Los Angeles-Sacramento County CA Archives Biographies.....Corey, George W. 1833 - 
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Author: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)

    GEORGE W. COREY, M. D., for about fifteen years a resident of California and
for nine years a citizen of Sawtelle, is a native of Edgar county, Ill., and was
born in the town of Grand View, January 10th, 1833. His father, Jonathan Corey,
was a thrifty farmer and incidentally a preacher in the M. E. Church. His
mother, by maiden name Diademia Griffith, was a daughter of John Griffith, a
farmer and brick manufacturer. Both the Coreys and the Griffiths were
full-fledged Scotchmen from Dumfriesshire. They were both ambitious men and left
the old estate in Scotland to seek their fortunes in a country of greater
opportunities. Jonathan Corey, upon his arrival in this country, went to Olean,
Cattaraugus county, Southern New York, where he married. There, he and John
Griffith jointly built a flat boat and with their families sailed down the
Allegheny river to Pittsburg ; thence down the Ohio river to Cincinnati, where
they landed. They were among the early pioneers of that now large and wealthy
city. Here John Griffith burned the first bricks and erected the first building
of Miami College. He afterwards removed to Rock county, Wis., and practically
retired from business at Evansville, where he died about 1858. Mr. Corey went on
westward and settled in Illinois, about thirty miles west of Terre Haute, in
Edgar county. There he lived until about 1836, when he moved to Rock Grove, in
Stevenson county, the same state on the Wisconsin state line. In 1850 he went to
Monroe, Green county, Wis., where he lived until his death in 1859. The mother
came west and spent her declining years with a daughter, Isabel Moses, at
Leavenworth, Kansas. She died at the age of eighty-six years, and was the mother
of sixteen children, fourteen of whom she raised to maturity.

    Dr. Corey, the subject of this sketch, spent his boyhood at Rock Grove,
Stevenson county, Ill. When yet a youth he purchased a scholarship in the
Lawrence University at Appleton, Wis., where he took a two years' course of
study. He then took up the study of medicine at Rockford, Ill., and later
graduated from the Rush Medical College, Chicago, February 16th, 1859. He
commenced the practice of medicine at Cherry Valley, seven miles east of
Rockford, where, on March 25th, 1861, he married Miss Margaret Ann Brantingham,
a daughter of Robert M. Brantingham, a wealthy capitalist and man-of-affairs of
New York City. Dr. Corey was an aggressive and wide-awake republican and was
chairman of the township republican committee, a member of Winnebago county
central committee and captain of the local Wide-Awakes, the political club of
the first Lincoln campaign. He rendered valued service to the party, making
stump speeches throughout his section of the country.

    October 22, 1861, he volunteered as a private in the Federal army and was
mustered into the 12th Illinois Cavalry. Soon thereafter he was appointed acting
assistant surgeon and later made surgeon of the 12th Missouri Cavalry. After
Lee's surrender and the close of the Civil War he was detailed to fight the
Indians on the western plains of Nebraska, and passed through a most strenuous
and exciting campaign. He served in the army about four and one-half years. As a
surgeon he held the rank of major, and, by an act of congress of August 1st,
1865, he was, for meritorious services as an officer, brevetted lieutenant-colonel.

    At the close of his military career he went to Rockford and settled up the
large estate of his father-in-law, who meantime had died. In 1866 he located in
Cheyenne City, Wyoming, where he practiced medicine successfully for about
twenty-one years. There in 1876, his wife died and for several years he traveled
in various sections of this country. In 1893 he came to California and spent six
years in Sacramento. In 1899 he came to Sawtelle, where he is practicing his
profession.

    Dr. Corey is a member of the Volunteers Retired List Association, an
organization composed of about six thousand retired army officers. It will be
seen that he has led a most active, eventful and useful life. He is a man of
broad information, quiet demeanor and is eminently successful in his profession.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities: prefaced with a brief
history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County,
1542 to 1908: supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and
embellished with views of historic landmarks and portraits of representative
people.

Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)


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