John was born on his grandparent's farm in Evans Mills, NY. He was orphaned at 15 after the death of his father, probably from Tuberculosis, in Athens, Ontario- which his great-grandfather Benoni Wiltse had founded. He moved to Carlton, NY to live with his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Wiltse Conley, and aunt and uncle Elizabeth (Conley) and Willard Holman. He enlisted in the Union Army in 1862 and was stationed in Baltimore at the armory there where he worked as an "artificer" repairing weapons and machinery. After the war he married and had two children. His second child, daughter Mary, was born while the family was engaged in an unsuccessful attempt at homesteading in Minnesota. Family legend relates that his wife Maranda, after experiencing a tornado, insisted they return to New York. John used his training received in the army, to design and produce apple processing equipment, which he sold and installed as far away as Kentucky. He also repaired and maintained the milling equipment in Kendall Mills, NY, and at one time built a carding and spinning mill for his wife's weaving business.
John was remembered by his namesake and grandson John Bissell as a kind man of great dignity, careful speech and deep faith. John was a Methodist and firmly committed to abolition.

Service Record, from the Report of the New York Adjutant-General, 1897;
Age 28 years. Enlisted August 8, 1862 at Elba, N.Y.; mustered in as a private, Co. H, One-Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Infantry, August 14, 1862 (which became the Eighth Artillery, December 19, 1862) to serve three years; transferred to Co. C, Twentieth Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps, April 8, 1864, from which discharged, July 10, 1865 at Frederick City Md.