Biography of John Wimer, pages 503/504/505.  History of 
DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 
Indianapolis, 1914.



To write the personal record of men who have raised 
themselves from humble circumstances to positions of 
comparative affluence and responsibility in a community is 
no ordinary pleasure. Self-made men, men who have achieved 
success by reason of their personal qualities and left the 
impress of their individuality upon the business and growth 
of the locality of their residence and affect for good such 
institutions as are embraced within the sphere of their 
usefulness, unwittingly, perhaps, build monuments more 
enduring than marble obelisk or granite shaft. To such we 
have unquestioned right to say belongs the gentleman whose 
name appears above and who is well known throughout DeKalb 
county. John Wimer was born April 14, 1858, six miles east 
of Auburn, Indiana, and is the son of Jacob and Elizabeth 
(Dolder) Wimer. Elizabeth Dolder was a native of 
Switzerland, where she became the wife of Jacob Saltsman, 
with whom she came to the United States, locating in 
Tuscarawas county, Ohio, then coming to DeKalb county, 
Indiana. The land there was densely covered with the 
primeval forest growth and they, like many others of their 
neighbors, burned the timber and hauled to ashes to Auburn, 
where they exchanged them for groceries. These trips were 
made with a yoke of cows as motive power. They succeeded in 
clearing the land there and made it their home until the 
death of Mr. Saltsman. They had become the parents of three 
children, Elizabeth, Mary and Jacob. Mrs. Saltsman 
afterwards became the wife of Jacob Wimer. He was of 
Pennsylvania-Dutch descent and it is believed he came from 
Stark county, Ohio. He, too, had been married before and had 
lived near Huntertown  in the early fifties, before there 
were any railroads in that locality.  After  his second 
marriage Jacob Wimer located east of Auburn, where the 
subject of this sketch was born. Subsequently the family 
moved to the Rudy Sowers place, six miles northeast of 
Auburn,  and there Jacob Wimer died when his son John was 
about two and a half years old. The mother then moved her 
family to Waterloo, where the subject of this sketch lived 
until he was nineteen years old. He was employed at various 
occupations, including tending mason and farming, and at the 
age mention he began farming for himself on the farm where 
he was born. Here he was married and farmed for two years. 
He afterwards moved to Langlade county, Wisconsin, and took 
up a homestead, but after spending one winter there he sold 
the place and located near Hudson, St. Croix county, 
Wisconsin, where, with a partner, he became a fisherman. 
However, less than three months later a big raft of logs 
destroyed their nets and put them out of business. Owing 
partly to lack of experience, business training and money, 
Mr. Wimer had not up to this time been able to accumulate 
anything in a material way, his only property being a small 
house and lot in Frogtown at Waterloo, Indiana,  worth one 
hundred dollars, and later meeting with the reverses to 
Wisconsin he found himself without household goods, with but 
a few dollars in his pocket, and with a wife and three 
children, far from their old home. However, he was not made 
of the stuff that easily gives up and, having showed himself 
willing to work, the county recorder of deeds rented him a 
farm and “staked” him in its operation  until he could get 
on his feet. For four years he farmed and teamed, and from 
his landlord learned lessons of business methods and thrift 
which served him well in his later efforts.  In March, 1888, 
Mr. Wimer returned to Waterloo, Indiana, bought a farm of 
eighty acres near Moore’s Station, and also bought farm 
stock and tools, as well as a stock of seed potatoes. The 
purchase price of the farm was two thousand five hundred 
dollars, of which he paid one hundred and thirty-five 
dollars down. His first effort was in the raising of 
potatoes, he being the first in this section to engage in 
that line extensively, but he was eminently successful from 
the beginning and really was the pioneer in this now 
important branch of farming here. He and George Noriot 
raised the first extensive onion crop here, and in this also 
they showed the way to others, onions and potatoes now being 
two of the most important of the DeKalb county crops. The 
farm which Mr. Wimer bought had twenty-five acres cleared, 
and he cleared fifty acres more of it, put in twenty 
thousand tile and had the place entirely paid for in ten 
years. He has been successful to a notable degree in this 
operations, and in 1908, after living on their farm for 
twenty years, he moved to Auburn. In that year he and son-
in-law, Herman Brown, began shipping potatoes and onions, 
and the following year they bought the Vandalia elevator, 
and have since been engaged very extensively in the shipping 
of grain, as well as potatoes and onions. In 1912 they 
shipped ninety carloads of potatoes and about fifty-five 
cars of onions, while they have shipped as many as fifty-
five thousand bushels of potatoes in a season. Through his 
business connection, Mr. Wimer has become very well known 
throughout DeKalb and Steuben counties and everywhere he is 
held in the highest esteem.  On December 28, 1878, Mr. Wimer 
was married to Alice Coates, the daughter of Alanson G. and 
Sarah (Smurr) Coates, she having been born and reared near 
Artic, Troy township, this county. For a wedding trip they 
took a sled ride to Waterloo behind a yoke of oxen, which 
was none the less enjoyed if it was slow. It was in shape 
contrast to the automobile which Mr. Wimer now uses in going 
to and from his farm. To Mr. and Mrs. Wimer have been born 
six children, namely: Ray, who died May 6, 1908, at the age 
of nineteen years; Marguerite, who is the wife of Herman 
Brown, who is referred to elsewhere in this work;  Arthur 
LeRoy, who is engaged in the operation of an irrigated farm 
of eighty acres at Pingree, Idaho; he married Etha 
Stonebraker and they have two daughter, Geraldine and Alice; 
Bertha is the wife of John Souder, who operates a farm about 
six miles south of Auburn, and they have three children, 
Esther, Ruth and Willis; Carl, who lives at home is employed 
at the McIntyre Company; Howard is a student in the Auburn 
high school. Religiously, Mr. Wimer is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, in the prosperity of which he is 
deeply interested. Though a very busy man, he does not 
permit his private interest to interfere with his 
performance of his duties as a citizen and his gives support 
to every movement having for its object the advancement of 
the highest and best interest of the community. Because of 
his high character and good business qualities, he enjoys 
the confidence and regard of all who know him.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com