History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with
Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious,
Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons
and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co.,
Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 752, Kerton Township
George W. Dobson, farmer and machinist. Mr. D. was born in
Woodland tp., Fulton Co., in 1844; he grew up in that tp., and at the
age of 18 he enlisted in Co. K, 16th Ill. Inf. He was engaged in many
battles. During the siege of Knoxville, while his and two other
companies were escorting the paymaster to Burnside’s division, were
taken prisoners, and officers and men were sent to Libby Prison. Jan.
1, 1863, Mr. D. came in sight of this wretched pen. It formerly had
been a tobacco factory and was 60x100 feet in size, 3 stories high. He
was stripped of many articles of wearing apparel and confined to the 3d
story, where he had a good opportunity to note the sorry condition of
the Union soldiers, whose only fault was a devotion to the old flag.
Very few were decently clothed. Mr. D. spent many weary months of
privation and suffering scarcely credible to those who have never known
the pangs of hunger or thirst. He finally was released and discharged
from the U. S. service in August, 1865. In 1874 he was united in
marriage to Miss Mary Brown, daughter of Jacob Brown. They have a
family of 2 children; Luland and an infant.
Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County,
Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with
portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States,
and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890;
page 486-487; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
George W. Dobson. The subject of our present sketch is a
man whose history it is a pleasure to place in our Album, from the fact
that his success in life is an admirable example to the younger members
of our society, and because a record of his faithful and courageous
service during the late war cannot fail to be of interest to the
general reader. He was born in Woodland Township, July 23, 1845,
being a son of Joseph Dobson.
Our subject’s father was a native of Kentucky, but came to this
place in 1830, making the trip by means of a flatboat down the Ohio
River to the mouth of the Mississippi, and coming up that river and the
Illinois River landed at Point Isabel, being one of the first settlers
here. He came in 1833 and took up one hundred and sixty acres of
Government land. The country was very wild and the land covered
with heavy timbre and he was compelled to content himself with a rude
log cabin while he cleared the land preparatory to farming. He
next moved to Woodland Township where he bought one hundred and sixty
acres of land on section 1. He lived there until the spring of
1865 at which time his death occurred. He served in the Mexican
War for one year and was discharged at Comargo, Mexico, on account of
disability. He was at one time a Whig and afterward a member of
the Republican party. He married Miss Elizabeth Shealds, who was
born in Corydon, Ind. She lived to be sixty-eight years of age,
and was the mother of ten children, eight of whom grew to maturity,
viz.: Martha, William M., James V., John M., Anna, Mrs. Rancaus,
Martin K., George W., Ellen, Hardin, and Winfield S.
Mr. Dobson was reared on a farm and like the majority of boys at
that day, attended school through the winter and worked on the farm
through the summer. When only eighteen years of age he enlisted
in the army August 23, 1863 in Company K, Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry,
and was sent to Covington, and then through the Cumberland Mountains
and was at the siege of Knoxville, Tenn. He was captured at
Jonesville, Va., in January, 1864, and was taken on foot bare-footed,
to Lynchburg, and then to Richmond, where he was placed in prison for
four weeks, and then sent to Andersonville Prison where he remained
another four weeks. He, with other prisoners, flanked out and
went to Richmond, where he was taken sick and sent to a hospital.
He was paroled and sent to Annapolis and in August was sent home.
In October, 1864, he returned to his regiment and was in Hood’s
campaign around Nashville until 1865, and was discharged on August 25,
of that year at Nashville. In 1874 he came here and settled,
renting land in Isabel Township where he lived until 1878 and then
moved to Kerton Township, taking possession of the eighty acres of land
which his wife’s father had given her in that township.
The subject of our sketch was married November 4, 1874, to Miss
Mary E. Brown, daughter of Jacob Brown, whose sketch appears elsewhere
in this Album. To this marriage were born three children,
viz.: Luliend E., Freddy, and John M. Mr. Dobson is in
sympathy with the Republican party and is largely interested in all
public measures that promise to benefit the community in which he
resides.
