Born on March 9 1834 in Butler County Ohio, north of Cincinnati and near Okeana, Isaac Newton GEORGE moved from Ohio into Green County, Indiana with his farming family when he was about 9 (around 1843). Enoch and Jane (McCOTTER) GEORGE, his parents moved their family again, from Indiana to Andrew County, Missouri when Isaac was a young teen, around 1847. The 1850 Andrew County MO census shows 16 year old Isaac Newton GEORGE living with his parents, Enoch and Jane GEORGE, and siblings, farming in Platte township.

In 1852, Isaac N. GEORGE's two oldest siblings married. (See Annaretta and Joshua J). Next oldest, Reuben Andrew, married in 1853. Around 1856, Isaac's parents homesteaded in Doniphan County, KS, in Burr Oak township, just west of the Missouri River from Andrew County, MO.

On May 25, 1857, Isaac's mother Jane (MCCOTTER) GEORGE died and was buried in the McGlothlin Cemetery in Andrew County. (This date was discovered on the back of Enoch GEORGE's fallen tombstone in 1999 by Karene STEVENS, of Ida GEORGE BARBEE's line.)

Isaac's younger sister, Fannie married in late fall of 1857. Isaac GEORGE and Margaret Frances SMITH married the next year on September 5 1858, perhaps in Andrew County MO or maybe in Doniphan County KS. The next year, on December 2 1859, their first child, Thomas Jordan GEORGE was born, but he died before he was a year old, on August 23, 1860.

Neither the SMITH nor GEORGE families were in the 1860 census for Andrew County, MO. They may have joined others GEORGE relatives who moved west, at least for awhile, just across the Missouri River into Doniphan County KS. The Kansas Territory had been opened to white settlers with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and Doniphan County was within sight of Andrew County, just west across the Missouri River. Once again, Indian tribes were being removed from the Kansas area to provide more room for westward expansion from eastern states, and the pre-Civil War issues of states rights and slavery were being debated heatedly. For a time, as pro and anti slavery settlers struggled to become the majority in Kansas Territory, some of the GEORGE families knew better than we descendants can imagine what "Bloody Kansas" was really like.

In the fall of 1861, Isaac's younger brother Ezra GEORGE began what may have been several tours of duty for him, fighting for the Union.

Isaac and Margaret had their second child, Janeanne "Anna" GEORGE, on November 5 1861. (Anna married James Washigton HUFFAKER (1856-1942) in 1884 in Andrew County, had eleven children, and lived in Broken Bow, NE. She died October 3, 1952.) Anna was nearly two when her sister, Ida Alice GEORGE, was born on August 7 1863. (Ida married James E. BARBEE in 1888, had six children, and lived in Pullman WA.)

Anna Huffaker Ida Barbee early 1900s

In December of 1863, Isaac's younger brother, Ezra, died following his military service with Union troops in Missouri.

By 1864, Isaac and Margaret had returned from Kansas to Missouri. They bought part of the east-southeast quarter of section 15 in Platte township, Andrew Co MO, about two miles north of Whitesville, from Juelson DYER and his wife. Before they had lived there a year, though, Isaac sold the land to Solomon KISTLER (or HISLER?) on March 2 1865, per the Curcuit Court Book 13, p 477.

The Civil War was a factor in this sale, no doubt. Nine days later, Isaac became a private in Company B, of the 21st Regiment in the Missouri Infantry. According to on-line data, the 21st was involved in the siege of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely (AL) and were stationed at Mobile and Montgomery, AL while Isaac was serving. (His name is not listed on-line, however.)

Isaac was discharged 5 months later on August 31, 1865 with no disability. Perhaps Margaret and the children lived in Amazonia while Isaac was in the infantry. On February 17, 1866 they sold lot 5 in block 30 in Amazonia (Lincoln township) to Thomas WRIGHT (Book 16, Page 183).

On September 15, 1866, Ulysses John GEORGE was born. When he was 22, Ulysses married Laura Sarepta BARBEE on October 8, 1888, the same year his older sister Ida married Laura's brother James E. BARBEE. Ulysses and Laura lived in Myrtle, ID and are said to have had 6 daughters and 6 sons. Ulysses died in 1931 (Mario, ID?).

Isaac sold more of his land November 19, 1866. This land was in Rochester township, east of Savannah, in the north half of the north half quarter of section 19, and lots 1 and 2 in the northeast quarter of section 24. Isaac sold it to Jesse F. WRIGHT (book 17, page 21).

On March 3, 1868, Isaac took out a personal mortgage.

Rufus Lambert GEORGE was born September 3, 1868. Rufus became a Methodist minister in Kansas, and lived to within a month and a half of his 100th birthday, dying July 19, 1967. Effie May MCCLUER (1873-1928) was his first wife and the mother of his three children. Rufus married Bernice PAFFORD on August 18, 1930.

Rufus George both early 1900s Effie May McCluer George

The 1870 census shows Isaac and his family living in Lincoln township where Isaac was a sawyer. (Later in the 1880s, during one of the times the Missouri River flooded, Isaac's brother, Joshua J. GEORGE and his children had to leave their island home, and they moved east of Amazonia in Lincoln township where Joshua J. also ran a sawmill.) The 1870 census also indicates that Isaac's father, Enoch, and step-mother, Matilda, were living with Isaac in Lincoln township. Enoch and Matilda had sold property in Amazonia (lots 45,46,47,48) in May of 1870 to Solomon KISTER, who had previously bought land in northeast Andrew County (Platte township) from Isaac. Enoch was listed as a farm laborer in the 1870 census.

Olive Belle GEORGE was born on December 20, 1870, but she died of whooping cough when she was nine months old, on September 27, 1871.

On March 8, 1873, Isaac and Margaret sold eight acres in the southeast part of the northeast quarter of section 16 in Lincoln township to Joseph SHELLEUBARGER. If this land was where Isaac's sawmill was and/or where he farmed, it was about four miles northwest of Amazonia. (Book 29, page 179)

December 1873 was again a hard time for Isaac GEORGE's family. Reuben J. GEORGE was born December 11, 1873, but seven days later, Margaret died. Margaret's sister Nan SMITH came to help Isaac keep the family together. Baby Reuben died August 25, 1874, while he was eight months old.

On July 19, 1877, with surviving children aged 9 to 16, Isaac married his second wife, Mrs. Maggie E. (HOBSON) MAGEE, born in 1847, who had a two year old daughter, Lily MAGEE, probably by a previous marriage. Born in 1875 in Kansas, Lily MAGEE later married a Mr. CLARK. Maggie's maiden name is thought to be Hobson and Mary Jane Hobson George's younger sister, but I haven't found marriage records to prove this yet. (Date of this picture may be around 1880.)

Maggie's daughter Lily Magee CLARK (picture taken in early 1900s)

The 1880 Andrew County census shows Isaac and Maggie living in Platte township, with Isaac's 73 year old father, Enoch, living nearby with his young granddaughters, Lilly MAGEE and Mary GEORGE. Helen (GEORGE) CARROLL, descended from Rufus Lambert GEORGE, suggested that perhaps Enoch kept the girls at his house while someone at Isaac's house was sick, to protect them.

Long Branch Christian Church Cemetery records indicate that Alice GEORGE, daughter of I.N. and M.F. (or M.E.), was born 20 December 1820 and died 21 September 1821. These dates seem too early for Andrew County burials, so perhaps Alice was another child of Maggie and Isaac who did not survive childhood.

Four year old Mary Hiziah's died from whooping cough June 22, 1882. Several months later, Maggie became pregnant with their son Jesse E. GEORGE, who was born on August 17, 1883. (Jesse and his wife Marian moved to California and had two children.)

Isaac's eldest daughter Jane "Anna" married James Washington HUFFAKER in Andrew County on Christmas day, 1884, and his first grandchild, Clarence HUFFAKER, was born October 23, 1885.

On April 7, 1886, Maggie and Isaac's last known child, Fanny K. GEORGE, was born.

Isaac's daughter Ida married James E. BARBEE on March 25, 1888. On October 8, 1888, his son, Ulysses married Laura S. BARBEE, James' sister.

Jesse was 4 years and 8 months old when his little sister, Fanny K. GEORGE, died on April 24, 1889, aged 3 years and 14 days. Like her older sister, Mary Hiziah, Fanny died of whooping cough. She was buried in the Long Branch Christian Church Cemetery, 8 miles southeast of Savannah, MO.

In 1890, Isaac was listed on the surviving soldier's list of Andrew County, MO. He was living in a small community in Empire township called Fountain Blue, MO. One source said that the following year, in 1891, Isaac, Maggie, Rufus, Lilly, and Jesse GEORGE moved to Garden Plains, KS, in Sedgwick County (near Wichita).

According to his July 20, 1967 obituary in the Hutchinson News, Rufus Lambert GEORGE married Effie May MCCLUER on August 11, 1897 in Goddard, (Sedgwick County) Kansas and he graduated from Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas in 1899. The same year he entered the Southwest Kansas Methodist Conference for a four year term, and began pastoring Methodist Episcopal churches in Kansas in 1903.

Norma HUFFAKER provided the following picture taken at Isaac and Maggie GEORGE's house in Wichita, KS about 1904-5. She estimates the date from the fact that Ted HUFFAKER was born in 1902.

(click to enlarge)

Top row: Alice HUFFAKER, Anna George HUFFAKER, Rufus GEORGE, Ida BARBEE Middle: Lily with Bernice CLARK, Isaac N. GEORGE holding Otis George BARBEE, Maggie Magee GEORGE, Effie McCluer GEORGE with Helen GEORGE Bottom row: Pearl CLARK holding Ted HUFFAKER, Howard CLARK, Lillian GEORGE, Wilbur GEORGE

Rufus and Effie GEORGE's children pictured are Lillian (LEATHERMAN), Wilbur, and Helen (SWANSON CARROLL). Anna George HUFFAKER's children pictured are Alice and Ted HUFFAKER. Ida George BARBEE's child pictured is Otis George BARBEE. Lily CLARK's children pictured are Bernice, Pearl, and Howard. Many of Isaac's grandchildren were not pictured.

Isaac Newton GEORGE died in Kansas on June 14, 1913 at the age of 79. Widowed for the second time, Maggie GEORGE moved west to California with her two surviving children, Lilly and her three children, and Jesse E. GEORGE. Jessie and his wife Marian had two children, Marian HAWKINS and Donny GEORGE.