George Firestone 1885 sketch

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

George Samuel Firestone (1811-1891)

---

History of DeKalb County, Indiana : together with sketches ... ( Chicago : Inter-State Publishing Co., 1885), 614-615 (George Firestone); digital images, InternetArchive.

Citing "History of De Kalb County, Indiana; Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885 (Franklin Twp. Pgs 614-615," George Firestone 1885 sketch, transcription; web content, Genealogy Trails.

Separately as History of DeKalb County, Indiana : Together with sketches of its cities ... and biographies of representative citizens ... (Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Company, 1885), 614-615 (George Firestone); digital images, Hathi Trust.

---

FIRESTONE, George
George Firestone, section 23, Franklin Township, was born in Stark County, Ohio, June 30, 1811, a son of George Firestone, a native of Hagerstown, Va., and an early settler of Stark County.

Our subject received a limited education, his services being required on the farm as soon as he was old enough to work. Oct. 18, 1836 he came to De Kalb County, Ind., and settled on the land which is now his valuable farm. At that time the chief inhabitants were Indians and wild animals, and the land was all heavily timbered. He entered 160 acres from the Government, which he improved and to which he has added, owning now 192 1/2 acres. His first house was a cabin of round logs, and his furniture was of the most primitive sort. He early learned the use of tools and made the most of his furniture. For two years a chest, which he now uses to keep oats in, was used as a table.

Mr. Firestone was married Oct. 9, 1832, to Catherine Crum, and to them were born thirteen children, ten of whom are living — Samuel K., Isaac, Hattie, Catherine, Amanda, Daniel, Benjamin F., Sarah, George S., and John L. One son, Josiah, died at the age of twenty-three years and two died in infancy.

Mrs. Firestone died April 1, 1870, and the following fall he married Mrs. Mary Mclntyre. She had a large family by her first husband, but three of whom are living — Julia, Eliza and Ellen.

Mr. Firestone is now living with his third wife, whom he married March 2, 1879. She was the widow of Richard Cook and the daughter of Samuel Larrabee. Her four children by her first husband — Samuel S., Mary M., Polly M., and Russell W., are all deceased. Mrs. Firestone came West with her father and settled in Adrian, Mich., in 1835. She cooked by a fireplace many years, using a cooking-stove for the first time in 1843. In 1840 she made the largest johnny-cake ever heard of in the United States, for a Fourth of July celebration at Coldwater. It was drawn by a six-horse team, in a canoe made of the largest whitewood tree to be found in the country, and was known as the Tippecanoe johnny-cake. A son of Mr. Firestone, Isaac, served over three years in the war of the Rebellion as a member of Company F, Forty-fourth Indiana Infantry. He participated in many hard-fought battles, the more prominent being Fort Donelson, Stone River, Shiloh, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge. He was wounded at Shiloh. Mrs. Firestone's son, Samuel S. Cook, served over four years as a member of Company C, Eighth Iowa Infantry, participating in the battle at Vicksburg, Sherman's march to the sea, and many others. He was killed by the accidental discharge of a gun in his own hands six years after his return from the war.