Payette County ID Archives Biographies.....Giesler, John C. 1862 - 1936
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Cheryl Hanson ihansonb@fmtc.com January 19, 2006, 12:03 am

Author: Hiram T. French

History of Idaho
By Hiram T. French, M.S.
The Lewis Publishing Co
Chicago & New York 1914

JOHN C. GIESLER

To John C. Giesler has come the attainment of a distinguished position in 
connection with the business world of Payette, Idaho, where he has resided 
since 1882.  His life achievements worthily illustrate what may be attained by 
persistent and painstaking effort.  He is a man of progressive ideas, and 
exactness and thoroughness characterize all his attainments.  He is a member 
of the well-known Giesler Brothers Mercantile Company in Payette and here is 
an influential factor in public affairs.

January 5, 1862, in Warsaw, Wisconsin, occurred the birth of John C. Giesler, 
who is a son of Julius and Mary Louise (Cooper) Giesler.  The father was born 
in Germany and came to America at the age of twenty-three years, settling in 
Wisconsin in the ‘40s.  He was a merchant by occupation.  At the time of the 
inception of the Civil war he enlisted for service in the Twenty-third 
Wisconsin Cavalry and he participated in a number of important engagements 
marking the progress of the war.  He was captain of his company and met his 
death while in active service near Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1865, at the age 
of forty years.  Mrs. Giesler was born at Terre Haute, Indiana, and after her 
husband’s death she removed, with her children, to LaGrange, Kentucky.  Later 
she removed thence to Terre Haute, Indiana, where she died in 1872.  Mr. And 
Mrs. Giesler had three children; Charles W., of Payette; John C., the 
immediate subject of this review; and Marie, widow of Mr. Karll; she resides 
in Cleveland, Ohio.  After their mother’s demise the three above children made 
their home with their maternal grandfather, Charles Walter Cooper, who lived 
at Troy, Missouri, where he was a merchant.  

John C. Giesler was educated in the Troy public schools and he spent one year 
(1879-80) in the Central Normal school, at Danville, Indiana, where he pursued 
a business course.  After completing his education he came to Idaho, locating 
in Payette during the Wood river excitement in 1881.  His first work was 
driving freight teams between Kelton, Utah, and the Wood river country.  In 
1884 he pre-empted a tract of eighty acres of land in the vicinity of Payette 
and there engaged in general farming and stock raising for the ensuing four 
years, at the expiration of which he sold his farm and came to Payette, here 
engaging in the lumber and coal business.  In 1881 he was joined by his 
brother, Charles, and after selling the above business they established the 
Giesler Brothers Mercantile Company, a concern that has since grown to 
extensive proportions and that now commands recognition as one of the best 
stocked and most up-to-date stores of its kind in Canyon county.

In politics Mr. Giesler is an uncompromising Democrat.  In 1890’s he was 
honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office of assessor of 
Canyon county and he served in that capacity with the utmost efficiency for 
one term.  In 1912 he is a candidate, on the Democratic ticket, for the office 
of state legislator from Canyon county.  He is a member of the Payette 
Commercial Club and in fraternal circles is affiliated with the local lodges 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and the 
Modern Brotherhood of America.  He is extremely fond of hunting and fishing 
and devotes much of his spare time to reading standard literature.  He is a 
man of broad mind and liberal ideas and he is popular amongst all classes of 
people by reason of his affability and kindly spirit of human helpfulness, 
never ignoring an opportunity to assist his fellow an who may be less 
fortunately situated in life than himself.

January 13, 1889, Mr. Giesler married Miss Ella McKern, an adopted daughter of 
Charles and Cordelia Guild, of Portland, Oregon.  Mr. And Mrs. Giesler are the 
parents of eight children, concerning whom the following brief data are here 
incorporated;  Cordelia is the wife of Carry Tussing, of Fruitland, Idaho; 
Mary lives at the parental home; Edna is a successful and popular teacher in 
the northern part of the state; and Ethel, Cecil, John C., Jr., Margaret and 
Anna are all at home.  The Giesler family are most comfortably ensconced in a 
beautiful residence at No. 510 North Sixth street.  In addition to the home in 
Payette Mr. Giesler is the owner of twenty acres of fruit land three miles 
south of Payette.  In religious matters Mr. And Mrs. Giesler are devout 
members of the Baptist church, in whose good works they are active factors.

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