Please direct replies to Cindy Cole, ccole(a)jam.rr.com.
This biography is from a book by Cindy's great-aunt, Samuel Upton's daughter,
Phoebe Ellen Upton Hamilton. The date on the book is June 1, 1916. The book is entitled
Gleaning from Upton Family Records.
Samuel George Upton
Samuel George, born May 16, 1807, was left without a father's care when in his third
year. His uncle, Stephen, and aunt, Esther, living on a farm near Bangall, N.Y. -- the
house is still of good appearance, though more than a century old -- took him to rear.
While still a youth, he became dissatisfied with his surroundings and left his uncle, to
find employment with a cabinet maker.
Being of a slender, delicate frame, the physician advised him to seek a more genial
climate, and in the early '30s he joined his uncle, Daniel, then with a strong
Friends' colony near Richmond, Ind. Hereabouts he taught school, tended saw and grist
mills, practiced land surveying, studied law, and his license to practice is dated April
15, 1840.
On April 5, 1840, he met Ann L. Jeanes, as she was returning home from church, and on May
5 they were married at her father's home, three miles from Richmond. Within the year
they were domiciled in their own home in Bluffton, Wells Co., Ind. where all their
children, but one, were born. It was there, perhaps, he spent the busiest and happiest
years of his life. In 1847 he was made prosecuting attorney for the county of Wells. In
1850 he began the publication of one of the publication of one of the strongest Democratic
organs in the State, "The Bluffton Banner," a paper that still survives. In
1853 he received the appointment of postmaster.
But all these early years Wells County was the home of the severest agues, and for the
sake of health he moved his family to southern Indiana, in 1856. Here he established two
papers, "Pike County News" Petersburg, and "Washington Chronicle,"
Davies County. These had same outside forms, the local matter on inside pages was
different.
During the heated political campaign of 1860, he declared if Lincoln was elected, he would
leave the North. Immediately after the inauguration he took his family to Vicksburg,
landing March 27, 1861. Two years later, when Vicksburg was in the throes of investment
by Grant and his forces, S. G. Upton offered himself for field duty. Because of his
slight physique and snow-white hair, he was considered incapable, but was given a
responsible position in the commissary department, where he rendered faithful and
intelligent service, and later was placed in the responsible office of provost marshal.
Immediately after the surrender he obtained permission to take his family to North
Louisiana, on the steamboat carrying the paroled soldiers from the hospital in Vicksburg
to the one in Shreveport. The war ended, he returned to Vicksburg and neighborhood,
ruined in fortune as all of the Southland were, and after various vicissitudes, his final
home was in New Orleans, where he died April 3, 1882. His widow died February 20, 1889.
Their seven children were:
Phebe Ellen, b. 1841, mar. Rev. B. J. Hamilton.
Ruth Ann, b. July 28, 1843, d. Jan. 5, 1849
Mary Emily, b. May 14, 1846, d. Jan. 5, 1849
Elden Stephen, b. 1850, mar. Katherine Claggett Miller.
Amy H., b. 1853, mar. E. T. Harvey
Ida May, b. 1856.
Annie, b. July 5, 1859, d. Jan. 21, 1881