Winder Wonderland DNA Project

Researching the genealogy of the Winder/Winders/Wynder/etc families.

John Melvin WINDERS

Male 1862 - 1920  (57 years)

Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    Event Map    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name John Melvin WINDERS 
    Birth 28 Nov 1862  Mount Morris, Ogle, Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Census 1880  Pine Creek, Ogle, Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    federal 
    • sinle, living alone
    article 8 Nov 1894  Oelwein, Fayette, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Oelwein Register 
    • H.R. Martin has sold the old post office building to painter Winders, and it has been moved just west
      of the Charles Street Bridge on the south side of the street and will be used as a paint shop.
    article 21 May 1896  Oelwein, Fayette, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Mr. Winders [believed to be Hiram] an uncle of J.M. Winders and a staunch democrat, being on his way to the state convention in Dubuque, stopped off here between trains Monday to visit his nephew and look over a live town. He resides near Tama.
    article 22 Jun 1898  Oelwein, Fayette, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Oelwein Register 
    • A Shattered Home

      Between eight and nine o'clock Tuesday evening our city was thrown into a fever of excitement over a rumor that a man had murdered his wife and then committed suicide. An investigation showed the facts to be not quite as bad, but bad enough. In the residence of J. M. Winders, on South Frederick Street, resided Bert Brownell, a Chicago Great Western fireman, wife and two young children. The husband had not been in good health for some little time, being unable to go out on his run only part of the time. Tuesday he was at home, and earlier in the evening his wife had asked him to go out for a walk but he declined on the plea of feeling so unwell. She went out for a little walk with Mrs. Parker, and on her return found him in the bedroom off the kitchen, and he said he thought he would sleep there although he had been sleeping in another part of the house. She said all right. After a few words of conversation, in which he said he was tired of living the way things had been going, referring to his poor health and some troubles he had been having regarding the new residence he was building. His wife said that she would have to go and see about putting the children to bed, and turned to leave the room. As she did she noticed that he had a revolver part way out of his pocket. A suspicion flashed through her mind, and she asked him to give her the revolver. He refused, saying he wanted to use it. She then went up to him and reached out hand, and taking hold of the weapon said, "please Bert, give it to me; you have no use for it." But he held on to the revolver and said "I love you better than anything, Tina, but I may as well get rid of my troubles." He pushed her from him, with her head toward the floor, and placing the muzzle of the revolver close against her head, pulled the trigger. The ball struck the bone on the back of her head, and flattened out, buried itself in the skin, and was extracted by the physicians who were summonded. She said to the girl who was with her, "oh, he has shot me" and as she staggered as if about to fall, the girl caught the baby from her arms. The wounded woman, thinking not of herself, but of her husband, started for Ed O'Brien's only a few feet away, for assistance, but before she reached there she heard another revolver shot, and screamed out "he has shot himself", which was the first intimation that the neighbors had that anything was wrong. Marshall Culver was at once notified and going to the house he found everything dark. Going in and procuring a light, he found the door of the bedroom shut. Pushing it open and entering he found Brownell lying on the floor unconscious and a revolver and bottle of strychaine by his side. There was a large hole in his head just back of the right ear, where the ball had evidently entered, although the physicians were unable to find it by probing. The ball had ranged upward and entered the brain as was shown by the oozings from the wound. The family were former residents of Dubuque, but have resided in this city over a year. The family relations have always been pleasant, and there seems to have been no reason for the rash act except despondency and those noted in the beginning. Mrs. Brownell will soon recover unless something unforseen occurs. Brownell however never regained consciousness but lingered until five minutes to 5 this morning, when he passed quietly away never having spoken a word after the tragedy occurred. He was a brother of Mrs. Tom Denson and a cousin of the other Brownell families. A broken hearted wife, two fatherless children and a shattered fireside are what the morning light brought to this home.
    Census 1900  Oelwein, Fayette, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    federal 
    cemetery Feb 1920  Pawhuska, Osage, Oklahoma, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Pawhuska City Cemetery 
    John Melvin Winders Tombstone
    John Melvin Winders Tombstone
    _UID 9AC0A34E6994440CAA75605C4E29C93BEE2B 
    Death 17 Feb 1920  Pawhuska, Osage, Oklahoma, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I22027  WinderWonderland
    Last Modified 22 Jan 2023 

    Father John M WINDERS,   b. 1830, , Washington, Maryland, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Apr 5 1862, Mount Morris, Ogle, Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 32 years) 
    Mother Ann Elizabeth KNODLE,   b. 4 Nov 1832, , Washington, Maryland, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 25 Aug 1920, Mount Morris, Ogle, Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 87 years) 
    Marriage 15 Aug 1854  , Ogle, Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 3
    Family ID F7700  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family ID F8392  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Mary Ann ALLEN,   b. 16 May 1857, Bladensburg, Wapello, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 31 May 1916, Pasco, Franklin, Washington, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 59 years) 
    Marriage 9 Nov 1894  Marion, Linn, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Carl Elmer WINDERS,   b. 28 Jan 1897, Oelwein, Fayette, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Oct 1972, Cass Lake, Cass, Minnesota, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 75 years)
     2. Eva May WINDERS,   b. 18 Mar 1900, Oelwein, Fayette, Iowa, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 8 Nov 1987, Monterey, Monterey, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 87 years)
    Family ID F8390  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 15 Apr 2014 

    Family 2 Anna HOCHSTEIN,   b. 18 Jan 1869   d. 28 Jan 1927 (Age 58 years) 
    Children 
     1. Hiram Abiff WINDERS,   b. 19 Oct 1904, Shawnee, Pottawatomie, Oklahoma, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 30 Mar 1988, Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 83 years)
    Family ID F9553  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 5 May 2014 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 28 Nov 1862 - Mount Morris, Ogle, Illinois, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google Mapscemetery - Pawhuska City Cemetery - Feb 1920 - Pawhuska, Osage, Oklahoma, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 17 Feb 1920 - Pawhuska, Osage, Oklahoma, USA Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Notes 
    • According to John H Winder:
      «u»«b»John Melvin Winders «/u»«/b» was born in Ogle County, Illinois in November 1862 and grew up there, marrying «u»Mary Ann Allen «/u» (1857-1916), who had been married previously to John Morrison, on 9 November 1894 in Marion (Linn County), Iowa. John Winders ran a boarding house as early as 1898 in Oelwein, Iowa. In the 1900 census he was enumerated as a "landlord", and the 22 June 1898 edition of the «i»Oelwein Register«/i» carried a hair-raising story about an attempted murder-suicide that took place "at the residence of J.M. Winders, in South Frederick Street", involving a couple who were boarding there. John Melvin does not appear in the 1910 census, although his wife and two children do, living with her mother in Zearing, Iowa; his wife Mary Ann described herself as widowed, which would be a good reason for John M. not to have been enumerated. However, there is a John Melvin Winder (with a November 1862 birth date) buried in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, together with wife Anna (18 Jan 1869-28 Jan 1927). So either this is a different John Melvin Winders, or he and Mary Ann Allen split up and Mary Ann said she was widowed rather than divorced when the census taker asked in 1910. Likely the Pawhuska John Melvin Winders and the Oelwein John Melvin Winders are one and the same-this is the assumption that this narrative works under, meaning that John Melvin Winders married (first) Mary Ann Allen (as noted above), then married (second) Anna (LNU), who ended up with him in Pawhuska and lived from 18 January 1869 to 28 January 1927. John and Mary Ann had two children: Carl Elmer and Eva M. Winders, and John and Anna had one son, Hiram Abiff Winders. [4]

  • Sources 
    1. [S718] 1910 Federal Census, Story Co, IA.

    2. [S203] Roger Cubs, Nov 2003 (Reliability: 3).

    3. [S720] Illinois Marriages, 1851-1900, (ancestry.com).

    4. [S1017] Winder, John Hancestry.com, Winders from Washington County, Maryland Who Emigrated to Ogle County, Illinois, (http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~annieron/Winder/Library/Ogle.htm), ) (Reliability: 3).


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