Charles C. Wentz, a well-known bachelor farmer of Jefferson township and owner of a well-kept farm on rural mail route No. 5 out of Portland, was born in that township, on the place on which he is now living, and has lived there all his life. Mr. Wentz was born on January 6, 1878, and is a son of William and Hannah (Geiser) Wentz, the latter of whom was of European birth, born in the vicinity of Stuttgart, the metropolis of the kingdom of Wurttemberg, June 8, 1835, and was six years of age when she came to America with her parents, the family locating at Dayton, Ohio. William Wentz was born at Hanover, in York county, Pennsylvania, July 13, 1833, and was there reared. When twenty-one years of age he went to Columbus, Ohio, with a view to locating there, but presently returned to Pennsylvania and remained there, working as a cooper, until 1855, when he came to Indiana and began working as a farmer in Jay county. Two years later he went down into Wayne county and was there until after his marriage to Hannah Geiser in the spring of 1859, when he returned to Jay county and bought a quarter section of land in Jefferson township. On this place he established his home and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in the spring of 1889. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, seven of whom are still living, the subject of this sketch having three sisters, Mary, Lucy and Rose, and three brothers, John, William and Earl Wentz.
Reared on the home farm in Jefferson township, where he was born, Charles C. Wentz grew to manhood there, receiving his schooling in the neighborhood schools. From the days of his boyhood he was a helpful factor in the labors of carrying on the operations of the farm, where he ever has made his home. In 1916 Mr. Wentz purchased from the other heirs their respective interests in the place and now owns the same, a well improved and profitably operated farm of 120 acres, on which he has an excellent farm plant. In addition to his general farming Mr. Wentz gives considerable attention to the raising of livestock, with particular reference to Duroc Jersey hogs, and is doing well. He also makes somewhat of a specialty of single comb White Leghorn chickens. Mr. Wentz is a Republican and is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Ridgeville.
SOURCE: Milton T. Jay, M.D., History of Jay County Indiana, Historical Publishing Co., Indpls. 1922, Vol. II, pp. 219-220. Transcribed by Eloine Chestnut