Shaver, F. A., Arthur P. Rose, R. F. Steele, and A. E. Adams, compilers.  "An
Illustrated History of Central Oregon." ("Embracing Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam,
Wheeler, Crook, Lake, & Klamath Counties")  Spokane, WA: Western Historical
Publishing Co., 1905.  p. 507.
 
GEORGE E. JAMES

     deputy county clerk of Sherman county, resides at Moro, the county seat. He
was born in Yamhill county, Oregon, January 29, 1879, the son of George W. and
Mary E. (Bennington) James, both natives of Illinois. The parents of the father
were from Ohio or Indiana, and were descendants of the old James family, early
colonial settlers in America. The first family came over in the Mayflower, and
were farmers. George W. James enlisted in 1862 in Company H, Seventy-seventh
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served until the end of the war, participating
in many battles and skirmishes. He was captured at the first assault on
Vicksburg and paroled the same day. He was a prominent member of the G. A. R.,
and our subscriber is a member of the Sons of Veterans at Eugene, Oregon, No.
78.
     Until he was six years of age our subscriber was reared in Yamhill county,
Oregon, and then the family removed to Sherman county. This was in 1885. The
parents, who had come to the state in 1878, secured land nine miles southeast of
Moro. Young James received his early education in the district schools in his
vicinity. In 1894 the family removed to Polk county, and he, entered the
Monmouth State Normal School, from which he was graduated in 1897. He then
entered the university at Eugene, where he pursued a thorough course in
electrical engineering, and thence he went to Pennsylvania, where he enjoyed the
benefits of a year's course in telegraphy in the Fisk Telegraph School at
Lebanon. Returning to Oregon he found lucrative employment with the Wells-Fargo
Express Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company at Eugene, and he was,
also, six months with the Southern Pacific Railway Company as assistant night
operator. At the termination of six months he rented his father's farm, and the
latter moved to Portland, where he died in 1901. At present the mother resides
at Moro with her son. The farm is now conducted by our subject.
     July 5, 1904, he was appointed deputy county clerk, under H. S. McDanel.
October 17, 1900 at Monkland, he was united in marriage to May Axtell, born in
Iowa, September 25, 1878, the daughter of Oliver W. and Lizzie M. (Black)
Axtell, both natives of Pennsylvania, and now living at Moro. The father is a
retired farmer who came to Sherman county in 1886. Our subject has no brothers
living; one, Arthur F., died at the age of five years in Sherman county. Mr.
James has three sisters ; Luella L., wife of J. C. Teale, a farmer near Monkland
; Metta G.,,wife of Perry C. Axtell, of Monkland ; and Jerusha C., wife of James
W. Hollenback, of Moro. Mr. and Mrs. James have one boy, Earl, born July 23,
1903. Mrs. James has four brothers and two, sisters living : Perry C., at
Monkland ; Chester, a school boy at Moro ; Herschel and Herbert, twins and
school boys ; Bertha V., wife of Robert K. Hartsock, of Albany, Oregon ; and
Nanna C., a school girl. Another sisters, Nellie, died in Iowa in childhood.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in July 2007 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.