JOHN ERSINGER, a civil engineer of Sullivan, Indiana, was born September 3, 1860, in Canton Schaffhausen, Switzerland, a son of Michael and Anna (Myers) Ersinger, both natives also of that place, and both now deceased. They were farmers in Switzerland, and of an excellent family. The children born to Michael and Anna (Myers) Ersinger were as follows: Barbara; Michael; Christian; Leonard; George; Alexander; John; Anna, deceased. This family all live in Switzerland except John and his brother Leonard, who resides in northern Indiana.
Educated in Switzerland in a literary and civil engineering course, John Ersinger, in 1880, came to the United States and located at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged at his profession for about four months, then went to Indiana and settled at Goodland, where his brother now resides, and here engaged in the railway service, being in the civil engineering department of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company. His first work was surveying the road from Brazil to Evansville. His next employment was in Minnesota, on an extension of the Duluth & Iron Range, from Tower to Ely. After one year's service there, he returned to Brazil, Indiana, from which place he surveyed a line to Evansville, for the Chicago & Eastern Illinois System. He then quit railroading and returned to Brazil and operated a coal mine for about three years, after which he engaged as an engineer in the construction of the gravel roads in Clay county, Indiana, at which he worked for about four years, and during which time he constructed most of the gravel roads in that county. May 1, 1898, he went to Sullivan, when the gravel roads were first started in that section of the state, and was there employed at such work for about two years. At the termination of this undertaking, he, with R. L. Bailey, surveyed for several interurban roads which have not as yet been constructed. In 1904, he entered into a contract to construct macadamized roads in Sullivan county, of which he has up to this time made nine miles of most excellent roads. He is still thus engaged and his skill is acknowledged to be superior to others employed in such contract work.
Politically, he is a Republican, and fully alive to all of that party's interests. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, being a member of blue lodge, chapter, council, commandery and Eastern Star. He is also a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is a stockholder in the Hamilton Gas and Oil Company, of which he is also a director.