Lewis Wendell Willkie was born in Elwood, Indiana, on February 18, 1892, the son of Henrietta (Trisch) and Herman Francis Willkie. Both of his parents were lawyers, his mother being one of the first women admitted to the Indiana bar. His father was born in Germany, son of Joseph Wilhelm Willecke or Willcke, born 1826.His mother was born in Indiana, to German parents; his grandparents were involved in the unsuccessful 1848 revolutions in Germany. The Trisches initially settled in Kansas Territory but, as they were abolitionists, moved to Indiana after the territory was opened to slavery in the mid-1850s. Willkie was the fourth of six children, all intelligent, and learned skills during the nightly debates around the dinner table that would later serve him well.