Winans, John H.

WINANS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/21/2019 at 16:56:23

John H. Winans

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.601)
JOHN H. WINANS, a substantial farmer of Knox Township, is from an old American family of New Jersey, and of English descent. His great-grandfather and grandfather were in the Revolutionary war, and the latter was a farmer of NJ near Elizabeth City. Our subject's father, Benjamin WINANS, was also a farmer and was married to Hannah HUGHES, daughter of Charles HUGHES, of New Jersey. They were the parents of six children: Fannie, John H., Charles, Mary, George E. and Eliza. In 1854 the father moved to Scott Co., Iowa, settling on a farm of wild land, where he lived until 1884, when he moved to Chester Twp, Poweshiek Co., where he is still living at the age of 86 years. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Church at Rahway, NJ, for 46 years. The father is a prosperous farmer in good circumstances and has always obeyed the Quaker instructions of owing no man anything. In his political principles he is a Republican.

JOHN H. WINANS, our subject, was born in Elizabeth City, Essex Co, New Jersey, August 15, 1842, and was reared to farm life He was but 12 years of age when his father came to Iowa and he carried from New Jersey $1,200 in a leather belt, with which his father bought his farm. In 1865, Mr. WINANS moved to Pottawattamie Co, settling in Center Twp, and in 1878 moved to his present farm of 160 acres in Knox Twp. In his political principles he is a Republican; he has been a Supervisor of his township five years, Constable two years, and School Director three years. He has been identified with Iowa since his boyhood and like his father has always stood high as an industrious and honest man and a good citizen.

Mr. WINANS was married at age 20 years in 1862 to Sarah J. FULLER, daughter of Ezra and Arloah L. FULLER. The father was a farmer of Cuyahoga Co, Ohio, and settled in Scott Co, Iowa in 1861, where he was a large landholder, owning 900 acres of land. He had two sons: Jared M. and James, and a brother Spencer in the Civil War, all three of whom died in the Army. He was the father of twelve children and died in Center Twp, this county, where he had moved in 1864. Isaac, the eldest brother of Benjamin WINANS, was a Captain in the War of 1812 and was in the battle of Morristown, New Jersey.