Bios: George H. Rivenburgh: from Luzerne County, PA

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History of Henry County Illinois, Henry L. Kiner, Volume II, Chicago:
The Pioneer Publishing Company, 1910


GEORGE H. RIVENBURGH (there are two pictures, one of him and one of her)

For fifty-six years George H. Rivenburgh has been a resident of Henry
County and since 1907 has made his home in Geneseo, where he is living
retired after long years of active connection with the farming interests
of this part of the state.  He has comprehensive knowledge of the
history of the county in that he has been an eye witness of many of the
changes which have occurred while in many instances he has been an
active participant in events which have had bearing upon its annals.  He
was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, May 18, 1845, and is a son of
Hiram and Mary (Burdick) Rivenburgh, the former a native of New York and
the latter of the Keystone state.  The paternal grandparents were Peter
and Ruth Rivenburgh, natives of Pennsylvania.  The maternal grandfather
was Billings Burdick, a native of Connecticut, whence he removed to
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and there followed the occupation of
farming.  He wedded Mary Cottrell and both lived to an advanced age.
They had nine children but only one survives‹Emeline, the widow of John
Barker and a resident of Geneseo.  Billings Burdick was the son of
Billings Burdick, Sr., who came from France with marquis de Lafayette,
served as a soldier of the Revolutionary War and afterward settled in
Connecticut.  Hiram Rivenburgh, the father, always followed the
occupation of farming as a life work and came to Henry County, Illinois,
in 1853, at which time he took up his abode in Osco Township, where he
purchased one hundred and sixty acres of school land.  He as an
enterprising, energetic and successful business man and as he prospered
in his undertakings he added to his farm lands until his possessions
aggregated six hundred acres.  For about forty-five years he remained in
this county and them removed to Peabody, Kansas, where he died at the
age of seventy-five years.  His wife survived him and passed away at the
age of eighty-four years.  Mr. Rivenburgh was a member of the
Presbyterian Church, while his wife was an equally consistent Christian
in her relation to the Baptist Church.  Their family numbered four sons
and one daughter, Sophia, the wife of Philip Weidlein, of Kansas City,
Missouri; George H., of Geneseo; Clark, deceased; Le Grand, of Santa Fe,
New Mexico; and Hiram, who is living in Peabody, Kansas.

George H. Rivenburgh was only eight years of age at the time of the
arrival of the family in Henry County and the experiences of farm life
early became familiar to him as his youth was passed in the routine work
of the fields and in the acquirement of an education in the district
schools.  He remained at home until he had attained his majority and
then located upon a tract of land of his own comprising eighty acres.
This he improved and to it added eighty acres but later sold that
property and made investment in two hundred and eighty acres in Scott
county, Iowa, and fifty acres a mile east of Geneseo.  Through the years
of his active connection with agricultural interests he followed
progressive methods of farming, carefully tilling the soil, rotating his
crops and using the latest improved machinery for the plowing, planting
and harvesting.  Thus as the years passed he won substantial success,
and in December, 1907, with a handsome competence acquired thorough his
own labors he retired from active life.

Mr. Rivenburg was married May 5, 1872, to Miss Almira Newton, a daughter
of Zarah and Julia (Rivenburgh) Newton, who were natives of Pennsylvania
and New York, respectively.  The former was a son of Benjamin Newton, a
native of Connecticut and a farmer by occupation.  He married Sarah
Covey and they had one son.  After her death Mr. Newton married again
and had a large family by the second union.  He died at an advanced
age.  The maternal grandfather of Mrs. George H. Rivenburgh was John
Rivenburgh, who spent the greater part of his life in Pennsylvania and
carried on agricultural pursuits.  He married Nellie Dougherty, and both
died when well advanced in years.  They had four children including
Julia, who became Mrs. Newton.  It was in the year 1844 that Mr. And
Mrs. Zarah Newton removed to Stark County, Illinois, where they spent
their remaining days, the former dying at the age of eighty-three years
and latter when seventy-four years of age.  Of the eleven children born
unto them, six reached years of maturity, namely:  William; Adeline, the
wife of Henry Hitchcock, of Nebraska; Sarah, the wife of Andrew Jackson,
of Greeley, Colorado; Nellie, the wife of Cornelius Horn, also of
Greeley; Almira, the wife of George H. Rivenburgh; and Wilmot, who lives
near Toulon, Stark County, Illinois.

The marriage of Mr. And Mrs. Rivenburgh has been blessed with four sons
and one daughter:  Nettie is the wife of Charles S. Young, of Geneseo,
and they have two children‹Worling R. and Annette; Ward who is the
United States Express agent in Geneseo, married Elsie Rice and they have
one son, Charles Henry; Scott, died when ten months old; and Ralph died
in infancy as did the first born.  Mr. and Mrs. Rivenburgh are members
of the Congregational Church, and Mr. Rivenburgh gives his political
allegiance to the Prohibition Party.  He is an advocate of temperance
and morality and in fact of all that is just and right in man'¹
relations with his fellowmen.  He stands for truth, for reform and
progress and in his own life measures up to the highest standards of
honorable manhood.