Mr. Wisner married Martha, daughter of the late Thomas Welling and Caroline Van Duzer, in October, 1879, and he was survived by his widow and his children, Mrs. Burton J. Berry, John Welling Wisner, Jeffrey Amherst Wisner, Jr., Thomas Welling Wisner, Clinton W. Wisner, Jr., and Gladys Wisner. Besides his family and friends he made wherever he had been the whole community of Warwick mourned the demise of its foremost citizen and endorsed the tribute of a distinguished clergyman who had enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Wisner's ideal home.
HENRY WISNER, who is a resident of Sharon, Barber County, Kansas, is a member of an old and honored family of the Empire State. The parents of our subject were William Roe and Eliza (Miller) Wisner. William Roe Wisner was born March 21, 1799, and died November 19, 1886; his estimable wife was born April 27, 1800, and died July 16, 1882. To this union were born ten children, John N., born February 15, 1820; David M., born November 27, 1821, died August 5, 1879; Henry, born August 20, 1824; Andrew D., born January 8, 1827, died May 24, 1828; Albert A., born April 29, 1829, died May 29, 1832; James T., born October 4, 1831; Francis L., born December 21, 1832; Albert, born November 26, 1835; Andrew H., born July 24, 1838, died June 19, 1854; Mary Ann, born May 21, 1841. The old Wisner homestead is located about one mile north of Bellvale, Orange County, and a picture of this historic house will be found on another page of this volume. It was built before the Revolutionary War by William Wisner, one of four sons of Captain John Wisner, Jr. William Wisner died in this house in 1803, and his son, William Roe Wisner, who succeeded to the ownership of the farm, and other property by inheritance, was born in this house and lived there continuously until his death at the age of eighty-seven years. Few men in Orange County were better known and none were more highly respected than Mr. Wisner. He was progressive and liberal-minded. His son, whose name heads this sketch, obtained his early education at the district school, two winters at the private school of the learned John K. Joline in Warwick, and at Chester Academy, of which William Bross was principal. He organized and taught a class in physiology, of which our subject was a member. This was probably the first teaching of physiology outside the medical profession.
In the spring of 1844 he entered the university at East Hampton, Mass., where he remained until the fall of 1845, when he commenced lecturing on anatomy, physiology, hygiene and phrenology in the New England States. He went to Ohio in 1846, and for five years lectured in the west on his favorite subjects, introducing physiology in schools. His then new subjects, his quaint and original style of presenting them, together with his marvelous faculty of delineating human character, drew immense audiences, crowning his efforts with great success, financially and otherwise, as the press of the day gave evidence. Quitting the business he had served, or which had served him so well, he engaged in other pursuits with varied success.
On March 1, 1875, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah E. (Rowe) Jackson, a graduate of Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago. In honor of her that college conferred on our subject the honorary degree of M.D. with two diplomas (having earned and received a diploma from the "Old School" while lecturing), he declined to practice the healing art. No children from this union.
He became interested in real estate in Iowa and Chicago. He later removed to Kansas, engaged in cattle raising and finally settled on one of the ranches (5,000 acres) in the State of Kansas, where he and his wife have lived twenty-five years in the enjoyment of health and prosperity.
In politics he is a republican, though not an office-seeker or holder. In sentiment he is anti-war, liberal, progressive and broad-minded.
By a former marriage he has two sons, Henry J., of Chicago, and Charles H., of Barber County, Kansas.
RALPH WISNER belongs to one of the oldest families in the town of Warwick. The first settler in this part of Orange County was Johannes Weasner, and family, who settled on a tract of land near Mount Eve. There his dust lies mingled with that of several generations of his descendants. Johannes Weasner was a soldier in the Sioux Contingent, in the days of Queen Anne. John Weasner was third in descent from Johannes Weasner, being the son of Hendrick Weasner. His brother Henry was a member of the Continental Congress, and voted for the Declaration of Independence, and then came home to make gunpowder. This was the most necessary thing to do, for without gunpowder the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, would have been of no effect. John Weasner was a captain in Colonel Dekay's Regiment of Orange County men in the French and Indian War of 1752. He and his son John were captains in Colonel Isaac Nichols's Regiment of Minute Men in 1776. The Wisner family was foremost in resisting the encroachment of the British crown upon the rights of the people. John Weasner died in 1778, his son John died in 1811, leaving a large family, among whom was another John, whose son, George T. Wisner, was the father of the subject of this sketch. Ralph Wisner was born at Big Island, town of Goshen, March 2, 1859. Mr. Wisner is engaged in farming. He is a resident of Florida.
He was married November 22, 1883, to Mary Greene, daughter of the late Henry Greene. They have one son, Roy Greene Wisner. The family are all members of the Presbyterian Church, William Wisner being assistant superintendent of the Sunday School. Mr. Wisner is identified with the best interests in the town. He has been a member of the school board for twenty-four years, and is a corresponding member of the Y. M. C. A. For one term he was assessor of the town of Warwick. It was through Mr. Wisner's efforts that the beautiful playground of the village was procured.
RICHARD WISNER was born on the homestead farm, in the town of Warwick, February 4, 1824, and died January 3, 1908. He conducted a farm in Warwick until 1883, when he purchased the beautiful residence near the village where he lived, retired until his death. He was one of the charter members of the First National Bank of Warwick and served continuously as one of its directors. He was trustee of the Warwick Savings Bank and for many years a director of the Lehigh and Hudson Railroad. He was also trustee of the Cemetery Association and at one time its treasurer. He was a member of the Sons of the Revolution, and held membership in the Reformed Church of Warwick. Mr. Wisner was a member of one of the oldest families in Orange County and a descendant of the first permanent settler of what is now Warwick township. He was a son of Jeffrey and Elizabeth (Armstrong) Wisner, a man of quiet temperament, possessed of indefatigable energy, with a genial spirit and lofty ideals. He was twice married; his first wife was Euphelia, daughter of Thomas Welling, to whom he was married December 20, 1853. She died in 1881. He was again married in June, 1883, to Sarah Van Duzer. His children, all by his first wife, are Charles E., Anne E. and Mary Euphelia, residing in Warwick.