Kings County CA Archives Biographies.....Cody, George Warner January 31, 1842 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Kellie Crnkovich markkell95@aol.com and Kathy Sedler December 21, 2005, 1:23 pm Author: History of Tulare and Kings Counties Near Pontiac, Mich., George Warner Cody was born January 31, 1842. When he was seven years old he was taken to Wisconsin, on the removal of his parents to that state. From there they went to Nebraska, where he lived until 1874, except during the term of his military service, variously employed in milling, merchandising, farming and other useful work. In 1861, at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., he enlisted in Company H, Eighth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Infantry, and his recollections of the Civil war, in which he was in fifteen general engagements and many skirmishes, includes scenes at Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga and a number of Confederate prisons. After his capture at Chickamauga he was confined at Ringgold, then in the bull pen at Atlanta, then in Libby prison, then at Pemberton, then at Danville, then at Andersonville, then at Charleston, then at Florence. He escaped from Andersonville and was recaptured while attempting to cross Flint River. His experiences at Florence were terminated by his exchange. He was one of six out of one hundred who were liberated, the others being kept until the end of the war. After his exchange he was sent to Annapolis, Md., where he was paroled and forwarded to Fort Leavenworth. After Mr. Cody was discharged at Fort Leavenworth he returned to Nebraska, where he was warmly welcomed after his fifteen months' incarceration in Confederate prison pens, and took up farming. Later he operated a grist mill and sold goods until 1874, when he came to Tulare county and located near Armona. He bought one hundred and sixty acres of land south of Hanford and one hundred and sixty acres two miles south of Lemoore and farmed tracts of rented land aggregating seventeen hundred acres. From 1874 to 1881 he raised grain and broom corn, then sold his property and for the next five years lived at Los Angeles. Next we find him located near Santa Ana, where he planted twenty-seven acres to walnut trees and fifteen acres to raisins. Coming to Kings county, he bought thirty-four acres northwest of Hanford, a part of which was unimproved, and now has seven acres in vineyard and twenty-five acres in peaches and apricots. His property is improved with a good house and adequate outbuildings which he erected after it came into his possession. He was one of the organizers of the Last Chance Ditch Company and helped to construct its improvements, and he was identified also, in the period 1874-1881, with the promotion of the People's Ditch and the Lower Kings River Ditch. In 1866 Mr. Cody married Mary M. Gray and they have had five children: Thorley G., Harvey P., Rinney, deceased, Andrew Milo and Terrill, deceased. It is probable that no part of his life will always be as fresh in Mr. Cody's memory as that part of it which he passed in Confederate prisons. He considers himself fortunate in having come out of that experience alive. "Clara Barton told me," he says, "that she put up thirteen thousand gravestones at Andersonville and one stone for the graves of two thousand unnamed soldiers. There were seven thousand deaths in Florence prison and there is no record of those who died in the other prisons that I was in." Additional Comments: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 pp. 536-537 Transcribed by Kathy Sedler File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/kings/bios/cody197bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb