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Note: N4963 George Washington Meriwether
© The Meriwethers and their Connections, 1964
He served in the UNION army--one among the three who saw service in the federal force--and fought in the "First Battle of Bull Run" (Manassas) where, according to his personal account the "Yankees were doing more running than fighting." There is a story in his family that when he was mustered out of service in August 1865 that upon returning home he found his family absent at church and when they returned they found him in the garden greedily eating raw turnips! A short sketch of George Washington Meriwether furnished by Dorothy Vera Meriwether (Mrs. Harry Irwin Hardisty) of Blandinsville, Ill., is of interest to his descendants:
George Meriwether, one of the best known and most respected farmers in Industry Township, McDonough County, Ill., was born Sept. 1, 1833, in Floyd County, Ind., where he obtained what schooling the conditions of his boyhood permitted. He was a son of James P. and Nancy (Eversole) Meriwether, his father a native of Kentucky, and his mother of Ohio. His grandfather, John Meriwether, was born in Virginia in 1776, and his grandmother, "Molly" (Bell) Meriwether, was a native of Virginia. George Meriwether worked at farming and at the cooper's trade in Indiana until April, 1856, when he came to Schuyler County, Ill., where he was employed as a cooper until August, 1862. He then enlisted in Company B, One Hundred Nineteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which he served three years. His regiment was attached to the Army of the Gulf, which had several successive commanders. Mr. Meriwether was mustered out August 26, 1865, and returned to McDonough County, Ill. He had previously purchased a farm in the southwestern portion or Industry Township, on which he located in 1869.
He married Nov. 26, 1857, to Mary E. Huff, who was born and educated in Schulyer County, Ill.
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