camerong
Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
GEORGE W. CAMERON was born in
Carroll county, Ohio, January 14, 1835, and is now a retired farmer residing
in Harrington. His father, John Cameron, born in Hancock county,
Virginia, was a pioneer of Carroll county, Ohio, where most of his life
was spent and where he died recently aged ninety-one years. He was
of Scotch descent. The mother of Mr. Cameron was Betsy (Williams)
Cameron, a native of Newark, New Jersey, and lived to the age of seventy-one
years. The brothers and sisters of George W. Cameron are; William,
a wealthy stockman of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Eliza, a college graduate,
now correspondent for a Chicago hardware firm; Oderina, also college bred,
now in the employ of a Chicago railroad company; Henry C., a stockman of
Davis county, Missouri; Mrs. Elnora McCarty, of Topeka, Kansas; and Mrs.
Mary Dawson, of St. Joseph, Missouri. George W. Cameron grew to manhood
in Ohio, and in 1857 went to Chariton county, Missouri, where for a number
of years he was overseer on a plantation. In 1861 he went to Peoria,
Illinois, where for eleven years he was foreman in a distillery, after
which time he went to Jones county, Iowa, and engaged in farming and in
the livery business. Later he came west to Colusa county, California,
where he farmed until 1891, when he started by wagon with his family to
Lincoln county. He entered a homestead and timber culture claim five
miles south of Harrington, and soon succeeded in placing his land all under
cultivation. He sold his land and improvements in October, 1903,
removed to Harrington and entered upon a life of retirement and ease.
On October 24, 1856, Mr. Cameron was married
to Lucinda Ball, a native of Jefferson county, Ohio, in which county the
marriage took place. She was the daughter of Colonel Joseph L. and
Mary Ball, who are mentioned in another sketch in this history.
Six children have been born to this union,
all of more than passing prominence in their respective localities; Nora,
wife of John M. Maxwell, a farmer of Solano county, California; Jasper
J., married to Lillie Lee and now living on his eight-hundred-acre farm
seven miles west from Harrington; Georgia A., wife of Charles Ballard,
a Woodland, California, grain buyer; Charles E., married to Gertie Wesp,
living on four hundred acres of farming land five miles south of Harrington;
Jessie, wife of S. Q. Grafferd, of Okanogan county, Washington; and Luella,
wife of Harvey Parker, living in the vicinity of Olympia, Washington.
The eldest son, whose name is given first, was for two terms a member of
the state legislature from Lincoln county.
Mr. Cameron came to the county with little
money, but has made a signal success of the business of farming, and has
succeeded in placing himself high in the confidence and respect of the
entire population of his town and county.
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