Biography of W.H. Kiblinger, pages 887 / 888.  History of De Kalb County, 
Indiana.  Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885.

W. H. Kiblinger, the genial and wholesouled hardware merchant of Auburn, De 
Kalb Co., Ind., has attained a prominence in both business and social 
circles fully becoming any man.  He has been generous without stint or 
ostentation in all enterprises pertaining to the growth and advancement of 
his resident town.  He is a model in his bestowments of charity, and as a 
politician is firm, thoughtful, and has impressed his individuality upon the 
local politics of the county.  No one man emphasized so much earnestness in 
the election of Presidential , State and county officers as did Mr. 
Kiblinger.  Strong but unpretentious, firm but magnanimous, he works 
diligently and successfully to make a given point in either business or 
political undertaking.  Few business men tower to an equal height with him 
for exactness, cleanliness and general good taste in and about his business 
room. His beginning in younger years marks out for him a long and 
successful career as a merchant, and although not yet matured to the 
turning point in life, he has established a substantial trade and amassed 
considerable wealth.  He was born in Fish Lake, Lagrange Co., Ind., May 24, 
1848, a son of Peter F. and Henrietta (Hoffman) Kiblinger.  His preliminary 
education was received in the common schools, and at the age of fifteen was 
a pupil in the R. Patch Seminary, located at Ontario, Ind., and subsequently 
took a commercial course at Eastman’s College, Chicago, Ill., from which 
institution he graduated in the fall of 1864.  His first business venture 
was a clerk in the wholesale tobacco house of Samuel Barbosia, Chicago, 
which position he held for one year, and then as bookkeeper for Speakman & 
Proctor, wholesale bookseller and stationers, Chicago, until 1867.  In the 
spring of the above year he became associated with his father in the 
hardware business at Williamsburg, Ind., under the firm name of Kiblinger & 
Co.  In the spring of 1877 he sold his interest at Williamsburg and moved 
to Auburn, where he opened a hardware store, to which he soon after added 
farm machinery.  He was very successful in his business pursuit, and in 
1880 erected a fine business building at the corner of Main and Seventh 
streets.  It is a brick structure two stories high and 22x 130 feet in 
length.  In the fall of 1877 he purchased the hardware stock of D.D. 
Snyder, and again in 1883, to February, 1884, he was associated with S.J. 
McBride in a branch store at Waterloo, Ind., under the firm name of 
Kiblinger & Co.  He was married Aug, 23, 1873, to Miss Martha, daughter of 
John McBride, of Williamsburg, Ind.  He is a member of Ligonier Lodge, No. 
186, F. & A.M.  His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and Mr. Kiblinger, although not united with any denomination, is in accord 
with the Presbyterian church.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com