My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE WANDEL, Treasurer of Spencer County, is a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, his birth occurring August 22, 1844. He is the youngest of six children born to the marriage of George Wandel and Catharine Motzer, who were also natives of Germany and where their respective deaths occurred in 1845 and 1858. Under the compulsory law of his native country, our subject attended school until fourteen years old, and then served a short time at the cooper’s trade. In December, 1859, he left the land of his birth, and in February, 1860, landed in New Orleans, La., from whence he came direct to Rockport, Ind. He worked at his trade in Grandview and farmed until October, 1861, when he espoused the Union cause and enlisted in Company D, Forty-second Regiment Indiana Infantry as private. He served faithfully until the close of the war and at the battle of Resaca received a severe wound in the head. Returning to Grandview he clerked until 1869, then married, and began in the grocery trade for himself which he continued until 1872, when he engaged in the dry goods trade. In 1882, he traded his store for a farm and in 1883 took a trip to his birth-place in Wurtemberg, returning to Indiana he farmed until November, 1884, when he was elected Treasurer of the county in which capacity he is now serving. Mr.Wandel is the owner of 400 acres of valuable land, is a prominent Democrat in county politics and is a member of the I. O. O. F., and Masonic fraternities. February 6, 1869, Amelia Brautigam, a native of Germany, became his wife and by him the mother of one son—John E., who died August 4, 1880.