My Genealogy Hound

HON. GEORGE A. HURON.
The substantial citizenship of Topeka is largely made up of those who lay claim to other and more Eastern States as to places of birth, and not a few of these came upon the arena of life in the noble old State of Indiana. Such is the fact concerning one of Topeka’s leading professional men, Hon. George A. Huron, who was born March 29, 1838, in Hendricks County, Indiana, 12 miles west of the beautiful city of Indianapolis. He is a son of Benjamin Abbott and Katherine (Harding) Huron.

The ancestral records of Judge Huron’s family are easily obtainable and are of unquestionable reliability. The family is of Scotch extraction, and it is learned from volume entitled “Littell’s Genealogies, First Settlers of the Passaic Valley,” that our subject’s great-grandfather, Seth MacHuron, was born November 11, 1729, in New England, married Mary Hazen and in 1753 removed to Morristown, New Jersey, where all their children were born. The family belonged to the First Presbyterian Church at Morristown, from which city they removed in 1787, to Ulster County, New York. After the death of Seth MacHuron, it is chronicled that his four sons, Othniel, Enos, Eli and Silas, were persuaded to drop the old Scotch prefix and be real “American boys,” and since that time the family name has been written either Hurin or Huron. Othniel MacHuron, who was the grandfather of our subject, was born January 10, 1759, married Bethiah St. John and later settled in Warren County, Ohio.

Benjamin Abbott Huron, father of our subject, was born near Lebanon, Ohio, December 31, 1811, and removed to Hendricks County, Indiana, in 1832. On December 10, 1835, he married Katherine Harding, who was born August 4, 1815, at Campbellsville, Kentucky, and removed to Indiana in 1833. After marriage the young couple settled in the Indiana forest, where they developed a farm, reared a creditable family and became the worthy leaders and promoters of the various agencies and enterprises which go to the founding of a happy and stable community.

George A. Huron grew up under the home roof and his experiences were those which naturally came to a boy who was commendably assisting his parents in making a productive farm out of the unbroken forest, and while they were not notably different from those of many others, the experienced man can recognize that each had its value in the development of self-reliance and physical endurance. From 18 to 23 years of age, he alternately attended and taught school, enjoying the advantages afforded by the public schools in his locality, supplemented by an academic training at Danville, Indiana, where a Methodist academy was supported. His ambitions were in the direction of educational work and he proposed making special preparation for the position of teacher, but on the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted in the service of his country.

In August, 1861, Mr. Huron enlisted in Company I, 7th Reg., Indiana Vol. Inf., was promoted to the rank of quartermaster sergeant and was mustered out with his regiment, September 20, 1864. He saw much hard service and with his comrades participated in innumerable skirmishes and in these battles: Winchester, Front Royal, Slaughter Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Ashby’s Gap, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spottsylvania, Po River, North Anna River, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, siege of Petersburg and Yellow Tavern. After he was mustered out of a service in which he had made an honorable record, Mr. Huron was commissioned by Governor Oliver P. Morton as Indiana State sanitary agent for the armies of the Potomac and James, with his headquarters at City Point, Virginia, in which duty he remained until the close of the war. He arrived at the front, at Appomattox Court House, the day after the surrender, with the first sanitary supplies to reach the Union Army.

In December, 1865, Mr. Huron was appointed clerk in the Third Auditor’s office, United States Treasury Department, Washington, D. C., where he remained until June, 1868, when he graduated from the law school of Columbian (now George Washington) University. In August, 1868, he removed to Valley Falls, Kansas, and practiced law in Jefferson County until the spring of 1883, when he removed to Topeka, which has remained his home ever since and where he has been prominent in his profession. In 1868 he was elected probate judge of Jefferson County and held the office two terms.

Judge Huron was married July 31, 1861, in Hendricks County, Indiana, to Mary Frances Freeman, who is a daughter of Blackstone and Sarah J. (Bennett) Freeman. The surviving children of this union are: Horace, born May 10, 1862, who resides at Rock Island, Illinois; Mary H. (Hale), of Topeka, Kansas; and George B., of Galveston, Texas.

In politics Judge Huron has always been a Republican and is an able advocate of the principles of his party and has done much effective speech-making in various campaigns. He has identified himself with all public enterprises and in various ways has aided much in the development of the State. Since March, 1872, he has been an active Odd Fellow and for several years was grand treasurer of the Grand Encampment of that order; he is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and of the Knights and Ladies of Security, of which last-named society he has been the head of the law department since its organization. He is also an active member of Lincoln Post and a worker in the Grand Army of the Republic. Since his 16th year he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a popular citizen of Shawnee County and in his profession ranks with its leaders. His portrait is shown on a preceding page.