The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 594

GEORGE WIRT.

George Wirt is the owner of one of the finest fruit ranches in the valley and is
still giving personal supervision to his business interests although he has now
passed the eighty-first milestone on life's journey. He was born in Germany,
February 2, 1837, a son of Michel and Christine Wirt, who came to the United
States in 1850, when their son George was a youth of thirteen years, and settled
at Lexington, Ohio, where they continued to make their home until they were
called to their final rest.

George Wirt lived in Ohio until he reached the age of sixteen years and then
removed to West Union, Iowa, where he made his home for two years. He afterward
went to Faribault county, Minnesota, and took up a homestead, upon which he
resided until 1861, when the Civil war was declared and he put aside all
business and personal interests in order to respond to the country's call for
aid. He joined Company 1, of the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, on the 1st of October,
1861, and served until June 6, 1866. He became a sergeant of the troop that was
called Colonel Lowe's Bloodhounds and he participated in a number of hotly
contested engagements, proving his valor on many a southern battlefield.

When the war was over Mr. Wirt returned to his farm, which he very successfully
conducted. Later he spent three years in Ohio upon the old home place, for
during the period of the grasshopper scourge in Minnesota he rented his land in
that state. Later, however, he returned to Minnesota, where he continued to
reside until 1903, when he sold his property there and made his way to the
northwest. On reaching Yakima county, being pleased with the district and its
opportunities, he purchased one hundred and one acres of land in Fruitvale, of
which at that time only four acres had been planted to fruit. He afterward sold
all but forty acres of the tract. He now has twenty acres in apple orchards,
peaches, cherries, pears and plums. During seventeen years he was also owner of
an excellent fruit ranch on Nob Hill but has recently sold it. His home place is
one of the best fruit ranches in the valley and the fruit which he raises is of
the largest size, and finest quality and flavor. He has always held to the
highest standards and the progressiveness of his methods is manifest in the
excellent results which have attended his labors.

In the year 1867 Mr. Wirt was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Carlton, of
Minnesota, a native of Illinois, and to them were born the following children:
Allen J., a rancher on the reservation, who is married but has no children;
George, who died in August, 1918, leaving a wife and five children, who are now
living with his father; Clarence, at home; Fred, who is now engaged in ranching
on the reservation and has a wife and three children; Amanda C., at home; Orpha
J., who died in Minnesota; William H., who is with the Medical Corps of the
United States army in France; Harry M., who is a graduate of the Yakima high
school and the State University and is now in the aviation department of the
United States army at Rockwell field, California.

The military record of Mr. Wirt covers two years and two months of service in
the United States army, after which he reenlisted in Tennessee under Major
Brackett as a member of Company B. of Brackett's Battalion, serving all told
four years and seven months. After the close of the Civil war, in which he bore
an honorable and valiant part, he was in the Indian service until mustered out
at Indianapolis on the 6th of June, 1866. He proudly wears the little bronze
button that proclaims him a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, his
connection being with Meade Post, No. 9, and through this association he
maintains pleasant relations with his old military comrades with whom he
marched to the defense of the Stars and Stripes during the dark days of the
Civil war. His political allegiance has always been given to the republican
party and he was an active worker in its ranks while a resident of Minnesota. He
belongs to Yakima Lodge, No. 24. F. & A. M., having been made a Mason in 1864,
while a member of the army, and he is also connected with the Royal Arch Chapter
at Yakima. He has membership with the Yakima County Horticultural Union and he
is numbered among those citizens of German birth who are truly American in
spirit, in interests and in actions. Fighting for the nation during the Civil
war, he has never ceased to thrill over every record of the triumph of American
arms and over every story of the progress of this land, in which he has now
lived for almost three score years and ten.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.