My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE W. GORE, secretary of Picher Lead and Zinc Company, was born in Boston, Mass., April 9, 1829. His parents, Stephen and Mary (Hyde) Gore, were natives of the Bay State. During the infancy of our subject his father went to St. Louis and engaged in the wholesale-grocery business, and two years later the family followed. When about seventeen years of age our subject engaged as clerk on the rivers in the packet trade, principally with the St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans line. He continued thus employed a half decade, and then located at Memphis and served three and a half years as shipping agent for the Memphis & Charleston R. R. Co.; also, with Duval, Algeo &Co., as collector. He then moved to New Orleans and engaged in the forwarding and commission business for three years. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in the Crescent City Guards, and soon after was attached to the Fifth Regiment Infantry Volunteers, Col. T. B. Hunt commanding, and served until the close of the war. He participated in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Fredericksburg, seven days around Richmond, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and others of importance. After the battles around Richmond our subject was sick for a time, in consequence of which he was detailed by the Secretary of War as chief clerk of the army intelligence office, and he held that position several months, and then returned to the field as brigade quartermaster. Subsequently was taken prisoner and sent to Newport News military prison, where he remained seven months, being released after the surrender of the Southern forces. The subject was an eye-witness of the great naval battle in Hampton Roads, and gives it as his judgment that the Merrimac was disabled, not by the Monitor, but from injuries previously received by the loss of her prow, after striking the Cumberland. After the war our subject returned to St. Louis, but for several years was unable to work because of exposure while in the field. In 1867 he opened a general store at Webber, and continued in business there two years. He then went on the road for a St. Louis tobacco house, and remained in their employ about six years. He came to Joplin in 1874 and engaged in the hardware business with a brother, Mr. A. F. Gore, of this city, and continued in that business three years, after which he accepted his present position. Mr. G. is a man of excellent business qualifications.