George M Osborn (1802 - 1845)

Born 30 Jul 1802 in Luzerne, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 15 Jul 1845 at age 42 in Starke, Indiana, United States

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Biography

George was born in 1802. George Osborn ... He passed away in 1845. ^[1]

Among the old families of Starke County who still have descendants, usefully and prominently identified with citizenship, there is probably none that can claim longer residence than the Osborns. More than three score and ten years have passed since they first found homes in this county, and as pioneers they gave more than ordinary sacrifices in the building and establishment of homes, and in the later period their lives have been led along the paths of quiet industry and prosperity and as farmers and good citizens they have done their full share for the enrichment of community life.

George M. Osborn, husband of Anna (Hall) Osborn, was born in Pennsylvania, January 30, 1802, and died at Eagle Lake, in Starke County, July 15, 1845. Anna was born in 1804, probably in Ohio, and died April 25, 1845, at Eagle Lake.

During their residence in Delaware County all their children were born, and in 1840 George M. Osborn brought his family out to Starke County, locating at Eagle Lake in what is now Washington Township.

The Osborns gave the name to that body of water, on account of the large numbere of eagles found nesting about its shores.

Their settlement there preceded the organization of Starke County by a number of years, and their outlook for several years was over a landscape of almost unbroken wilderness, forest, lake, marshes and sandy ridges.

Only five families at that time comprised the total population of what is now Starke County. All the land was wild, some in prairie, other parts covered with timber, and a portion under water. It was a mighty task to turn the virgin sod, fell the forest trees and drain the swamps, and yet these old time pioneers so prominently represented by the Osborn family proved equal to overcoming the obstacles which lay in their path. While the members of the earliest generation did not live to see all their hopes materialized, they laid the foundation upon which their successors have built prosperity and have continued lives of influence and usefulness.

George M. Osborn and wife are both buried near Eagle Lake, having died when little past middle life. They were both church people, and possessed the sterling traits of pioneers. To those generations of the family now living many stories are preserved of the old times in Starke County, when the family lived in log cabin homes, and when the Indians were frequent visitors and almost as numerous as civilized men. After arriving in Starke County the head of the family walked through the woods, blazing a trail as he went, thirty miles to Winamac, the seat of the land office, in order to enter the land. In plowing and in all farm work they used oxen, but aside from the needs of home consumption there was little' market for grain, and what surplus they had was taken by wagon over the rough roads to Michigan City The diet of those early settlers consisted largely of wild game and fish, with coarse meal for bread, and much of the fruit was supplied from the wild bushes growing in the woods. The Osborn family had their farm improvement well iinder way before many neighbors came, and the community became fairly well settled, introducing the institutions of the school and the church.

After the death of George W Osborn and wife their oldest son, William, who is now Living at the age of eighty-seven in Culver, took the responsibilities of head of the family.

Anna and George had the following children^[2]:

1. Japheth Osborn, b. 24 Jul 1824, d. 2 Jul 1882
2. Lucy Osborn, b. 14 Jul 1825, d. 7 Sep 1866
3. William Osborn, b. 4 Aug 1827, d. 1879, m. Louisa J Owens
4. John Wesley Osborn, b. 23 Jan 1832, d. 11 Sep 1906, m. Sarah Michler
5. Samuel Osborn, b. 18 Jan 1840, m. Henrietta Rice

Sources

1. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 18 November 2021), memorial page for George M Osborn (30 Jan 1802–15 Jul 1845), Find A Grave: Memorial #35342928, citing Masonic Cemetery, Culver, Marshall County, Indiana, USA ; Maintained by Hoot Gibson (contributor 48305389).
2. ↑ Weygant

• A standard history of Starke County, Indiana : , v. 1, McCormick, Joseph N. Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors HARRY C. MILLER B. F. ANDERSON 1915

• Weygant, Charles H. The Hull Family in America (Sun Printing Co., Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1913) Page 355, Page 399

• Geni profile: George M Osborn

• Osborne Origins, "George M. OSBORN-1688"