Ulysses Grant Wissler
The modern system of agriculture demands that farmers be as scientifically trained as are the physicians of the country. It has been proven that the man with the college education who is trained in the best agriculturalschools of our country has all the advantage over the farmer who lacks this training. There are many factors of efficiency in farming which are totally unknown to the untrained farmer and for this reason there are thousands of farmers in Ohio today who are just able to make a bare living. There are two conditions which make farming very profitable without diversity of enterprises. One of these conditions arises when in any community a particular farm enterprise is for any reason exceedingly profitable. For example there is one section in northwestern Iowa where more popcorn is raised than any other place in the world. As long as this condition extsts the greatest profit may be made by sticking to this one enterprise, even if it leaves the farmer and his working force idle for a considerable portion of the year. The other condition under which farming may be quite profitable without diversity of enterprises is that under which a single farm enterprise permits a large acreage of crops and gives good seasonal distribution of labor. This is the case with the wheat culture as conducted in the Northwest. However, single-crop system of farming is also exposed to the danger which inheres in any farm business based on a single enterprise, namely, fluctuation in prices and danger from loss because of untimely weather conditions. Diversified farming is, therefore, safer than farming based on a very small number of enterprises and, under most conditions, is more profitable. It is diversified farming that has placed Fayette county, Ohio, where it is today.
Ulysses Grant Wissler, a farmer and stock raiser of Paint township, this county, was born on the farm where he is now living, September 10, 1866. He is a son of Simon and Anna (Sechrist) Wissler, who reared a family of eight children: Mrs. Susan Yates, Mrs. Alice Dixon, Mrs. Elmira Watts, Ulysses Grant, Jesse, Albertus, John and Clarence. Simon Wissler is a son of Henry and Susan (Neff) Wissler and was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, coming to Fayette county, Ohio, when he was twenty-one years of age. He remained in this county one year and then returned to Lancaster county, in his native state, and brought back his father and mother with him. Henry Wissler became one of the largest land owners in Fayette county and from the time of his arrival in this county, in 1853, until his death he was prominently identified with the history of the county. At the time of his death he was the owner of one thousand acres of fine farming land. Henry and Susan (Neff) Wissler were the parents of seven children. Christian, Mrs. Mary Anderson. Henry, Simon, Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett, Elias and one who died in infancy.
Ulysses G. Wissler received his education in the schools of his home township and spent his boyhood vacations assisting his father on the home farm. At the age of twenty-one he began working by the month and a year later went to Cass county, Missouri, where he lived for twelve years. He was married while living in the West and settled on a farm in Cass county, Missouri, where he lived until 1901. He and his wife then took a long trip throughout the Northwest, where he went for his health, and followed this with a trip through the Southwest. He then returned to Fayette county, Ohio, and located on the farm where he is now living. He has been uniformly successful in all of his farming operations since locating in this county, and by a system of properly supervised diversified farming has made his farm highly remunerative.
Mr. Wissler was married January 14, 1891, to Nettie Watts, the caughter of Henry and Martha (Parks) Watts, natives of Kentucky. Henry Watts was born in Warren county, Kentucky, as was his wife, and they lived there until after the death of Mrs. Watts, at which time Henry Watts and his children moved to Missouri, where he married again. To the first marriage of Henry Watts were born six children: Basis, of Kansas: Blanche, of California: Jennie, of Kansas; Vernon, of Alaska: Nettie, the wife of Mr. Wissler, and Briggs, of Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. Wissler have one daughter living, Edith Ann. the wife of Ernest Garrison.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)