Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903. pp. 354-357.

JOHN W. RINEAR.

The versatile man is not proven by the many callings to which he turns his hand. He is rather proven to be versatile by the number of which he makes a success. Hon. John W. Rinear, of Liberty Center, Wells county, Indiana, the subject of this brief sketch, has undertaken many vocations, --which in itself does not prove him to be versatile. He has undertaken nothing in which he has not been eminently successful,-- that does. He has been a woodman, a farmer, a soldier, a dealer in real estate, a merchant, a member of the legislature and various other minor vocations, in all of which he acquitted himself not only with credit, but with marked honor.

John W. Rinear is a native of Ohio. He was born near Cleveland, Cuyahoga county, March 4, 1842, the son of Charles and Jane S. Rinear. The father was a native of New Jersey, born July 7, 1816; the mother a native of New York, born May 16, 1820. The parents of Charles were John and Rebecca (Gaskill) Rinear, both natives of New Jersey. Jane S. was the daughter of Silas and Esther (Montgomery) Parker, Silas being a native of Connecticut, a thoroughbred down-east Yankee, while Esther was a native of New York. Charles, the father of the subject, grew to manhood in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, having accompanied his parents to that commonwealth when he was only five years old. In this locality also the parents of Jane S. Parker had settled and engaged in farming. There they were married and resided until 1847, when they moved to Huntington county, Indiana, and seven years later to Liberty township, Wells county. That region was at that time dense woods, but there they purchased a tract of one hundred and twenty acres. Charles Rinear was at that time a large, powerful man, capable of doing much more work than the average man and rarely acknowledged a feeling of weariness. With little means other than their industry, they started in a log cabin and fought a winning fight against poverty and privation. Both the parents are now dead, the father dying December 26, 1887, at the age of seventy-one, and his faithful wife went to her reward April 6, 1894, aged seventy-four. At the time of their death they were possessed of the title to the land purchased by them when they first came to Wells county, besides much other valuable property. Their work was ended when they passed away and it was well done. He was a deacon of the Baptist church and served in that capacity for forty years. In politics he was a stanch Republican, but there must have been something radically wrong either with his teaching or the cause he espoused, for all of his sons are Democrats. Perhaps it was in the atmosphere, as Wells county is a little peculiar in that particular. Charles and Jane S. Rinear were the parents of six children, five of whom are yet living. They are as follows: John W., the subject of this sketch; Elias M., who most efficiently served Wells county as commissioner; Emma S., wife of Eli Smith, of Liberty Center; Charles A. died at the age of twenty-four years; George F., a resident of Bluffton; Mary J., wife of H. J. Johnson, justice of the peace of Liberty township. Each received a good education and is comfortably settled in life.

John W. Rinear received his education in the common schools of Liberty township, which he attended until he was nineteen years old. Like many other youths of that period, his school days were prematurely abbreviated by the operation of the recruiting office. September 25, 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Forty-seventh Indiana Volunteers. After fourteen months' service he was obliged to leave the ranks on account of disability by reason of a bullet wound received in the right arm at the mouth of White river, Arkansas. Those fourteen months, however, were a period of much activity. He was stationed for a time at New Madrid, Missouri, and at Riddles Point, Missouri. He took part in the siege of Fort Pillow and his was the first Federal regiment in Memphis after the naval battle. It was with much regret that he was obliged to leave the service at a time when he felt most deeply interested in the success of the Union cause. He received an honorable discharge at Memphis, Tennessee.

After returning from the war he was, on April 2, 1863, united in marriage to Miss Sarah C. First, a young lady of modesty and refinement and of an amiable disposition. She was born February 23, 1843, in Liberty township, Wells county, her parents being Jacob and Hannah (Stonebrook) First, natives of Pennsylvania. Her father was born March 5, 1811. He entered a tract of land in Liberty township, Wells county, in 1836 and took up his residence thereon in 1841. He resided upon this land until a few years ago, when he began making his home with his daughter, Mrs. John W. Rinear, wife of the subject of this sketch. He is now the only man in Liberty township who has retained his ownership of the land he originally secured from the government. He has at different times held every office in the gift of his township, except that of assessor, and filled each position creditably and well. Now, after a life of unremitting industry, in his ninety-second year, he is still hale and hearty. Jacob and Hannah First were the parents of eight children, viz: Israel, deceased; Solomon; Mary J., wife of Peter Frantz; George, deceased; Sarah C., wife of the subject; Salinda, wife of R. F. Taylor; Thomas and Caroline, who was the wife of Theodore Ewart, but has since died.

For three years after his marriage Mr. Rinear rented and lived upon the farm of Dr. Melshiemer in Liberty township. In the meantime, having saved some money, with it he purchased a tract of forty acres of land, which now forms a part of Liberty Center. The east half of the original plat of the town was laid out on this land by Mr. Rinear, and when purchased, this land was dense woods. With his own hands the new owner erected upon this place a cabin eighteen by twenty feet. At this time his worldly possessions consisted of a team of horses, a cow and a few shoats. For the greater part of the purchase price he went in debt, but each and every note was paid by, or before, the time it became due. With his own labor and that of his faithful wife they cleared this land and made of it a farm and a home. In 1866 Mr. Rinear came into possession of his present farm, and on the 28th day of December, 1866, his home was gladdened by the birth of a daughter, Hannah S., who was the first child born in Liberty Center. She is now the wife of John B. Funk, a prosperous druggist and postmaster of Liberty Center, who at the expiration of his present term will have served the government in that capacity twelve years. They are the parents of three children, viz: John A. J., sixteen years old, is in the second year of high school and attended the Marion Normal School last spring; Sarah A. M., thirteen years old, a student of common school in the eighth grade; Charles Rinear, ten years old, also attending school.

A purchase of twenty acres of land was made by Mr. Rinear in 1874, adjoining his place on the north. In 1878 Liberty Center got a railroad, and the same year he laid out the east half of Liberty Center. He is today the oldest continuous citizen of the town. He served as justice of the peace for twelve years from 1873 and, during that time did more business than had been done in the office by all of his predecessors combined, including the marriage of one hundred and four happy couples. In 1877 he engaged in the mercantile business at Liberty Center, was appointed postmaster and served three years. He continued in the mercantile business until 1882, meanwhile looking after his agricultural interests. He is now the owner of three hundred and twenty-five acres of land, one mile east of Liberty Center, all in one body, well improved and under good cultivaion [sic], as fine a farm as can be found in Wells county. Besides he has thirty-five acres of his old home place in town and resides on lot 1 of the original plat of the town. His home is a most comfortable and commodious one, where he is most happy in his domestic relations, and where hospitality abounds and love and affection reigns supreme.

In 1894, at the session of the Democratic joint senatorial convention of Wells and Huntington counties, John W. Rinear received the nomination and after a spirited canvass was elected by a large majority. He served on the committees for corporations, railroads, public health and natural gas in the session of 1895. In 1897 he was accorded a place on the committees on finance, benevolent institutions, banks, military affairs, county and township business, railroads and city of Indianapolis. He was appointed by the judge of the circuit court, in June, 1899, a member of the county council for district No. 3, and in 1900 he was elected councilman at large by a popular majority of nearly one thousand one hundred. At the election of 1902 he was re-elected by a large majority for four years. He has served as president of the board ever since it was organized, being again elected for the ensuing four years. In 1887 he was commissioned by the governor a notary public and served in that capacity eight years. In every public position he has been called to fill he has been faithful and trustworthy. Even his enemies and there are few without them, political or otherwise, have never ventured even to insinuate that he has ever in the least betrayed any confidence, public or private, that had been reposed in him. At the present time Hon. John W. Rinear is devoting himself almost exclusively to the management of his agricultural interests. On his three-hundred-acre farm he raises astonishingly large crops of grain and the farm is well stocked with Poland China hogs, a general class of cattle and all necessary horses. He raises, buys, fattens and puts on the market each year quite an amount of stock and the returns from his agricultural operations have been gratifyingly profitable. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church, contributing liberally to its support and that of every worthy object. He is a member of Lew Daily Post No. 33, G. A. R., at Bluffton and Lodge No. 747, I. O. O. F., at Liberty Center, of which he is a charter member. That he is a good, even a model, citizen, at home and abroad, is best attested by the esteem in which he is held wherever he is known. Such a hold as he has upon the affections of the people of his own and adjoining counties can never be secured but by the most worthy.