great-grandfather
 |
| George Eden Carroll |
George Eden Carroll
was born October 7, 1850, in Waitsfield, Vermont, the son of George Benjamin
Carroll and Susan Johnson. His only sibling was Herbert Eugene, born in 1855. He
grew up in Waitsfield in a household that included his grandmother Polly, and
for a while, his uncle Pliny and his wife. In 1870, he was enrolled in the
seminary program at the Methodist Episcopal-affiliated Vermont Conference
Seminary in Montpelier. His cousin, Warren Green, was also attending the 3-year
liberal arts program. In 1873, George won 50 cents for a 2-year old colt he
entered in the Mad River Valley Fair. The fair gave prizes for livestock,
produce, maple sugar, agricultural implements and ‘domestic manufactures’. For several years, he appeared to be farming
and working in a store co-owned by his father.
On July 6, 1876,
George Carroll married Emily Louise Stackhouse in Peveril, Province of Quebec,
Canada, where Emily had grown up. Their first child, Charles Eden, was born in Waitsfield
in 1877.
Sometime between
1877 and 1880, George’s family moved to Danbury, Iowa, a village of 17
families, where George kept store. Three additional children were born in
Danbury: Maude Emily (1881), Effie G. (1882) and Ira Munson (1890). Effie died
before her second birthday of croup.
In 1880, George
bought a store from Dan Thomas, but it appears that he had financial trouble
and had to sell it back to Dan. But Dan hired him to run the store, which also
served as a post office and stage stop. In those days, there were no rural
routes and settlers picked up their mail at the post office. Supposedly, George
was inefficient and crafty and Dan lost the store to George by 1884. Later,
George sold the store to Shepard, Field and Cook, merchants from Council
Bluffs, but continued to manage the store. In those days, a lot of business was
done by bartering. Settlers would bring in bushels of grain or potatoes, dairy
products or meat, and exchange them for needed supplies.
In about 1892, after
his son Charles graduated from high school at the age of 15, George and his
family moved to Sioux City, where George worked as a traveling salesman for a
variety of companies, including Sioux City Marble and Granite Works and a
wholesale grocer. His son Charles worked on a printing press at the publishers
of the 2 Sioux City papers, but later attended seminary. His daughter Maude
attended a business college and worked as a stenographer for the railroad, a
law firm, a publishing company and Standard Oil Company! By the time Ira was
19, he was a driver for a meat company.
Sometime between
1908 and 1909, George, wife Emily, daughter Maude and son Ira moved to Chicago,
although Ira quickly returned to Sioux City. George rented his home in Chicago and
worked independently as a salesman of wholesale groceries.
George Eden Carroll
died on December 8, 1917, age 67, in Chicago, of emphysema, heart disease and
sub-acute bronchitis. He was buried in Oak Woods cemetery in Chicago.
