Charles Fred and Maybelle (DUNCAN) GEORGE
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b. 1 June 1869 d. 12 Dec 1942 Okeana, OH | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| m. 4 September 1893 in Falmouth, KY but lived in Butler Co OH | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Click to enlarge Fred, Cary?, Weller?, Ida?, Eva, Opha? GEORGE | ||||||||||||||
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The Charles Fred and Maybelle (Duncan) George Family Line 
Charles Fred George, born near Okeana, Ohio on 6 February 1871, was a son of Enoch Jackson "Jack" and Margaret (DeArmond) George. Fred was 17 when his mother died in 1888, and 36 when his father died in 1907.In the early 1890s, Fred and his future wife Maybelle Duncan were students at Otterbein College in Westerville Ohio. When his father Jack George would not use money from the harvest to send Fred back to college, Fred and Maybelle were married on 4 September 1893 in Falmouth, KY although they never lived there. Fred and Maybelle farmed and raised dairy cattle on Dwyer Road just outside of Okeana OH and down the road from the family homestead and near the Old George Burying Ground. Their house had belonged to Squire DeArmond (see description and chart). After Enoch Jackson George's death in 1907, Fred's sisters, Ida and Opha, ("the Aunties") continued living on the George homestead near the CF George family. Below there is some correspondence from C. F.'s girls in 1916 when their mother, Maybelle, was nursing her cousin, Leoti Duncan Longman. Leoti's and Maybelle's long-time friend, Cora Scott was also there. Maybelle "Grammy George" died December 12, 1942 following a stroke. She was 73. The Aunties told Francie not to come to the funeral since she was just over 7 months pregnant, and they thought the baby could be harmed if she came. On March 9, 2017, George Mason (Miriam's son) wrote: "My mother & I spent time each summer at Okeana with poppy George. His farm was 175 acres. It had a number of good springs on the property. He kept 7 milk cows & sold milk to The French Bauer Dairy in Cincinnati. He had 2 horses, 20 hogs, 30 sheep & about 45 chickens. He was a farmer, like most others in the area. He planted Alfalfa, along with corn & wheat. The animals were fed corn & a mixture of other nutrients. He sold the farm & moved out in June, 1946 & purchased the home at 7 E Spring Street in Oxford. That was his pleasure in renting to Miami Univ. students. He really enjoyed that. During the last 3 years he owned the farm he let Mr. Butterfield �share crop�. Butterfield wanted just to plant corn. Poppy believed in crop rotation. Well since Butterfield did the work, he won out on just raising corn on about 40 acres. Farm work was hard & none of his descendants wanted to farm." Poppy died July 29, 1959 in Oxford at the age of 88.
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Click photos to enlarge |
Probably taken about 1909 Top row: (unknown), (unknown), Ida and/or Opha George Middle: Miriam George, (unknown), Marguerite George Bottom: Lois George, Frances George (she moved and blurred her picture), Alice George On-Line Photo Album of the C. F. and Maybelle Duncan George family |
 | 1919 class, Morgan High School. Submitted by Frances George Ertel. Top row, l-r: Faye OTTO, Mabel LAWRENCE, Yvonne BUTTERFIELD, --?-- , Leona WYNN (verified by David Weaver), Lilly ROBISON Bottom row: Daniel INLOES, --?-- , James W. MCDONALD, Lois O. GEORGE (Mrs. J. W. McDonald), Russell HOLOWELL, Dr. Bennie OTTO (teacher) |
 | 1924 class, Morgan High School. Submitted by Frances George Ertel; names supplied by Jill Evans. Front Row: Clayton "Tubby" LAWRENCE, Helen MULLIN REED, Libby STARR SCHWENKER, Opha Lee HOLLOWELL LEIBROOK, Ruth WALTHER WILSON, Frances GEORGE ERTEL, Rufus RUSSELL.
Back Row: Carl GURR, Dorothy TEETERS YOUNG, Florence MABIS KNOLLMAN, |
 | about 1924 at Morgan Township High School |
| In December of 1916, Leoti Duncan Longman, the daughter of Maybelle's aunt and uncle
Drs. Laura and John H. Duncan, was sick. So Maybelle had gone to spend some time with Leoti and to help out with her husband and
children. Leoti's father had died the year before, but her mother, "Grandma Doctor", and her friend, Cora Scott were also there. They had no idea how sick Leoti was, or that she died at 6 pm that same evening. Maybelle's daughters referred to their cousins as "Aunt Leoti" and "Uncle Rufus". Maybelle's husband and three youngest daughters really missed her, and wrote the following letters, which she kept: | |
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Okeana, Ohio, Dec 20, '16 Dear Mother: I am trying to study but had ought to be getting ready for Xmas practice. Papa is going to take Alice and I tonight while he is the Grange. Mamma, I want you come home for our Xmas exercises. I think they will be nice. We are not having to work quiet so hard since Miriam and Marguerite have come home. But we need you, also. I think Uncle Rufus and Aunt Leoti don't need you any longer. I was disappointed the other night when you did not come, because all of us were very anxious to see you. Please come if you can Friday Night, because that is Xmas exercises. Your daughter, Lois George. P.S. Don't forget my suit or dress and coat. I have something to ask you as soon as I see you or May be before. It is very important. L. George. |
Dear Mother, I am just ready to go to bed. We have been to practice the Christmas entertainment. We are very lonesome without you and I think papa's feet get cold without you. We can hardly get along without you and wish you would come home. I am afraid you will get sick and I am afraid if you stay away much longer I shall died of homesickness. Please come home either Fri. night or Sat. night. The entertainment is Fri. night and we would like for you to be here
for that if possible. We have to practice tomorrow night and papa said maybe we could have the sleigh. |
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Okeana Ohio Dec 20 - 16 Dear Maybelle. We thought we would all write to you tonight. We hope Leoti is easier. We haven't heard anything today. Will look for a letter or message tomorrow. The way it is snowing I don't know whether it will be safe for me to come down soon in the machine. If I do not hear from you sooner or see you I will be at the station at Okeana to meet you Sat night. I feel that you have done all you can do and should consider yourself. The girls & myself will go out to practice tonight and to the grange. I will have to close. Be sure and be home by Sat night at least. Yours C.F.G. |
Dear Mama, Well, thank goodness I'm not going out tonight. But Miriam & I are going to go sleding. I blotted
up papa's letter all up. But I wish you were home. The girls [the Aunties?] are going to make candy to-morrow. I am going to give Milton
a box of that. We want you home so much. I'm working so hard to learn my part and I want you to come home. I'm writing with Marguerite's pen and it doesn't seem to want to very well. Well I will close now and we want you to come Fri. night. Babe. Come, come, come, come, come. [NOTE: "Babe" was the youngest daughter, Frances, who was a month shy of 11. She wrote her letter at the end of her father's.] |
| First Grandchild: 1919 | |
Herbert L. Myers II ("Junior") was Fred and Maybelle's first grandchild, born in 1919. The back of the picture reads "Here is old Mr. Sober Sides - Jr. Maybe he didn't like the sun in his eyes!" He
was born to Herbert L. and Marguerite George Myers. See slide show family pictures | |
Teachers, Parents, and Friends: We can scarecely realize that tonight ends our high school career; and that the four short years of our joyful associations together are about to terminate. We have enjoyed our just share of the alloted tasks and pleasures as students of Morgan Township High School; and our present desire is to thank you, kind friends, because you have made this high school education possible, often at a sacrifice to yourselves. However, we will not attempt to do this with our poor, meaningless, words; but, rather, by means of our lives. With your ardent faith to sustain us, and a firm determination to render some service to the world, and to attain something in life, who knows what we may be able to accomplish? With the realization that to-night we are beginning a new epoch in our lives, and are launching out into the deep, we accept these diplomas, highly resolving that they shall not only spur us on towards greater acheivements, but also that sometime we will make our beloved M.T.H.S. proud of us; and, after our struggle on the broad sea of Life, that we shall anchor, let us hope, on that delectable isle of our dreams, Success. (by Alice George, ca 1921, class valedictorian) | |
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a high school English class assignment, by Frances George of Okeana, Ohio. (1920s)
In the room on the east, an old fashioned fireplace with its grotesquely figured andirons welcomes all who enter. On one side of the fireplace, a tall grandfather clock ticks in deep tones and adds an antique air to the place. Opposite it, a large window seat invites one to take advantage of a few leisure moments to think of what has happened here. Years ago, justice was meted out to the settlers for miles around for in this room, the squire held court. It is evident that the west side of the house has been rebuilt. Besides the addition of a room, the large one has been divided in two. At the main opening between living room, dining room and kitchen, there is a cubby hole in which rifles, a shot gun, and ammunition were kept, altho the place is not as prominent as it was a hundred and fifty years ago. The summer kitchen is connected with the house by a screened in porch. This old kitchen is one room that I enjoy being in most. It is here that tons of pies have been baked, bread enough to feed a small army and as many cakes in proportion. Even yet when the family gathers, the big brick oven is fired and it is hard to realize what quantities of cookies, gingerbread, apples and spiced meats can be baked at the same time. Surely the London baker's shop which the two smaller Crachetts passed on Christmas Day did not offer a more appetizing odor than does this kitchen. You wonder why I am interested in this seemingly ancient place? The explanation is simple. To me, this is home. (This piece describes Squire DeArmond's house in which the C. F. George family later lived.) | |
| Top row, left-right: Alice George Brown Davis Ollendorf (54), Nancy Ertel Sween, Lois George MacDonald (57), C. Fred "Poppie" George (86), Marguerite George Myers (63), Edward George Ertel (60) Kneeling: George Edward Ertel, Frances George Ertel (51) Missing sister was Miriam George VanMason. Photo by J. W. MacDonald | 
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