Working on Wednesday: George Marion Tomlinson (1839 - 1922) Farmer

We're fortunate to have several pictures of this maternal great great grandfather although none of him as a young man so we don't know when he began to sport the short beard we see in all the photos.*

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

The first record we've found for George Tomlinson is in the 1850 U.S. Census when he was 11, still living with his parents Jesse and Catharine (Gaskill) Tomlinson in Madison County, Ohio.

["United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6QL2-JB?cc=1401638&wc=95RW-JW1%3A1031310001%2C1031549001%2C1031403901 : 9 April 2016), Ohio > Madison > Union > image 31 of 40; citing NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).]

The Tomlinson's moved to Washington County, Iowa, in about 1856 and four years later we find George and his 13-year=old brother Albert living with their widowed mother.**  Catharine's occupation is the only one listed, that of Farmer but we can be sure that 21-year-old George was doing his share of the work.

["United States Census, 1860," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9B9V-SXF?cc=1473181&wc=7QXT-G4G%3A1589426666%2C1589422318%2C1589428167 : 24 March 2017), Iowa > Washington > English River Township > image 12 of 34; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).]

On Christmas Eve of the same year, George married Elizabeth "Betsy" Taylor and their daughter Rufina was born January 3, 1863. When George registered for the Civil War draft six months later*** he was listed as "married" which marks the last time we can assume that Betsy was still alive. Thereafter she disappears completely from the records.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registrations, 1863-1865. NM-65, entry 172, 620 volumes. NAI: 4213514. Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War), Record Group 110. National Archives at Washington D.C.]

Three years later on March 27, 1866, George married Amanda Darling (who happened to be the sister of one of my great great grandmothers Mercy Ann Darling Webb Walsh) in Jones County, Iowa.

In the 1870 U.S. Census record dated as of June 6th, George and his family were living in Greenwood County, Kansas, and had moved there sometime after the September 1869 birth of Albert, the youngest child listed.

[Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.]

By 1880 the Tomlinson household had grown, including several of George's extended family.

[1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29.

National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Although we don't know exactly when George and Amanda left Kansas for Colorado, this 1893 list of electors who hadn't voted in the recent general election.

[Boulder Daily Camera (Boulder, Boulder County) Monday, December 11, 1893

Page: 3 http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/]

By 1900 only their daughter May and grandson William (Albert's son) were living with George and Amanda on their farm in Boulder County.

[1900 United States Federal Census. Ancestry.com - Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.:

National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 18]

Mabel (who didn't marry until 1915) was the only other person living with her parents at the time of the 1910 U.S. Census. They're living on a country road in Boulder County.

[1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census,

Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Finally, in the 1920 U.S. Census, George no longer gives his occupation as a farmer; my 80-year-old great great grandfather and his wife are listed as have "none" in that column.

Amanda died in April of the following year and by that November George's health had declined so he entered the Boulder Sanitarium where he died on August 30, 1922.

[Longmont Ledger, September 8, 1922 .Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection]

George and Amanda are buried in the Niwot Cemetery.


*Here's a group portrait taken at the same time as the the one I extracted George's image from in this post; here's the golden wedding anniversary celebration of  he and his second wife in 1916; and here's a 1918 snapshot of he and his clan returning home from camping.
**Jesse died in 1857.
***The occupation of every man on the page was listed as Farmer.
© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.