George H. Walberry Biography

George H. Walberry. A special place of esteem has always been reserved for George H. Walberry in Otsego Township of Steuben County, where he has spent forty-five years of his life. Mr. Walberry made an interesting record as a soldier of the Union during the Civil war. He served with an Ohio regiment, and after coming to Indiana busied himself for many years in clearing and developing a good farm in Otsego Township and is still living there though now retired.

He was born at Fremont in Sandusky County, Ohio, October 26, 1845, a son of Christian and Sophia (Miller) Walberry. His father was born in Germany, came to the United States at the age of twenty-two, and was married the same year. His wife was a native of Pennsylvania. Christian Walberry had a tragic end. He had been away from home working for a neighbor, and on his return alone he was taken ill and died, and his body was not found for three days. His death occurred in July, 1846. George H. Walberry was then an infant, and the other child was Rhoda Ann. In 1854 the widowed mother married William Burkett, who died in 1864, the father of five children, Ellen Jane, George W., Caroline, Angeline, and Charlotte. The first two are now deceased. The mother spent her last years at Elkhart, Indiana, where she died January 9, 1883.

The family circumstances being as they were George H. Walberry early had to face serious responsibilities upon his own account. He acquired some education in Sandusky County, and at the age of fifteen began working in sawmills and on farms. On December 9, 1863, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the Ninth Company of the First Battalion of Ohio Sharpshooters. This company was afterwards assigned to the Sixtieth Ohio Infantry, but after a protest to the Government it served its original purpose as sharpshooters for the Second Brigade, Third Division, Ninth Corps, of the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Walberry was in his first battle at the Wilderness and later at Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor was under fire for seven days. He was in the siege of Petersburg, and was one of a party of twenty volunteers who respnded to a call to "go over the top" and capture a portion of the enemy's works. After the successful charge only ten were left uninjured. Mr. Walberry participated in thirteen battles, serving under Grant most of the time, was at the surrender of Appomattox, and was a special guard on a number of occasions. He stood guard at the Carroll prison in Washington when Mrs. Suratt, the famous spy and an accomplice in the murder of Lincoln, was hanged.

Mr. Walberry received his honorable discharge July 28, 1865, and then returned home to his mother and worked at farming for a few years. On December 5, 1875, he came to Steuben County, where the previous year he had bought ninety-five acres in Otsego Township. He at once busied himself with its clearing and improvement, put up good buildings, ditched the low ground, and successfully followed farming and stock raising there until the death of his wife in 1900. He then went to Oklahoma Territory and proved up a quarter section of land in that part of the Southwest. He held his Oklahoma land until February, 1919, when he sold out at a good profit.