Biography - George Lasley
GEORGE W. LASLEY was born in Simpson Township, Johnson County, in 1834, and now resides in Burnside Township. His father, James Lasley, was a native of Kentucky and was born in 1771. He was a farmer and was the son of Thomas Lasley, who came from Ireland and was accidentally drowned in the French Broad River, when his son James was an infant. His widow afterward married George Wallace and reared a number of children. James Lasley married Rebecca Dobbs, of Kentucky, by whom he had six sons and three daughters, of whom George W. is the youngest. James and his wife came to Illinois in the spring of 1832 with their own team of horses and covered wagon, bringing with them their family of eight children, losing on the way one little son. They had but limited means, but had four horses, three of which drew the covered wagon and the other a single rig. They first settled in the woods and lived for a time in two rude log cabins, 16xl6 feet in size. Before Mr. Lasley died he owned seven hundred acres of land, all adjoining, and had built a good log house, weather-boarded and ceiled, which is still occupied by one of the daughters.
George W. Lasley had but little education, and that he secured in a subscription school, paying $1 per month. At twelve years of age he attended school one month, from which he derived much good, but learned more of writing while in the army than he had ever learned before. He was married at nineteen years of age, before leaving home, to Miss Esther C. Veatch, daughter of Abijah J. Veatch, of Kentucky, the native State of Mrs. Lasley, who was married in her twentieth year, in 1852. After marriage our subject and his wife remained at his parents' home a few months and then went to Missouri, Kansas and Indian Territory, remaining in the West some three years, when they returned to the old homestead, where they remained until after the death of his father in 1858, at the age of eighty-five years. His widow survived him some five or six years, and died at the age of ninety-two years. George W. Lasley enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Twentieth Illinois Infantry, Capt. Parks. His brother, Andrew Jackson, was in the First Tennessee Cavalry, and was taken prisoner at Memphis, Tenn. George W. served over three years. He was in the hospital some time at Memphis with erysipelas, and the fever ruined his sight. He came out with impaired health and is receiving a small pension.
Our subject lost his first wife about 1868, when she was thirty-five years old. She left six children, three of whom are deceased. The others are Rebecca, wife of L. D. Cruse, a farmer, who has one son living; Ellen, wife of William Mahon, a farmer, who has one son and two daughters living; and Laura M., wife of J. N. Cruse, residing near Rock Post-office, in Pope County, who has one son and one daughter. There are three daughters deceased, viz: Sarah E., wife of Jacob Hood, who left four sons; Mary Ann, wife of Matt Craft, who left a son and daughter, who are now living with their grandparents; and Esther Jane, wife of N. J. Cruse, who left one son. Some years after the death of his first wife Mr. Lasley was married to his present wife, Miss Elizabeth Kendall, of North Carolina, whose father died in Johnson County at the age of seventy-nine years. The mother is still living with Mr. Lasley, aged eighty-one years. By his second wife our subject has two children: Charles B., a youth now in his seventeenth year, and Parthena E., a young woman eighteen years old. One infant son is deceased. Mr. Lasley has now one hundred and ten acres of land, having lost some by the Cairo Short Line Railroad, and he has also deeded some to his heirs. He is a Master Mason and is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Politically, he is a true, loyal and straight Republican. His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which she is an active worker.
Extracted 14 May 2002 by Rick Girtman from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 376-377.
