THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 IB 
 
 G349I 
 
(Presented by HON. D. BETHUNE, DUFFIELD 
 
 From Library of Rev. Geo. Duffield, D.D. 
 
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“Many of those who met in this hall at that time are 
 gone. They died as Whittier well said: 
 
 “ * Their bi’ave hearts breaking slow, 
 
 But self forgetful to the last. 
 
 In words of cheer, and bugle glow, 
 
 They breath upon the darkness past ’ 
 
 “In those days, as we gathered around their graves, and 
 resolved that the narrower the circle became the closer we 
 would draw together, we almost envied the dead the quiet 
 sleep to which we left them, — the harvest reaped and the seal 
 set beyond the power of change .” — Wendell Phillips. 
 
In Lansing, Mich., on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 1881, of paralysis, 
 William S. George, senior proprietor and managing editor of 
 the Lansing Republican, aged 56 years. Funeral from the family 
 residence, Friday, Dec. 30, at 1% o’clock i\ M. 
 

 * 
 
j^feetdt of Wm. £. 
 
 The following sketch, prepared by James W. King, 
 for eleven years his associate editor, appeared in 
 the Lansing Republican of December 27, 1881, the 
 morning of his death : 
 
 Wm. S. George, for many years chief editor and 
 senior proprietor of the Republican, died at his home 
 in this city on Tuesday morning, aged 56 years. 
 He was born at Derby, Vt., and came from that 
 Puritan stock which has stamped its impress so 
 indelibly on the national character. 
 
 At the age of three years fire swept from his 
 parents all their worldly possessions, and lying on 
 a bed on the ground near the scene of the destruc- 
 tion, he saw the lurid flames do a work of havoc 
 and ruin which caused both parents and children 
 to struggle for years, to obtain for themselves the 
 necessities of life. William S. was the eldest son, 
 and before he had reached the age of 12 years he 
 was fighting manfully the battle of life. He has 
 often said to the writer of this, “ I never knew 
 anything about the sports and pleasures of child- 
 hood.” While his companions were engaged in 
 out-door sports, he was engaged in study and com- 
 position, which were the stepping-stones to that 
 
* : 
 
 8 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 prominent position which he afterward held in the 
 ranks of journalism. He had a thorough elemen- 
 tary drill in the common schools, and then spent 
 four years in learning the printer’s trade on the 
 White Mountain iEgis, at Lancaster, New Hamp- 
 shire. 
 
 His wages were $1.50 per week for 11 hours of 
 labor, commencing at 6 a. m., enjoying an hour’s 
 “nooning,” and closing at 6 p. m. the year around. 
 He was required in the winter time to go to the 
 office before breakfast, get fires started, and then 
 he ready for his regular day’s work at 6 o’clock. 
 
 At the close of his regular apprenticeship he 
 worked for a few months in the office of the Dem- 
 ocratic Republican at Haverhill, Mass., and then 
 removed to Brattleboro, Vt., wffiere he worked for 
 several years in the office of the Vermont Phoenix. 
 
 Those were hard-working slow-going old times, 
 and part of his wages w r ere paid in “orders.” The 
 lesson, however, was thoroughly impressed upon 
 him, that all future success must depend on indus- 
 try, fidelity, and accuracy, — the improving of one’s 
 opportunities, and the saving of one’s earnings. 
 
 As an apprentice he soon became an expert com- 
 positor, and could set more type per day at the 
 close of the first year than the average of journey- 
 men printers, and set it more correctly. His proofs 
 were considered marvels for so young a workman. 
 The labor of “rolling” for the hand press of old 
 
 * 
 
Wm. s. geoege. 
 
 9 
 
 times was performed upon a flat table, and raised 
 many blisters upon bis boyish bands. As a jour- 
 neyman he set type at 16| cents per thousand ems, 
 or at $5 per week, and was thankful for the chance. 
 The money he received was often barely enough to 
 pay his board. The demand for printers was very 
 limited, but wherever he obtained a situation he 
 w T as able to keep it as long as there was any work 
 to be done. 
 
 Although in politics a decided whig so long as 
 that party was faithful to its principles, and after- 
 wards a free-soiler and republican, he worked in 
 several democratic offices and gained the confidence 
 of his employers by diligence and good faith. He 
 was conversant with the minor political secrets of 
 those offices, as journeymen often are, but never 
 revealed them. He set up many columns of rabid 
 democratic editorials and correspondence from 
 exceedingly blind manuscript, correcting the punc- 
 tuation, w 7 rong spelling, and mistakes of fact, so 
 that when the foreman was in a great hurry it 
 would sometimes happen that his matter was 
 “dumped” in the form without even taking a first 
 proof. This was the highest compliment that could 
 be paid to him as a compositor. 
 
 From early boyhood it was his ambition to con- 
 duct a newspaper, and at 15 years of age he com- 
 menced writing articles which were published in 
 favor of the election of General Harrison as presi- 
 
10 
 
 MEMOEIAL OF 
 
 dent. He occasionally prepared local news, and in 
 1844 conducted the political department of a Whig 
 newspaper, which supported Henry Clay for presi- 
 dent, furnishing from one to two columns per week 
 for the munificent pay of $1. On receipt of 
 the first $18, all in hard money, the sum looked 
 enormous. It was the first positive fruits of his 
 pen, and he used it all in taking his first trip to 
 the city of Boston, inspecting its wonders, partici- 
 pating in the 4th-of-July celebration, and witness- 
 ing the magnificent fire-works on Boston Common. 
 
 From that time forward he wrote for a great 
 many newspapers and periodicals, receiving, how- 
 ever, very little money until 1854, when he under- 
 took as a reporter to furnish Charlestown items for 
 the Boston Daily Transcript, for which he received 
 $2 per week,— picking up the news at morning, 
 evening, or at noon-time, and writing it by the 
 way-side, or wherever it happened, and handing it 
 in at the office of that newspaper. 
 
 His first attempt at reporting a speech was a 
 failure for a very good reason. The speech was 
 made by Daniel Webster in New Hampshire to an 
 admiring crowd of whigs in 1840, and it was so 
 interesting and impressive that the apprentice 
 dropped his pencil and listened in rapt wonder. 
 
 An editorial written by him in 1857 on “Bleed- 
 ing Kansas,” was widely copied by the republican 
 press of Massachusetts, and secured him the 
 
Wm, S. GEORGE. 
 
 11 
 
 offer of a permanent engagement on the New Bed- 
 ford (Mass.) Daily Standard. He also wrote jokes 
 for the Carpet-Bag, a humorous weekly of Boston, 
 abolitionist essays for the Liberator, Wm. Lloyd 
 Garrison’s paper, social and domestic articles for 
 the Olive Branch and the New England Farmer. 
 
 While in the employ of the Standard, although 
 his wages were but $6 to $12 per week, by rigor- 
 ous industry and close economy he saved enough 
 to purchase the North Adams Transcript. The fire 
 demon scourged him, and the severest labor and 
 economy were necessary to keep his paper alive ; 
 but he did good service tow r ard the election of 
 Abraham Lincoln, and for the success of his party 
 in county and state. 
 
 In 1860 he sold the Transcript and became an 
 assistant editor of the Springfield Republican under 
 Samuel Bowles. The late J. G. Holland was also 
 a member of the staff of the Republican at that 
 time. Two years later, on the consolidation of the 
 Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, the managers 
 applied to Mr. Bowles for a first-class journalist, 
 and Mr. George became assistant editor of the 
 Tribune. 
 
 After a year’s experience in editorial work he 
 purchased $4,000 worth of stock in that journal, 
 the late E. B. Ward indorsing his note for $3,000, 
 and in October, 1863, he took complete control of 
 the business and mechanical departments. No 
 
◄ 
 
 12 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Michigan newspaper ever attained such prosperity 
 and success as did the Tribune under his manage- 
 ment. His debts were paid in less than two years, 
 and at the end of four years he owned an interest 
 worth $14,000. In 1867 he sold his stock and be- 
 came superintendent of an oil company in West 
 Virginia. 
 
 On the death of the late John A. Kerr, the surviv- 
 ing partner, George Jerome, offered him an inter- 
 est in the state printing, and on January 1, 1869, 
 he assumed control of the state-printing office and 
 bindery. In 1878 he assumed editorial charge of 
 the Lansing Republican, which had achieved a 
 good reputation under able editors, but under his 
 care and skill became known among newspaper 
 men as “the model paper of Michigan.” His news- 
 paper methods have been largely followed by many 
 editors, who readiJy recognized their true merits, 
 and in this way he has done more than any one 
 man to elevate the newspaper press of the Penin- 
 .sular State. 
 
 As an editor he was painstaking and thorough in 
 getting at all the facts of any subject which needed 
 the touch of his trenchant pen. He made confi- 
 dants of his assistants, and was ever ready to heed 
 and accept counsel from them whenever good rea- 
 sons were given why any particular course should 
 be pursued. An employe who was capable, honest, 
 and industrious was never deserted by Wm. S. 
 George. 
 
 — ii ■ — — — — 4 * 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 13 
 
 Beside liis arduous labors as a journalist and 
 business man, he served as secretary of an Odd 
 Fellows’s lodge, patriarch of the Sons of Temper- 
 ance, a director of the Lansing National bank, vice 
 president of the Lansing Library and Literary Asso- 
 ciation, and at the time of his death was president 
 of the Central Michigan Savings bank. 
 
 He was for many years a member of the repub- 
 lican state central committee, and chairman of the 
 republican committee of Ingham county. In 1876 
 he was a delegate from the 6tli district to the Cin- 
 cinnati convention which nominated Hayes and 
 Wheeler. He left the whigs in the days of their 
 strength and joined the free-soii party, from which 
 he easily changed to the republican organization. 
 In the great struggle for freedom to the black man 
 as well as the white, and later in the contest for 
 national supremacy, Mr. George’s ready pen was 
 most effectually used on the side of liberty and 
 union. He believed in the doctrine that “ the one 
 sole, sacred thing beneath the cope of heaven is 
 man,” and he w r as ever ready to defend the rights 
 of the worthy downtrodden. 
 
 He was educated in the orthodox faith, but the 
 convictions of his mature years placed him among 
 the Unitarians. He was for seven years an attend- 
 ant at Theodore Parker’s church in Boston, and 
 believed that the nearer right a man could live in 
 this world the better off would he be in the world 
 to come. 
 
* 
 
 14 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 As a citizen, Mr. George showed great public 
 spirit. He gave munificently for all charitable pur- 
 poses, and the needy poor never appealed to him 
 in vain. Many a young man now on the road to 
 prosperity owes his success to the sound and kindly 
 advice and the material assistance w r hich he receiv- 
 ed from W. S. George. His private benefactions 
 were many and large, and but few, even of his 
 most intimate friends, knew of their extent. 
 
 He took great interest in the cause of education, 
 and especially in the efficiency and thoroughness 
 of our common schools, for he recognized the fact 
 that in these are trained the great masses of the 
 common people on whom the welfare of the nation 
 depends. 
 
 In form Mr. George w 7 as of medium height, slen- 
 der, sinewy, and active. He had browui hair, blue 
 eyes, and a florid complexion. He was one of the 
 greatest brain workers this country has ever pro- 
 duced, and until the last year had hardly known 
 sickness enough to disable him from business. 
 About four months ago his health became impaired 
 and he sought for rest and recuperation at the 
 seaside. He was somewhat improved, and came 
 home on Dec. 17 with the expectation of steadily 
 regaining his former strength. He w r as at the office 
 on Wednesday last, when he went home never to 
 return. On his way there he stopped to visit two 
 sick employes, and while there w r as taken with a 
 chill from which he never rallied. 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 15 
 
 
 i 
 
 No man of his age ever lived a busier or more 
 useful life. His family have lost a devoted hus- 
 band and an affectionate father, the community a 
 public-spirited citizen, and his large force of em- 
 ployes a kind-hearted and upright employer. As 
 chief editor of the Republican the newspaper fra- 
 ternity of Michigan will mourn his irreparable loss. 
 
 He was eminently a just man in all his dealings 
 with his fellows, and was ever guided by the high- 
 est sense of honor. He was genial in his nature, 
 and while he felt kindly toward all, he had but 
 few friends who thoroughly knew r him, for he made 
 but few confidants. Those who knew him best 
 appreciated and loved him most. 
 
 The temperance cause in Michigan never had a 
 truer friend or a more zealous worker than W. S. 
 George. 
 
 His great pleasure in life was in the home circle 
 where all of his time was spent when not engaged 
 in the active duties of business. As long as his 
 mother lived he w r as her solace and support. To 
 Mrs. S. L. Papineau, mother of Mrs. George, no 
 son could have been more devoted. He was first 
 married in 1853, again in 1866, and the third time 
 in 1876. He leaves his wife, three children, and 
 two sisters, one in Melrose Highlands, and one at 
 Charlestown, Mass. 
 
 * * 
 

 WILLIAM S. GEORGE. 
 
 *Via Lavicana ad fanum Quietis. — Livy, B. IV. 
 
 His sun goes down at noon! Now darkness lowers, 
 Sudden and deep, on friends who knew his worth. 
 
 All hearts are faint. Hushed is our Christmas mirth. 
 Nipped by untimely frost our festal flowers! 
 
 Chilled in their flight the swift and glowing hours! 
 
 For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night, 
 
 The poet sings, “we well may drown our sight!” 
 
 Others may praise, as they have known him best. 
 
 His ceaseless toil, his word and courage true; 
 
 One virtue, like a column, stands confessed! 
 
 For liberty he fought his whole life through. 
 
 In this I love him more than all the rest. 
 
 Happy the man, with foe beneath his feet, 
 
 Who thus beholds his triumph all complete! 
 
 *Tlie Temple of Rest on the Via Lavicana heyoncl the Esquiline 
 Gate, St. Augustine. 
 
 George Duffield. 
 
 Detroit, December 28, 1881. 
 
 / 
 
lurial Amices. 
 
 
 The funeral services were held at the family res- 
 idence on Seymour street, on the afternoon of 
 December 30. Although the day was cold and 
 stormy, there was a large attendance of relatives, 
 friends, neighbors, and employes, who joined in 
 paying a last sad tribute to this leading journalist, 
 sagacious and upright business man, public-spirited 
 citizen and philanthropist. Governor Jerome and 
 many State officers and clerks were present, and 
 the flags on the State capitol were placed at half- 
 mast in honor of the deceased. 
 
 At the request of Mr. George, made some time 
 previous to his death, the following gentlemen were 
 chosen from his large force of faithful employes to 
 act as pall-bearers : George F. Strong, 0. A. Jenison, 
 F. D. Carnahan, Wm. M. Clark, M. Driscoll, Wm. 
 Van Buren, W. S. Wright, and J. W. King. A pro- 
 fusion of flowers, contributed by the Agricultural 
 College, of which the deceased had been a staunch 
 friend, formed a beautiful feature of the funeral 
 decorations. Prayer was offered by Rev. E. Thomp- 
 son, followed by scriptural reading by Rev. George 
 Duffield, while a choir composed of Mrs. Sophie H. 
 Knight, Miss May Paddack, Miss Kate Marvin, John 
 
18 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 K. Allen, and A. 0. Bement, sang “ Nearer my God 
 to Thee,” “ Sweet by and by,” and chanted “ The 
 Lord is my shepherd.” 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Sunderland of Ann Arbor then 
 preached the following touching and eloquent 
 
 S IE IR, O 3ST. 
 
 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
 death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me ; thy rod and 
 thy staff they comfort me .” — Psalm 23: 4. 
 
 When we were children we were some of us very 
 foolishly afraid of the dark. But since becoming- 
 older we have found that the dark has no power 
 to harm us. It took many years to learn it, perhaps, 
 but at last we have learned to go out into the twi- 
 light or even the midnight without trembling. 
 
 Will we ever get ourselves taught to go out, or 
 even to look out into the dark of death without fear ? 
 
 There are two ways of meeting objects that have 
 about them elements of mystery and apprehension. 
 One is, to close our eyes and run from them. The 
 result of this is, of course, continued mystery and 
 deepened alarm. The other w.ay is to summon up 
 courage and calmness to go to the thing whose 
 mystery and shadow have given us apprehension, 
 and steadily look at it. The result of this is, gen- 
 erally, a clearing up of the mystery, or at least a 
 dispelling of the alarm. 
 
 Is it not so with regard to death? True, death 
 is something in its very nature strange and myste- 
 
Wm. s. geokge. 
 
 19 
 
 rious ; and alas ! poetry, legend, child-story, popular 
 imagination, and, worst of all, cruel theological 
 teaching, have all united to transform its mystery 
 into awfulness, and to fill its shadow with vague 
 dread and alarm. This is most unfortunate. Is 
 there no remedy? Yes, friends, I think there is a 
 remedy, and it is simply that of calm, candid, 
 looking. I think that he who will but approach 
 the mystery and gaze with clear, steadfast vision 
 into its heart, will almost surely go away having 
 gained a great conquest. 
 
 And now I w T ish to tell you as plainly as I can 
 some of the reasons why I think so. 
 
 1. First of all, it is wise for us to school our- 
 selves not to shudder or shrink w T ith fear when we 
 think of death as coming to our loved ones, or 
 when w T e ourselves approach it, for the reason, if 
 no other, that all such trembling and fear will do 
 no good, but only evil. It can have no effect 
 whatever to avert the calamity which we dread, 
 but, instead, our alarm will be likely actually to 
 hasten it. In cholera or yellow fever epidemics, 
 as we are told by the most careful investigators, 
 nearly or quite as many persons die of fright as of 
 the disease which is prevailing, and often in a 
 given city or town where panic is great, more. 
 And, in fact, in all bodily affections, mental condi- 
 tions are very important. All physicians under- 
 stand that, other things being equal, he who lives 
 
20 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 in constant dread of a disease is more likely to 
 have it than is he who has no fear; and in the 
 case of one who is already ill, if his mind can be 
 kept calm, and brave, and hopeful, much has been 
 done to guide the disease to a happy issue. 
 Whereas, if fear and discouragement, or alarm at 
 the thought of death constantly agitate him, his 
 chances of recovery are thereby materially lessened. 
 Here, then, is plainly a valid reason why we should 
 all school ourselves to rise above superstition and 
 foolish fear, and habitually look upon death as 
 bravely and calmly as possible. He who worries 
 least about death, either for himself or others, hut 
 interests himself heartily in life with all its joys 
 and experiences and work, earnest to make the 
 most of the days and years as they go by, in all 
 high and glad and noble ways, is doing a great 
 deal, probably much more than he understands, not 
 only to rob death of its gloomy and dreadful aspect, 
 but actually to delay the time of its coming. 
 
 2. A second reason which ought to enable us to 
 lay aside much of the dread which so often attaches 
 to death is, that when it comes it will probably 
 not come at all as' we expect, or when we expect; 
 nor will it he likely to be anything like so dreadful 
 as in our alarmed states of mind we are apt to 
 anticipate. Apprehension of hard deaths or of pro- 
 longed dying agonies, which people so often men- 
 tally torture themselves with, are seldom realized. 
 
*■ 
 
 * 
 
 Wm. S. GEORGE. 21 
 
 An eminent medical authority writes : “ One of the 
 most common notions is, that pain and dying are 
 inseparable companions. But the truth is, they 
 rarely go together. Occasionally the act of dissolu- 
 tion is a painful one, but this is a rare exception 
 to the general rule. The rule is that unconscious- 
 ness, not pain, attends the final act. Painlessly we 
 come, whence we know not. Painlessly w T e go, 
 whither we know not. Nature provides an anaes- 
 thetic for the body when the spirit leaves it.” 
 Since this is true, then, how plainly it is best for us, 
 so far as lies in our power (and to a large extent 
 it does lie in our power) to put away all disquiet- 
 ing apprehensions of death agonies, and the like, 
 as unworthy of our thought for a moment. The old 
 Stoic philosophers of Greece and Borne used to 
 urge that the terrors that are connected with the 
 thoughts of death, are the results of a diseased 
 imagination. “Death,” they said, “is the only 
 evil which does not afflict us when present.” Surely 
 then we ought to be wise enough not to allow it 
 to afflict us by foolish apprehensions before it is 
 present. 
 
 3. Again, we may well school ourselves to look for- 
 ward to death without alarm, because death is the 
 end of earthly sorrows trouble, failure, disappoint- 
 ment, evil, suffering, — and oh ! how much there is 
 of all these in every human life ! We sometimes 
 speak of the “ angel ” of death. Death is an angel ; 
 
 
* 
 
 22 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 and it were well that w r e oftener thought of him as 
 such. He is an angel of mercy — opening prison 
 doors, freeing slaves from cruel masters, closing 
 toils of poverty, ending racking pains, calming 
 troubled breasts, resting aching heads. We do him 
 injustice when we call him, as we so commonly 
 do, our eneifiy. He is our friend. Coleridge is right, 
 the good man does have always and everywhere 
 at least three friends, “himself, his maker, and 
 his angel death.” Yes, and it might be added that 
 the bad man also has at least two of these as his 
 friends— his maker and his angel death. Himself 
 is his only enemy. 
 
 How insufferably dreary would life be to many of 
 the children of men, nay, how insufferably dreary 
 would it only too soon become to us all, were there 
 no visions before us in the future of an angel hold-' 
 ing a key to an exit gate ! 
 
 Who has not heard with profound pity the legend 
 of the “Wandering Jew,” condemned on account 
 of cruelty toward the Savior, to wander up and 
 down the earth without permission to taste death 
 until that Savior’s second coming. On and on he 
 lives, as the representation is, seeing generation 
 after generation of human beings pass away, and 
 century after century drag wearily by, himself 
 praying ever for death, but refused the coveted 
 boon. 
 
 And among the many lialf-pagan legends that 
 
 l 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 23 
 
 were connected with Ireland during the middle 
 ages, there is a beautiful one, somewhat similar to 
 this of the Wandering Jew. It is called “ The Leg- 
 end of the Islands of Life and Death.” The legend 
 relates that in a certain lake in Munster there 
 were two islands; into the first death could not 
 come; into the second it was permitted to enter. 
 The first island, however, though free from death, 
 was not free from age, sickness, weariness of life, 
 paroxysms of fearful suffering, and all the ills and 
 evils necessarily attendant upon life. The result 
 was, the inhabitants soon grew tired of their immor- 
 tality, and learned to look with intense longing upon 
 the opposite island where men were kindly permit- 
 ted to die. At length, able to endure their condi- 
 tion no longer, they launched their barks upon the 
 waters which separated them from the sweet land 
 where death was known, approached, stepped upon 
 the shore, and were at rest. 
 
 How deep is the truth that lies wrapped up in 
 this legend ! Looked at aright death is not the 
 horrible thing, the relentless destroyer, the pitiless 
 enemy, that he has been represented to be. Bather, 
 as I have said, he is an angel from God, sent to 
 end the strife, . the struggle, the weariness, the pain, 
 the disappointment, the ills and evils that necessa- 
 rily enter more or less into every earthly life; and 
 to say to the sorrowing, suffering, toiling sons of 
 men, at last, “Peace, peace!” 
 
* 
 
 * 
 
 24 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 4. A fourth reason that I mention why we should 
 be calm in prospect of death is because death is 
 something natural, not, as we are so often taught, 
 something unnatural. It is as natural as birth or 
 life, as much a part of God’s great plan and order 
 of things ; and hence, whether with our limited wis- 
 dom we can understand how or not, it must be 
 wise, and right, and best, best even for us w r ho 
 have to experience it. 
 
 Nor when I say this am I unmindful that death 
 means separations which almost crush out human 
 lives sometimes. I am not unmindful that, look at 
 it as we may, it is the bitterest cup that man has 
 to drink in this world. It fills human eyes with 
 tears and human hearts with pain as nothing else 
 does in all the experience of earth. Hence stand- 
 ing in its presence, it is not to be wondered at 
 that men find themselves almost irresistibly pro- 
 pounding the old questions, so often asked in all 
 ages, I suppose, since the world began: “Could 
 not God have made a world that should have had 
 no need of death? And if he could, why did he 
 not?” But the questions are too large for us,— a 
 thousand times too large. We cannot answer them. 
 And if pondering them makes us restive or rebel- 
 lious, then we had better put them away, and with 
 them all such kind of questions as suggest even a 
 hint or suspicion that any other order or plan of 
 things could be better than that which is, or that 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 25 
 
 * 
 
 God’s wisdom may not be the highest, or his re- 
 gard for all his creatures the most perfect and 
 unfailing. The safest creed, nay the sanest reason 
 and the profoundest philosophy that the thought of 
 man has ever reached, is that which seeks not to 
 go behind what is, but stops reverently at that, 
 sure that it can never be other than folly and 
 blasphemy for finite wisdom to call in question 
 infinite wisdom, or for the created to say complain- 
 ingly to his creator, “Why hast thou made me 
 thus?” 
 
 So then, I say, I think we have here a fourth valid 
 reason why we should teach ourselves ever to con- 
 template death without alarm. Death is not un- 
 natural, it is natural ; it is a part of the great plan 
 and providence of Him who has made the world, 
 and all of us who are in the world. Granted that 
 with our limited understanding and our ignorance 
 of what is beyond this world, we cannot under- 
 stand more than in very small part how it can be 
 best, yet let us be sure it is best or else it would 
 not be. 
 
 5. A last reason that I mention why, like the 
 Psalmist, we may “fear no evil” when we or our 
 loved ones approach death, is the thought of what 
 lies beyond it. Do you ask what is beyond death ? 
 I answer, I believe three supreme things : First, 
 
 God our father ; second, a continuance and identity 
 of being for all intelligent creatures ; and third, 
 
 A- 
 
◄ 
 
 26 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 love. These three supreme things I see rising up 
 and beckoning us with shining hands into the 
 great beyond into which death opens. 
 
 First, I say, God our father is there. I do not 
 by this mean, that he is not here. He is here, as 
 truly as you or I are ; hut he is there also, in that 
 otherwhere into which death ushers us. And what 
 does that mean? It means nothing less than that 
 that other world will be a world of justice, mercy, 
 truth, love, paternity, because he who is Mercy, 
 Justice, Truth, Love, Paternity, is there, the all and 
 in all of it. It means safety, and the highest pos- 
 sible ultimate good to all the children of men in 
 that world, because he who carries every child of 
 his forever in his heart has framed all the provi- 
 dences of that world as well as of this. It means a 
 world that is not to be dreaded by any human 
 being, good or bad, saint or sinner. But rather a 
 world which every child of the race may know is 
 full of the ultimately best things. Mark, I do not 
 say that there will be no pain there, or no sorrow, 
 or no regrets, or no stings of conscience, or no 
 punishments. I do not say it will be a world of 
 unalloyed felicity, or of equal felicity to the good 
 and the bad, the obedient child and the moral 
 rebel. I simply say that, since we must conceive 
 that he who is holy, just, and good, who is at once 
 God and Father, is as truly there as here, and rules 
 in that world as well as in this, therefore every- 
 
 
 * 
 
Wm. s. geokge. 
 
 27 
 
 thing there must he planned for the ultimate well- 
 being, (may be to be reached through more or less 
 of pain and sorrow and chastisement, yet still the 
 ultimate well-being) of every human child of his. 
 Pain is not necessarily unkind, nor is chastise- 
 ment, sent in any of its numerors forms, as we 
 have all learned from our limited earthly experi- 
 ence. If, then, pain and chastisement shall come 
 in the world of the hereafter, as it seems as if 
 they must come to some of us, they will not be 
 unjust, or vindictive, or unkind, or in any way out 
 of harmony with infinite love and paternity. They 
 will be for the ultimate good of all to whom they 
 come. 
 
 So, then, I repeat, the first object which I see 
 in the great beyond to which death opens, — God, 
 the universal Father, is one that girds me mightily 
 in view of death. I do not tremble to go where he 
 is. Take him out of that world and death would 
 be dreadful. Change him into anything else than 
 what I believe him to be, “the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and forever,’’ and death would be unutter- 
 ably dreadful. But leave him to me as Jesus re- 
 veals him, let me understand that God is my ever- 
 lasting Father, and that the world beyond death is 
 his as truly as this world is his, and there is then 
 no terror in the passage thither. Why should 
 there be? To die is only to remove from one 
 room to another of the Father’s house. 
 
 
28 
 
 MEMO KI AL OF 
 
 Again, as I look through the opening portal of 
 death, I see beyond it something more still. I see, 
 as I have said, a continuance and identity of being 
 for us all. I see an existence for you and me and 
 all our human brotherhood, carried right on into 
 the next world and continuedr there, not in such a 
 
 i 
 
 way as to form a new, a strange life, governed 
 according to principles which we cannot under- 
 stand, and utterly dissevered from this life which 
 we are now living, but a life which is in the truest 
 and deepest sense a continuance, a sequel, an un- 
 folding of this, indeed a life which is this, only 
 carried onward into better conditions and higher 
 developments. Growth, development, evolution, is 
 the law of human nature in this world, and as 
 mind must be the same in all worlds, we cannot 
 but believe that growth, development, and progress 
 will be the law of human nature in the world to 
 come. 
 
 But what splendor of prophecy and promise there 
 is in this thought ! Growth, progress forever ! Why, 
 who can even think it? And yet just this is what 
 is placed before us to believe. Consider what a life 
 so brief as this of earth may accomplish. What a 
 distance in knowledge and mental power a human 
 being travels in the few years that separates the 
 cradle from manhood! As a babe he knows liter- 
 ally nothing — not his right hand from his left, not 
 his best friend from his worst enemy, not a person 
 
 
* 
 
 * 
 
 Wm. S. GEORGE. 29 
 
 from a thing, not an object miles away from an 
 object within the hand’s reach; not colors, not 
 shapes, not names, not qualities; not others, not 
 himself. He is little more than a mere bundle of un- 
 realized possibilities. But when he has become a 
 man, who can tell what he lias knowledge of? 
 He may not be the wisest of men, but who can 
 count up or enumerate the things which any com- 
 monest man among us knows ? Try it ; make a 
 catalogue, and you shall write for a life-time and 
 yet not have written down all. We talk about 
 ignorant men, and yet really there are no ignorant 
 men, unless they are idiots. It is only relatively, 
 that men of sound mind and living in this world 
 where everything we see has its lesson to teach, 
 are ever ignorant. The knowledge even of him 
 whose life has been spent on the most inaccessible 
 mountains, or the farthest frontier, is nothing less 
 than marvelous in the sum of it, if once you 
 could gather together and express absolutely all. 
 Compare then, I say, first the distance of advance 
 from the absolutely knowledgeless infant to him, 
 that relatively ignorant man ; then again, go for- 
 ward and compare the distance in advance from 
 him, that so-called ignorant man, to one who is 
 the wisest of the race, on 3 whose whole life has 
 been one of reading, observation, study, and thought, 
 who has voyaged up and down through history and 
 Science, through philosophy and art, until like 
 
 * 
 
 
* 
 
 * . 
 
 30 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 a Milton or a Goethe he is at home in well-nigh 
 every department of human thought and inquiry, 
 and then, but not till then, are you able even to 
 begin to understand the possibilities of the human 
 mind under favorable conditions, or to grasp the 
 great thought of what advance in knowledge and 
 growth in the powers and capacities of the human 
 soul must mean in that endless life to which we 
 go. All this in the few brief years of earth ! What, 
 then, in those endless ages of eternity? 
 
 It comes, then, just to this: I look through the 
 portal of death and see myself and you and all the 
 race passing soon to the other side, and then on and 
 on, away, and upward, and onward, until all are lost 
 beyond the possible sight of such as remain behind 
 with their poor mortal vision. Now is it glorious to 
 know? Is there something to be desired in the 
 thought of minds expanding, unfolding, reaching 
 out toward the infinite mind? Then why, tell me, 
 should we shrink or shudder when we contemplate 
 death, which simply opens the gateway leading 
 from the circumscribed and narrow here, out and 
 up into all that magnificent and limitless beyond 
 of thought and knowledge and progress ? 
 
 Finally, as I look through the open gateway of 
 death, I see one other thing still in the great be- 
 yond. I see Love there; and I see it supreme, 
 too, as it has never been in this world. Is it 
 asked, what does that mean? Ah, friends, what 
 
 * 
 
* 
 
 Wm. S. G-EORGrE. 31 
 
 does it mean, eternal continuance, growth and per- 
 fecting of human love? Is the love of earth inex- 
 pressibly precious and life giving, even here where 
 its rays are like the beams of tapers in the night? 
 How, then, will it be in a world where love is the 
 sunlight, of a beautiful, blessed, glorious day that 
 knows no night? What is the love here and now, 
 of parent or child, brother or sister, husband or 
 wife, or dearest earthly friend? What then will 
 that same love be when purified of its alloy and 
 lifted up out of the frailties and limitations of 
 earth, into the perfection of heaven ? Is love the 
 very sweetest, highest, holiest thing which you, so 
 far in your existence here on earth, know anything 
 of — the very central, richest chord in all the music 
 of your life? What then will that existence be 
 whose whole diapason shall be tuned to the music 
 of a love higher than the highest, and sweeter than 
 the sweetest ? 
 
 “ Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail ; 
 whether there be tongues they shall cease,” says 
 Paul, “but love never faileth. Now abideth faith, 
 hope, love ; but the greatest of these is love.” 
 
 And this glimpse, which through the opening 
 portal of death we get of love in the great world 
 beyond, what does it mean as touching reunion with 
 friends and loved ones who have gone before us 
 into that world ? It can only mean one thing by any 
 possibility, concerning them, and that is that there 
 
T 
 
 32 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 must be reunions of friends and loved ones in that 
 world, and that all who are dear to us must be 
 ours forever. To give us affections in the world to 
 come, and then strip us of all or any of the objects 
 around which in all the years of our earthly lives 
 those affections had learned to twine and fasten 
 themselves, would be to tear our very hearts to 
 fragments, and leave them forever most cruelly 
 bleeding. But God cannot have ordered that such 
 a future as that shall be before us all. He is 
 surely not a demon. We cannot believe that he 
 has made the world to which we go a mockery. 
 What then? Then our loved ones are to be with 
 us there. To be in a world of infinite and perfect 
 love, nay to be in a world where love is not abso- 
 lute torture, torture awful and remediless, my dear 
 ones sundered from me by death must be mine 
 again, mine forever, not one of all the number 
 absent. 
 
 Such then, dear friends, is the coming world, 
 which I see lying sweet and fair beyond the 
 shadow of the tomb, as I stand and gaze through 
 the open door of death — through the door of death 
 which to-day stands ajar, by reason of the passing 
 through of him who has just left our side. The 
 land I see is not a lonely or desolate land, nor 
 yet is it a land of strangers. They are there ! by 
 faith I see them all, all who have ever been dear 
 to me. 
 
 
 * 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 33 
 
 “They have all gone into the world of light! 
 
 And I alone sit lingering here! 
 
 Their very memory is fair and bright, 
 
 And my sad heart doth cheer. 
 
 “Dear beauteous death! — the jewel of the just! 
 Shining nowhere but in the dark; 
 
 AVhat mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, 
 
 Could man outlook that mark! 
 
 t 
 
 “He that hath found some fledged birds nest 
 may know 
 
 At first sight if the bird be flown; 
 
 But what fair dell or grove he sings in now, 
 
 That is to him unknown. 
 
 “And yet as angels in some brighter dreams 
 Call to the soul when man doth sleep, 
 
 So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted 
 themes, 
 
 And into glory peep.” 
 
 The Mussulmans have a fable about Moses, that, 
 when the hour of his departure was come, God 
 sent the angel of death, who appeared before him 
 and demanded his soul. Moses, cheerful and un- 
 daunted, greeted the angel with a friendly saluta- 
 tion, but questioned his right, nevertheless, to touch 
 a soul that had had communion with God. The 
 death-angel was baffled at such assurance, and 
 knew not how to proceed, for death and Moses, it 
 seemed, had nothing in common. Then the Lord, 
 seeing the difficulty, deputed the angel of paradise 
 to carry to him an apple of Eden; and as Moses 
 
84 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 inhaled the immortal fragrance his spirit went 
 forth from him, and was borne upon the odors of 
 Eden into the presence of the Lord. 
 
 Such is the Mussulman’s parable, the meaning of 
 which is this. The assurance which disputes the 
 power of death is the human spirit’s unconquer- 
 able faith in God, — the faith 
 
 “That life and death alike 
 God’s goodness underlies.” 
 
 Friends and brothers may God give us all that 
 faith. Then indeed with the Psalmist shall we 
 each be able to sing evermore, “Yea, though I 
 walk through the valley of the shadow of death I 
 will fear no evil, for thou art with me ; thy rod 
 and thy staff they comfort me.” 
 
 Thus I have pointed out in a very brief and 
 imperfect way, what seem to me some of the rea- 
 sons why, as we see that strange something which 
 we call death coming and laying its shadowy hand 
 upon our loved ones, and also why, as we look 
 forward into the future and know that our own turn 
 to go must come soon, we yet may be calm and 
 peaceful, full of courage and great hope. 
 
 A grand old man upon whose head the snows of 
 seventy and four winters had fallen, as he stood in 
 the evening light of a wise and useful life, and 
 looked forward with no shadow of fear to the ap- 
 proaching sunset wrote these beautiful words : 
 
Wm. S . GEORGE. 
 
 35 
 
 “With calm and patient trust I wait 
 The slow and sure approach of fate. 
 
 What may betide me where I go 
 I know not, and I need not know. 
 
 I know my Maker kind and just; 
 
 This is enough, I calmly trust. 
 
 “My eyes are dim to things around, 
 
 My ears are dull to common sound; 
 
 And yet, far gleaming on my sight, 
 
 I think I see a surer light, 
 
 And hear harmonious wavelets beat— 
 
 Prelude of something strangely sweet. 
 
 “I long a higher life to know; 
 
 To better thoughts I fain would grow; 
 
 God gave the hope: He must ordain 
 The hope he gave shall not be vain. 
 
 Therefore that higher life must be; 
 
 His justice is my guaranty. 
 
 “I seek no aid from churchly creed; 
 
 Life’s daily facts supply my need. 
 
 That he is just and kind I know; 
 
 My life’s experience proves it so. 
 
 Doubt hath no place, no ill abides 
 Where He, the just and kind, presides. 
 
 “Then pass, ye earthly things, away; 
 
 Sink, toil-worn frame, to swift decay; 
 
 The parting clouds unveil the light, 
 
 And clearer vision glads my sight. 
 
 Long waiting soul be of good cheer, 
 
 The end draws nigh, thy hope is near.” 
 
 Oh beautiful words ! Oil song of victory ! Dear 
 friends, as we see one after another of those dear 
 
36 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 to us passing out of our sight, and are reminded 
 that it cannot be long before we too must go, may 
 such a calm and confident trust in Him who is 
 over all, fill our hearts. Thus shall all fear fly 
 away like a morning cloud. 
 
 I cannot close without a few T words of a more 
 personal character than any that I have yet spoken. 
 Such a life as this that has just ended its earthly 
 career before our eyes, should not be allowed to 
 pass without leaving its lessons for our instruction. 
 I see in it two or three most worthy lessons, which 
 we who remain behind will not be w 7 ise if we do 
 not learn. 
 
 First, it has in it a lesson for young men who 
 are just setting out on their career of activity and 
 desire to win business success. Few men of our 
 day have been finer examples to those who are 
 coming after them of what the business man 
 should be, and of those habits of work and quali- 
 ties of character, which everywhere win respect 
 and accomplish large results. From a boyhood of 
 hardship and limited advantages Wm. S. George 
 rose to a manhood of unusually wide intelligence 
 and influence, and all by his own unaided energy, 
 perseverance, will, promptness, methodical business 
 habits, industry, and, above; all, integrity. Let 
 those who are setting out in life and w r ould accom- 
 plish such a life work as lm has accomplished, 
 and win such esteem and confidence from others 
 
 * 
 
* 
 
 Wm. S. GEORGE. 87 
 
 as he has won, study well his career and character. 
 They can find no wiser or nobler book. 
 
 A second and still more important lesson which 
 his life should teach us all, both young and old, 
 is the grandeur of living for moral ends. In his 
 very earliest childhood, and on his father’s knee, 
 our esteemed brother and friend learned to care 
 for the oppressed — the slaves at the south who, in 
 that day, had few to plead their cause. 
 
 Thus early did he begin to think and feel for 
 others beside himself, and those who were less 
 favored then he. And this was the key note of all 
 his life. As he grew to manhood his interest in 
 reform increased, and long before he was of age 
 had he enlisted his heart, his brain, and his keen 
 pen in the great anti-slavery movement in imme- 
 diate association with Garrison, Parker, Samuel J. 
 May, Phillips, and their colleagues. And from that 
 time until the war closed and the slaves were free, 
 did his zeal or interest in the cause in which he 
 had enlisted not for one moment abate. Nor did he 
 cease to be a friend of the colored people and a labor- 
 er for their good, after the shackles had fallen from 
 their limbs. Till his death they were steadily in his 
 mind and heart, and much of the most earnest 
 writing that he lias; done in all these latter years 
 has been in their behalf, in advocacy of measures 
 which seemed to hinx w r ere necessary to help them 
 up to a position of equality with their white breth- 
 ren in the south. 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
38 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Nor did his sympathy stop with the suffering and 
 needy of another color from his own. His whole 
 life was one of philanthropy, of charity, of advocacy 
 of what he believed to be reforms, of assistance 
 rendered by pen, by hand, by council, by sympa- 
 thy, by purse, to those who were in w r ant or dis- 
 tress. In all the later years of his life the cause 
 of temperance in this country has had few more 
 earnest or able promoters. 
 
 And so, as he passes out of our sight, w r e see 
 with joy that the great host of those who rise up 
 to call him blessed, includes not only those who 
 once were slaves to southern task-masters, now free 
 by his efforts and the efforts of such as he, but 
 also it includes a vast company of others, known 
 only to themselves — young men whom he had be- 
 friended, neglected children whom he had helped 
 to homes, drunkards whom he had been instru- 
 mental in reforming, the suffering to whom he had 
 ministered, the common people whose cause he had 
 maintained, employes connected with his own busi- 
 ness, to whom he had been almost a father. I say 
 a company larger than anyone knows, made up 
 of these classes, will ever more thank God that he 
 has lived. 
 
 And oh ! friends, standing as we do to-day in the 
 presence of such a life, a life thus lived for noble 
 ends of usefulness, how small and poor seems any 
 life lived only for self. How puny and pitiful 
 
 * 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 89 
 
 seems mere money making, or mere place seeking, 
 or mere self-indulgence, or luxury, or ease, com- 
 pared with doing good, compared with living to 
 make justice, and truth, and right to prevail on 
 the earth. Oh, as we stand beside his cold clay 
 to-day, may we all dedicate ourselves to high 
 moral aims in life, and resolve, God helping us, 
 that we will give our days on earth, more earnestly 
 than we have ever done, to drying up the sorrow, 
 and suffering, and ignorance, and wrong there are 
 all around us in society. 
 
 Let his precious ashes he our altar of consecra- 
 tion; and then shall he bless the world by his 
 death, as he has in so many ways by his life. 
 
 And now what shall I say to you who mourn 
 most sadly of all to-day, you who are members of 
 this stricken home. I do not ask you not to weep, 
 for I know your hearts are human. Yet after all 
 I may remind you that it is better to look up than 
 down, even though it be through tears. While you 
 cannot but be sad, yet there is much that you may 
 well rejoice and thank God for, even in your sor- 
 row. It is cause for gratitude that you had your 
 loved one with you so long. If a friend gives us a 
 bouquet of beautiful flowers, we do not forget the 
 kindness of the giver in complaining that the 
 flowers do not last forever. So let us not forget 
 God’s goodness in giving us our dear ones, even if 
 we cannot keep them at our side all the way 
 through our earthly journey. 
 
40 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 “’Tis better to have loved and lost 
 Than never to have loved at all.” 
 
 Furthermore, we have great reason to be grateful 
 for the precious legacies of memory and of influence 
 which our dead leave behind them. They do not 
 leave us empty handed or empty hearted, lonely as 
 we are when they are gone. They rest from their 
 labors, but their works live after them; their influ- 
 ence abides ; their memory is ever green in our 
 hearts, and ever something more precious to us 
 than any wealth of earth can buy. Let us thank 
 God that it is so. Let us thank God that he who 
 has gone from us had made his life so useful. His 
 religion was to do good. He believed that the way 
 to secure the approbation of heaven is to serve well 
 one’s day and generation, and do well the work in 
 life that is given one to do. With this belief he 
 could not fear death or what might be beyond death. 
 To him death was as natural as life, and the world 
 to which it opens must be full of justice and good- 
 ness, because it is His world who is just and good. 
 Ever by day and • by night, in sickness and in 
 health, in life and in death, the beautiful song 
 sung itself down deep in his heart : 
 
 “I know not where God’s islands lift 
 Their fronded palms in air; 
 
 But this I know, I cannot drift 
 Beyond His love and care.” 
 
 For this we may well be grateful to God. And we 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 41 
 
 > 
 
 may well be equally grateful also, that you, dear 
 friends, who remain behind to mourn his departure, 
 do not mourn as those who have no hope, but that 
 you too are comforted in your sorrow by the same 
 beautiful faith which cheered him. 
 
 And now, may God’s blessing be upon you all ! 
 May the everlasting arms be round about you. 
 May He, who is a present help in every time of 
 need, be with you in your affliction to heal the 
 broken hearts and bind up the wounds. 
 
 
§£r. (Skovgc’s public (Ehavactrr, 
 
 BY REV. GEORGE DUFFIELD. 
 
 As in almost every face there is one predominant 
 feature or expression, so in every strong and posi- 
 tive character there is some one predominant trait 
 that constitutes its true unity. Whether it be 
 avarice or the love of wealth, ambition or the love 
 of power, curiosity or the love of knowledge, or 
 philanthropy, the love of one’s kind, the one thing 
 to which the whole heart goes out is that which 
 determines the man; it is the true criterion by 
 which to estimate the nature and value of his 
 character as it goes down to posterity. 
 
 In the life of Mr. George the one great and all 
 pervading characteristic is easy to discover. It was 
 obvious on the very face of it. It kindled in his 
 eye, it glowed in his countenance. It began in his 
 early childhood, it continued to his latest hour. 
 Those who knew him best and loved him most 
 would unhesitatingly declare, that what constituted 
 the real strength and glory of his character was 
 his ardent and unquenchable love of liberty. 
 
 Others learn what liberty is at the college or 
 university; from the philosopher, in the way of 
 
 A 
 
* 
 
 * 
 
 Wm. S. GEORGE. 43 
 
 analysis ancl abstract definition, or from the his- 
 torian, by what it has been in the past ; that is, 
 they know it in the general. His peculiar privilege 
 it was to learn, so to speak, who she was, in her 
 very temple, while ministering before her burning 
 altars, under the lead of some of the choicest 
 spirits of all time; not only to know her, but to 
 love her in his inmost soul. True, he was among 
 the very youngest of these men; he had never 
 enjoyed the same social advantages, nor the same 
 advantages of education; but how little did this 
 matter when they themselves were his teachers, 
 and it was daily his delight to conform to their 
 sublime example. In his life, such was his natural 
 modesty and dislike of praise, he would have well- 
 nigh deemed it sacrilege to have heard his name 
 mentioned in the same category, but now that he 
 has gone, in enrolling him as a pupil of these noble 
 men we but indicate the source from whence he 
 derived his inspiration to battle in the cause of 
 liberty. 
 
 It is impossible to depict the character of Mr. 
 George apart from his noble teachers in the gigan- 
 tic struggle for American freedom. He must be 
 judged by the times in which he lived. He was 
 worthy of his Puritan ancestry. As a soldier in 
 the ranks he engaged in some of the most trying 
 conflicts for freedom. He was thoroughly posted in 
 every event, just as it occurred, which enabled him 
 
 •i* 
 
44 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 fully to comprehend its ultimate consequences. We 
 do not wonder at the character thus developed ; our 
 only w r onder, how it could be otherwise ! Their 
 likenesses not only hung upon his walls, but were 
 cherished in the sky-lighted chamber of a grateful 
 memory to the very last. Think of the names, one 
 after the other, that fall upon your ears as we 
 recount the early period of his life. 
 
 As a young citizen of Boston, within sight of 
 Faneuil Hall with all its sacred memories, within 
 two hours of Plymouth rock, within a single hour 
 of Concord and Lexington, in sight of Bunker Hill 
 and perfectly familiar with all its associations, the 
 genius loci was instinct with liberty; as a dweller 
 in that city at the one supreme time in all its his- 
 tory, when liberty was in her most grievous peril, 
 when “cotton was king” and our “southern mas- 
 ters” made their open boasts that slavery had 
 become national, and they could now “call the roll 
 of their slaves on Bunker Hill;” as the loyal fol- 
 lower of Senator Wilson, the “Natick shoemaker” 
 and the first great “war governor,” Andrew, who 
 magnified his office and gave the true inspiration 
 to Governor Morton and all the rest; as the secret 
 friend and correspondent of William Lloyd Garri- 
 son and his daring “ Liberator ”" when there were 
 no names too infamous for that “incendiary 
 sheet,” and when the correspondent was in as much 
 danger of being dragged through the streets of Bos- 
 
— — — 
 
 Wm. S. GEORGE. 45 
 
 ton by a “respectable and influential” mob as the 
 editor himself; as a sympathetic friend of John 
 Brown of Ossawotomie, and an active abettor in his 
 heroic designs of liberating Kansas and thwarting 
 the bloody conspiracy of the border ruffians of 
 Missouri; as one of the “minute men” or member 
 of the vigilance committee who endeavored to res- 
 cue the fugitive slaves Thomas Sims and Anthony 
 Burns from being taken back to bondage, under 
 “the iniquitous enactment,” which he scorned to 
 recognize as law, and who withstood Marshall 
 Tukey to his face ; as the enthusiastic admirer of 
 the impassioned speeches of Wendell Phillips, and 
 the logical and unanswerable orations of the nearly 
 martyred Sumner; as the constant and delighted 
 reader of the anti-slavery poems of Whittier, and 
 Longfellow, and Low^ell, those “winged w 7 ords” that 
 w 7 ent further even than speeches and editorials ; 
 above all, as the deeply attentive and unfailing 
 hearer of Theodore Parker’s marvelous political 
 sermons in Music Hall, one at least of which was 
 w 7 ritten by this Jupiter of the Pulpit, “ with a 
 pistol on his desk, loaded, w r ith a cap on the nip- 
 ple, ready for action, and with a drawn sw 7 ord 
 within reach of his right hand,” the antecedents 
 and surroundings of Mr. George were singularly 
 fortunate. The atmosphere in which for some years 
 he drew his every breath, was perhaps as highly 
 sur- charged with the oxygen of freedom as in the 
 
46 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 days of those grand old continental patriots, Sam- 
 uel Adams, Otis, and Jonathan Mayhew. Stern and 
 rugged men they were, that came to the front in 
 the Republic’s most dire and heroic age, and our 
 young republic will do well to keep their names 
 and deeds in ever fresh remembrance. Like the 
 old Latins, while they admire the “ alta mosnia,” 
 let them remember also the “ Albani patres ” who 
 built them. They were men of Titan mould in- 
 deed, and to have their friendship as Mr. George 
 did, and be allowed to avail himself of the stores of 
 information contained in such a library as that of 
 Theodore Parker, was in and of itself no little 
 meed of praise. 
 
 But he was not merely known by these teachers. 
 His loyalty to them was an intelligent one, and he 
 was equally identified with their principles as with 
 themselves. In sketching these in the general, we 
 are thus, in the most easy and natural way, delin- 
 eating his own in particular. The time was, and 
 that not very long since, when a variety of causes 
 would not permit such a sketch, or at least it would 
 have been considered quite unwelcome and of very 
 doubtful utility. But such a day as that will never 
 come in the future history of free America. It can 
 only be when her stars and stripes are again at 
 half mast, and her boasted liberty is “ a flaunting 
 lie.” Another and much abler hand than mine 
 should embalm these men in their own principles; 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 47 
 
 but so good an opportunity rarely offers, and duty 
 seems imperative. 
 
 As Morton said of Wilson, so may we say of 
 them all: “Their great strength was in their con- 
 
 victions. They were men of ideas, and relied upon 
 ideas for success. They were men of courage. 
 They dared to follow their convictions wherever they 
 led them.” Yes, they were men of strength, tough 
 and unyielding as the gnarled oak ; no labor dis- 
 couraged them, no contingency appalled them, no 
 disadvantage dismayed them, no defeat disheart- 
 ened them. Like their great leader, Garrison, each 
 of them could say, “ I am in earnest, I will not 
 equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a 
 single inch, and I will be heard.” They were men 
 of ideas, “one-ideaed men,” if you will, but an 
 order of natural prophets who had a message to 
 deliver, and could not do otherwise. Few men 
 more than they believed in the absolute and essen- 
 tial importance of human development ; and if the 
 secret of history is to conjecture the way by which 
 God is leading to the final destiny of man, they 
 were prophets indeed. 
 
 Reckless to no little extent of other creeds, they 
 had, in three words, a creed of their own, “God, 
 duty, immortality.” Honoring free labor as much 
 as they hated slavery, they were not ashamed to 
 say with Wilson, “though I have toiled for wages 
 at manual labor, I never felt galled by any degra- 
 
dation.” Believing that freedom was the great 
 objective point of the revolution of Seventy-six, 
 they proposed under the leadership of John Quincy 
 Adams to set the constitution of the United States 
 four square on the doctrine of human rights as 
 maintained in the declaration of independence, and 
 they did it ! Vindicating in their own persons the 
 right of free speech and free discussion, they not 
 unfrequently, amid showers of missiles, spoke at the 
 hazard of their lives. Claiming for a free press the 
 merit of being everywhere the friend of liberty and 
 the peculiar dread of tyrants, they were ever will- 
 ing, like the martyr Lovejoy, to die for its sake. 
 Nothing is more remarkable than the sublime con- 
 fidence of their faith as to the final issue of this 
 unequal conflict. “One is always a majority with 
 God!” “Better to be in a majority with God, in 
 defense of the right, than live and die like Herod, 
 having the shouts of the multitude ! ” “ The con- 
 
 sequences of a first principle cannot be escaped, 
 and sooner or later it must prevail!” “The people 
 are to be trusted. There is another day after to- 
 day. Have faith! Have faith!” “One man with 
 a belief is a greater power than a thousand that 
 have only interests ! ” “ Nothing is settled until it is 
 
 settled right ! ” These and such-like watch-words 
 flashed like lightning, and their thunder shook the 
 hemisphere as they marshaled their forces for the 
 “irrepressible conflict.” 
 
Wm. s. geokge. 
 
 49 
 
 But the conflict was not merely a single battle. 
 It was a war of many campaigns. At one time it 
 was the sin of slavery, and Garrison led in the appeal 
 to the national conscience. At another it was the 
 repeal of slavery in the District of Columbia, and 
 the protection of Kansas and other territories 
 “ under the constitution and laws of the Federal 
 government,” and Sumner led. Still again it was 
 the “unjust and cowardly” war with Mexico and 
 the fugitive slave law, and Parker was in the van. 
 Omitting others, last of all it was the ever memor- 
 able Virginia campaign of John Brown at Harper’s 
 Ferry, which was the beginning of the end, of the 
 great war for the Union, which terminated in so 
 immense a triumph. Instead of the Crittenden com- 
 promise, slavery abolished in the District of Col- 
 umbia ; instead of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, slavery 
 abolished in the territories ; instead of the slave 
 trade reopened, that same trade suppressed as 
 piracy; instead of the fugitive slave law and the 
 Dred-Scott decision, emancipation proclaimed by 
 President Lincoln and ratified by an amendment to 
 the constitution ! Only those who, like Mr. George, 
 labored through the anti- slavery struggle, the war 
 period, and the years of reconstruction, and were 
 permitted to witness a victory of such magnificent 
 proportions, can understand how great the joy with 
 which these soldiers of liberty hung up their armor 
 in her redeemed temple. These men did not live 
 
50 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 in vain. They knew what the Greeks meant by a 
 word that cannot be rendered into English, how to 
 live the life of a true citizen. Thus did they trans- 
 fuse their lives into that of their country, and trans- 
 mit to posterity the noblest inheritance of liberty 
 ever sent down to the ages. Thus have they taught 
 us that life means work, and left an example of 
 public spirit those who come after them would do 
 well to imitate. 
 
 “Though small thy gift may seem to be 
 Withhold it not; for like the night 
 By countless little stars made bright. 
 
 Thy offering, joined to thousand more 
 May brighten dwellings dark before.” 
 
 There was one respect in which the youth of Mr. 
 George gave him a decided advantage over his 
 eastern associates. He lived long enough to have a 
 western development. In 1860 with Mr. Samuel 
 Bowles as editor-in-chief, he became assistant editor 
 of the Springfield Republican, the model newspaper 
 of its kind in the whole country. The proprietors of 
 the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune having written to 
 Mr. Bowles to send them a thorough, competent 
 editor, Mr. George was sent as such, with an intro- 
 ductory letter from Mr. B., and a very complimen- 
 tary endorsement of his abilities, which his subse- 
 quent career abundantly verified. From this time 
 forward to the day of his death we have the testi- 
 mony of his intimate personal friend, Hon. Y. P. 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 51 
 
 Collier of Battle Creek, and others, as to the 
 increasing value of his labors. As a member of 
 the executive committee, and especially as editor of 
 the Lansing Bepublican, it is their full belief that 
 he did more to consolidate the party to which he 
 was deeply attached, to mould its policy and direct 
 its movements than any other man in the state. 
 The very backbone of this party he considered to 
 be the principles for which he had so long con- 
 tended, and in the triumph of Garfield he believed 
 their triumph to be final and complete. But the 
 remainder of this topic will be considered under 
 another head and by another pen. 
 
§h>gvaphif j^hctch by §ji$ lister. 
 
 The childhood and youth of Mr. George, as so 
 often happens, were quite characteristic of the com- 
 ing man. When only two years old he began to 
 go to the village store on trivial errands, and from 
 that time forward his exactness in this respect was 
 a marvel to all who knew him. At school he was 
 equally remarkable for his punctuality, his truth- 
 fulness, and the excellence of his memory. Even 
 then the thought impressed itself upon his inmost 
 soul that life meant work. His triumph when he 
 came out first and “spelled down” the whole school 
 he enjoyed less as the exultation of ambition than 
 as the reward of industry. 
 
 But study did not make him morose or selfish. 
 He enjoyed his play as much as any of his com- 
 panions. He liked pigeons, rabbits, and all sorts 
 of pets. Nothing pleased him better than to work 
 in the garden, and make up the flower beds with 
 neatness and precision. Whoever else might neg- 
 lect theirs, no weeds ever grew in his bed. This 
 neatness extended to his clothing, books, and every- 
 thing else, and such was his love of order that at 
 any time he could find what he wanted in the dark. 
 
 The unselfishness and devotion of his home life 
 
Wm, S. GEORGE. 
 
 58 
 
 his sisters will ever remember with no ordinary 
 gratitude. In winter when he dragged them on his 
 sled down one long slippery hill and then up an- 
 other, on the summit of which towered the old 
 meeting-house, and hard by the square brown 
 school-house, many were the lessons he would in- 
 culcate as to the duty and pleasure of spending 
 life in rendering service to others. This sense of 
 responsibility for his sisters extended still further, 
 and from year to year all the young folks of our 
 circle, especially the young gentlemen, were reviewed 
 by him to see if they were worthy of confidence, 
 and very kindly was his advice given as to those 
 whose intimacy was not desirable. Such was his 
 love of truth, that his reputation in this respect 
 was equally honorable at home, in school, and 
 among his neighbors. To this love of truth may 
 well be added an innate sense of justice. While 
 he would give good measure when he sold, he was 
 strenuous to exact equally good measure when he 
 bought. In after life this quality became so con- 
 spicuous, that those who did not know him on 
 both sides could scarcely be said to know him at 
 all. His rule was to “ hew to the line.” 
 
 Nor was his companionship less pleasant and 
 profitable to them in the summer than the winter. 
 Such were his habits of close and accurate observa- 
 tion that he always knew where to find the best 
 strawberries and raspberries, nor did the walk seem 
 
54 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 *■ 
 
 * 
 
 long, for lie was sure to beguile the way by his 
 favorite recreation of reciting poetry and telling 
 conundrums. Nor did this sense of responsibility 
 end with his sisters. When his father was absent, 
 working at some long job of housebuilding, he was 
 proud to be called “ the head of the family.” Will* 
 ingly was it accorded to him, for he well deserved 
 the name. 
 
 As he began his education with much promise, 
 so he continued it. His thirst for knowledge and 
 particularly his love of reading were most intense. 
 It was his constant habit to carry a note-book, and 
 every word, phrase, quotation, or reference he did 
 not understand and could not verify, to jot it down, 
 hunt it up, and write the result on the opposite 
 page, a practice he found equally profitable to himself 
 and others. To give an illustration. At Charlestown 
 one evening, in a company consisting of primary, 
 high-school, and grammar school teachers, a prin- 
 cipal of a high-school, a Harvard graduate, a phy- 
 sician, and others, the question arose as to the line : 
 “ Is this that haughty, gailant, gay Lothario,” and in 
 whose works this character appears? One thought 
 she could find out, but none could tell until the 
 question came to Mr. George who declared “ Lotha- 
 rio ” to be one of the dramatis personce, in Rowe’s 
 tragedy of the Fair Penitent. 
 
 Everything in print was of value in his eyes. 
 Even a fragment of newspaper that came around a 
 
 1 11 1 
 
* 
 
 Wm. S. GEORGE. 55 
 
 parcel was eagerly read, and when a part was 
 missing he amused himself and sisters by guessing 
 “ how it came out.” 
 
 At a very early age he became a great lover of 
 libraries, and a special object of interest to the 
 several librarians. At Lancaster, N. H., the libra- 
 rian of the town library said “No subscriber but 
 one, whose family contained eight adults, read as 
 many books as William George.” More than this, 
 “He used them carefully, returned them promptly, 
 and neatly repaired torn leaves and covers.” 01 
 si sic omnes! At Haverhill, N. H., the librarian 
 said “that George used and borrowed more books 
 than any other half-dozen fellows in town,” that 
 “ he did not read books but devoured them.” Best 
 of all, they were of a good kind, and he understood 
 and remembered them, too. Hence among his 
 rural friends he was known as the walking ency- 
 clopedia. One of his greatest privileges in this 
 respect, books, was when he went to Boston, 
 attended the monthly reception at Theodore Par- 
 ker’s house, and was kindly given by him the run 
 of that extensive library that was used by its owner 
 to such marvelous effect against slavery. From 
 this time forward Mr. George’s soul was all on fire 
 with the same ardent love of liberty and the same 
 intense hatred of oppression for which Mr. Parker 
 was so preeminently distinguished. 
 
 On the night of the 3d of April, 1851, Thomas 
 
56 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Sims, a fugitive slave from Georgia, was captured 
 in Richmond street, on the pretext of theft, by the 
 city policemen, serving the deputies of the United 
 States marshal in violation of the law of Massa- 
 chusetts which forbade such employment. Sims 
 resisted with extreme violence, even wounding one 
 of the officers, but he was overpowered, forced into 
 a carriage, and taken to the court-house. * 
 
 When the morning dawned the court-house was 
 found surrounded by a chain, intended to keep off 
 the crowd, but unfortunately suggestive of the 
 thraldom of the community to the slave power, 
 which incident was made the most of by the anti- 
 slavery orators of the times. The judges, even 
 Chief Justice Shaw, the lawyers, and everybody 
 else passed, unwittingly, under this chain. Tukey 
 was city marshal and he had a large squad of men 
 from the police force as guards about the edifice. 
 It was a good deal like a bastile, and excited the 
 animosity of everybody else but the United States 
 officers. 
 
 This was probably the most exciting period of 
 Mr. George’s life. While Sims was confined in the 
 court house, Marshal Tukey was drilling his awk- 
 ward squad of police and militia. Mr. George 
 stood on Court street, right in front of them, and 
 laughed in his own peculiar hearty, ringing man- 
 ner, both at the marshal and his raw and undisci- 
 plined soldiers. A crowd soon collected, and at 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 57 
 
 regular intervals, as Mr. George’s daring and derisive 
 laugh rose on the air, the spectators joined in 
 most heartily. 
 
 The marshal and his crowd of “ man hunters ” 
 growing all the while more and more indignant, 
 Tukey at last ordered Mr. George to stop laughing 
 and to stop at once. But the order was disobeyed, 
 and again the laugh rose louder than ever. Pro- 
 voked beyond measure, Tukey blustered across the 
 street exclaiming, “If you don’t stop, young man, I’ll 
 have you arrested instantly.” “Very well,” calmly 
 replied Mr. George, “then there will be another 
 new T sensation in Boston, where a man is arrested 
 for laughing on the street. ” The indignant marshal 
 conducted his retreat as skillfully as the situation 
 permitted, hut the laugher was not arrested. So 
 great, however, was his excitement, that he had 
 well-nigh lost the power to eat or sleep. It seemed 
 as if he could not spare time to look after his own 
 body when that of his fellow man was in such im- 
 minent danger. Careful of his employer’s interest 
 and doing, as usual, all that he was responsible 
 for, he would leave home very early in the morn- 
 ing, take with him a light lunch that he called 
 dinner, eat it as hastily as possible, and give the 
 remainder of his time “ to the good cause.” But 
 all his efforts, as well as those of such men as 
 Theodore Parker, Dr. Howe, Palfrey, Horace Mann,- 
 Samuel Hoar, John Pierpont, William H. Channing, 
 
 
58 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Henry Wilson, Anson Burlingame, Elizur Wright, 
 and others, which he so zealously seconded, were 
 in vain. At five o’clock in the morning, eight days 
 after his capture, Sims was taken from his prison- 
 room in the court-house, marched, under the direc- 
 tion of Marshal Tukey, in a hollow square, of 
 policemen and hired ruffians, over the ground 
 where Attucks was killed, to Long wharf, shipped 
 on board the brig Acorn, and consigned again to 
 slavery. No wonder that the bells tolled in so 
 many spires of Massachusetts that day as a mark 
 of sorrow and a token of their sense of outrage. 
 
 Sims went to Georgia, soon to return north free 
 by purchase ; but the flood-tide of that excitement 
 rendered it possible for Charles Sumner to be lifted 
 into the United States Senate ! 
 
 With the arrest of Anthony Burns in 1854, an- 
 other crisis occurred, and the vigilance committee, 
 one of whom was Mr. George, determined on his 
 rescue. A number of axes had been purchased and 
 hid in the immediate vicinity, but the axes being 
 insufficient, a heavy piece of joist was employed as 
 a battering ram. A few of the rescuers gained an 
 entrance, but were speedily overwhelmed by the 
 superior force within, and the rescue failed. The 
 Friday on which the order of rendition was carried 
 out w r as a day never to be forgotten by Mr. George 
 or any other lover of freedom. Many of the stores 
 were closed, others were draped in black, bells 
 
 1 . - ► 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 59 
 
 tolled as before, the mass of the people felt as 
 though they were undergoing a personal humiliation. 
 On the march the entire line of military and police 
 had to pass under a suspended black coffin, on 
 which was inscribed the word “Liberty,” while all 
 down State street the excited populace cried “shame ! 
 shame ! ” 
 
 Burns was carried to Norfolk, Virginia, in the 
 revenue cutter Morris, but soon returned to Boston 
 free. Theodore Parker was indicted for resistance 
 to the officers executing the fugitive slave law, but 
 the indictment was wisely quashed on a technicality, 
 and his invectives against slavery were more tre- 
 mendous than ever. 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 What Whittier wrote on the death of Garrison 
 is, in its measure, equally true of all his followers, 
 that they 
 
 “ Confirm the lesson taught of old, 
 
 ‘ Life saved for self is lost,’ while they 
 Who live it in his service hold 
 The lease of God’s eternal day.” 
 
 C. M. Poor. 
 
 Charlestown, Mass., Feb. 2, 1882. 
 
fttfbuto from the 
 
 The press of the country published many columns 
 of tributes to the memory of Mr. George, from which 
 the following are but brief extracts : 
 
 From the Iosco Gazette. 
 
 He was one of the ablest journalists in the State.. 
 
 From the Grand Rapids Democrat. 
 
 He was one of the best newspaper men in the west. 
 
 From the Manistee Times and Standard. 
 
 He was one of the oldest and best known editors of the 
 State. 
 
 From the Fort Gratiot Sun. 
 
 He was a man highly esteemed, whose void will be hard 
 to fill. 
 
 From the Sanilac Jeffersonian. 
 
 With him goes out one of the brightest lights of Michigan 
 journalism. 
 
 From the Cedar Springs Clipper. 
 
 Mr. George has stood for years at the head of the news- 
 paper fraternity in this State. 
 
 From the Big Rapids Pioneer Magnet. 
 
 In his death the journalistic profession of Michigan loses 
 one of its ablest and brightest members. 
 
 From the Manchester Enterprise. 
 
 The press loses a strong contemporary, the city a kind bene- 
 factor, and his family a loving genial protector. 
 
* — — — ■ 
 
 Wm. S. GEORGE. 61 
 
 From the Ann Arbor Register. 
 
 The death of W. S. George of Lansing removes one of 
 Michigan’s best known and most successful journalists. 
 
 From the Marshall Expounder. 
 
 Mr. George occupied a prominent position in the newspaper 
 world, and his sudden death will be universally regretted. 
 
 From the Lapeer Clarion. 
 
 He was an able man in every respect, and probably had no 
 superior as a political statistician. He acted well his part. 
 
 From the Pentwater News. 
 
 He who comes after him in the field thus left open must 
 needs be an active business man and a sagacious journalist. 
 
 From the Ovid Register. 
 
 W. S. George, editor of the Lansing Republican, is dead. 
 Industry, energy, and ability were prominent in his make-up. 
 
 From the Fremont Indicator. 
 
 Cut off in the prime of manhood, W. S. George will always 
 be remembered as one of the ablest newspaper writers of his 
 day. 
 
 From the Travei-se Bay Eagle. 
 
 He was a man of high purpose, just and true in all his ways. 
 The newspaper fraternity of Michigan will deeply regret his 
 loss. :* 
 
 From the Ludington Record. 
 
 He was a just and honorable man, an indefatigable worker, 
 and a successful journalist. We regret his taking off exceed- 
 ingly. 
 
 From the Saginaw News. 
 
 The Lansing Republican comes to hand to-day dressed in 
 turned -rule mourning for the late editor, W. S. George. 
 The other State press do not mourn so conspicuously, but 
 every newspaper man recognizes the loss of a journalistic 
 leader in the death of the editor of the Republican. 
 
 * 
 
62 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 From tlie Grand Ledge Independent. 
 
 In the death of Mr. George Lansing loses a good, enter- 
 prising citizen, and the republican party one of its ablest cham- 
 pions. 
 
 From the Chicago Times. 
 
 He was public spirited, and gave munificently to all char- 
 itable purposes and needy poor. He was never appealed to 
 in vain. 
 
 From the Three Rivers Reporter. 
 
 He was one of the best newspaper men in the west. His 
 age was 56, and he was worn out with incessant devotion to 
 business. 
 
 From the Tuscola Pioneer. 
 
 Thus has fallen one of Michigan’s leading journalists and 
 active politicians. Few men have spent a more active or 
 useful life. 
 
 From the Evart Review. 
 
 No man perhaps was more widely known, or more highly 
 esteemed by the press throughout the State, and none will be 
 more deeply lamented. 
 
 From the Hillsdale Business. 
 
 He was an able journalist, and thoroughly informed on 
 State politics. His death will leave a void in the ranks of 
 republican politicians of Michigan. 
 
 From the Huron Times. 
 
 The Lansing Republican comes to us in the deepest mourn- 
 ing for its editor and proprietor, W. S. George, one of the 
 brightest lights in Michigan journalism. 
 
 From the Centreville Republican. 
 
 This is one of the greatest losses from among the press 
 that Michigan could have sustained. Mr. George was recog- 
 nized as one of the most vigorous writers in the northwest. 
 He was an indomitable worker in any capacity which he 
 undertook, and was highly respected by all who were 
 acquainted with him for his many noble qualities. 
 
Wm. s. geoege. 
 
 68 
 
 From the Grand Traverse Herald. 
 
 Mr. George also held responsible positions in public life 
 and society, and his conduct was always characterized by 
 the staunchest integrity and uprightness. 
 
 From the Benton Harbor Times and Palladium. 
 
 His brain was never idle and his activity knew no bounds, 
 but at last the over-worked frame succumbed and he has 
 departed, leaving a host to mourn his loss. 
 
 From the Constantine Mercury. 
 
 He was an able writer and active, earnest republican who 
 for years has held a leading position in the councils of the 
 party, and will be sadly missed and mourned. 
 
 From the Leslie Local. 
 
 He was an example of what courageous, hard-working, self- 
 reliant men may become in this country, and he will be sadly 
 missed from the ranks of Michigan journalism. 
 
 From the Deaf-Mute Mirror. 
 
 We have heard so much of Mr. George and have read so 
 many of his editorials that it seems to us as though we had 
 lost a personal friend, although we never saw him. 
 
 From the Mason News 
 
 He was a methodical, honorable business man, and amassed 
 a handsome competence. His private benefactions were many. 
 He will be greatly missed in Lansing, Ingham county, and 
 the State. 
 
 From the Northwestern Tribune. 
 
 Thus is added another to the list of Michigan’s fallen heroes 
 Within a comparatively short time death has garnered a trio 
 of the best statesmen and stalwart republicans, namely: 
 Chandler, Bagley, and George. “Three immortal names, not 
 born to die.” It is doubtful if a man can be found in Michi- 
 gan who can fill the place made vacant by the death of Mr. 
 George, or wear his mantle with equal honor. 
 
 * 
 
64 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 From the Schoolcraft County Pioneer. 
 
 Mr. George was one of the leading men of the State, a 
 sound politician, and an honest man. His loss will be deeply 
 felt in all the branches of society and business circles where 
 he mingled. 
 
 From the Cliesaning Argus. 
 
 Since the birth of the republican party he has ever been a 
 staunch supporter of its cause. He was ranked among Mich- 
 igan’s best journalists, and the press of the State sustains a 
 loss hard to fill. 
 
 From the Negaunee Herald. 
 
 The deceased was a ready writer, a veteran journalist, and 
 used his talent in the course of truth and justice. He will 
 be missed by the fraternity, as well as in social life and in 
 the domestic circle. 
 
 From the Northern Tribune. 
 
 His death will be deeply regretted throughout the State and 
 especially among the newspaper fraternity, with which he had 
 been connected the greater part of his life and had reached 
 the top round of the ladder. 
 
 From the Cassopolis Democrat. 
 
 We had the pleasure of a brief personal acquaintance with 
 the deceased, and always found him a singularly sincere, 
 unpretentious man, hating shams, a thorough practical printer, 
 and an indefatigable worker. 
 
 From the Harbor Springs Republican. 
 
 In his death the republican party loses a faithful soldier, 
 the fraternity a zealous and enterprising craftsman, the North- 
 western Press Association a leading active member, and the 
 temperance cause a true friend. 
 
 From the Lake City Journal. 
 
 In the death of W. S. George the journalistic fraternity of 
 Michigan, and especially the Northwest Michigan Press Asso- 
 ciation of which he was an honorary member, loses one of its 
 most brilliant and brightest stars. 
 
Wm. s. geokge. 
 
 65 
 
 From the Grand Rapids Leader. 
 
 He was a very strong partisan but not a bitter hater of his 
 opponents personally. The death of Mr. George is a loss to 
 the commonwealth, for he was a man of great energy, busi- 
 ness capacity, and journalistic talent. 
 
 From the Oakland County Advertiser. 
 
 He was one of the most accomplished journalists in the 
 State, and his paper has always been a model of typography. 
 He was also a man of rare business capabilities, and one 
 whose integrity was never questioned. 
 
 From the Agricultural College Speculum. 
 
 The College lost a warm friend in the death of W. S. George, 
 editor of the Lansing Kepublican. He was often present at 
 College exercises, and twice he lectured before the students. 
 All had learned to admire and respect him. 
 
 From the Montcalm Herald. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Wm. S. George was one of 
 the most active brain workers in Michigan, engaged in the 
 editorial work, and to this cause alone must be attributed his 
 premature prostration and death at the age of 56. 
 
 From the Eaton Rapids Journal. 
 
 He was a gentleman in every respect, a public-spirited 
 citizen, and an honor to his profession, and will be sadly 
 missed by many in whose memory his influence as a man of 
 rare ability and sterling integrity will long remain. 
 
 From the Boston Transcript. 
 
 In the death of Mr. George the State of Michigan has lost 
 one of its best journalists; the city of Lansing one of its 
 most public spirited and benevolent citizens. Throughout his 
 whole life he bore a high character as a man of honor, purity, 
 and business integrity. He was a steadfast friend, strong in 
 convictions of duty, zealous in the cause of the wronged and 
 oppressed, and an open and aggressive opponent of every 
 form of evil in society. 
 
66 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 From the Battle Creek Tribune. 
 
 He was an earnest, uncompromising republican, and wielded 
 large influence in his party in this State, which will certainly 
 miss his counsels. The press of Michigan owe him much for 
 continued efforts to elevate the standard of its journalism. 
 
 From the Ypsilanti Commercial. 
 
 He was one of the leaders of our republican Israel, a man 
 of great energy, industry, and foresight, honorable and incor- 
 ruptible. We are reminded that we are passing on, and the 
 work that is before us to do, we must do with all our might. 
 
 From the Three Rivers Tribune. 
 
 In 1869 he was selected to take charge of the State print- 
 ing and has for 12 years conducted it with singular ability 
 and integrity. Though never in office, his influence as a jour- 
 nalist as well as on journalism has been very great and very 
 salutary. 
 
 From the Tuscola Advertiser. 
 
 He was born in Vermont in 1835, and from poverty and 
 obscurity worked his way to deserved eminence in the coun- 
 cils of his State. His death, while yet in the flower of man- 
 hood, is a loss to our commonwealth which cannot be easily 
 replaced. 
 
 From the Jackson Star. 
 
 Mr. George was a journalist of rare ability, and a chari- 
 table, benevolent, enterprising citizen. His loss to Lansing 
 and the entire state will be great, and will be felt especially 
 by the newspaperdom of the country, for he was a shining 
 light in its circle. 
 
 From the Detroit Free Pi'ess. 
 
 The late William S. George was one of the Michigan 
 veterans in journalism. He had been identified with news- 
 papers for upwards of forty of the fifty-six years of his life. 
 During the past nineteen years he lived in Michigan. He was 
 a man of extraordinary energy and had great executive ability. 
 His death at fifty-six is no doubt largely attributable to his 
 close and unremitting attention to business. 
 
Wm. s. geoege. 
 
 67 
 
 From the Cadillac News. 
 
 His absence from the counsels of the republican party in 
 Michigan and from the ranks of the editorial profession will 
 be felt. His life of 56 years was one of great activity, indus- 
 try, usefulness, and success. All honor to the memory of 
 William S. Geoege. 
 
 From the Bangor Advance. 
 
 Educators of the State feel as if they had lost a man whose 
 voice and pen had often been effectually employed to pro- 
 mote the welfare of our public schools. For this reason the 
 State Teachers’ Association passed a memorial resolution in 
 honor of the deceased. 
 
 From the Ann Arbor Argus. 
 
 Whatever were Mr. Geokge’s convictions, he permitted no 
 half-way expressions. He was a stalwart and struck stalwart 
 blows upon his opponents. His was probably the best exam- 
 ple in Michigan of a poor, unaided boy working himself up 
 to the head of the profession. 
 
 From the Ann Arbor Democrat. 
 
 In the death of W. S. Geoege the Michigan press loses 
 an esteemed and valuable member, an honor to the profession, 
 and one whose like it will be hard to find. He left the Lan- 
 sing Eepublican one of the best papers in the State, or even 
 in the northwest. Peace to his ashes. 
 
 From the Big Rapids Current. 
 
 But an exceedingly busy life had literally worn him out. 
 He did not rust out, nor was his life a failure. He proved 
 by a worthy example that a boy may rise to a noble and 
 successful manhood by his own unaided exertions. Ho was a 
 tower of strength to the press of the State, and an almost 
 indispensable counselor in the republican party in which he 
 was a leader. From a personal and intimate acquaintance 
 with him for years we had learned to esteem him highly and 
 we feel deep sorrow at his death. His place in the State and 
 at the editorial table will be hard to fill. 
 
68 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 From tlie Marshall Statesman. 
 
 Thus has the press of Michigan lost one of its most honored, 
 worthy, and capable members; the State a thorough business 
 man, who had few equals: the city in which he lived a genial, 
 whole-souled member of its society; and his family a kind, 
 considerate, and generous companion and father. 
 
 From the Grand Rapids Eagle. 
 
 As an editor he is most widely known in and out of the 
 State. His paper, under his management, has been a model 
 in make-up, in condensation, and in force and influence among 
 the best and staunchest republican journals. Everywhere he 
 fulfilled the requirements of his position with the strictest 
 integrity. 
 
 From the Monroe Commercial. 
 
 During his whole life he was a hard worker and won for 
 himself a high rank among the journalists of this country. 
 He took great interest in the cause of education and gave 
 munificently for all charitable purposes. In his death the 
 state loses a prominent and useful citizen, and the republi- 
 can party a valuable leader. 
 
 From the St. Johns Republican. 
 
 He was well known in political circles, where he wielded a 
 marked influence, and though he was a man of remarkable 
 force of character, he was too unyielding and aggressive to 
 reap for himself the highest rewards from the party for whose 
 success he was a most zealous and able worker. He was one 
 of the best informed politicians in Michigan. 
 
 From the Battle Creek Journal. 
 
 Mr. George has long held a high rank among the journal- 
 ists of our State, and also in the republican party, of whose 
 principles he was an earnest, able, and influential champion. 
 He was a man of peculiarly strong convictions, great inde- 
 pendence of character, and a remarkably forcible writer. In 
 Michigan politics, and also in national, he has exerted a wide 
 and commanding influence, and his death will awaken very 
 general regret from men of all parties. 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 09 
 
 From the Cassopolis Vigilant. 
 
 He was a prominent figure in Michigan politics and pro- 
 gress, will be widely missed and generally mourned. A self- 
 made man, his life had been spent in printing offices and his 
 best energies had always been exercised for the right. He 
 died of the American disease — over- work. All who ever 
 knew him respected him, and those who knew him best loved 
 him. 
 
 From the Owosso Times. 
 
 Mr. Oeoege had been connected with the press of Michi- 
 gan for nearly a quarter of a century, and was one of the 
 ablest journalists in the country, as well as one of the most 
 sagacious and reliable party leaders. His death, caused by 
 over-work, makes a vacancy hard to fill in the ranks of the 
 journalists of the country and the republican leaders of the 
 State. 
 
 From the Vicksburg Monitor. 
 
 No one who ever met Mr. George will forget the kindly 
 greeting he gave to members of the craft, whether they were 
 connected with city dailies or cross-road foolscap sheets. In 
 his death the State press loses one of its most honored and 
 valued members; one, the memory of whose kindness will 
 remain a sweet recollection in the hearts of the whole fra- 
 ternity. 
 
 From the Detroit Post and Tribune. 
 
 He was a shrewd and successful business man, methodical 
 in his manner, careful in management and quick to see and 
 take advantage of opportunity. He was, from the first, active 
 in republican politics, a frequent delegate to conventions, an 
 efficient member of State and county committees, and a pru- 
 dent adviser. Notwithstanding the pressure brought upon him 
 by an active business and political life, Mr. George found 
 time for a large amount of miscellaneous reading, and was a 
 thoughtful and entertaining companion in general society. He 
 had quite a taste for historical and antiquarian research, and 
 had gathered one of the best collections, yet made, of books 
 and pamphlets relating to the history of Michigan and the 
 northwest. A sketch of the leading events of his life is given 
 in another part of this paper. 
 
70 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 From the Sturgis Journal. 
 
 An exceedingly busy life had literally worn him out. He 
 did not rust out, nor was his life a failure. He proved by a 
 worthy example that a boy may rise to a noble and success- 
 ful manhood by his own unaided exertions. He was a tower 
 of strength to the press of the state, and an almost indis- 
 pensable counselor in the republican party, in which he was 
 a leader. 
 
 From the Ionia Standard. 
 
 He made the Republican the handsomest and ablest repub- 
 lican newspaper published in the State. He was a clear, 
 incisive writer, and his editorials fairly bristled with pungent 
 points, pertinent facts, and luminous argument. The writer 
 met him only once, but he will always cherish the kind words 
 of advice the old warhorse gave him in a brief conversation 
 about journalism. 
 
 From the Northern Mail. 
 
 He was a practical printer, and a man of keen, practical 
 business views. He was a man of the true Puritan Yankee 
 type, and worked up from the lowest round of the ladder by 
 a fearless self-reliance which few possess. His example has 
 helped materially to improve the tone and business methods 
 of Michigan journalism. His death will be mourned by the 
 entire fraternity throughout the State. 
 
 From the Saginawian. 
 
 Mr. George was a practical printer who had raised him- 
 self up from the lowest round of the ladder; a gentleman 
 well informed upon all practical subjects; a radical to an un- 
 reasonable extent in politics, but outspoken often times against 
 the practices of his own party. He carried none of the bit- 
 terness of his political opinions into his personal relations 
 with the brethren of the press, but was among the fraternity 
 one of its best-respected, courteous, and considerate mem- 
 bers. He was a strong, often times acrimonious, writer; a 
 square man and a superb printer and journalist; in his death 
 the State, the fraternity, and especially his many friends have 
 met with a loss that is irreparable. 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE 
 
 71 
 
 Fi-orn the Farwell Register. 
 
 Mr. George led a good and useful life, and has helped 
 many a young man to rise in life. He will be missed in this 
 State. Religiously, Mr. George was a consistent liberalist, 
 or free thinker, and was much opposed to all manner of priest- 
 craft and superstition, and was a strong temperance man and 
 in favor of all moral reforms. As a brain worker there were 
 but few greater in this country. By his death the writer loses 
 one of his best friends. 
 
 Fi’om the Ontonagon Miner. 
 
 He began life a poor boy, was a self-made man in as literal 
 a sense as that term can be applied to any man, and died 
 not unknown to fame and leaving a handsome estate. He 
 was a man of liberal views, and great benevolence. “He 
 believed in the doctrine that the one sole sacred thing be- 
 neath the cope of heaven is man, and he was ever ready to 
 defend the rights of the worthy down-trodden.” A force for 
 good, both in journalism and politics, has departed with Wm. 
 ,S. George. 
 
 From the Cold water Republican. 
 
 He belonged to that class of respectable journalists whose 
 aim was always something better and higher. It was his 
 controlling mind that was always seen throughout the columns 
 of his paper. He gathered about him hard-working, faithful 
 men, whom he educated into his methods, as far as he could, 
 and then trusted them. Mr. George was possessed of much 
 nervous vigor which always grasped facts, the influential 
 journalist’s strongest fort, and made them count in support 
 of ideas. He had a tenacious memory for such facts, and his 
 library in the office was composed of such works as furnished 
 these facts. He had the true student’s idea in using books. 
 They were not so much lumber to be worked over once and 
 then thrown aside. They were rather the carpenter’s tools, 
 each tool to be used in its proper place and then put back 
 until again wanted. No man ever took more pride in his 
 work than did Mr. George. He always desired to excel. 
 He, tried, in all his work of improvement, to impress himself 
 upon the journalism of Michigan. 
 
 * 
 
72 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 From the Clinton and Shiawassee Union. 
 
 He was a man of acknowledged ability in the newspaper 
 field., and had, by and through his own exertions, from poverty 
 and hardships in early life, accumulated a handsome fortune. 
 Mr. George -vfas a terse, logical writer; firm and steadfast in all 
 principles pertaining to the right, as he saw and understood 
 them, and a foe in opposition to all that w r as oppressive or 
 wrong, and not humane or just. Peace to his ashes; his life 
 was a success, his death will be regretted by many who 
 knew him but to admire. 
 
 From the Grand Haven Sentinel. 
 
 Mr. George was 56 years old, and had, from his earliest 
 manhood, been the uncompromising foe of all that was wrong, 
 and the staunch friend of the right. He has been connected 
 with the Springfield Republican, Detroit Tribune, and the 
 Lansing Republican, all papers w 7 hich fought the battles of 
 freedom with a power that made their names known as far 
 and wide as the boundaries of the country. Personally Mr. 
 George was a pleasant gentleman, ever guided by the t 
 highest sense of honor, a devoted husband, affectionate father, 
 and dutiful son. His labors for the republican party will 
 make him honored and remembered long. 
 
 From the Battle Creek Good Health. 
 
 Mr. George has for many years exerted a very wide influ- 
 ence in political affairs, though seldom in office himself, and 
 never in the position of an office-seeker. Through his ardu- 
 ous labors he became broken down prematurety, and last fall 
 made arrangements to withdraw for a time from active labor. 
 He was a man whose faithfulness to his friends attached him 
 to them most closely, while he was a terror t:> his enemies 
 on account of the caustic sarcasm of his trenchant criticisms. 
 During the few years we have enjoyed his personal acquain- 
 tance, we have come to regard him more and more highly 
 as a man of unimpeachable integrity, an earnest advocate of 
 temperance, sobriety, and all good reforms, and a promoter 
 of the general good. Such men are scarce. Each one who 
 falls leaves a vacuum behind which cannot easily be filled. 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 73 
 
 From the Port Huron Times. 
 
 The Republican is Mr. Geokge's monument, built in his 
 lifetime; &nd although we cannot commend to the living gen- 
 eration of newspaper workers the same sacrifice that he made 
 for the sake of such a monument, w r e cannot but admire it 
 and respect the man whose life’s work has been so suddenly- 
 cut short. He was the most thorough and industrious news- 
 paper man Michigan has ever known. His death will be 
 universally mourned among the newspaper fraternity, as well 
 as among a host of friends and admirers outside of his par- 
 ticular calling. 
 
 From the Allegan Journal. 
 
 He had a thorough comprehension of the mission and power 
 of the press and a wonderful faculty for the condensation of 
 news, and could throw more ideas in a briefer space than any 
 man we ever knew. He could write a lengthy article with 
 equal facility. The Lansing Republican under his editorship 
 has been the model state paper of Michigan. Scarcely any 
 occurence of moment, local, state, national, or foreign but 
 what had a brief mention in the Republican. He always 
 punctured humbuggery, rebuked hypocrisy, and had a good 
 word to say for every really benevolent cause. He was a 
 practical temperance man while no prohibitionist, always fair 
 in political discussions, giving the points of his opponents be- 
 fore confuting them. Like Greeley he was a close reasoner 
 and wasted no space in summing up his arguments. 
 
 We have known Michigan’s great and lamented journalist 
 for nearly twenty years, and can say of him that a more up- 
 right and honorable man never lived; he was a true friend 
 and zealous worker, genial and kind hearted. He was quiet 
 and reticent in his disposition and made but few confidants. 
 Although a politician from his boyhood he w r as never an aspi- 
 rant for office. He was, however, a great political organizer, 
 having, during his residence in Michigan, served as a mem- 
 ber of the republican state central committee as well ds 
 chairman of the Ingham county committee. He was likewise 
 a delegate to the republican national convention of 1876. 
 
 In his death we lose a sincere and w r arm friend, and his 
 immediate relatives have our sincere sympathy in the great 
 loss that has befallen them. 
 
74 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 From the Alcona Review. 
 
 Mr. George was one of those journalistic lights which 
 shone brightly, and we may truthfully say was a model in 
 his profession. He was a self-made man in every sense 
 which the word implies, and one of the hardest working 
 newspaper men, as well also as one of the pleasantest, which 
 we ever came in contact with. The greatest success of his 
 life was the successful management of his own business, 
 which many thought to be almost perfection. But the good 
 man has been gathered to his final rest. 
 
 From the St. Louis Leader. 
 
 He was an honorable, conscientious, prompt man in all his 
 dealings with individuals or the State, and his place in the 
 political and newspaper ranks of this State will be hard to 
 fill. Many a young man in Michigan who has received from 
 him advice, encouragement, and kind words (and he was 
 never too busy to give those to any who deserved them), 
 will long cherish with pleasure the aid thus rendered him. 
 In official and business relations we have been so closely 
 connected with him for the past eight years, that we feel the 
 loss as we would that of a long- cherished and warm personal 
 friend and relative. His has been a busy, useful life, and 
 “he sleeps well.” 
 
 From the Pontiac Gazette. 
 
 His was a fine-brained, nervous organization, which he kept 
 at its utmost tension all his life, and about four months since 
 the flues of life collapsed and he was taken to Old Point Com- 
 fort in hopes of recuperating his worn-out energies, and 
 returned a few weeks since apparently rested. On Tuesday 
 he was taken with a chill and died in a few hours. He was 
 one of the hardest of hard workers from boyhood, both men- 
 tally and physically. In all his private life he was a hard- 
 working, pure man, and took great pride in the profession 
 which he adorned, and to which he gave his life. He leaves 
 a vacancy in the ranks of the editorial profession of Michigan 
 which few men can fill. 
 
Wm. s. geoege. 
 
 75 
 
 From the Kalamazoo Telegraph. 
 
 The death of W. S. George removes from the ranks of 
 Michigan journalism a man who has done a great deal to 
 develop its character and impress it with an individuality. 
 He was a man who had to contend with severely adverse 
 circumstances in early life. From this he acquired a disci- 
 pline in overcoming difficulties that constituted a most valua- 
 ble education. His career was one of remarkable success. 
 It was a triumph of industry, a good example of what every 
 young workingman may hope to attain if he is willing to 
 sacrifice his good times of the present to that diligent pursuit 
 of his business which creates eminent success in the future. 
 Mr. George had attained a handsome property and a per- 
 sonal influence that made him one of the prominent citizens 
 of his State. He was a man of unyielding conviction and 
 great devotion to the duties of his business and of the public 
 service. Under his management the State printing was of a 
 quality that had almost no equals in Avork of the same class 
 in other States. His loss will be widely felt. 
 
 From the Press and Type. 
 
 It is with sorrow that we have to record the death of our 
 old friend and customer, W. S. George, of Lansing, Mich. 
 He was a man of sterling integrity and remarkable purity of 
 life. All his business transactions were honorable in the high- 
 est degree, and he left the record of a man, honored, suc- 
 cessful, and free from any stain or taint on his character. He 
 started in life at the case, and by close attention to business, and 
 a determination to rise, he soon occupied a responsible editorial 
 position with the late Samuel Bowles, at Springfield, Mass. 
 Coming west, he first settled in Detroit, and afterwards at 
 Lansing, where he established the finest printing office in Cen- 
 tral Michigan. His paper, the Lansing Eepublican, has been 
 a power in the politics of the State and nation. He was State 
 printer at the time and for a number of years previous to his 
 death. He was also president of the Central savings bank, 
 and was connected with a number of institutions, business 
 and charitable. His death was a great loss to the community 
 in which he lived, and to the profession of which he was such 
 an honored member— journalism. 
 
tributes of § mate Jdcn^Iwjr. 
 
 TELEGRAMS. 
 
 Grand Rapids, Dec. 28, 1881. 
 Both public and private loss. Convey to Mrs. George and 
 family my sympathy. 
 
 MOREAU S. CROSBY. 
 
 Lieutenant Governor. 
 
 Battle Creek, Dec. 27, 1881. 
 
 N. F. Handy, Esq.: — I am in deep sorrow at the death of 
 my friend. Present sympathy and condolence to the bereaved 
 family. Y. P. COLLIER. 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 Grand Rapids, Dec. 28, 1881. 
 
 Mrs. George: 
 
 Madam, — I have already telegraphed my sympathy for you 
 and yours in this hour of deep affliction, and desire to further 
 express it in this brief note. For many years I have known 
 your husband, and but to think more and more of him with 
 each passing one. And I speak of him now, not merely from 
 a political but, I trust, a general friendship that has grown 
 up between us. In the busy life he led I have watched a 
 manly generous purpose, and with yourself, family, and friends, 
 desire to be considered one of the mourners at his side. 
 
 With much esteem I am now 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 MOREAU S. CROSBY. 
 
 “God’s finger touched him and he slept.” 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 77 
 
 Lansing, Jan. 2, 1882. 
 
 My Dear Mrs. George: — It is not necessary for me to 
 assure you that you have my heartfelt sympathy at this, 
 your time of great affliction, for you know that the casket 
 which contains the remains of your dear husband holds also 
 the ashes of him who was one of the truest, best, and most 
 unselfish friends I ever had. 
 
 As his legal adviser for several years before his death, my 
 business relations with him were such, that we were together 
 more or less almost every day, except when one or the other 
 was absent from home. 
 
 His sense of justice and his love of liberty were leading 
 traits of his character. Scrupulously honest in business, he 
 won the esteem of all who dealt with him. He was generous 
 towards those whom he employed, and many excellent citizens 
 of Lansing date the beginning of their business success to 
 his encouragement and substantial aid. Many are the happy 
 homes whose foundations were laid by his assistance and 
 whose fires have been kept burning brightly by the generous 
 wages paid by him for the labor of their owners. 
 
 Others will speak of his greatness as an editor, his hatred 
 of oppression and wrong, his fearless defense of his country 
 in times of danger, his political sagacity, and his champion- 
 ship of every good cause. These things are known and rec- 
 ognized by all who knew him. In all of these things he was 
 preeminent, and his influence for good was bounded by no 
 state lines, nor will it be limited to the age in which he 
 lived, for he has left indelible 
 
 “ Footprints on the sands of time.” 
 
 I wish to speak of him only as a friend, a philanthropist, 
 and a man, for “He was a man take him all in all.” 
 
 He was my friend, and I shall ever be proud that he was 
 such. I never expect to find another in whom, under all cir- 
 cumstances and at all times, I can more fully trust. 
 
 His sound judgment, his generous impulses, and his warm 
 and disinterested nature made him more valuable as a friend 
 than most men can be. 
 
 Especially was he a friend of the poor and oppressed. He 
 was always ready and willing to give of his substance to aid 
 any who were in affliction and to contribute liberally to any 
 
78 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 object which he considered worthy and calculated to benefit 
 the “common people.” 
 
 He had a kind word for all who in any walk of life were 
 trying to make an honorable name and attain an honorable 
 position in society, and many a poor boy felt as well as knew 
 his kindness of heart. 
 
 Politicians often criticised his acts, for in his political con- 
 tests he was a foeman worthy the best steel of his opponents, 
 but even those who differed from him most gave him credit 
 for being honest in his convictions. 
 
 His integrity was seldom questioned even by those who 
 opposed him most. 
 
 The greatest in the State respected him for they knew his 
 merits and had felt his power. The worthy poor loved him for 
 they knew that in him they had a friend in whom they could 
 trust. 
 
 At his funeral the highest officers of State and the humblest 
 laborers in the city mingled their tears for they felt that all 
 good citizens had sustained a common loss. 
 
 Immediately after his death many incidents occurred show- 
 ing how the people loved him. Little tokens of their love 
 were contributed in various ways while the preparations for 
 the funeral were being made. 
 
 While at the family residence the day before the funeral, a 
 poor but very worthy laboring man called me to the door 
 and said: “I have called to pay my respects. Mr. George 
 was a good man; he always spoke to me,” and then in the 
 gentlest manner possible asked to see the remains. They 
 were shown him, and while tears were coursing down his 
 cheeks he uttered a choked “thank you,” and walked away. 
 
 An old colored man who had once been a slave, called and 
 said: “We colored people remember how much Mr. George 
 did for us,” and added that they had been having a “little 
 meeting” and had concluded to attend his funeral as they 
 wanted to show their appreciation of his character and services. 
 Before he left he called me to one side and asked: “Would 
 it be thought improper if I should wear some little badge of 
 mourning when I attend the funeral? I am a mourner and 
 ■would like to do so.” When informed that he might do so 
 if he wished, tears filled his eyes and as he left me I thought 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 79 
 
 that such tributes offered by loving hearts were of more value 
 than monuments, and statues, and kingly titles. 
 
 One of the early and active laborers in the anti-slavery 
 cause, his voice never faltered nor his pen never failed to do 
 its office until the shackles fell from the limbs of the last 
 slave in his native land. 
 
 He was equally earnest, active, and efficient in the cause 
 of temperance, and made his efforts felt on the side of sobriety 
 and good citizenship. 
 
 He was too great to be a bigot in religion or a fanatic in 
 politics. He entertained liberal views on all great questions 
 and willingly accorded to others that freedom of opinion which 
 he demanded for himself. 
 
 He was a patriot. He loved his country as he loved his 
 life. He loved it because it was a republic and gave freedom 
 to its citizens. He defended it with all his strength and died 
 in the full belief that under the new regime liberty and our 
 Union were perpetually established “one and inseparable.” 
 
 His domestic surroundings were happy, and no one can 
 more than half appreciate his worth who did not see him at 
 his home surrounded by his family and witness his efforts to 
 make all happy around his hearthstone. 
 
 His evenings were almost always spent with his family unless 
 pressing business engagements prevented. When he had 
 thrown off the business cares of the day, which he had a 
 rare faculty of doing, and joined the happy family circle of 
 which he was unconsciously the central figure, he seemed 
 forgetful of himself in his efforts to make others happy. 
 
 Towards his wife and her mother he was all that a devoted 
 husband and son could be. In his intercourse with his chil- 
 dren he was at once their playmate, friend, and teacher. It 
 was in his home that he showed at his best and it was there 
 that his eminent goodness was most conspicuous. 
 
 While I mourn with you the loss of his society and com- 
 panionship, I am proud of his record, which is a legacy more 
 precious to his wife and children than would be the accumu- 
 lated wealth of a hundred kings. 
 
 Please accept my sympathy and believe me 
 
 Your fellow mourner and friend, 
 
 N. F. HANDY. 
 
80 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Lapeer, Mich., Dec. 30, 1881. 
 Hon. Wm. Yan Buren, Lansing, 
 
 Dear Sir:— Before your letter came I had learned with 
 regret and sorrow of the death of Mr. George. I had heard 
 such favorable accounts of the improved condition of his 
 health, that I hoped he would long be spared to a life of 
 usefulness and honor. I have long regarded him as one of 
 the ablest men I knew, a man of strong convictions, but a 
 just man. In his death we have all suffered a great loss. 
 Will you kindly present to Mrs. George, from Mrs. Moore 
 and myself, an expression of our sympathy for her in her 
 great bereavement. I am sir, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. B. MOORE. 
 
 St. Johns, Mich., Jan. 5, 1882. 
 
 Mrs. W. S. George, 
 
 Dear Madam: — I can no longer restrain my inclination to 
 offer sympathy in the terrible affliction that has befallen you. 
 I feel deeply, more deeply than I can write, the terrible loss. 
 I feel as if I had lost my best friend. The almost daily con- 
 tact of over a dozen years of active work, often of a pains- 
 taking kind, that required mutual oversight and scrutiny, 
 brought us to a better understanding than mere fellow 
 workers, and not until I heard that the half- expected and 
 dreaded summons had been made and answered, did I realize 
 how great the loss, and how “Blessings brighten as they 
 take their flight.” It was a blessing to have known your 
 husband and to have felt the kindly impulse of his friendship . 
 I shall always look back with pleasurable feelings to the many 
 years of toilsome days and protracted nights that I have passed 
 with him, — nor ever forget the many kind and encouraging words 
 and acts of friendship that came so gracefully from him, and 
 which I desire here to acknowledge. 
 
 Were Mrs. Stephenson here she would join in sympathy 
 for you and also for your mother, who, I am sure, suffers 
 the loss as keenly as yourself, but she is not, — and I am 
 writing this against her consent, having but partially recov- 
 ered from a dangerous illness — which may account for any 
 incoherencies you may find. 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 81 
 
 In conclusion I desire to assure you of my continued 
 friendship for you and yours, and to express myself ready to 
 serve you at any time, whenever in my power. 
 
 Sincerely and sorrowfully yours, 
 
 JNO. H. STEPHENSON. 
 
 739 Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, 
 January 2, 1882. 
 
 My Dear Friend, Mrs. George: 
 
 It is with a heart full of deepest sympathy that I come to 
 you to-day in these sad hours of your great bereavement. 
 As we had recently learned through Detroit friends that Mr. 
 George had returned from his trip much improved in health, 
 we were wholly unprepared for the sad tidings of the death 
 of your dear husband. 
 
 We can scarcely realize that his earthly mission has been 
 fulfilled so early, and that he is now numbered with those 
 that have gone before. 
 
 I feel that no feeble words of mine can offer you any com- 
 fort in these trying hours; but I cannot refrain from extend- 
 ing my sympathy to you and your family, trusting that you 
 may feel that although separated from your friends they have 
 been with you in spirit. 
 
 “i/e giveth his beloved sleep” and to Him alone can you 
 look for comfort and strength to bear this great affliction. Yes, 
 
 “ He sees when their footsteps falter, 
 
 When their hearts grow weak and faint, 
 
 He marks when their strength is failing, 
 
 And listens to each complaint; 
 
 He bids them rest for a season, 
 
 For the pathway has grown too steep; 
 
 And folded in fair green pastures, 
 
 He giveth His loved ones sleep.” 
 
 “He giveth it.” 
 
 Yes, the earthly life is ended and he sleeps. The world 
 will miss him sadly from his accustomed place, his friends 
 will miss his genial smile, kind words, and hospitable welcome ; 
 but the home fireside will miss the tender husband, the loving 
 father, and the devoted son, ah, more than words can tell. 
 
82 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 But what is our loss is his gain. ’ Tis sad to part from 
 those we love, yet ’tis only for a little time ere we shall all 
 be reunited in that happy land where parting is unknown, and 
 
 “ Though thy heart be sore and bleeding 
 From thy treasure called to part, 
 
 Comes there not to thee this message — 
 
 ‘ I am nigh the broken heart?’ ” 
 
 Remember me with loving sympathy to your dear, good 
 mother, whom God has mercifully spared to be your earthly 
 comfort and solace in these sorrowing hours. She loved him 
 with all the tenderness of a mother’s heart, and her grief will 
 also be deep, but with her beautiful faith she will look be- 
 yond this vale of tears and say “Thy will, not mine.” 
 
 Father, mother, and Henrietta desire their loving remem- 
 brances to you all. 
 
 With love believe me 
 
 Ever your sincere friend, 
 
 HATTIE E. FARNSWORTH. 
 
 218 State, Room 21, Chicago, 
 January 10, 1882. 
 
 Mrs. George and Mrs. Papineau, 
 
 My Dear Friends, — Several times since I learned of the 
 terrible affliction that has befallen you, have I seated myself 
 to write and express my sympathy, and as many times have 
 I left my letter unfinished and unsent. Even now my heart 
 almost fails me. I know that your secretaries are filled with 
 letters of condolence, for the departed one numbered his 
 friends by the thousands. I well know, from bitter experience, 
 the uselessness of words to give consolation, but I sympathize 
 with you from the bottom of my heart. We, ourselves, feel 
 bereaved. I cannot say to my friends “do not weep for the 
 loved one.” It is right to weep; shed oceans of tears, if 
 necessary for relief. But I know that you will try to bear 
 up under this affliction for the sake of the little ones left in 
 your charge, who will never be allowed to feel the loss of 
 father or mother. He is gone. A family has lost a beloved 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 83 
 
 member; a city mourns the loss of an honest, upright, enter- 
 prising citizen, and a State mourns the loss of a leader. 
 You can well exclaim: Well done, thou good and faithful 
 servant! 
 
 How I long to hear all the particulars in detail. Shall be 
 very glad indeed to hear from you whenever your feelings 
 prompt you to write. 
 
 I have just had a severe attack of lung congestion, and 
 although I am convalescing, am still quite feeble. 
 
 Yours in love and sympathy, 
 
 S. F. SUMMERS. 
 
 Detroit, Dec. 27, 1881. 
 
 Geo. Jerome, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir: — Will you please present to the family of the 
 late W. S. George our heartfelt sympathies in their bereave- 
 ment. You cannot but be aware of our knowledge of Mr. 
 George’s sterling worth and ability; it is a loss not easily 
 replaced to the State, and those who looked to him for aid 
 and support. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 RICHMOND, BACKUS & CO. 
 
 Stoneham, Mass., Dec. 29th, 1881. 
 
 My Dear Friends: 
 
 I heard through Mrs. Ripley of your most painful bereave- 
 ment and extend my heartfelt sympathy to you all. The 
 kind and faithful husband, the devoted son, and loving father, 
 has been taken away and in your bleeding hearts is a pain 
 that only time and submission to heaven’s will can cure. It 
 is impossible for you now to say “Thy will, not mine, be 
 done,” but in time you may if you try faithfully to learn the 
 lesson of your great sorrow. It is through severe chastise- 
 ment that our natures are refined and purified and made to yield 
 the fruits of righteousness. God’s ways we cannot fathom, 
 but his purposes are wise and good. Trust him in this your 
 hour of darkness and it will turn to day. The toiling, busy 
 life is ended and the weary one is at rest. How many there 
 
84 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 * 
 
 are who will mourn the loss of a faithful friend. You should 
 indeed be thankful so noble a life was yours to enjoy, even 
 though it makes the pain of parting harder. 
 
 Let me hear from you when you feel like writing. 
 
 Your sympathizing friend, 
 
 D. ROWEN. 
 
 Elba, Mich., Dec. 27, 9:30 A. M., 1881. 
 
 N. F. Handy, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir: — Your dispatch of this morning received. I am 
 greatly surprised and shocked at the sad news contained. 
 When I parted with him in Richmond I had the strongest 
 hopes of his restoration to health and usefulness. Please 
 extend my sincere sympathies to the bereaved family in their 
 terrible bereavement. I should like to be informed as to the 
 arrangements for the funeral at as early an hour as pos- 
 sible, as I wish to attend and I have several engagements for 
 the week which will have to be disposed of. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 JOHN T. RICH. 
 
 Fentonville, Dec. 28, 1881. 
 
 Our Dear Friends: 
 
 We were taken wholly by surprise when we read in the 
 paper of last evening of the death of Mr. George. May the 
 dear Lord comfort and support you all, is our sincere prayer. 
 Would that we could in some way minister personally for 
 your relief. Let us know if there is any way in which we 
 can do so. In the meantime accept our sincere condolence 
 and believe us ever your devoted friends. 
 
 THOS. and RUTH WRIGHT. 
 
 Muskegon, Mich., Jan. 6, 1882. 
 
 Dear Mrs. George: 
 
 I want to express to you, and to your mother, and to the 
 children also, my personal sorrow at the loss of Mr. George. 
 
 * 
 
Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 85 
 
 T wish I had known him years sooner than I did. I think I 
 never was acquainted with a more conscientious and noble 
 man. I shall always think of him with the deepest satisfac- 
 tion and gratitude. I think he must have been like the one 
 Pope speaks of, who 
 
 “ Calmly looked on either life, and here 
 Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear; 
 
 From nature’s temperate feast rose satisfied, 
 
 Thank’d heaven that he had lived and that he died.” 
 
 Will you all accept my heart-felt sympathy in this sable 
 hour. God bless and comfort you, every one. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 F. E. KITTREDGE. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing tributes, the famity received 
 many messages and letters from loving friends who had per- 
 sonally known Mr. George, and admired his noble traits 
 of character. Unbounded sympathy and condolence w’ere 
 expressed, but lack of space forbids the publication of these 
 valued testimonials. 
 
SHcmovial Resolutions. 
 
 On Feb. 7, 1882, the republican committee of Ingham county 
 met and passed the following resolutions: 
 
 Whereas, Since the last meeting of this committee death has 
 deprived us of our chairman, W. S. George, who for the past three 
 years has so ably and creditably discharged the duties incumbent 
 on that position, therefore, 
 
 Resolved , That we, the republican county committee of Ingham 
 county sincerely deplore his death and appreciate the great loss 
 we have sustained. 
 
 Resolved , That his ability, foresight, and experience, together 
 with his untiring zeal, unquestioned reliability as a republican, 
 combined to make him a man whose counsel and opinions were 
 respected and valued. 
 
 Resolved, That notwithstanding we are now deprived of his 
 advice and judgment, yet we call to mind with pride and satisfaction 
 the campaigns of the past that we have fought under his directions 
 and came off victorious. 
 
 Resolved, That the sympathy of this committee be extended to 
 his family and friends. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be furnished his family 
 and published in the republican papers throughout the county. 
 
 At a meeting of the republican State central committee, 
 held at Kalamazoo, Aug. 29, 1882, the following resolutions 
 were adopted: 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased divine Providence to remove from our 
 midst our companion and co-worker, W. S. George; 
 
 Resolved, That by his death the republican party and republican 
 principles lose one of their capable advocates; the State of Michi- 
 gan an honored and eminent citizen, and the republican State 
 central committee an efficient officer; 
 
 Resolved, That our most profound sympathies are excited and 
 are hereby earnestly extended to his wife and family, the partners 
 of his life, who alone can idealize the extent of their bereavement. 
 
gfgtmoviam. 
 
 AV. S. GEORGE, DIED DEC. ^7, 1881. 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE BEREAVED FAMILY. 
 
 Cotne softly to the waiting earth 
 Sweet resurrection of the year, 
 
 And bring thy sunshine and soft winds 
 To hearts that sit in darkness here. 
 
 Come with thy garlands and thy songs 
 And from their home the phantoms chase. 
 
 Shall sorrow wail among the flowers, 
 
 And tear drops hide the new year’s grace? 
 
 When he they loved, for whom they weep, 
 Has gained the blessed shores of rest, 
 
 Where disappointment entereth not, 
 
 And sorrow is an unknown guest. 
 
 Beyond the sea of mysteries, 
 
 Beyond their tears, beyond their prayers, 
 
 He rests, who only yesterday 
 Bore heavily earth’s toils and cares. 
 
 Who in the thickest of the fray 
 Stood ever bravely in the front, 
 
 Who shrank not from life’s missiles fierce 
 But bore unmoved the battle's brunt. 
 
 Who fought for principle, not fame, 
 
 Who sowed that other hands might reap, 
 
 And left his children a rare dower, 
 
 Better than gems or gold to keep 
 
 Sacred as life, through coming years, 
 
 The dower of an unsullied name, 
 
 Beside which learning, honor, wealth, 
 
 Are empty baubles cold and tame. 
 
► 
 
 ♦ 
 
 88 
 
 Wm. S. GEORGE. 
 
 Great temples grow not in a night, 
 
 By flat of the artist’s will, 
 
 But slowly rise they stone hy stone, 
 Cemented hy the master’s skill. 
 
 So nohle lives are rounded up 
 By toil and good deeds nobly done; 
 
 Who wins the mastery of self 
 May deem a royal victory won. 
 
 When such a spirit doth escape 
 From its dull tenement of clay 
 
 We know it leaves a prison dark 
 To enter realms of endless day, 
 
 Leaving its sorrows all behind, 
 
 Laying its cares and burdens down, 
 
 Dropping in joy its earthly cross 
 To take up life’s eternal crown. 
 
 Ah! songs of triumph were more meet, 
 When closes such a life, than tears, 
 
 Brave songs, whose echoes should resound 
 Through cycles of the coming years. 
 
 Then, as departs the winter’s gloom, 
 
 Bid sorrow from your hearts begone, 
 
 Be glad with the rejoicing year, 
 
 And make its royal hopes your own. 
 
 And when the Easter morning dawns, 
 
 Clasp hands once more with blessed faith, 
 
 Remembering o’er the river dark, 
 
 On heaven’s fair shores, there is no death. 
 
 Lansihg, March 27, 1882. 
 
 H. S.