Biography - George Lauderdale
GEORGE W. LAUDERDALE, of New Burnside, was born in Pope County, Ill., June 16, 1842. His father was Jacob Lauderdale, born in East Tennessee December 6, 1809, and a farmer by occupation, whose father, William Lauderdale, was also a farmer of East Tennessee, and was of German descent. William was the father of a large family and died on his fine farm in the Elk River bottom at the age of about sixty-five years. He was married twice and Jacob was the youngest son by the first wife. Jacob Lauderdale was married twice, his first wife dying early and leaving no children. His second wife was Mary Ann, daughter of Charles and Sarah Ann (Powell) Price. They were married in Pope County, Ill., about 1832. He came to southern Illinois in 1828, when nineteen years old, his brother John having come a few years previously. Like the most of the pioneers he had but little cash capital, and so was compelled to make his fortune by his labor. He at first located in Pope County, township 12, squatting on one hundred and twenty acres of land, on which he made his permanent home and to which he obtained a title from the Government. He built a typical pioneer log cabin, which in the course of years was superseded by a good hewed-log house.
Jacob Lauderdale had a family of six sons and four daughters, namely: Mary Jane, who became the wife of George Grisham, and who died at about the age of twenty-eight years; John L., a farmer of Pope County; Charles W., a farmer of Johnson County; Jacob S., who was a farmer of Pope County, and who died on his farm at the age of forty years; Stephen F., now living at Dixon Springs, Pope County, a retired farmer, a lawyer, Township Treasurer and a Justice of the Peace; George W.; David Oliver, who was a volunteer in the War of the Rebellion, a member of Battery K, First Illinois Light Artillery, and who served one year and died in a hospital at Evansville, aged twenty-three; Sarah Elizabeth, the wife of D. W. Franklin, a farmer of Pope County; Eliza Ann, wife of Abraham Bailey, a farmer of Pope County; and Martha C., wife of William W. Whiteside, for whose grandfather, Whiteside County, Ill., the only county in the United States of that name, was named. Mr. and Mrs. Whiteside reside in Georgia.
George W. Lauderdale was not well educated in his boyhood, but was brought up to plenty of toil and trouble on the farm. He left home at the age of twenty and volunteered as a member of the One Hundred and Twentieth Illinois Infantry, as did also his brother S. F., who was then twenty-two years old. They were both in Company E of that regiment. George W. was in the service but nine months when he was discharged on account of disability. His brother served through the war and came out at the end as a non-commissioned officer and without wounds. George W. returned to his father's home, and one year later his health was so much improved that he was able to attend school. He attended school four months, and then taught school for some time. He was converted in 1869 to the Methodist faith and was soon engaged as an exhorter, and was for the succeeding ten years a local preacher and farmer. His first regular pastorate was in 1886 at Belknap, Johnson County, and he was then on the Metropolis Circuit two years, at the Broughton Mission. The work has always prospered under his ministry. He was married September 17, 1867, to Miss Viola A., daughter of Henry and Martha (Stogdon) Baker, both of whom were from the South, he from North Carolina and she from Tennessee, where Mrs. Lauderdale was born. Mr. Baker was born in 1798, and was a son of a Revolutionary soldier. Mr. and Mrs. Lauderdale have buried two children, one an infant son named Henry C., and one, Oscar, who died October 1, 1892, in New Burnside, aged twenty-four years. He was an intelligent and bright young man, and had taken a partial college course; he was also a music teacher and a fine bass singer. This was a heavy loss to his parents, and especially to the mother. They have four daughters, namely: Emma Jane, a young lady at home, who had attended Howard College; Pauline W., Georgie D. and Bertha Ann, all at home and the two youngest in school. Mr. Lauderdale takes an interest in the political issues of the day and votes the Prohibition ticket.
Extracted 16 Dec 2016 by Norma Hass from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 542-543.
