George T. Emerson
The Emerson family was among the first to settle in Pickaway County and its various members have borne an honorable part in the development of its agricultural resources. Its present representative, of whom we write, who is a prosperous farmer, was born August 11, 1840, upon the farm on section 18, Pickaway Township, which has always been his home.
Thomas Emerson, the father of our subject, was born in Hampshire County, Va., September 27, 1785. In 1806, he came to Ohio, and located in the primeval wilds of Pickaway County. His father, whose name was the same as his own, came hither with his family at the same time, and he was one of the very first to select the site of his home on the famous Pickaway Plains. Indians still lived here, wild game was plentiful, and the surrounding country was mostly in all its primitive wildness. The grandfather of our subject erected a log cabin for a dwelling, and busied himself in the development of a farm while his life was spared. He died in 1826, at the ripe old age of three-score and ten years.
The father of our subject was twenty-one years old when he came here, and being in the opening years of a stalwart, sturdy manhood, he was well equipped for his work as a pioneer, and well did he perform it by improving a good farm in Pickaway Township, where he lived an esteemed citizen for seventy years, his death occurring in 1876, at the venerable age of ninety-one years. He married Margaret Kennedy, who was a native of Kentucky, and whose parents settled here in an early day. She was the mother of four children: James; Mary A., wife of Julius J. Wright; one who died in infancy; and our subject, who is the youngest of the family. She died in 1848, aged forty-five years.
George T. Emerson attended the district school in the neighborhood of his birthplace in his boyhood, the first school he went to being taught in a log house. As he grew up, he gained a thorough insight into farming, on the old homestead under his father's instruction, and in 1871 he began farming on his own account on his father's farm, which is now his own. By his excellent management he shows himself to be a good, practical farmer, who uses intelligently methods best adapted to the soil, and keeps everything about his place in good shape. He has eighty-four acres of well-tilled land, and the farm is adorned with a neat set of buildings, including a substantial brick residence, built in 1879. Mr. Emerson is loyal in his citizenship, taking pride in the flourishing condition of his native county, and in him the Democratic party has a faithful adherent.
Our subject was happily married in 1871 to Miss Ruth Ann Lindsey, who was born in Circleville Township in 1848, and is a daughter of John J. and Mary (Harmon) Lindsey. Her parents were natives respectively of Virginia and Ohio. The father died in 1875, aged sixty-five years, and the mother in 1873. The latter was of the old pioneer stock of the State, and a Lutheran in religion. Mrs. Emerson is one of twelve children, ten of whom grew to maturity, and nine of them still living. Her union with our subject has been fruitful to them of four children, whom they have named Mary L., Thomas D., George II. and Ned Ray, respectively.
From PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF FAYETTE, PICKAWAY AND MADISON COUNTIES, OHIO - Chapman Bros. [Chicago, 1892]