Carroll County IAGenWeb

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912

Transcribed by Sharon Elijah June 26, 2020

Edwin Arthur Wissler, who has been successfully engaged in the practice of law at Carroll for the past ten years, is now serving his second term as county attorney. His birth occurred in Cass county, Iowa, on the 4th of November, 1875. His father, Henry Wissler, who was born in Bavaria, Germany, on the banks of the Rhine, December 8, 1831, is now living in honorable retirement at Atlantic, Iowa. In 1851 he crossed the Atlantic to the United States in a sailing vessel, landing at New York city and later joining a sister at Niagara Falls. There he secured employment at a wage of eight dollars per month and from his stipend paid back the money which he had borrowed from his brother-in-law to pay his passage to America. In the meantime he attended school and gained a fair knowledge of the English language. In 1855 he came to Iowa, first settling in Lee county and working by the month at various occupations for three or four years. He remained in Lewis, Iowa, until 1857, and took part in the merciful work of the underground railroad, assisting slaves from the south on their pilgrimage to a place of refuge. In the meantime he purchased an eighty-acre tract of land, retaining the property until 1859, when he sold out and returned to Lee county. There he purchased land and made his home for fifteen years or until 1874, when he took up his abode in Cass county, buying a farm in Bear Grove township and devoting his attention to its operation until 1905. In that year, having accumulated a handsome competence, he put aside the active work of the fields and removed to Atlantic, where he has since enjoyed the fruits of his former toil in well-earned ease. His political allegiance is given to the democracy. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Herschel, was born in Lee county, Iowa, of German parentage, and is still living at the age of seventy years. She is a devoted and consistent member of the Congregational church.

Edwin Arthur Wissler, who was the ninth in order of birth in a family of ten children, was reared on the home farm and attended the country schools in the acquirement of an education. After teaching school for about a year he pursued a commercial course in the Atlantic Business College and subsequently continued his studies in the State Teachers College at Cedar Falls. Having determined upon the legal profession as a life work, he entered the law department of the University of Iowa, from which he was graduated on the 12th of June, 1901. On the 1st of October following he located for practice in Carroll, where he has since built up an extensive and lucrative clientage. His success in a professional way affords the best evidence of his capabilities in this line. He is a strong advocate with the jury and concise in his appeals before the court. Much of the success which has attended him in his professional career is undoubtedly due to the fact that in no instance will he permit himself to go into court with a case unless he has absolute confidence in the justice of his client’s cause. Basing his efforts on this principle, from which there are far too many lapses in professional ranks, it naturally follows that he seldom loses a case in whose support he is enlisted.

On the 25th of June, 1899, Mr. Wissler was united in marriage to Miss Ollie Cranston, who was born in Cass county on the 3d of September, 1876. Their children are five in number, namely: Wade, whose birth occurred in Iowa City on the 29th of May, 1900; Myra June, whose natal day was August 15, 1902; Don, who was born on the 7th of October, 1904; Rex, whose birth occurred on the 10th of November, 1906; and Eugene Carroll, born May 11, 1911. The four last named were born in Carroll. Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Wissler has supported the men and measures of the democracy. In the fall of 1906 he was elected to the office of county attorney and is now serving his second term. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, while in the line of his profession he is connected with the State Bar Association. His wife is a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His life is actuated by high and honorable principles manifest in his professional and social relations and in his connection with public interests.

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