My Genealogy Hound

RIBBLE, MAJ. GEORGE, retired farmer, P. O. Clarinda; born May 10, 1796, in Montgomery county, Virginia, on top of the Alleghany mountains. He drank water from springs, whose waters flow into the Roanoke and Ohio rivers. There he grew to manhood on a farm and was educated in the common schools of that state, and as they were somewhat limited, he did not enjoy the educational advantages of today. In 1830 he came to Delaware county, Indiana, where he lived until 1855, when he came to Iowa and located on the ground where the Clarinda House now stands, where he lived about two years, when he located where he now resides. He is one of the oldest men now living in the county, and has followed farming for over fifty years and has been so successful that he, several years since, retired from active business, having an abundance laid up for himself and family in his old age. He has braved all the hardships of a pioneer life and now at his advanced age, though having been a hard worker all his life, has all his faculties and does not look or appear more than sixty. He served six years as captain of state militia in Virginia, and was also elected captain of a company in Indiana, in 1831, which position he held until 1847, when he was promoted to major of his regiment, which position he filled until he moved from the state. He was also elected justice of the peace in 1831, in Indiana, and filled that office for twelve years. He was elected justice of the peace in Page county in 1855, serving in that capacity for six years, when he refused to accept the office again. He was also elected county supervisor which he held for six years. Thus have the people of his county shown their high appreciation of his many manly and superior qualities as an honest, upright and capable business man. He was married March 19, 1819, to Miss Sarah Surface, a native of Virginia. She died May 14, 1869, after having lived with him for sixty years, and shared all his hardships with a stout and joyous heart. She left thirteen children: Emeline, (wife of Samuel Widner), Sarah, (wife of Isaac Van Ansdol), David, Harriet, (wife of William Ribble), Mary, (wife of Gilbert Lyons), Eliza, (wife of Hutching, deceased), Nancy, (wife of Ross Hinchman), Henry, and Abella, (wife of Samuel Farlow). Mr. Ribble’s portrait shows him to be a man of energy and character.