Catlin, Ill., Jan. 22 - George W. Wolfe, who has been a continuous resident of Vermilion County since 1835, dropped dead at the corner of Vermilion and Sandusky Streets here about 9:25 o'clock this morning from what is believed to have been heart disease and was dead within a few minutes. It has been the custom of the aged man to walk from his home in the west part of the village to the post office each morning after his mail and he invariably came shortly after 9 o'clock. Just as he rounded the corner at the north side of Vermilion Street and started south on Sandusky Street, Frank Carrigan and Charles Compton, who were standing at the corner at the Noble Restaurant, saw him throw up both hands and fall heavily backwards. Fortunately he did not strike the hard surface of the cement walk, however, but fell into the soft dirt at the side and just in front of the local telephone exchange. Messrs. Carrigan and Compton both hurried to his side, but he was practically dead when they reached him and by the time he was carried into the residence of Mrs. Marinda Morris, diagonally across the street, life was clearly extinct.
When he left home the aged man was feeling as well as usual and it is presumed that he must have been suddenly overcome with an attack of heart failure, the result of his advanced age. Mr. Wolf[e] was born in Sullivan County, Tennessee, February 22, 1832, and was therefore almost 81 years of age. He came with his parents to this vicinity when little more than two years of age and has therefore lived in this section of the County for 78 years. He is believed to be the last survivor of the men who worked at the old Salt Works north of here at a time when all roads in this part of the country led in that direction. As a young man, Mr.
Wolf[e] operated one of the big hand pumps employed in pumping the salt water from the wells and also assisted in boiling the water in the old kettles and reducing it to salt. There were a few Indians here yet when Mr. Wolf[e] was a small boy and he could tell many interesting stories of the pioneer days in this section of the country. He was united in marriage in 1854 to Miss Ann Caraway, daughter of one of the pioneer settlers in the vicinity of Catlin, and they were the parents of five children, three of whom survive, Mrs. Bertha Siddell, who kept house for him since the death of his wife some twenty years ago; Abra[ha]m
Wolfe, a farmer residing near this village, and Henry, who resides in Florida. It is doubtful if there is another resident of the County who has lived within its borders for a greater period than Mr. Wolfe or has been more closely identified with its history. He was a man universally esteemed and was straightforward and honest in all his dealings. The funeral will be held some time Sunday, the hour not yet being announced on account of not having heard from his absent son." DANVILLE PRESS-DEMOCRAT, 24 Jan. 1913.