George C. Willett Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Page 469

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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GEORGE C. WILLETT, the present popular deputy postmaster of Ree 
Heights, South Dakota, is one of the leading and representative 
citizens of that place. In business circles also he takes a foremost 
rank, his success as a druggist being all the more notable from the 
fact that it has been secured by his own judicious management. 

New York has furnished this state many of its most energetic and useful 
citizens and prominent among these is Mr. Willett, whose birth occurred 
in Washington county, March 3, 1838. His parents, James W. and Rachel 
M. (Tomb) Willett, removed from New York to Kendall county, Illinois, 
in 1844, and there the father engaged in farming until his death, which 
occurred in 1861. The mother was killed by being thrown from a carriage 
in August, 1877. In their family were five sons and two daughters, of 
whom three were in the Union service during the Civil war and two were 
killed in battle. The father served with distinction as a colonel in 
the war of 1812, having enlisted from New Jersey. 

George C. Willett, the only one of the family living in Hand county, 
South Dakota, was reared on a farm in Kendall county, Illinois, while 
his education was acquired in the public schools of that locality. 
Having become thoroughly familiar with agricultural pursuits, he 
followed that occupation in Illinois until the fall of 1882, when he 
came to Hand county and took up a claim in Riverside township, to which 
he removed his family the following spring. After operating his farm 
for five years, he located in Ree Heights, where he purchased a drug 
store and has since successfully engaged in business. 

In Illinois, Mr. Willett married Miss Charlotte L. Childs, a native of 
that state, and to them have been born three children: Ida, now the 
wife of Peter Watkins; Frank C. and Glenn O. Mrs. Willett is an earnest 
member of the Congregational church and a most estimable lady. In his 
political affiliations our subject is a Republican, and in 1 890 Mrs. 
Willett was appointed postmistress of Ree Heights, which positions she 
has since most creditably filled. Mr. Willett also has charge of the 
elevators of Ree Heights, and in all the relations of life has been 
found true to every trust reposed in him, his public and private life 
being alike above reproach.