William Lindsey George was born April 29, 1832, in Shelby County, Kentucky, to James Whitefield George and Frances Booker, farmers. The Georges had a total of eleven children.
Shelby County was not far from Louisville—and the Ohio River. Many of Kentucky’s agricultural products were floated down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on flatboats to New Orleans. So, after faraway Texas became a state, the Georges moved there, settling in Guadalupe around 1854.
William married Eliza LeGette in about 1858 and they soon had an infant son, James. The federal census of 1860 records the family farming in New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas. William’s parents and younger siblings lived on a ranch not far away.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, William waited until March 26, 1862, when he enlisted in Seguin, Texas. He was assigned to Company K, 8th Texas Infantry, CSA, later under the command of Colonel Ireland. The 8th Texas Infantry served in East Texas throughout the war, so William was able to visit his family occasionally. His wife Eliza gave birth to son Henry in September, 1862, and to William Jr. in March 1864. At the end of the war, William was discharged with the rank of captain.
Big events were taking place on the Great Plains, as the Transcontinental Railroad pushed westward. By 1870, the entire George family had moved to Kansas City, where they worked as cattle traders. William even became (briefly) the president of a Kansas City bank.
In 1886, the Georges moved to Arizona, where William ran a freighting business and became involved in building railroads, canals and reservoirs. He was one of the contractors who built the Gila Bend canal and the Agua Fria reservoir.
As a prominent businessman, William maintained a keen interest in local politics and was several times asked to run for office. In 1888, he yielded to voters’ entreaties but bowed out rather than stoop to the kind of unethical behavior needed to get elected. Thereafter, he was elected to the County Board of Supervisors strictly on his merits.
In August 1897, William experienced a couple of angina attacks. Although the attacks passed, his doctor
advised him to send for his wife, who was in California. She arrived in Phoenix just five hours before
William died early in the morning of August 20th.
The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. W. E. Vaughan of the Methodist Episcopal church. A modest man, William had previously requested that there be no empty eulogies, but his friends and business associates attested to his honesty and moral uprightness. He was buried near his brother James Benjamin in Porter Cemetery, Block 41, space B.
by Donna L. Carr
No comments:
Post a Comment