Heisler, Alexander
From Lane Co Oregon
ALEXANDER HEISLER, who is now operating a meat market in Dufur, is one of the industrious and enterprising business men and land owners of Wasco county. He has been in this part of the county only a few years, but he has dwelt in Oregon all his life and is entitled to the honor of the pioneer for many sections of this great state. He was born in Lane County, on December 12, 1857; the son of William and Martha (McConnell) Heisler, who have mention in another portion of this work. Alexander was educated in the district schools and remained with his parents until eighteen years of age. Then he took up the cattle business with his brother, Monroe, who, also, is sketched in this work. Two years later he leased his father's farm on Wilson creek, Crook county, and a year later engaged in the stock business again, this time, with another brother. For fourteen years they were thus associated, and then our subject bought the entire business and conducted it for six years more. This was all in Crook county, then Mr. Heisler sold out his interests there and came to Dufur. He soon purchased a choice farm of fertile bottom land on Fifteen Mile and after conducting it for a time, rented it to his son-in-law and opened the meat market where he is at present engaged in a lucrative business. He is a man of good business ability and integrity and stands well in the community.
Mr. Heisler's first marriage was celebrated in Canyon City, Oregon, in 1882. At Dufur, on September 11, 1892, he married Mrs. Agnes Gilmore, the daughter of Benjamin F. and Elizabeth (Lantzenhizer) Saunders, natives of Akron, Ohio, and England, respectively. Mrs. Heisler was born in Indiana. Her mother's father was adopted by a German family and hence the German name. Mrs. Heisler was married first to Harry Bradshaw, who died before she was twenty. By this marriage she had two children: Byron H., at Twisp, Washington; and Richard a telegraph operator in Oklahoma. In 1887, she was married to Professor Herbert Gilmore, a professor in the Iowa Agricultural college. Three years after his marriage, he died. To Mr. and Mrs. Heisler four children have been born: Ada, wife of Cossie Woodford, now renting his father-in-law's farm; Eva, Bruce, and John, all at home. Mr. Heisler is a member of the I.O.O.F., and the Encampment and has passed all the chairs, having also been representative to both grand lodges. Mrs. Heisler belongs to the United Brethren church, also to the Maccabees, the Fraternal Union, the Rebekahs, and the B.O.A. She was well educated, graduating from the Priscilla Academy in Ohio, in 1877. Mr. Heisler is a well informed Democrat.
An Illustrated History of Central Oregon, Western Historical Publishing Company, Spokane, WA. 1905, pages 269-270
