Howard-Dearborn-Marion County IN Archives Biographies.....Tate, George D. 1867 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 16, 2006, 3:02 am

Author: Jackson Morrow

CAPTAIN GEORGE D. TATE.

   In placing the subject of this sketch in the front rank of Kokonm's business
men, simple justice is done to a biographical fact,universally recognized
throughout Howard and adjoining counties by men at all familiar with his
history. A man of judgment, sound discretion and business ability of a high
order, he has managed with tactful success, important enterprises and so
impressed his individuality upon the community as to gain recognition among its
leading citizens and public-spirited men of affairs.

   George D. Tate is a native of Indiana, born in Lawrenceburg on the 11th day
of January, 1838. His father, William Tate, of Boston, Massachusetts, was an
early settler of Lawrenceburg, and a man of considerable local prominence. He
was by trade a carpenter, and for a number of years followed his chosen calling
in the above city where, in addition to erecting many private dwellings and
public buildings, he also constructed a large ware house on the river bank at
Lawrenceburg, where he received large consignments of merchandise for
Indianapolis and intermediate Indiana points. William Tate was one of the
leading spirits in arousing an interest in the matter of constructing a railroad
between Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis, and in the prosecution of his efforts in
behalf of the enterprise he made a horseback trip between the two places for the
purpose of securing the right of way. In due time the road was surveyed and the
right of way secured, after which work on its construction was carried forward
as rapidly as circumstances would admit, the leaders in the enterprise being Mr.
Tate and George H. Dunn, to whom perhaps more than to any other interested
parties, is due the credit of pushing the completion of the road and putting it
in successful operation. For many years Mr. Tate's ware house in Lawrenceburg
was the distributing place for nearly all the cities and towns of central and
southern Indiana and his business grew and prospered as long as he gave it his
attention. After becoming interested in railway construction he removed to the
city of Indianapolis where his death subsequently occurred at the ripe old age
of eighty-seven years.

   The early life of George D. Tate was spent in the place of his birth, and
while still a young man he turned his attention to business pursuits and for
some years was engaged in different lines of enterprise. While in Indianapolis,
in the year 1867, he chanced to observe three carloads of very fine poplar
lumber, which upon inquiry he ascertained was manufactured near Kokomo and
shipped from that place. Being familiar with the business he at once decided to
investigate the territory from which this consignment came. Accordingly he made
a trip to Kokomo in the year indicated and it was not long thereafter until his
business was extended to Howard county, where he first began taking the out-put
of several mills and shipping ash, walnut and poplar, upon quite an extensive
scale. By gradually extending the scope of his operations into other parts of
the country he became within a few years one of the largest and most successful
lumber dealers in northern Indiana, purchasing the out-put of about twenty mills
at Kokomo and various other places, from each of which points large shipments
were made and a great and growing business built up. At one time he had on hand
four and a half million feet of hardwood lumber, which he disposed of at a
liberal profit. The better to prosecute and extend his lumber interests he
employed experts to investigate the wooded territory and make purchases and to
such a magnitude did his business grow that for a number of years his sales
amounted to considerable in excess of a half million dollars annually, shipping
much of the fine walnut to Europe to say nothing of the great demand for his
lumber in all the leading cities of the United States. Mr. Tate continued the
lumber business with marked success until the lumber supply was exhausted in
1879-80, at which time he turned his attention to other and more remunerative
interests. In company with several other parties, he was instrumental in
establishing at Elwood the Plate Glass Works, which was later merged with the
Kokomo plant and was subsequently sold to the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company.

   He continued to reside at Kokomo and in due time added coal to his other
interests and is now and has been for some time past the leader in that line of
trade in Howard county. In addition to supplying the great bulk of the local
demand, he wholesales vast quantities of coal to other points. Mr. Tate is
vice-president and a director of the Indiana Rubber & Insulated Wire Company at
Jonesboro, an enterprise of rapid growth, which now does a large annual business
and which has not been in the least affected by the recent financial panic. He
is also identified with various other business and industrial enterprises and
takes an active part in all matters relating to the material growth and
advancement of the city of Kokomo and Howard county.

   Mr. Tate served twelve years in the city council and during his incumbency
introduced many important measures and labored faithfully and conscientiously
for the interests of his constituents and the municipality in general, proving
an able leader, whose efforts and influence were ever exerted for the public
good. He owns a beautiful farm in Clay township on which he has made a number of
valuable improvements and the cultivation of which is carried on under his
direction and management.

   When the national horizon became overcast with dark and ominous clouds of the
Civil war, Mr. Tate was among the first to tend his services to the government
in the time of peril. He enlisted in 1861 as a private in Company F,
Thirty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and at the end of thirteen months was
discharged on account of disability. Two weeks later he was appointed first
lieutenant and quartermaster of the Eighty-third Indiana Infantry, Second
Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, under the command of General John A. Logan. In
this capacity he served until the close of the war, taking part in a number of
campaigns and marching with Sherman to the sea, during which experience he had
to do a great deal of foraging for his command, this taking him into a few
dangerous situations with occasional skirmishes with the enemy. During his term
of service he was breveted captain, and as such received his discharge, having
made a creditable record during his army experience, achieved an honorable
standing of which any soldier may well feel proud. Captain Tate is the only
staff officer of the Eighty-third Indiana now living and of the entire regiment,
but few remain to tell the story of the dark and perilous period when treason
was rife and the gallant ship of state almost stranded on the rocks of disunion.
   He was a member of the commission appointed to visit Vicksburg and locate the
monuments to his regiment on that bloody field, which duty he discharged well
and faithfully, and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Since the war,
Captain Tate has kept in close touch with military matters, especially those
relating to his comrades of the Eighty-third, the annual reunions of which he
always attends, these meetings with their interesting incidents being among his
most pleasant and agreeable experiences.

   Captain Tate was married at Versailles, Indiana, to Helen Kincaid, who has
borne him three children, Anna, wife of A. G. Siebering, manager of the Apperson
Auto Company, of Kokomo, and Harry F., who is associated with his father in
business. William Francis, the first in order of birth, is deceased.

   The captain is independent in politics, but has never sought nor held
political office. Nevertheless he takes a keen and active interest in public
questions and believes it to be the duty of all who exercise the elective
franchise, to inform themselves on whatever issue may be before the people for
settlement, and to cast their votes in whatever wav their conscience and
judgment may dictate. In the affairs of the city in which he resided for so many
years and with which his interests are still identified, he has been connected
with a number of movements which have had their aim in the upbuilding of the
town and the welfare of the community. His career, though strenuous and to a
marked degree progressive and successful, has always been characterized by
honorable dealing and in the prosecution of his large and important interests he
has ever been mindful of the sanctity of his obligations and the ethics of
business life. Born in the ranks of the common people who fight the battles, pay
the taxes, command all the great enterprises and give stability to the body
politic, he retains his liking for them which they in turn fully reciprocate.
Independent, energetic and resourceful in business, a notable figure in the
public affairs of his city and county and a broad minded citizen with the
interests of his fellow men at heart, Captain Tate fills a conspicuous place in
the civic life of Kokomo and is destined long to remain one of the leading
figures in the history of his adopted city and county.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

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