manager of the power plant of the United Board Paper Company, which had absorbed the original paper company manufactory with which he had here been identified. Later he represented the Dayton, Ohio, branch of the same corporation, and he remained in that city two years. On the 15th of December, 1904, Mr. Van Winkle became general manager of the Hartford City Paper Company, which soon afterward introduced the manufacture of Greaseproof and Glassine paper, being the first to take up this line of work in the United States. The company now manufacture fifteen tons of paper a day and the products are shipped into the most diverse sections of the Union, the while an extensive export trade also is controlled. The company represent the American pioneers in their special field of production and the splendid enterprise has proved a most valuable contribution to the industrial prestige of Hartford City and Blackford county, as well as to that of the entire State of Indiana. Since 1906 the company have maintained large offices in New York City and Chicago, with agencies in other leading cities of the Union. The output of the finely equipped plant finds ready demand from the Canadian provinces to Montevidio, South America, and in New Zealand. In the mills employment is given to an average force of 160 persons, and seven person constitute the office corps. Mr. Van Winkle is treasurer as well as general manager of the company and his zeal and technical and executive ability have been potent in the development of the extensive and important industry.

In politics Mr. Van Winkle gives allegiance to the Republican party, and a number of years ago he served as a member of the city council of Hartford City, though he has had no predilection for public office. He is at the present time president of the Indiana Association of Manufacturers and Commerce, with headquarters in the city of Indianapolis, and his term expires in December, 1914. He is likewise a member of the board of managers of the American Protective Tariff League, which has its headquarters in New York City. He and his wife are attendants of the Presbyterian church, of which the latter is a devoted member, his first wife having likewise been of the Presbyterian faith, and their daughter having been a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church at the time of her death.

At Eden, Hancock county, on the 2nd of September, 1877, Mr. Van Winkle, was united in marriage to Miss Leah Jarrett, and their gracious companionship continued for more than thirty years, the relationship having been severed when the devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest, on the 2nd of January, 1910. Eva C., the only child of this union, was born January 28, 1882, was graduated in the Harcourt Place Seminary, Gambier, Ohio, as a member of the class of 1901, and she later became the wife of Harmon Anderson, of Hartford City, where she died May 24, 1909, only a few days after the birth of her only child. Benjamin H., who was born on the 17th of the same month and who survives her. For his second wife Mr. Van Winkle wedded Miss Emma L. Clevenger, who was born and reared in Middletown, Indiana, and who maintained her home in Indianapolis for twenty years prior to her marriage. She was an intimate friend of Mr. Van Winkle's first wife for more than twenty years, and tenderly cherishes her memory.

In an incidental way it may be noted that Mr. Van Winkle is a cousin of John Q. Van Winkle, who rose from the position of peanut boy on the line of the Big Four Railroad to the dignified office of general manager of the entire Big Four System, and who later became assistant to the second vice-president of the New York Central Railroad Company.

ANDREW J. MILLER. No individual of the community of Montpelier, Indiana, is more honorably and substantially identified with the agricultural and commercial interests of Blackford county and with the growth and development of this section than is Andrew J. Miller. Opportunity in the life of this thrifty and enterprising farmer has never been allowed to knock twice at his door, but at all times has been turned to the best possible account, both from a personal and community standpoint. For a number of years Mr. Miller was engaged in the milling business at various points, but eventually returned to farming, in which he has met with a very satisfactory measure of success.

Andrew J. Miller was born in a log cabin on his father's old mill property on the Salamonie river, one mile northwest of Montpelier, June 5, 1858, a son of Fred G. and Charlotte (Lowrey) Miller. His father was born in 1836 in Germany and as a youth of sixteen years emigrated to the United States and came to Fort Wayne, Indiana, subsequently moving to Wells county to join his brother Henry, a farmer. His father and grandfather had been millers, and he was trained to this business in his youth, so that later, with his brother, John A. G. Miller, he built the old Salamonie mills, on the river of that name. This was first operated as a sash sawmill, and was entirely constructed of wood, even to the gearing, etc. During the Civil War the brothers added stone buhrs, and continued to operate the mill with great success for some years. Later Mr. Miller came to Montpelier and erected a modern mill, with D. and A. Spaulding as partners, and this also proved a huge success. In addition Mr. Miller was the owner of large properties, had a good home and owned stock in two Montpelier banks, in one of which he held a place on the directing board. He was entirely a self-made man. When he came to this country with his sister Catherine, making the journey in a sailing vessel which took fifty-two days to make the stormy trip, he was possessed of $2.50 in money and a silver watch. When he passed away at his comfortable home at Montpelier, June 4, 1908, he was generally accounted one of the most substantial men of his community. Mrs. Miller, who was also born in Germany, survived her husband until 1910, when she passed away at the age of seventy years. There were six children in the family, Andrew J. being the only son living, while a sketch of the daughters will be found in the review of Fred Miller in another part of this work.

The country schools of Indiana furnished Andrew J. Miller with his educational training, and as a youth he followed in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather and learned the trade of miller. In 1879 he went to Metamora, Franklin county, Indiana, and there for twenty years conducted a mill, in 1893 replacing it with a more modern plant, continuing to conduct it until 1902, when he returned to Montpelier and settled on his present property, which he received from his father. This he has brought to a high state of development, has placed thereon valuable improvements of every kind, and is now building a new grist mill and flour mill. He devotes his attention to general farming and the raising of stock, along both of which lines he has met with well-deserved success, but while acquiring a comfortable competence he has led by no means a self-centered life, for he has taken a keen interest in education, politics, local government and the social life of a community.

In 1880 Mr. Miller was married in Franklin county, Indiana, to Miss Kate Murray, who was born at Metamora, in 1857, and there reared and educated, the daughter of Andrew and Emily (Jenks) Murray. Mr. Murray was a native of the state of Maine, but in young manhood came to Franklin county, Indiana, and here was married to Miss Jenks, who had been born here. Both lived to be past seventy years of age, and Mr. Murray was by occupation a miller and farmer and also identified with a packing house business. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have been the parents of these children: Harry, a graduate of the high school, who resides with his parents and superintends the operations on the home place; Edith, a graduate of the Montpelier High school and now a teacher in the schools of Wells county; Charles C., a driller with a large oil concern in the West; and Fred, a graduate of the public schools, residing at home. Mr. Miller is a democrat, and he and his family are consistent members of the Baptist church.

Deb Murray