My Genealogy Hound

George H. Lawton was born in Albany County, N. Y., April 2. 1824, the son of Gardner and Sarah (Davis) Lawton, natives of Connecticut and New York, respectively. Our subject was reared in his native State, and received but a limited education, which his business life has largely improved, however. His early life was successfully engaged in the wholesale grocery business in Albany, N. Y., where he continued for twenty-three years. During the war he removed to New York City, where he conducted a still larger business, but the financial severity of the last year of the war caused him great losses. In 1870 he came to Iowa, and lived in Davenport, that State, and in Chicago, until 1875. He then came to Missouri, and located in Monroe County. Since 1879 he has been in Memphis in the lumber business which his son now conducts. They also represent the following insurance companies: The Niagara, of New York; The Orient, of Hartford; the Traders, of Chicago; the American Central, of St. Louis; the German, of Chicago, and the Mutual Life, of New York. By his first wife, Emily Crapo (deceased), he had the following children: William C., Edgar C., Chauncey A., George H., Luther C. and Elizabeth (widow of E. Rouse). His present wife, Sarah F., is a daughter of Judge A. A. Kellogg. Our subject is a Democrat, and is now serving his third term as president of the city council, of which he has long been a member. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows’ society.