Henry Wisner

His family originally came to America in the 1710 migration to New York of Johannes Weesner and other Swiss veterans of the English Army who had fought under the Duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession.

[1] Orange County first elected Wisner as a representative to Province of New York Assembly in 1759 and returned him for eleven consecutive years.

In late 1776 Wisner, along with Gilbert Livingston of Poughkeepsie, sounded the Hudson River and, as part of a Secret Committee, recommended the placement of what became known as the Great Chain which stretched from the current location of West Point to Constitution Island.

This chain was part of a series of Hudson River Chains designed to thwart British naval movements on the Hudson[5] In 1777, serving again in the Provincial Congress, Wisner was a member of the committee that drafted the first constitution for the state of New York.

He was one of those who opposed ratification, fearing that the strong central government would eventually infringe on state and individual rights.

Charles F. Brush, commercializer of the arc lamp and founder of a predecessor firm of General Electric, is a great great-grandson.