George Lincoln Trible

GEORGE L. TRIBLE. The history of the Village of Palco is more completely a history of the personal record and experience of George L. Trible than of any other one man. He was the first man on the townsite thirty years ago, and almost continuously from then has been selling merchandise in that town of Rooks County and in every other respect has measured up to the ideals and opportunities of a first citizen.

Mr. Trible was born in Haubstadt, Indiana, July 6, 1863. His grandfather was a native of Scotland, born in 1787, and came to this country and was one of the pioneers of Haubstadt, Indiana, although he had first settled in Kentucky. He died at Haubstadt in 1865, at the age of seventy-eight. William N. Trible, father of George L., was born in Kentucky in 1835, but grew up and married in Indiana. He was a farmer until 1861, when he enlisted in an Indiana regiment of infantry and saw notable service throughout the war. He fought at the battles of Shiloh, Gettysburg, in the Vicksburg campaign, and was with Sherman on the march to the sea. Like many other comrades he contracted disease while in the army and he died at the comparatively early age of thirty-three, in 1868, at Haubstadt, Indiana. William N. Trible married Mary Jane Woods, who was born in Indiana in 1840. She died in Graham County, Kansas, July 2, 1882. George Lincoln Trible was the oldest of her three children. James Newton, the second, is a farmer and ranchman at Palco. Rossetta married William Stout, a ranchman in Jeffreys, Oregon. Mrs. William N. Trible married for her second husband Eli D. Bryant, who died at Hutchinson, Kansas. By this marriage there were three children: Sylvester Marion Bryant, a farmer at Palco; Andrew Preston Bryant, a farmer at Sterling, Kansas; and C. Preston Bryant, a photographer of Las Vegas, New Mexico.

George Lincoln Trible was educated in the public and normal schools of Republican City, Nebraska. He was only five years old when his father died. In 1879, at the age of fifteen, he accompanied his mother and step-father to Graham County, Kansas, where his step-father homesteaded 160 acres and bet Uncle Sam $18 that he could live five years on same, but Uncle Saw won the bet. George L. Trible lived with his mother and step-father on this land for two years, and after they had given it up Mr. Trible then paid out on same. After having proved up on this tract of land, he then went farther west and became a rancher in the country near Denver, Colorado. Returning to Kansas, he ranched in Sheridan County two years, and in 1888 made his pioneer venture at Palco, where, as already noted, he was the first man on the townsite. He built a modest frame store and dwelling, and here for thirty years has had a continuous experience as a merchant, but with many changes in the development and improvements in keeping with the progress and growth of the community. In 1897 he put up a large modern store. The building was burned in 1900, was replaced by another store, and that, too, was burned in 1911. His present modern store dates from 1911. It is 50 by 150 feet, with basement 50 feet square, and there are also three warehouses, one 40 by 50, another 30 by 60, and a third 40 by 70 feet. The Trible store is a department store and handles all the varied stock required by the needs of a patronage which comes from a radius of fifteen miles around him. Many who came into this section of Western Kansas at the same time as Mr. Trible have long since departed, discouraged or unsuccessful, but he is one of those who remained faithful to his determination and choice of a location and has prospered accordingly. He owns farms of 4,000 acres in Rooks and Graham counties. He is a stockholder and director in the Palco State Bank and the Farmers and Merchants Elevator Company, is interested financially in several other enterprises, and has served as a member of the school board. He is a republican without aspirations for political honors, and is affiliated wth Palco Camp, Modern Woodmen of America.

On April 15, 1889, at Hill City, Kansas, Mr. Trible married Mary Etta Gish, daughter of John and Mary (Hoffman) Gish, who were among the first settlers of Rooks County, Kansas. Mrs. Trible has been a wonderful companion, a good wife and mother, and to her great credit is due in the accumulation of a great fortune. Mr. and Mrs. Trible have four children:

Clarence L., born August 7, 1892, is a graduate of the State Agricultural College at Manhattan and the Salina Business College. He is an electrician, merchant and rancher at Palco. Clarence L. was married to Bernice Frazey, member of a pioneer family, on December 28, 1914.

Vera V. Trible, the second child, born November 4, 1895, has distinguished herself in music and is a graduate of Palco High School. She married George Wesley White on July 22, 1915. Mr. White comes from a very notable family near Palco, and is now a merchant at Plainville, Kansas.

Ernest George Trible, third child, was born May 17, 1899. He graduated from the Palco High School and Salina Business College, and at present is associated with his father in merchandising and farming at Palco, Kansas. He is also an expert designer. He married on August 3, 1917, Maude Minnick, of Lincoln Center, Kansas.

Georgetta, the fourth and youngest child, was born January 21, 1911, and is now in public school, with a start that promises to make her the flower of the family.

Pages 2379-2380.