Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Wille, H. Ph. 1843 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 17, 2006, 9:34 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

REV. H. PH. WILLE.

    Rev. H. Ph. Wille has been pastor of the First Lutheran church of Whiting
since 1891 and was the first minister regularly located here. During the years
which have since come and gone he has succeeded in building up a strong
religious organization and one which has had potent and far-reaching effect in
the moral development and progress of this part of the state. Widely known and
respected by all with whom he has come in contact the life record of Rev. Wille
cannot fail to prove of deep interest to many of our readers. He was born in
Hamburg, Germany, on the 18th of December, 1843, when his parents were en route
for America. His father, Philip Wille, was a native of Prussia and was a farmer
by occupation. He came to the United States in the spring of 1844, locating near
Milwaukee Wisconsin, and he lived to enjoy the privileges and opportunities of
the new world for forty years, passing away in 1884, when seventy-four years of
age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Charlotte Tews, was also a native of
Prussia and is still living at the very advanced age of eighty-eight years. They
became the parents of nineteen children, but only six reached adult age.

    Rev. H. Ph. Wille is the only surviving son, and was but three months old
when his parents arrived in America. He was educated in the public and parochial
schools near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in Martin Luther College at Buffalo, New
York. He also attended Concordia Seminary at St. Louis, Missouri, where he was
graduated with the class of 1870 on the completion of a theological course which
prepared him for the active work of the ministry. His first charge was at
California, Missouri, where he remained for about four years. He then removed to
Concordia, Missouri, where he acted as pastor of the Lutheran church for twelve
years, and on the expiration of that period he accepted a call for the church at
Geneseo, Illinois, where he continued his ministerial labors for five years. In
1891 he arrived in Whiting. It was then but a mere village and he became the
first regular pastor in this place. He began here with a membership of only
forty, but his labors have resulted in great and substantial growth in the
church, which now has an enrolled membership of over three hundred. He is also
interested in the building up of a congregation at Indiana Harbor. His active
connection with the ministry covers thirty-four years, during which time he has
not been denied the full harvest nor the aftermath. With conscientious zeal he
has devoted his time and energies to his holy calling, and his pulpit addresses,
his pastoral labors and his personal influence and example have been strong and
forceful elements for the betterment of mankind and the upbuilding of the church
in the various localities in which he has resided.

    On the 1st of September, 1864, Rev. Wille was united in the holy bonds of
matrimony to Miss Minnie Henning, who was born and reared in Buffalo, New York,
and is a daughter of G. and Minnie (Voelker) Henning. They have become the
parents of ten children, five sons and five daughters: Edward, a farmer now
residing in Nebraska; Lillie, the wife of Paul A. Scholz, who follows farming
near La Porte, Indiana; Herman C, who is proprietor of a grocery store in
Chicago; Emma, who is engaged in dressmaking in Whiting; Otto, who died at the
age of thirty years; Clara, the wife of George Hornecker; Julius, who is engaged
in the tinner's business in Whiting; Ella, the wife of William Glock, of
Whiting; Rudolph, who is employed as a salesman in a grocery store in Chicago;
and Mollie, at home. The family is well known in Whiting, where they have
resided for twelve years, and the hospitality of the best homes is very
cordially extended to them. Mr. Wille commands the respect of people of all
denominations, and while he is firm in his advocacy of what he believes to be
right he is also charitable in his opinions and of kindly, generous spirit.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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