My Genealogy Hound

JOHN LEOPOLD WINNER, merchant, banker, and legislator, Greenville; was born in Franklin, Warren Co., Ohio, November 19, 1816. His parents were Isaac Winner and Mary Powell, natives of New Jersey. They were married in Philadelphia and came to Ohio in 1816, where they passed their lives. Mrs. Winner died in April, 1832, and her husband in the October following. For about four years subsequent to his father’s death, our subject worked at the cooper’s trade. In April, 1836, he came to Darke Co. and located in Greenville, where he has since been extensively identified with the business of the community, and has also held a prominent place in the political councils of the county and State. In November, 1837, he married Miss Charlotte Clark, daughter of John Clark, Esq., of Warren Co., Ohio. For some five years Mr. Winner was in the grocery business. Eight years he kept a hotel. Four years he kept a drug store. In 1853, he engaged in banking in company with the late Col. J. W. Frizzell, and thus continued till May, 1865, when he became a stockholder in the Farmers’ National Bank of Greenville, and, in January, 1866, he was made cashier of that institution, which position he held till January, 1872. In April, 1873, he opened the Exchange Bank of Greenville, and still conducts the business of that flourishing institution. His wife died Aug. 12, 1863. She possessed, in a high degree, those noble qualities of mind and heart so essential to a true wife, and was revered in the community for her sweetness of disposition and sympathizing charity for the poor and unfortunate. She left an only daughter, Hattie, who inherited the sterling qualities of her mother, but the loss of her mother so affected her that she survived her but a few weeks, dying at the age of 15 years. On April 1, 1867, Mr. Winner married Mrs. Jane Crider, widow of Frederick Crider, of Greenville, and daughter of John W. Porter of the same place. Since 1863, Mr. Winner has been a member of the firm of Moore & Winner, the leading dry-goods firm of the county. In 1846, he was appointed Auditor of Darke Co., to fill an unexpired term of four years, from 1857 to 1861 he represented Darke Co. in the Legislature, and from 1867 to 1871 he served in the State Senate. In 1874, he was elected Mayor of Greenville, and served two years. In politics, he is a Democrat. Although his school advantages were very meager, his active mind has grasped a knowledge of men and things that fully compensates the loss.