WIMMER, William P. - Capt. - Putnam

Pioneer of the pioneers, a Civil War veteran with a splendid record, and a progressive farmer who has made a success of his business by keeping up with the procession, such a man is Captain Wimmer, to whom we now introduce the readers of this volume. He is a good man to know and all who meet him are sure to like him. When it is stated that his progenitor was a Virginian of the old school, it will be seen that this family comes of excellent stock. It was in 1822 that Jacob Wimmer and his young wife mounted their horse in front of their old Virginia homes, kissed their friends goodby and turned their faces resolutely to the west. It took a stout heart to ride the hundreds of miles intervening between the Old Dominion and western Indiana at the time this journey was undertaken. There were practically no roads, only trails and traces. Long ranges of rough mountains had to be crossed, large and deep rivers to be forded or ferried, miles and miles of gigantic forests to be threaded, under mighty trees whose shade was so dense that in many places the sunlight could not penetrate at mid-day. Jacob Wimmer and wife were brave and self-confident. They had made up their minds to hunt a home in the boundless west, where land was cheap and the soil rich, they escaped all accidents by flood and field, including wild beasts and Indians, trudged along at the rate of some fifteen or twenty miles a day and eventually reached their goal. Mr. Wimmer entered government land, one mile east of what is now Bridgeton in Parke County and this in time became the homestead of the Wimmer family. This advdenturous youth married a pioneer girl named Elizabeth Mills, and tradition says she made him a helpmate worthy of his courageous character. They were married in Virginia and she accompanied him to Indiana, riding the seven hundred miles on horseback.

William Perrv Wimmer, a son of the above mentioned couple, was born in Parke County. Indiana. March 1;, 1836. He got the rudiments of an education in the old subscription school and loves to tell how he had to walk three miles to school every day and he wastes no sympathy on the tender shoots of this age who insist on being hauled to school. It was perhaps his pioneer experiences that caused Captain Wimmer to become an advocate of good roads, in which cause he has always been enthusiastic. He took an active and crucial part in the building of the first free roads in Putnam County and long ago saw the vital necessity of easy means of transportation from place to place, especially farmers. He has been one of the viewers and has opened up over seventy miles of gravel and rock roads in Putnam County.

Captain Wimmer is justly proud of his war record and has reason to be, as no man can show one longer or more creditable. He enlisted on July 6. 1861, and devoted four years and a half to the cause of the Union. He was promoted from the ranks to second lieutenant and from second to first lieutenant, and from first lieutenant to Captain, and had command of Company H. of the Twenty-first Indiana Regiment. First Heavy Artillery, as Captain. The command served under Gen. Ben Butler and saw much hard fighting and campaigning. At Baton Rouge his regiment, in connection with the Sixth Michigan and Fourth Wisconsin, had a severe engagement with the enemy and it was the opinion of General Butler, publicly expressed, that the Twenty-first Indiana had won the day.

After the war. Captain Wimmer engaged in farming and came to Putnam County in 1868. He has always taken much interest in all farmers' organizations, such as the Grange, the institutes and other educational gatherings.

Captain Wimmer has always been a Democrat and in 1877 was elected joint representative from Putnam and Hendricks counties, overcoming a Republican majority in Hentlricks County of eleven hundred, and being elected by sixty-one. which was quite complimentary to his popularity considering the state of parties in the two counties at that time.

In 1867, Captain Wimmer married Angela, daughter of David Parker and Elizabeth (Lockridge) Farrow, a descendant of Colonel Farrow, a noted pioneer, of whom a sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. His wife having died a few months after their union. Captain Wimmer married her sister. Catherine Elizabeth, the ceremony taking place August 7, 1868. They have had seven children; Gertrude Harddee is a resident of Indianapolis: Jessie married James Owens, who makes his home in Chicago: Claude Parker, who remains with his father, married Myrtle Ragsdale: Nelly Elizabeth died in infancy: Oscar died when three years old, and Omar, his twin brother, is a resident of Chicago; William Andrew, who married Nelly Carver, has one child, Elizabeth Louise, and remains on the old homestead Captain Wimmer's two sons assist him on his farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which has all the modern improvements and is conducted on scientific principles.

Captain Wimmer has been an Odd Fellow since 1868, belonging to Lodge No. 45, of Greencastle. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Greencastle Post.