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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
CHARLES WING, of Oskaloosa Township, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 21, 1820. He is the son of Cornelius Wing, a native of Connecticut, born May 7, 1766. Cornelius Wing was a highly educated man, and established a school in the city of Cincinnati, which attained a wide reputation throughout the West, and at the time of his death there were in attendance 200 pupils from all parts of the country, he was married to Miss Mehitabel Wing, not a relative, who was born Nov.22, 1768. The children were as follows: Sarah, born June 22, 1791, died Aug. 13, 1793; Mehitabel, born Feb. 24, 1793, died in infancy; Joseph, born April 25, 1795, was drowned at Natchez, Miss., March 9,1822, by falling overboard from a steamer; Edward, born April 8, 1802, was a school teacher, and after the death of his father succeeded to the management of the school at Cincinnati; one daughter died in infancy; Charles, born Nov. 10, 1804, died Feb. 26, 1805; Eliza, born May 12, 1806, died in New Orleans; William, born June 11, 1808, followed the Mississippi River for fifty years as a clerk on a steamer, and died upon the river. Mrs. Mehitabel Wing died at Auburn, Cayuga Co., N. Y., Oct. 27, 1816, aged forty-seven years, eleven months and five days. She was a member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Wing was again married, to Elizabeth Crispin, who was born July 23, 1781. By this union there were two children: Charles, born March 21, 1820, and Benjamin, born June 23, 1822, died July 28, 1825. Cornelius Wing died Sept. 16, 1823. He was a member of the Society of Friends, was a man of exalted Christian character, and was widely known and greatly beloved by the members of that society. Elizabeth Wing died Jan. 1, 1861. She was also a member of the Society of Friends. The subject of this sketch was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and during his growth to manhood in that city received a liberal education. He was married in Clermont County, Ohio, April 3, 1842, to Miss Catherine Leever, born March 21, 1821. Of this marriage three children are living: William O., born May 3, 1849, is now somewhere in the western territory in a government surveying party; Edward, born April 3,1851, is at Superior, Nuckolls Co., Neb.; Margaret E., born Nov. 29, 1857, is the wife of John B. Threlkeld, of Superior, Neb. In 1853 Mr. Wing emigrated to this county and built a gunsmith-shop, on the ground now occupied by the new court-house in Oakaloosa. This was the first establishment of the kind in the county, and is believed to have been the first one built and operated in this part of the State. In 1855 he purchased a farm in Spring Creek Township, where he resided continuously for twenty-seven years, selling the farm a few years since to a coal syndicate, and receiving therefor $80 per acre. Mrs. Catherine Wing, who was a sincere and earnest Christian,. and a member of the Mcthodist Episcopal Church, died Oct. 5, 1866. Mr. Wing was again married in this county, to Sarah E. Thornburg, who was born in Greene County, Ohio, April 18, 1835. She was a daughter of Thomas and Nancy (Moorman) Thornburg. Her father was a native of Lexington, Ky., but removed to Ohio while but a small boy, and her mother was a native of Ohio. They were both members of the Society of Friends. There was born to them a family of seven children, six now living: Sarah E., wife of the subject of this sketch; Melissa J., of Cass County, Iowa, wife of A. M. Saunders; Alonzo E., of Madison County, Iowa; Dosha D., of this county, wife of Jacob Shaul; Nannie E., of Oskaloosa, wife of Delos Dean; Thomas J., of Mahaska County. Mrs. Thornburg died March 9, 1871, and her husband March 21, 1875. They were sincere Christian people and highly respected wherever known. They came to Oskaloosa March 8, 1864. Our subject and wife are the parents of three childrenÄKatie E., Nannie E. and Dosha C., all at home. Mr. and Mrs. Wing are leading and influential members of the Society of Friends, and take an active interest in the advancement of the welfare, spiritual and temporal, of that society. Charles Wing is an honorable, upright citizen, enjoying the respect and esteem of his fellow-men in an eminent degree. He has taken an active interest in the development of the resources of this city and county, aiding in this work, as well by his means as by his personal influence and individual effort.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy