Chester W. Wharton, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Chester W. Wharton
REV. CHESTER W. WHARTON - Was born in Carroll County, Indiana, on November 9, 1883, the son of James M. and Susan (Salisbury) Wharton, natives of Carroll County and respected farmers of that community for many years. The farm on which our subject was born was entered by his grandfather from the Government, and was later disposed of by the grandfather; James Wharton, however, purchased it again before his marriage to Susan Salisbury. Mr. Wharton has two sisters, Mrs. Ettie Niccum of Indianapolis, and Mrs. Anna Wingard of Bringhurst, Indiana; and three brothers, John E. and Walter E. of Flora, and Dr. Russell O. Wharton of Gary. Chester W. Wharton was educated in the common and high schools of Bringhurst and Frankfort, Indiana; in 1907 he graduated from Lake Forest College of Lake Forest, Illinois, with the degree of B. A. After that he taught school at Corning, Iowa, for one year, and then entered McCormick Theological Seminary at Chicago for three years. His first pastorate was the First Presbyterian Church at Kentland from 1911 to 1917, and in the latter year went to Crawfordsville, where he served Center Presbyterian Church until 1921. He then returned to Kentland and on May 1, 1922, came to Valparaiso, where he has since served as the resident pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Wharton has participated in the broadest possible sense in the civic affairs of the community, and has given of his very able training to the solution of many problems that concern the civic and spiritual welfare of the City of Valparaiso. He has served as chairman of the University Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, which had charge of the negotiations resulting in the acquisition of the Valparaiso University by the Lutheran University Association; in recognition of the success he was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1926. Mr. Wharton was united in marriage with Florence A., daughter of Dumont Abbott and Pamelia (Thurber) Buell of Algona, Iowa. Mrs. Wharton is a graduate of the kindergarten course of Froebel School of Chicago, and taught in the Chicago schools for a period, after which she spent one year in travel. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Wharton were born five children: James, Luis, Anne, Martha, and Isabelle, the latter being deceased. The Buell family was one of the pioneer families of Illinois, and in the early '50s conducted a hotel at Ottawa, in that state. Mrs. Wharton's parents removed to Iowa in 1880, and later to Minneapolis. Mr. Buell entered a considerable amount of land from the Government and established farmers on much of it. He assisted a number of men in the purchase of lands, and a number of farm owners in Kossuth County, Iowa, owe their beginnings in farming to his help.
Source: Cannon, Thomas H., H. H. Loring, and Charles J. Robb. 1927. History of the Lake and Calumet Region of Indiana Embracing the Counties of Lake, Porter and Laporte. Volume II. Indianapolis, Indiana: Historians' Association. 827 p.
Page(s) in Source: 516-517
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Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook