BIOGRAPHIES: Capt. Thomas J. GEORGE, Menomonie, Dunn County, WI

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Capt. Thomas J. George, Menomonie, was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, 
in 1842. He removed to Wilmington, Illinois, with his parents when he
was a child, and to Racine County, Wisconsin, in 1855; then to New Lisbon, 
where his father had a trading post with the Winnebago Indians. Here he 
learned the language of this tribe, which he spoke fluently, and has not 
yet forgotten. His knowledge of the language served a valuable purpose a 
few years later, when he was employed as interpreter, when troops were sent
to suppress a reported insurrection of Indians. He enlisted 08 May 1861 in 
Company D, 4th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, but was discharged for 
disability, at Ship Island 11 April 1862, and returned to Wisconsin. But he
still determined to share the fortunes of the army, although incapacitated 
for service as a soldier. When he had sufficiently recovered, he went to 
Nashville. Here he was pressed into the service as fireman of a locomotive,
and in that capacity went to Louisville. Here he met the 30th Wisconsin, for 
whom he had acted as interpreter at the time of the Indian scare. Through 
the influence of some of the officers of the 30th a position was secured 
for him in the  Government works at Louisville, where he remained till the 
close of the war. He then returned to Wisconsin, and came to Menomonie in 
1874. Was elected Sheriff of Dunn County in the fall of that year; was 
engaged in the sale of agricultural implements for several years; re-elected 
Sheriff in the fall of 1876. His wife was Miss Maggie Long.

-- From "History of Northern Wisconsin, An Account of Its Settlement, Growth,
Development and Resources; an Extensive Sketch of its Counties, Cities, 
Towns and Villages." Volume 1.  Chicago: the Western Historical Company, 
A.T. Andreas, Proprietor, 1881, page 284