Biography - WILLIAM E. GEORGE
One of the most notable examples of the self-made man to be found in
Johnson county is William E. George, of Cache township, who, losing his
father at a tender age and being compelled to be content with but scanty
educational advantages in order that he might contribute to the support of
his mother's family, learned the lessons of thrift and industry so well that
he has risen to a place among the leading agriculturists of his section. Mr.
George was born December 13, 1862, on a farm in Knox county, Illinois, and
is a son of Isaac and Elizabeth Ann (Whitman) George.
Isaac George was born in Pennsylvania, of German extraction, and lived for a
short time in Knox county, Illinois. In 1864 he took his family to Muscatine
county, Iowa, where he met death by drowning in 1867. He and his wife, who
was born November 7, 1836, in Baltimore, Maryland, had five sons: Plummer,
who died at the age of sixteen years; Charles, who is engaged in farming;
William B.; Whitfield, who died in infancy; and John W., an agriculturist of
Kentucky. Mrs. George later married for her second husband L. A. Walker, and
they had two daughters, namely: Josie, who died at the age of nineteen
years; and Mrs. Jennie Miller. In 1868 the family moved to northwestern
Missouri, near Lexington, but in 1872 returned to Illinois, settling on a
rented farm in Union county, where they resided until 1882, and then coming
to Johnson county, the sons in the meantime working on rented farms. In 1886
William B. George was married and purchased forty acres in Cache township,
and Charles E., in 1891, purchased forty acres. William E. George has
prospered exceedingly, and his success has been entirely the result of his
own labors. When he began farming on his own account he did not have a
dollar, and went into debt to the extent of two hundred dollars for his
first forty acres, which he soon had developed to such an extent that the
land was worth eight hundred dollars. Soon thereafter he purchased forty
acres of railroad land for two hundred dollars, and his third forty acres
cost him one thousand dollars, but he is now the owner of five hundred and
fifty acres, valued at about fourteen thousand dollars, three hundred and
fifty acres being under cultivation. Like many of his fellow-agriculturists
in this part of the county, he devotes a great deal of attention to breeding
live stock, and his annual shipment of animals includes twenty mules and
horses, twelve head of cattle, fifty sheep and from fifty to one hundred
hogs. As a man who has benefited his community by assisting in developing
its resources, and as a citizen who has always been ready to assist in
movements calculated to be of benefit to his section, Mr. George is
respected and esteemed by his fellow townsmen, who acknowledge him to be a
good, practical farmer and an excellent judge of live-stock. He is
progressive in all matters, and believes in the use of the most modern
machinery and methods. He belongs to the Masonic order as a member of
Belknap Lodge and Vienna Chapter, in both of which he is extremely popular,
as he is with the members of the Modern Woodmen of America, with which he is
also connected. With his family he attends the Methodist Episcopal church,
and has been active in its work.
Mr. George was married in 1886 to Miss Sarah Ellen Littleton, daughter of
Thomas Littleton, a native of North Carolina, of English descent, who
migrated to Tennessee and then to Illinois, and who died November 27, 1898.
Mr. and Mrs. George have had eleven children, of whom nine are living, as
follows: Raleigh, who is married and has three children, Ernest, Chelis and
Madge; William T., who is also married; and Walter E., Clyde, DeWitt,
Curtis, Homer, Fred and Ray, all of whom live on the farm with their
parents.
Extracted 07 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Southern Illinois, by George Washington Smith, published in 1912, volume 3, pages 1200-1201.
