J. C. Blotner
J. C. Blotner, lumber dealer at Osborn, this county, has been engaged in business there since the fall of 1910. He was born in Darke county, this state, January 18, 1872, son of John and Rhoda (Swisher) Blotner, the latter of whom was born in that same county. John Blotner was born in Pennsylvania in 1840 and came to Ohio in the days of his youth, marrying in Darke county. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted his services in behalf of the Union and went to the front as a member of Company E, Fortieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which command he served until he lost his right arm at the battle of Chickamauga. Politically, he was a Republican. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, three of whom died in infancy, the others besides the subject of this sketch being Wilham F., Louisa, Sarah, Sidney and Alonzo.
Reared in Darke county, J. C. Blotner received his schoohng in the pubhe schools of that county and upon starting out for himself rented a farm for two years. He then became employed in a lumber yard, his first wage in that capacity being fifty cents a day, and in time became an experienced lumberman, continuing thus engaged, working for others, for eighteen years. or until the fall of 1910, when he moved to Osborn and bought from Mrs. S. C. Godall the lumber yard which he has since been operating at that place. It was on September 14, 1910, that Mr. Blotner took possession of that lumber yard and since then he has made additions to the same.
On October 8, 1901, J. C. Blotner was united in marriage to Helen Haack, who also was born in Darke county, this state, daughter of August and Sophia (Stierle) Haack, the latter of whom also was born in that same county and the former in Germany, he having come to this country when a young man and proceeding on out to Ohio and settling in Darke county, where he engaged in farming and where he spent his last days. Mr. and Mrs. Blotner have three children. Rubine. Dorothy Louise and Emma Caroline They are members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Blotner is independent in his political views. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias at Osborn.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918