Person:George Webber (3)

George Enoch Webber was born on 14 February 1824 in Palmer, Hampden, Massachusetts. He was 14 when he moved with his father to Medina County, Ohio in 1838. He helped his father with the homestead until in 1842, when he was 18, George traveled back to Massachusetts to learn the “foundry business”, which deals with pouring metal into molds to form tools and other metal items. Apparently he later became very successful in this business when he came back to Ohio, as in the 1860 census he was one of the wealthiest men in Hinckley township. Washburn says that in addition to being “prominent in business,” George was a member of the Church of Christ, and “was of a strong religious nature, and sometimes preached in his younger days.” This is not surprising, given that his father was a minister.

George married Jane A Woodruff on 16 September 1849 in Hinckley, Medina, Ohio. Jane A Woodruff was born on 14 February 1824, the same day as her husband, in South Hero, Grand Isle, Vermont. She died on 8 May 1889 at the age of 65 in Medina, Medina, Ohio, and was buried in May 1889 in Spring Grove Cemetery.

George married a second time, to Mrs. Sarah Finch, formerly Sarah Lamb, in about 1890 in Medina, Medina, Ohio. Mrs. Sarah Finch was born about 1828 in Hinckley, Medina, Ohio, and survived George, who died on 1 March 1900 at the age of 76 in Medina, Medina, Ohio, and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Medina, Medina, Ohio.

George sent a letter to his sister Carrie in 1875, when she and her family were still struggling to get settled on their new home in the prairie. He seems to have been a kind brother, as he sent her five dollars – not a small sum in the day – as well as an encouraging letter telling her what he remembers of when their family first settled in Ohio, how difficult it was and how they got by. He gives her advice concerning crops and livestock, and tells her to “keep a stiff upper lip.” This is the oldest letter I know of relative to this family that is still in existence.

Notably, George’s second son, Amos Richard Webber, served as a Republican Representative for Lorain County, Ohio in the United States House of Representatives from 1904 to 1907.

1. ↑ .

   Lucy Adelia Washburn, The Richard Webber Family: a genealogy from the first settlement in America (Medina, Ohio:
   The A. I. Root Co., 1909), 9, 13; pdf, The Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/details/richardwebberfam00wash :
   accessed 4 February 2011.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} George E. Webber memorial page, in Find A Grave.

   http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=41&GSvcid=95924&GRid=37721961& accessed: 9 April 2011.

3.   1840 U.S. Census.

   1840 U S Census, Medina County, Ohio, population schedule, Hinckley, p. 207, Richard Webber household.

4.   1850 U. S. Census.

   1850 U S Census, Medina County, Ohio, population schedule, Hinckley, p. 352 (stamped), dwelling 586, Geo E Webber.

5.   1860 U. S. Census.

   1860 U S Census, Medina County, Ohio, population schedule, Hinckley, p. 262, dwelling 700, Geo E Webber; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 February 2011); citing NARA microfilm M653_1007.

6.   1870 U. S. Census.

   1870 U S Census, Medina County, Ohio, population schedule, Hinckley, p. 17, dwelling 156, Geo E Webber; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 February 2011); citing NARA microfilm M593_1241

7.   1880 U. S. Census.

   1880 U S Census, Medina County, Ohio, population schedule, Hinckley, enumeration district (ED) 189, p. 292C (stamped), dwelling 161, George Webber; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 February 2011); citing FHL film 1255047.