My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE OBANSSIER, of the firm Wiedmer, Obanssier & Co., proprietors of Tell City Foundry and Machine Shops, is a native of Switzerland, born May 19, 1824. He is a son of John P. and Elise (Bohnenblust) Obanssier, both natives of Switzerland, the former of French, and the latter of German descent. The father came to the United States about 1830, and lived in Kentucky until his death, a few years later. When George was about two years old his mother died, and he lived with his relatives after his father’s departure for America. By the time he was twenty-one, he had served a four years’ apprenticeship at the machinist’s trade, and became master of it. After working between two and three years in Belgium, in 1848 he came to the United States, and worked at his trade in Boston, New York, and Cambridge, Mass., for ten years. In 1858 he came to Tell City, and followed farming for two years, after which he worked as a blacksmith, gunsmith, etc., doing all kinds of work in iron. In March, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Sixtieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving his adopted country faithfully until the close of the war. He was in the Red River campaign, and at the siege of Vicksburg. At the close of the war he returned home and worked at manual labor until 1868, when he engaged in his present business. He has no family. Politically he is a Republican, and one of the industrious citizens of Tell City.