Howard County IN Archives Biographies.....Learner, J. W. 1848 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 16, 2006, 2:48 am

Author: Jackson Morrow

J. W. LEARNER.

   Representing one of the oldest and best known families of Howard county, and
a man of enterprise and sterling worth, J. W. Learner is well entitled to notice
among the substantial business men of Kokomo and it is with much satisfaction
that the story of his life is accorded a place in these pages.

   Bernhart Learner, his father, a native of Bavaria, Germany, came to the
United States when a young man and lived for some time in Pennsylvania, where he
met and married Catherine Heater, who was born and reared in that state.
Subsequently, in 1841, he migrated to the new and undeveloped territory of
Howard county, Indiana, entered land in Howard township and in due time became
one of the successful farmers and public-spirited citizens of the community,
which he assisted to establish. In company with several of his neighbors and
friends he made the long overland trip to California during the gold excitement
of 1849 and 1850, and remained in the west two years, meeting with fair success
in his search for wealth. While absent a distressing accident occurred at home,
in which his wife was killed by the falling of a burning chimney. Some time
after his retrun [sic] from California he married Mrs. Bates, the widow of one
of his companions on his trip to the West, and spent the remainder of his life
on the farm, which he had redeemed from the wilderness. At one time he was a
large land owner, his real estate in Howard township alone amounting to six
hundred and forty acres, and his high standing as a neighbor and citizen, won
for him the confidence and esteem of all with whom he associated. An active and
consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church and an enterprising man of
affairs he left the impress of his individuality upon the community in which he
lived and to his descendents the memory of a good name which they prize as a
grateful heritage. Of the five children of Bernhart and Catherine Learner that
survived the period of infancy, three are still living, J. W., of this review;
B. F. and Mrs. Mary Templin, the sons being residents of Howard county, but the
daughter for some years past has been living in the West.

   J. W. Learner was born in Howard county in the year of 1848 and spent the
greater part of his minority on the family homestead in Howard township, where
he early became familiar with the pursuit of agriculture and received, under
excellent home influence, the discipline and training which so well fitted him
for the duties of subsequent life. While assisting to clear and cultivate the
farm, he attended school for a brief period only, eighteen months covering his
early educational experiences, notwithstanding which he made rapid progress, the
knowledge thus gained with information derived from study and reading during his
leisure hours enabling him, when a young man, to enter the school work and teach
successfully several terms in his native township. Meantime he devoted his
attention to various enterprises, chief among which was the manufacture of drain
tile, in which he was associated for some time with his brother-in-law, James
Miller, the business proving remunerative and giving him his first real start in
life. During the years, 1881-2, he served as deputy sheriff under J. W. DeHaven
and later turned his attention to merchandising, in which his success was fairly
satisfactory. Without following his business career in detail, suffice it to
state that the last enterprise to which he addressed himself and in which he is
still engaged, was the purchase in partnership with P. E. Hoss and W. E.
Blacklidge of the Opalescent Glass Works at Kokomo, the establishment being
disposed of at a receiver's sale in the year 1891. Since becoming identified
with this large and promising interest, Mr. Learner has given personal attention
to the office work and management of the concern, which is now one of the
leading manufacturing establishments of the city. Under the present company the
plant has been enlarged and otherwise improved and from a modest beginning the
business has steadily grown in magnitude and importance until the demand for the
product is so great that the factory is taxed to its utmost capacity, thus
rendering an additional increase of facilities, a matter of the near future. The
high grade of the out-put of the Kokomo Opalescent Glass Works has given the
plant wide reputation and it stands today among the leading enterprises of the
city with a promise of still larger growth in the future. Mr. Learner possesses
business abilities of a high order, and to him largely is the enterprise
indebted for the series of advancements which have characterized its progress
since he became a member of the firm. Aside from his business affairs he
manifests a lively interest in the material development of Kokomo, lending his
encouragement and influence to all worthy measures and movements to this end,
and he is also an earnest advocate and liberal patron of everything calculated
to promote the social advancement of the city and the moral good of the people.

   Mr. Learner is a married man and the father of one child, a daughter by the
name of Grace, a young lady of uncommon intelligence and culture, a graduate of
the Kokomo high school and for two years a student of De Pauw University.
Recently she completed the full course in kindergarten work in a professional
college at Indianapolis and now holds a remunerative position in the public
schools at Hammond, this state. Before her marriage, Mrs. Learner was Hettie
Adamson, a native of Howard county, whose death occurred in 1890. Subsequently
Mr. Learner married Mrs. Emma J. (Small) Wilson, a native of Howard county.

   In his political faith Mr. Learner is staunchly and uncompromisingly a
Republican, though not a partisan or aspirant for official honors. His fraternal
relations are with the Masonic order, and in religion he is a Methodist,
belonging with his family to the Grace church in Kokomo, in which he holds the
office of trustee.

   Personally, Mr. Learner is a most pleasant and affable gentleman. of honest
convictions and sincere purposes, his upright career and wholesome moral
influence making him popular throughout the city in which he is so widely known
and in which his entire life has been spent.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

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