My Genealogy Hound

JOHN T. WISNER. Every man in the United States, by birth or its equivalent, shares in the glorious privileges of our Government to forge through the ranks of the many and become one of the few. A man who possesses the ability to do this, who by years of patient toil and unswerving loyalty to truth and integrity forces his way through the multitudes of others equally as ambitious and determined, and wrests from the world a meed of victory, does not need a piece of academic parchment, learnedly inscribed, to make his life valuable to the community in which he lives, for by his sterling methods and his high moral purpose he has become a leading factor in the conservatism of the good government of his community, and a valuable example to those whose efforts in human progress have just begun. Such a man is John T. Wisner, a prominent farmer and fruit-grower of Hagar Township, where he owns eighty acres of excellent land.

Like many of the citizens of the township, Mr. Wisner is a native of the Empire State, born in Orange County in 1824. He was the second of four children born to Harry and Maria (Smith) Wisner, natives also of Orange County. All their children grew to mature years. Clara, the eldest, married H. C. Spaulding, of Elmira, N. Y., and they have two children living; James S., the third in order of birth, died at Elmira, and left two children; Julina married Hiram T. Smith, and died leaving one child, Mary. About 1834, the parents of these children went to Elmira, and resided there until the death of the father.

John T. Wisner grew to manhood in his native State and inherited all the sturdy characteristics of his Teutonic ancestors. He secured an ordinary education in the common schools and later married Miss Rebecca Rickey. Their nuptials were solemnized near Elmira, and there they made their home until 1857, when the fertile soil of the West tempted them to journey in that direction. They came to Berrien County, Mich., located in St. Joseph, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, eighty acres of which he still owns. Clearing it of the heavy timber with which it was covered, he has about twelve acres in orchard and several acres in small fruit. He has ever been an industrious, hard-working man, and what he has accomplished has been the result of his own exertions.

Mr. and Mrs. Wisner have reared one child, Annie, who is the wife of George C. Eldredge, a member of the Board of Trade in Chicago. Among the people of Hagar Township none are better respected than Mr. and Mrs. Wisner, and few have done more for the progress and development of the township than this estimable couple. They are worthy members of the Episcopal Church, to which they contribute liberally of their means, and Mr. Wisner has been a stanch Democrat all his life.