Martin Wines was a politician in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

and one of the most prominent men in the early history of Greene County. Descended from a family that settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early seventeenth century,Watkins, Albert.
Illustrated History of Nebraska: A History of Nebraska from the Earliest Explorations of the Trans-Mississippi Region, with Steel Engravings, Photogravures, Copper Plates, Maps, and Tables
'. Vol. 3.

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

: Western Publishing and Engraving, 1913. Wines was one of the pioneers of Greene County. Settling in Fairplay Township, he was the first person to teach school in his portion of the county,Baber, Jack.
Early History of Greene County
'. Worthington: N.B. Millison, 1875. and he was the county's first inspector of elections. Greene County was organized in 1821, and Wines was elected as the county's first

representative Representative may refer to: Politics * Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people * House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities * Legislator, som ...

to the

Indiana General Assembly The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. Th ...

in Corydon. At that time, the community of Fairplay was the largest settlement in the county, and efforts were made to have it named the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

; however, other influences succeeded in winning this status for Bloomfield, which remains the county seat to the present day. In March 1824, Wines began to serve as an associate judge of the local circuit court. His first term required little work, as the local grand jury returned only six

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of a ...

s during the whole term. Later in the year, the court tried the first murder case to arise in Greene County. Besides serving in political office, Wines was known for his hospitality; his neighbors testified that he would invite virtually any stranger into his home. By 1875, he was no longer alive, but his widow was still living at that time; she was known for her well-preserved health despite her age of over eighty years. After his death, later generations of Wines' family moved farther west; for example, his grandson John M. Osborn grew up in Indiana, but he moved to

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

in 1867 and was elected to the state's senate in 1896.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wines, Martin Year of birth missing Year of death missing 19th-century American educators Schoolteachers from Indiana Indiana state court judges Members of the Indiana House of Representatives People from Greene County, Indiana 19th-century deaths