Person:George LeStourgeon (1)

George was born 1 June 1815, just two weeks before the Battle of Waterloo, at Hampton Wick, Middlesex, England, and died 30 June 1902 at Bridgeton, New Jersey, Aged 87.

He was in his 22nd year when he and his brother. Peter James, Jr., went to the United States in 1837. They traveled from Cambridge to London on the "Star", arriving 1 May to spend the night at the "Bull and Mouth", Aldersgate Street. They boarded their ship in the London Docks on the 2nd and sailed for New York on the 3rd, arriving 11 June 1837, a five week journey. Owing to a delay in quarantine they did not land until the 16th, when they left for the West.

They spent the next year in Michigan seeking a location for a home for the family, and having their first experience of a severe winter with its deep snow. The family was united at Paw-Paw, Van Buren County, Michigan, 9 September 1838, and soon left for northern Illinois, where they rented the Kinkead Hopkins Farm near Blackberry, Kendall County, Illinois.

It is interesting to speculate about the reason George and Peter James, Jr., went to Michigan, which has a much severer climate than England. It may be that easy access by the railroad between Albany and Buffalo which had been completed in 1832 and had probably been extended by 1837, perhaps as far as Chicago, was the determining factor. It was customary for representatives of the railroads to meet immigrants at the dock and try to funnel them to locations along the newly completed lines.

George married his cousin, Sarah Couth LeStourgeon, daughter of Charles the elder and Elizabeth Burbidge, on 26 July 1843, in Illinois. She was born 3 November 1815 at Cambridge, England, and died 25 January 1888, in her 73rd year, at Bridgeton, New Jersey. She and her husband are buried in Overlook Cemetery in Bridgeton.

George was a farmer, and also, it appears, he was a person inclined to envision a fairer farm over the mountain. Dates are uncertain, but between the birth of William Doux Saint in 1852 and the marriage of Sarah Emily in Bridgeton in 1869, the family lived in Kendall County, Illinois, Buffalo, New York, Canada, Georgia and, finally, on a farm outside of Bridgeton, New Jersey. It is probable that most of the time was spent in Illinois and in Bridgeton. From an economic point of view the move from Illinois was probably a mistake, for the Kendall County area is one of the most prosperous farming areas in the country, and at that time the soil had not been depleted by use. At Buffalo he operated a nursery, which he must have loved, for he loved flowers and shrubs and always had them in profusion around his home. There were trees growing in 1960 on Irving Avenue in Bridgeton which were planted by him nearly a hundred years ago.

About 1873 George and Sarah Couth sold the Bridgeton farm and made their last move, this time to a farm in Cumberland County, Virginia. Fortunately, their activities on this farm for the next fifteen years are recorded in some detail in a book, Prince Edward County for a home in Virginia, published in 1888 by Johns and Company, which is available in the Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia. The following is a quotation from this book:

"Fifteen years ago Mr. George LeStourgeon, a former citizen of New Jersey, came to the County of Cumberland and purchased the Woodfin homestead, Chiloe, located about five miles north of Farmville, and containing about 425 acres, at the price of nine dollars per acre. The property had for years been in the hands of tenants, and the land subjected to the ruinous system they so often pursue, simply to get from it all that they could dig out, and to give nothing back in return.

"It required a brave spirit to undertake the work of renovation. Fortunately, the newcomer was possessed of such, and with his younger son, Mr. William LeStourgeon, entered upon it.

"In 1876, Mr. Frederick G. LeStourgeon, another and older son, joined them, and the three have labored together.

"Just in front of the dwelling is a field of highland corn, which was worked before it was planted. That, you know was the habit of the finest farmer Virginia ever boasted the late Mr. Sampson, who owned and cultivated that magnificent farm on the James River just above Richmond, and known as Dover. 'Never let grass grow in a cornfield' was his motto; and who can say it was not a wise one to act upon?

"The wheat crop of 1887, especially one lot of it of about twenty acres, was as fine as we ever saw in any portion of Virginia or elsewhere, and was growing on land which a few years since was desperately poor. The method adopted was the simple process of sowing it in corn and peas and turning them under, and adding guano, -Slaughter House - being the brand employed. Anybody can do that, and any land can thus be redeemed. Try it. Hill tops were crowned with clover, gullies have been chocked up with grass, a wire fence well-nigh encircles the place, and divides it into convenient fields, in some of which well bred cattle graze leisurely and fatten finely.

"Fifty thousand tomato plants are cultivated on the place. The land is made ready just as you would for tobacco. On this lot 176 loads of barn-yard manure had been hauled. Ten thousand sweet potato slips are usually planted. Flowers are cultivated on quite an extensive scale, and are a source of profit. Strawberries are grown, and delivered in the Farmville market, and always bring a good return. "Gilt-edge" butter is regularly finished from the same farm. Particular attention is being given to the cultivation of grapes, and the opinion was expressed by the owner of Chiloe that this section was better adapted to the growth of grapes than New Jersey, and that they could be profitably cultivated.

"Mark the fact, farmers of Southside Virginia, and reflect upon it that not a plant of tobacco is allowed on the place, and yet it is being enriched year by year, and diversified crops are being profitably grown. But it is of the "Southside Canning Company" that we wished principally to write.

"About seven years ago, Mr. Frederick G. LeStourgeon, who had enjoyed years of experience in the field, commenced it on a small scale, just to 'feel the Farmville market on the subject.' Only 100 dozen cans of tomatoes were put on the market the first year. Last year 30,000, and this year 100, 000 will be put on the market, a majority of them already engaged in Nashville, Tenn., and this number could be indefinitely added to, as the reputation of the goods are already established, and the demand greater than can be supplied. The fact is it ought to become, and we trust it will at an early day, the institution of South-side, Virginia.

"The Messrs. LeStourgeon make their own boxes from timber bought at the Farmville Foundry, and all their own cans. Only this spring they have commenced to manufacture their cans, and the work is moving smoothly. Two men are engaged in it, and they turn out about 900 cans daily, better cans than they had been buying in Baltimore and at less cost.

"Messrs. LeStourgeon do not confine themselves to the canning of tomatoes, but put up other fruits and vegetables successfully and profitably. We will watch this growing industry with growing interest, and predict for it a brilliant future. It is already a blessing to the community in which it flourishes." End of quotation.

In the late 1880s, George gradually retired, turning over the active operation of the farm to his younger son, William Doux Saint. Thereafter George and his wife divided their time between the home place and the home of their daughter, Sarah Emily, in Bridgeton.

The activities of George LeStourgeon and his sons, Frederick George LeStourgeon and William Doux-Saint LeStourgeon, are detailed in a book: Prince Edward County for a Home in Virginia, published in 1888, by Johns and Company, available in the Virginia State Library, Richmond, VA.

1.   Percy Earl LeStourgeon, "The LeStourgeon Family: a Brief History", 1963.