John S. George, the chief representative of the interests of the Chicago & North-Western Railway company in Milwaukee, is a man whose responsible position and extensive business interests outside of railway affairs have made him one the well-known citizens of this city.
Having been eminently successful and belonging to that class of men whose success has been the result of their earnest and intelligent effort and not of fortuitous circumstances, a sketch of his career in this historic connection will be of particular interest to the community with which he has now been identified for nearly twenty-four years.
Born in Theresa, N. Y., on May 4, 1845, Mr. George is the son of Silas L. George, the leading merchant of that village. His mother was Miss Caroline Flower before her marriage and was a sister of ex-Gov. Roswell P. Flower, the distinguished commoner of New York politics, whose broad common sense, generous impulses, and charitable deeds have commended him to people of all shades of political belief in the Empire State.
It may be interesting to note in this connection that Governor Flower, himself one of the eminent self-made men of the country, was a clerk in the store of the elder George at a salary of five dollars per month in his early boyhood.
John S. George was brought up in Theresa and received his early education in the public schools of that village. For a time, he also attended the Wesleyan Seminary Gouverneur, New York. Still, after his father’s death when he was fourteen years of age three, he measured upon his resources and made it necessary for him to turn his attention to other matters.
In 1860 he went to Ironton, Ohio, where a brother of his father, Captain John S. George, was living at the time and had been prominently identified with that prosperous and growing Ohio river city. Young George was in Ironton in 1861 when President Lincoln issued his first call for troops to suppress the rebellion. Mr. George promptly enlisted in the three months’ service but being then only 16 years of age and unable to gain his uncle’s consent to become a soldier, he did not enter the service then. Returning to New York state, he began reading medicine with Dr. Jas. Carpenter, another uncle in Theresa.
He continued this course of study for six months, then enlisted in the Second New York Cavalry regiment, of which Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, afterward one of the most famous of the Union cavalry commanders, was a lieutenant colonel. Immediately thereafter, he went into camp with the regiment at Arlington Heights, near Washington City, and the following spring, entered upon a period of active service.
Beginning with the engagement at Falmouth Heights on April 7, 1862, he participated during the summer, fall, and early winter months in the battles at Cedar Mountain, Brandy Station, Bull Run (second battle), South Mountain, 605 Antietam, and Fredericksburg. In the early part of 1863, when but eighteen years of age, he received from Gov. Horatio Seymour a commission as second lieutenant of his company but was prevented from serving in that capacity by a serious illness, which necessitated his discharge from the service in June of 1863.
Returning home, he was restored to health, after a time, by careful nursing, and then went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as a clerk in the commissary department at about the time the battle of Gettysburg was fought. Rations for the whole army of the Potomac being issued at that time from Harrisburg made the duties of the commissary department at that place exceedingly onerous and exacting. Mr. George rendered faithful and efficient services in this connection and remained with the department in different clerical capacities until nearly the close of the war.
After the close of the war, he went to Ironton, Ohio, where he first embarked on the transportation business by becoming a clerk for a time on an Ohio river steamboat, of which his uncle, Capt. George was the owner. He returned to New York state and was appointed deputy collector of customs at Cape Vincent. After serving in that capacity for several months, he went to Avon Springs, where he started a newspaper and published it until 1870.
He was married that year to Miss Margaret A. Morton of that place and soon afterward came West, locating in Chicago. It was at that time that his connection with the Northwestern railway began. His first employment was as a clerk in the freight depot of the railway company at the East Chicago freight station.
He was soon promoted to the assistant ticket agent at the city ticket office until the great fire of 1871 destroyed the office and brought about its temporary discontinuance. He then went to the Wells Street station ticket office until the following spring, when he was made an agent of the Northwestern company in Watertown, Wisconsin. He remained there for one year when he was placed in charge of Cedar Rapid, Iowa’s more important station agency.
From Cedar Rapids, he came to Milwaukee at the end of another year as a city ticket and passenger agent of the same company. In 1874 he was made general agent in charge of all business of the company Milwaukee, and for about twenty-four years, he has held his important and responsible position.
While giving the Northwestern company’s railway business the careful and intelligent supervision which has contributed so largely to its growth and development, he has been prominently identified with other enterprises which have been advantageous to the community and profitable to himself. In 1878 he became associated with the late Thos. Shea purchased two hundred and forty feet of ground fronting on the Milwaukee River near its mouth and east of the Northwestern railway bridge, and together they organized the Shea & George Dock company.
They built up an improvement of great importance to the lake traffic. Their enterprise was expanded from time to time until they had eleven hundred feet of river frontage under the roof as a 606-warehouse building. They disposed of the improvements a few years since at a handsome figure. Mr. George was also connected with navigation interests as one of the owners of the steamers Roswell P. Flower and Frank L. Vance, both of the Milwaukee Steamship company, of which he is an officer and director.
In 1892 he was interested with others in founding that prosperous and growing suburb of Milwaukee which was christened South Milwaukee, and which has now become a city of five thousand population, with eleven manufactories already in operation and harbor improvements so far that the government has made an appropriation for its extension.
This new city promises to become an important manufacturing center whose future will reflect credit upon the foresight and sagacity of its founders. Mr. George has been one of the directors and treasurer of the South Milwaukee company since its organization, one of the founders and directors of the South Milwaukee National bank, and one of the most active promoters of various other enterprises in that vicinity.
He is also one of the promoters of the Prospect Hill Land company near Lake Park and president. When the Gogebic mining region first began to attract attention, Mr. George became one of the shareholders and active managers of the Superior Iron company and aided in developing its property. Disposing of his interest in this corporation, he became interested in the Great Minnesota Iron Company.
He is also interested in several leads, silver and gold mines, mostly successful. Active as he has been as a businessman, he has found time also to devote to politics and public affairs, having served three years as a member of the board of aldermen from the seventh ward and enjoying the distinction of being the only Democrat elected to the board from that ward since the war.
He was also nominated at one time for the state Senator ship in his district but was defeated because of the unusually large labor vote cast in the district that year for their candidate. For many years he has been prominent in the councils of the Democratic party. He has wielded an important influence in shaping its policies and controlling its affairs in his county and in the state of Wisconsin.
Upon the nomination of Wm. J. Bryan was the first prominent Democrat in the state to repudiate the platform and nominee and came out boldly for McKinley and sound money. A genial, kindly, and courteous gentleman, Mr. George has not been less popular with the general public than with the railway circle in which he has been a prominent figure for so long.
But one child of Mr. and Mrs. George is now living, a son, Chas. H. George graduated from Yale University in the class of ‘94 and the Wisconsin state law college class of 1896. He is now a member of the firm of Spooner, Roseerans & George, of which the Hon. John C. Spooner is consulting counsel and one of Milwaukee’s prominent law firms.
Mr. George has two prominent brothers in his professional and business life. One is Nathan. George of Danbury, Conn., of which city he has served as mayor. The other is Silas L. George, a prominent businessman in Watertown, N. Y.
Source: Men of Progress, Wisconsin
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