DEMAREE, George W.

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Death of George W. Demaree.

Our citizens were much pained on Tuesday morning to learn of the death at 6 a.m. of one of our most respected citizens, George W. Demaree.

On Monday morning Mr. Demaree attended the temperance meeting at the Court House and seemed in the very best of health and spirits and made a brief speech. At the close of the meeting when preparing to start for home he stooped to pick up his crutches when he was stricken with apoplexy and fell forward on his face. He was picked up in an unconscious condition and carried to his home on Monroe Street, where he lingered until six o’clock next morning when he passed quietly away to that land where his loving life companion, who died only a few short months ago, awaited his coming.

Mr. Demaree was born in Franklin Township, Johnson County, Aug. 5, 1832. He was a son of Peter and Mary Demaree, who were among the first settlers of this county. On March 15, 1853, he married Elizabeth J., daughter of Wm. S. and Rhoda Miller. To this union were born five children, two of whom are still living. In 1862 he en­listed as a private in Company F, Seventh Indiana Volunteers. After he had been in the service some seven days he received a very severe injury of the spine by being run against by a gun carriage, but notwithstanding this severe injury which rendered him a cripple for life, he remained in active service for about a month. He was appointed post­master in this city under the Grant administration, a position in which he served the people very acceptably for four years. In 1875 he was elected recorder of this county and served the people of the county in this capacity with honesty and ability. At the ex­piration of his term as recorder he pur­chased an interest in the boot and shoe business of C. F. Webb, in which business he continued until his death.

By his death our city loses a worthy citizen, the Presbyterian church an ex­cellent and earnest member and officer, his children a true and loving father, and his neighbors a neighbor indeed.

The funeral took place from the Presbyterian church on Wednesday aft­ernoon at 2 o’clock and was largely attended, Rev. L. P. Marshall delivering the discourse. The remains were in­terred in Greenlawn cemetery.

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Link to George W. Demaree’s grave

Note: The Johnson County Indiana WPA Death Index, 1882–1920, page 51, referencing Book H-16, page 23, records that Geo. W. Demaree, a fifty-seven-year-old white male, died 27 Jan 1891 in Franklin.

Submitted by Mark McCrady and Cathea Curry