John M. Wheat, one of Jay county's best known farmers and landowners, proprietor of an excellent farm in Bearcreek township, now living retired at his farm home there on rural mail route No. II out of Portland, is a native son of this county, a member of one of the pioneer families, and has lived here all his life. Mr. Wheat was born on a farm in Wayne township on January 31, 1847, and is a son of William and Mary (Mason) Wheat, who were the parents of three children, two of whom are still living, the subject of this sketch having a brother, William Wheat. The elder William Wheat died at the age of thirty-three years and his widow presently remarried and continued to make her home in this county.
John M. Wheat remained at home with his mother and stepfather and received his schooling in Jackson township. After his marriage at the age of twenty-one he farmed for himself for a year and then formed a partnership with his stepbrother, Aaron Votaw, in the blacksmith business. He continued this line for eighteen months, at the end of which time he traded his interest in the blacksmith shop to his stepfather for a tract of thirty-two acres of practically unimproved land in Jackson township, on which he made his home for about ten years. He then traded that place for an eighty in Bearcreek township, a part of the place on which he now resides, and has since lived there. Two years after taking possession of this place he bought an adjoining forty and has since been the owner of 120 acres, which he has brought to a high state of cultivation and which he has improved in admirable fashion. In 1914 Mr. Wheat turned the management of the farm over to his son, Charles Wheat, and has since been taking things a good deal easier than during the earlier and busier years of his life. He is a Republican and has ever taken a good citizen's interest in local political affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office.
On September 12, 1868, John M. Wheat was united in marriage to Elizabeth Sanders, who was born in the neighboring county of Delaware, but was reared in Jay county, a daughter of James and Phoebe Sanders, the former of whom was the owner of an eighty acre farm in Wayne township. James Sanders and his wife later moved to Page county, Iowa, where their last days were spent. To John M. and Elizabeth (Sanders) Wheat four sons have been born, all of whom are living save one, Clyda M., the others being Alvin M., William M. and Charles A., the latter of whom, as noted above, is now farming the home place and is carrying on the operations of the farm in up-to-date fashion. Charles A. Wheat married Anna M. Farrell and has four children, William A., Catherine M., Laura V. and Mildred I. Alvin M. Wheat, who is now living in Arkansas, where he is engaged in farming, married Tempa Climber and has two children, John and Arba H. William M. Wheat, who is now living at Portland, married May Weller, who died on July 6, 1921, and has two daughters, Mildred and Mabel.
SOURCE: Milton T. Jay, M.D., History of Jay County Indiana, Historical Publishing Co., Indpls. 1922, Vol. II, pp. 125-126. Transcribed by Eloine Chesnut