John B. Witt
 

JOHN B. WITT, of Perry township, Boone county, Ind., was born in Union county, in the same state, May 15, 1829, a son of Daniel and Catherine (Messmore) Witt. Daniel was born in North Carolina on Christmas day, 1806, and at the age of ten years was brought to Indiana, where he was reared to manhood. John B. Witt was reared in Union county until twenty-three years old, when he married and for a year resided in Perry township, and then for two and a half years in Iroquois county, Ill. He next returned to Boone county, Ind., and bought 160 acres of land in Jefferson township, lived there until 1881 then lived a year in Center township, and then, on account of his father's illness, returned to his old home, and on his father retiring to the city bought the place. The first marriage of Mr. Witt took place in Putnam county, Ind., to Miss Lydia Keath, a native of that county, who bore him two children, Catherine and Daniel, both deceased. Mrs. Witt died in September, 1853, and on the 8th day of April, 1856, Mr. Witt married, in Jefferson township, this county, Eleanor J. Caldwell, a native of the county, who bore him seven children, viz: Ida J., now wife of J. Hines; Charles F., of Lebanon; Catherine, wife of James Chambers of Tennessee; Nancy E.; Alonzo J.; William H.; and Elizabeth, the wife of H. Cline. The mother of these children also passed away, and Mr. Witt was next married in Lebanon, Ind., to Sarah E. Nunn, daughter of James A. Nunn, ex-county auditor. To this union have been born two boys, Daniel and James C. Mrs. Witt is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and she and her husband are highly respected members of society. In politics Mr. Witt is a republican; fraternally, he is a chapter Mason. On his 160 acres of land he raises some very fine stock, notably sheep, and Poland China hogs, for which he invariably finds a good market. Mr. Witt has led an honorable and upright life, winning the approbation and respect of his fellow-citizens and neighbors wherever he has resided, and his walk has been in the ways of prosperity and peace. His industry and good management have gained him a fair share of this world's goods, and he can now well afford to pass in ease the declining years of his well-spent life, in no act of which has he willfully caused pain to a fellow-creature, but, the other hand, left undone no act that would tend to ameliorate, as far as lay in his power, the suffering of those in distress from any cause.

Transcribed by: Chris Brown
Source: "A Portrait And Biographical Record of Boone and Clinton Counties, Ind.," page 527, published in 1895 by A. W. Bowen & CO. Chicago