My Genealogy Hound

A. D. GEORGE. Another man who settled in the vicinity of Gibbon at an early day is A. D. George. Mr. George came to Buffalo county in September, 1872, and located one mile east of the town of Gibbon, taking as a homestead the south half of the southeast quarter of section 18, township 9, range 13 west. To this he subsequently added by purchase the north half of the same section. He began his improvements soon after making his selection, starting in a humble way, as did all the old settlers. For eleven years he lived on his homestead and followed farming and stock raising. During this period he passed through the trying times of the grasshopper season and the dry years, and there fell to him the usual hard experiences that fell to the common lot of all. What these experiences were are known to all the old settlers, but not so well known to, or properly appreciated by, those who have come in at a later date. The case of Mr. George was even different from that of the average settler, and the situation thereby rendered the more discouraging. Prior to coming to Nebraska he had spent all his maturer years in the mercantile business. Farming was practically new to him. He was in a new country and launched at once into an untried condition of agriculture, far from market and unsurrounded by any of the helps and conveniences common in the old communities of the East. To make a success from the beginning could hardly be expected. Simply how to live, soon became a problem. But Mr. George had confidence in the ultimate outcome. He believed in the country, believed in the soil, in the climate and in the ability of himself and his associates to make something out of them. He never allowed his courage to weaken, nor his interest to flag. He stuck to his farm and pursued his fixed purpose to labor and to wait. The succeeding years brought their reward. The logic of events has demonstrated the correctness of his views. His present condition — the success he has attained — is a signal vindication of his position and a befitting remuneration for his long years of patient toil. In 1879 Mr. George purchased the mercantile establishment of Henry Cook & Son, at Gibbon. Since that date he has been actively engaged in the business, being now one of the oldest and most successful merchants of Gibbon. For the mercantile business Mr. George possesses a special aptitude, and for its successful pursuit he is well qualified by experience. He has spent the greater part of his life in a store. When a lad he began as a clerk in Canton, Mass., and afterwards going to Boston, he was engaged as a clerk there for ten years, being seven years with one house, Hiram M. Stearnes, and three years with Newell & Rankin. At the end of that time he engaged in business for himself, opening a gentlemen’s furnishing goods establishment in Boston. He was so engaged for five years. In the meantime he started a laundry business which has since grown to be one of the largest anywhere in the East. It was ill-health, brought on by the exacting nature of these business interests that brought Mr. George west. He never possessed a robust constitution. Tying himself down when a boy to the exacting duties of a clerk, the confinement told on his physical development, and the cares of his personal concerns in later years aggravated his troubles. It was due to this fact of ill-health that Mr. George was never accepted for military service during the late war, although he twice offered himself as a volunteer and was once drafted.

A. D. George is a New Englander by birth and in his physical, mental and moral make-up preserves, in a large measure, some of the prominent characteristics of the people of his section. He was born in the town of Sunapee, Sullivan county, N. H., January 25, 1836. His father, Rodney George, was also a native of Sunapee, as was also his paternal grandfather. His father lived in Sunapee to middle age, moved thence to New Jersey, and later to Nebraska, Buffalo county, where he died in 1881, at the age of seventy-four. Mr. George’s mother bore the maiden name of Achsa Dodge and was a daughter of Benjamin Dodge, of New Boston, N. H. She was born in that place and was herself a descendant of an old New Hampshire family. Mr. George is one of a family of eight children, as follows: Amanda, John A., Amos D., Marcia A., Ira P., Jason R., Alice and Mary M. All of these reached maturity and most of them became citizens of Nebraska, moving west about the same time the subject of this sketch did.

In his own domestic relations, Mr. George has been happy, yet he has not escaped some of the afflictions which fall to the lot of humanity. He was married in Marlboro, Mass., in November, 1859, to Miss Lucy M. Chipman, of that place. This lady died in 1869, leaving one child, Edith, now widow of George E. Nathecut. Mr. George next married November 25th, 1869, Miss Abbie M. March, of Garland, Me. By this marriage he has an interesting family of children.

Mr. George’s career has been that of a business man strictly. He has devoted his whole life to his own personal affairs. Yet he is not a man whole sole aim is to make money. He is not lacking in enterprise or public spirit. He possesses pronounced views on most matters of general interest, and while he avoids the wranglings of politics, he does not neglect his duty as a citizen. He has affiliated with the republican party since its organization until the last year or two, and is still an advocate of its principles on national matters. But with all its achievements in the way of progress and reform, he considers the party lacking in aggressiveness in dealing with some of the most momentous issues of the day. In other words, he is a progressive republican. The principal issue on which he differs with his party is the temperance question. He is an ardent temperance man and believes that it is the duty of all good citizens and every association of citizens and every party or organization having at heart the public welfare, to take a decisive stand on the temperance question and to labor individually and by cooperation for the suppression of the vice of intemperance. On this question Mr. George is outspoken, and, what is more, he lives up to his preaching in a way equalled by few, even of the most zealous advocates. He believes that a vast number of the men who are lured into the paths of drunkenness start with the smaller vices and approach their ruin imperceptibly. For this reason he opposes the use of tobacco, and although he has been in the mercantile business for years where the handling of tobacco might be profitable, he has not suffered a pound of the article to be sold in any shape over his counters since the year he opened business. As might be inferred from this, Mr. George is a man who takes the liveliest interest in the welfare of his fellow-men. He is a man of the broadest charities, the most benevolent impulses. He has been almost a life-long member of the Baptist church, taking an active interest in all church work. In the matter of education he has exhibited equal zeal, and his efforts have not failed of the reward they merited. He was one of the organizing members of the First Baptist church of Gibbon and has, since the date of the founding of that church, been one of its chief pillars. While the State Baptist seminary was located at Gibbon, Mr. George occupied the responsible position of treasurer of the institution, and during the last term it was in operation he bore the entire expense of running it. He is a liberal contributor to all charitable purposes.

Personally, Mr. George is modest and unassuming, and has no desire to make a fuss in the world. What he does as a citizen is simply the outgrowth of his convictions. He is not the apostle of any new faith nor the exponent of any new political idea. He works along the lines pursued by the worthies of the past. The most notable feature of his faith and the distinguishing trait of his character is that he believes in the philosophy of things well done — the gospel of true labor — as contradistinguished from pretense and profession. For church, for school, for home, for all that helps to keep men and women from the slippery paths of sin and win them to lives of usefulness, sobriety and happiness, fitting them for the best possible life here and hereafter, the name of A. D. George stands pledged, and in all these things he himself rises to the full stature of a man.