GEORGE ABERNATHY, retired farmer, living at Murray, was born in Ross County, Ohio, September 22, 1821, a son of John Abernathy, who was born near Warm Springs, Virginia, and a grandson of John Abernathy, who served in the Revolutionary war. The grandfather settled with his family in Ross County, Ohio, in 1808, when the principal inhabitants were Indians and wild animals. A few of the members of his family were captured by the Indians who covered them with splinters which were then set on fire, leaving great scars on their persons. In the spring of 1828 our subject’s father removed with his family to Parke County, Indiana, where they endured all the hardships incident to pioneer life, and here George was reared among Indians, his home being a rude log cabin. He was married February 1, 1844, to Sarah Evans, a daughter of Nathaniel Evans, a pioneer of Parke County, and of the two children born to this union one is living, a son, John, now living in Madison Township of Clarke County. In 1844 our subject, accompanied by his wife, his brother William and his family, immigrated with ox teams to Logan County, Illinois, where they settled on Salt Creek Prairie. After his wife’s death in 1849 he returned with his two children to Parke County, Indiana, and early in the year 1850 he located in Wapello County, Iowa. He was again united in marriage February 28, 1850, taking for his second wife Elizabeth Griggs, a daughter of Eaton Griggs who, in early days, was a noted gun smith in Agency City, Iowa. To this union have been born twelve children, ten still living--Mrs. Sarah E. Turner, William E., George P., Charles L., Henry L., Andrew J., Emma J., Maggie L., Viola A. and Luther M. He went to Agency City in May, 1853, thence to La Harpe, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1853. He returned to Wapello County, Iowa, 1858, and in 1860 removed to Sullivan County, Missouri. In the spring of 1861 he traded his farm in Missouri for one in Iowa, the farm being in Monroe County, to which he removed with his family in August, 1861. In 1861 he went to Washington Territory and engaged in mining there and in Oregon and Idaho with his three brothers. They had formed a company composed of eighty-four men on their way out there at Fort Kearney on the Platte River. Two of the brothers are still in Idaho, and the third is now living in Utah. Our subject returned to Iowa in the fall of 1863, and in 1865 settled in Madison Township, Clarke County, where he remained till 1883, since which he has resided at Murray Springs. When our subject was fourteen years old his father gave him a hand sickle, which is still in his possession, and when a young man he used a plow with a wooden mold board, in his agricultural pursuits. After coming to Clarke County, Iowa, he used a one-horse shovel plow, a two-horse sulky turning plow and two-horse corn planter and check rower, a two-horse sulky cultivator and combined reaper and mower, and a self rake. -

Clarke County(IA) Historical and Biographical Record by Lewis Publishing, 1886. Page 11