Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Weik, Jesse William

WEIK, Jesse William, b. in Greencastle, Ind., 23 Aug., 1857. His father emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1848; his mother was a native of Cincinnati. His education, begun in the public schools of his native town, was completed at Asbury — now De Pauw — university, from which institution he was graduated in 1875. After two years spent in business with his father, he began the study of law, and in 1880 he was admitted to practice. In 1882 he received an appointment as special examiner of the U. S. pension bureau, and was detailed to examine the merits of certain pension claims in the neighborhood of Springfield. While in the latter locality he began to familiarize himself with the life and history of Abraham Lincoln. He interviewed carefully and in detail all persons there and elsewhere who had been associated with or had known Lincoln in his lifetime. He also visited that section of Kentucky in which he was born, giving special attention to the questions of his birth and descent, and travelled through Southern Indiana amid the scenes of his obscure and humble boyhood. The results of these researches are embodied in a “Life of Lincoln,” which he, in company with Lincoln's law partner, Mr. William H. Herndon, produced in 1885-'9 (Chicago, 1889). A revised edition of this work, entitled “Herndon and Weik's Lincoln,” was issued in two volumes (New York, 1892). He has also been a frequent contributor to the newspapers in the west, his interesting articles being devoted to certain phases of President Lincoln's career and other contemporary historical subjects.