Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903, pp. 441-442.

LEWIS GESLER

As an instance of the unvarying success which follows intelligent industry, that of Lewis GESLER, of Rock Creek township, Wells County, Indiana, is quite notable, as the reader will glean from the facts which are detailed in the following paragraphs. The parents of the subject were of German descent. Lewis GESLER was born October 30, 1851, but the father was summoned to another world when the son was about six years old. The mother, being in straitened circumstances, placed the lad out at work when he was about twelve years of age, but continued to provide him with clothing and other necessaries of minor character, retaining for her own use his small earnings. At the age of sixteen years Lewis GESLER came to Wells County, Indiana, and found employment with Henry Edris, for whom he worked two years at fourteen dollars per month, and in this time saved considerable money. He continued to work out by the month for other parties until he had acquired five hundred dollars, which he invested in eighty acres of his present farm in Rock Creek township, although he was obliged to go in debt to some extent. He worked for Wierly Lamb three years, then bought land until he owned at the time two hundred acres, all of which he paid for out of his own earnings with the exception of five hundred dollars received from home.

In March, 1876, Lewis GESLER married Miss Calista Johnson, daughter of Jonas Johnson, and to this happy union four children have added to the felicity of the home of the parents, and are named, in order of birth, as follows: Homer C., who had his nativity in 1879, is still unmarried and makes his residence with is parents, as do the younger three, Eva I., Wilna and Virgil. Mr. Gesler has been one of the most enterprising men of his township, and from almost impecuniousness has raised himself to affluence, being now worth at least twelve thousand dollars in land alone. He and wife have led a most happy life since marriage and are honored and beloved wherever known.

Jonas Johnson, the father of Mrs. Lewis GESLER, deserves especial mention in this connection as being one of the oldest residents of Rock Creek township. He was born in Wayne county, Indiana, October 14, 1825, and is a son of Solomon and Sarah (Sanders) Johnson, who came from North Carolina, where the family had lived for generations, and, as was customary at the time, were slaveholders. The Johnson family reached Indiana prior to 1821, about three or four years after the state had been admitted to the union, and lived in Wayne county about five years. They then removed to Delaware county, where they resided until the fall of 1835, when they came to Indiana and located where Montpelier now stands in Blackford county. They thence came to Wells County, at a time when there were no roads, they being obliged to cut their way through the woods in order to reach their destination. The previous spring, however, the father of the family had visited Wells County and had entered one hundred and twenty acres of wild land across the road from the place on which his son Jonas now lives; at that time Jacob Miller and David Snyder were the only residents of the neighborhood, as well as of the township. On coming here, Mr. Johnson first put up a temporary shanty and shortly after built a log cabin and cultivated a patch of ground. He throve and finally bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild land in Salamonie township, Huntington county, which he and his sons cleared up and converted into a fine farm, but later sold. Mr. Johnson became one of Wells county's most prominent and influential citizens. A Democrat in politics, he served on the first board of county commissioners, which was composed of David Bennett, James Scott and himself, after whom three streets in Bluffton have been named, Johnson street running north and south past the jail and engine house.

Mr. Johnson was the father of twelve children, of whom five are still living, namely: Isabella, wife of John Cook, of Barber's Mills; Ermina, wife of George Strother, of Huntington; Sarah, wife of John Haggert, of southern Missouri; Henry M., of Oklahoma, and Jonas.

Jonas Johnson was a lad of but nine years when brought by his parents to Wells County, Indiana, of which county he has ever since been a resident. When twenty-one years of age he rented the home farm for a few years, and in 1849 married Miss Urania Barber, daughter of Hallette Barber, after whom Barber's Mills were named, as he had the first grist and saw-mill at this place, having come from Darke county, Ohio. Mr. Johnson was poor and for three years rented a farm and then his father-in-law's mill for seven years, after which he bought the eighty-acre farm on which he now resides. Here he erected a two-room house in the woods, which frame has been replaced by a modern and commodious dwelling.

To Mr. And Mrs. Johnson were born five children, namely: Levetta, now the wife of James Knudson; Deliscus, unmarried and living in Oregon; Glessner, who lives on the old farm; Calista, wife of Lewis GESLER, and Norah, wife of Adam Korn. Mr. Johnson was among the first members of the Seventh Day Adventist congregation of his township, was a Granger, and in politics was a Democrat until 1875, when he became independent, and for the past few years has abstained altogether from voting. It is now sixty-seven years since Mr. Johnson came to Wells County, and it may well be conceded that no resident is more sincerely honored.