Bio: John Jacob Hiser, Bienville Parish La
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890
Submitted by: Gaytha Thompson


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JOHN JACOB HISER

    John Jacob Riser, machinist, millwright and dealer in hardware and milling
supplies at Arcadia, La., is a gentleman possessed of large business
experience and one who occupies a prominent position a commercial circles.  He
resides on his farm of 240 acres, within two miles of Arcadia, and has a
good, comfortable home.  He was born in Missouri on October 14, 1845, and is
the second in order of birth of three children, viz. :  Christina F. who
married P. D. Lane, a general trader, and died when forty-two years of age),
James F.(who is married and resides in Arcadia, where he follows the
blacksmith's trade), and our subject. The father, John Wilkins Hiser, was a
native Kentuckian, and died when fifty-seven years of age. He was a farmer and
general trader.  The mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth F. Heard, was a
native of Tennessee, and died when about twenty~seven years of age.  

Our subject's early educational advantages were such as could be obtained in
the common schools in the State of Missouri, and this he has increased very
materially by observation and study.  At the breaking out of the war, he
enlisted in Company F, Sixteenth  Missouri Infantry Volunteers, and was
assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department, under Gen. M. M. Parsons, Second
Brigade, Confederate States army.  He was in the following engagements: 
Pleasant Hill, Camden, Saline, etc.  For three years he fought bravely in
defense of the Confederacy, and wore the gray in honor to himself and the
cause for which he took up arms.  At the age of twenty years he entered the
arena of life as a machinist, with very little means, and spent a portion of
his life in Missouri.  After the war he emigrated to Louisiana, and as he is a
natural machinist and thoroughly at home with all machines, he has been
connected with this interest ever since, until about six years ago, when
he opened up business in Arcadia, making a success in detail of it.  

Mr. Hiser selected as his life companion Miss Sarah Jane C. Sutton, whom
he wedded on December 24, 1868. She was born in 1852, and educated in the
common schools of Louisiana.  Her father, S. P. Sutton, was born in
Mississippi, and was an attorney and teacher by profession.  He is now
deceased.  The mother, Lucinda (Stewart) Sutton, is living, and is about
sixty-five years of age.  To Mr. and Mrs. Hiser were born eight children: 
Jay T. (is a farmer and resides with his parents), James F. (is also a
farmer), Walter L. (is following the same pursuit), George S. (died at the
age of nine months), Lucinda E., Carl J., Mary C. and John. 

Mr. Hiser is a stanch Democrat of the Jacksonian school, but does not take an
active part in politics.  He has aimed to keep out of politics, and, being a
practical man, he can not afford to lose his time for small offices.  He
has been one of the board of trustees, also one of the charter members and one
of the founders of the Male and Female College at Arcadia, La.  He is an
estimable citizen of his parish, and is held in the highest esteem and respect
by his friends and people who now him for his true worth.  Mr. and Mrs. Hiser
are devout members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and do all they can to
further any worthy movement presented to them.  Mr. Hiser is the owner and
sole proprietor of one of the best and most complete cotton-gins and mills in
the parish. {he has one of the Winship gins and presses, a gin celebrated in
the South among the best planters. Mr. Hiser has gotten up a plan, and patent
applied for, of a cotton~tramping machine, which is he most complete machine
of its kind ever invented before.  It takes the place of a man as a "tramper,"
and is pronounced a signal success by all who see it.  The full plant is
valued at about $2,000.  Mr. Hiser is known all over the parish as machinist,
and has set up all kinds of machinery in different localities.