JOHN H. WINANS, a substantial farmer of Know Township, is from an old American family of New Jersey, and of English descent. His great grandfather and grandfather were in the Revolutionary war, and the latter was a farmer of New Jersey near Elizabeth City. Our subject's father, Benjamin Winans, was also a farmer, and was married to Hannah Hughes, daughter of Charles Hughes of New Jersey. They were the parents of six children: Fannie, John H., Charles, Mary, George E. and Eliza. In 1854 the father moved to Scott County, Iowa, settling on a farm of wild land, where he lived until 1884, when he moved to Chester Township, Poweshiek County, where he is still living at the age of eighty-six years. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Church at Rahway, New Jersey, for forty-six years. The father is a prosperous farmer in good circumstances, and has always obeyed the Quaker instructions of owing no man anything. In his political principles he is a Republican.

John H. Winans, our subject, was born in Elizabeth City, Essex County, New Jersey, August 25, 1842, and was reared to farm life. He was but twelve years of age when his father came to Iowa, and he carried from New Jersey $2,300 in a leather belt, with which his father bought his farm. In 1865 Mr. Winans moved to Pottawattamie County, settling in Center Township, and in1878 moved to his present farm of 160 acres in Knox Township. In political principles he is a Republican; has been a supervisor of his township five years, constable two years, and school director three years. He has been identified with Iowa since his boyhood, and like his father has always stood high as an industrious and honest man and a good citizen.

Mr. Winans was married at the age of twenty years, in 1862, to Sarah J. Fuller, daughter of Ezra and Arloah L. Fuller. The father was a farmer of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and settled in Scott County, Iowa, in 1861, where he was a large landholder, owning 900 acres of land. He had two sons: Jared M. and James, and a brother, Spencer, in the civil war, all three of whom died in the army. He was the father of twelve children, and died in Center Township, this county, where he had moved in 1864. He held the office of supervisor five years, constable two years, and school director three terms. Isaac the eldest brother of Benjamin Winans, was a captain in the war of 1812 and was in the battle of Morristown, New Jersey.