Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 912
WILLIAM E. WISLER

William E. WISLER, check clerk for the Sioux City & Pacific and Fremont & Elkhorn Railroads, came to that city, in November, 1880, and soon after, entered the employ of the railroad company.

He was born in Adams County, Pa., July 27, 1847. He is the son of John and Mary (STEVENS) WISLER, the former of German descent. The grandfather, WISLER, came to Pennsylvania when a small boy, and there spent his life. He reared a family of ten children, of whom our subject was the oldest. Of the ten children seven are living. Two are in Pennsylvania; one sister, the wife of W.H. BRADLEY, residing at Missouri Valley; another sister, the wife of S.A. MILLER, residing in Nebraska; one brother in Omaha and one in Paw Paw, Ill.

The mother died in April, 1869, and was buried in Adams County, Pa. The father is living on a farm, seven miles from Gettysburg, Pa.

Our subject's early education was received in the common schools, of Adam County, Pa., and when seventeen years of age, commenced to learn the shoe maker's trade, and followed it for four years and a half, then followed common labor until about 1873, at which time he moved to Altoona, Pa., and followed carpenter work until 1880, then after making a short stay in his old home, in Adams County, he came to Missouri Valley, where he has since been permanently employed by the railroad company.

Among the important events of this man's life may be mentioned his marriage, which occurred April 10, 1866, in Adams County, Pa., when he married Rebecca J. RUSSELL, the daughter of James and Rebecca (MCCLURE) RUSSELL, who were of Irish descent. The mother died in 1862, and the father, in January, 1880. Mrs. WISLER has two sisters and two brothers living, all residents of the Keystone State. Mr. and Mrs. WISLER are the parents of four children; Grace D., born in 1867, now the wife of J.B. LYON, of Missouri Valley, and they are the parents of two children; Waldo Mason, born in December, 1886, and Burton Russell, born in December, 1888. The remainder of our subject's children are Russell I., born January 19, 1871. He is a machinist and lives at home; Harry Mayberry, deceased at the age of three months and William L.B., born September 27, 1875.

Mr. and Mrs. WISLER are consistent members of the Presbyterian Church at Missouri Valley. Mr. WISLER became an Odd Fellow in Mountain City, and belongs to Lodge, No. 837, at Altoona, Pa., and became a member of the Encampment ("Red Cloud Encampment, No, 97") in Missouri Valley. Politically, he is identified with the Democratic party. In justice to his father it should be said that he served in the Union Army in the Civil War.

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