WILKINS, George - 1919
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal, March 21, 1919
George Wilkins, oldest son of Samuel and Thomson Ann Hayden Wilkins, in a family of seven children of two boys and five girls—one a half sister was born to the earth life October 17, 1842, closed its journey March 3, 1919, at the home of his daughter, Celia E. Ludlow, near Veedersburg, Ind., aged seventy-six years, four months and twenty-six days. He was married in the fall of 1868 to Mary E. Cory, sister to J. C. Cory of this town. Two children were given this union, Oscar, who resides at Oxford, Ind., and prospering in Mercantile business and Mary Frances, who died in infancy. His wife died in 1872 and he was on Jan 26, 1879 married to Louisa W. Stull. Three children were born to them, two boys and one girl, the oldest, a boy, dying in infancy. Ceilia E. and Leeman E. who survive him and Oscar of Oxford, Ind., together with five grandchildren, one half sister, Alice Damson, the only surviving member of his father’s family, and numerous friends and neighbors. In the summer of 1861 came the call from the Government for aid to put down a rebellion of the Southern States lying south of Mason and Dixon line for the avowed purpose of petuating the system of human slavery but which miraculously proved its death knell for the appealing cry or 4,000,000 human beings had reached to Heaven pleading for help, and the people were catching the spirit of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, who sang: In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.
He felt that inspiration and at the age of eighteen years and ten months he offered his services to his country and was accepted, and enrolled in Co “A” 31st Reg., Ind. Vol. Inftry on the 20th, day of August, 1861, and for four and one-half years served in the strenuous duty and hardships known only to a soldier passing through many bloody contested battles among which were Fort Donelson and Shiloh, with no discredit marks against him and on the 8th, day of December, 1865, was duly mustered out of the military service with an honerable discharge paper to his credit, and like many another of those Civil War Veterans, be gladly returned to civil life and nobly responded to the responsibilities that came to him as husband and father, and to the various vocations in which he engaged, as farmer, mechanic or merchant he always and invariably held strictly to a high standard of honesty and justice. He believed in the message of Grace given in the Bible, and gladly listened to the testimony of persons of experience. He never held membership with any Religious body of people but was able to have granted him the assurance that it was alright with his soul and that he was prepared and ready to die. “Soldier rest thy warfare o’er, Sleep the sleep that knows no waking, Dream of battle fields no more, Days of danger, nights of waking.” His wife, Louisa, died on November 10, 1916 and since then he has made his home with his son, Leeman, in the town of Kingman, and the daughter, Ceilia Ludlow, near Veedersburg, Ind. and at whose home he died. – jlr