George C. Wise, secretary of Lodge No. 531, B.P.O.E., at Council Bluffs, was born on a farm in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, on the 27th of October, 1851. Of a family of nine children the parents were Samuel and Eliza (Etter) Wise, both natives of Pennsylvania, in which state they were married about 1830. The father was born in Lancaster County in January 1808, and in early manhood became a resident of Huntingdon County in the same state. There he spent his remaining days and during the greater part of his life followed the occupation of farming. Unto him and his wife were born nine children, of whom two died in infancy, while seven reached adult age, namely: Adeline E., the deceased wife of John Metz; Mary J.; William H.; Ella, the deceased wife of William Grimison; Anna F., the deceased wife of S. P. B. Myers; Jerome F., living in Council Bluffs; and George C.

The last named was reared to the age of eighteen or nineteen years in his native county and attended the country schools. On putting aside his text-books he enlisted in the regular Army and was assigned to the Second United States Calvary, with which he served for five years. The regiment was located in various places in Nebraska and Wyoming and has some skirmishes with the Indians. Mr. Wise was one of the escort which attended the Grand Duke Alexis on his buffalo hunt in Nebraska in January, 1872, and in July and August, 1875, he was one of the escort of the peace commissioners appointed by President U. S. Grant to make a treaty with Sitting Bull’s tribe of Northern Sioux for the purchase of the Black Hills country.

When his term of enlistment expired, on the 9th of August, 1875, Mr. Wise located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in October of the same year began bridge building. He continued to work for others until 1895, when he began contracting on his own account and so continued until March, 1907, when he was elected to his present position as secretary of Lodge No. 531, B.P.O.E. He is not only a valued and prominent member of the Elks, but also belongs to Bluff City Lodge, No. 71, A.F. & A. M., Camp No. 171, M.W.A., the Iowa State Traveling Men’s Association and the Illinois Commercial Men’s Association.

On the 27th of October, 1881, Mr. Wise was married, in Council Bluffs, to Miss Mollie Fitzgerald and they have six children, as follows: Meda J., the wife of Oscar Harte; Raymond C.; William A.; Nellie M.; Thomas B.; and Ruth L.