BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

THE LEADING CITIZENS OF MADISON COUNTY

CONTENTS
Preface
Names Index
Portrait Index

GEORGE G. WALDRON, a defender of his country's flag in the late war, now Postmaster at Hamilton, Madison County, and since 1865 editor and proprietor of the Hamilton Sentinel, was born at Hamilton in July, 1842. He is a son of George R. Waldron, a journalist and a patriot of the War of the Rebellion, whose biographical sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. As therein stated, a far-off ancestor, the great-great-grandfather of the subject of the present sketch, was born in Holland, came to America at a very early day, and was one of the three original purchasers of Manhattan Island. George G. Waldron was one of ten children of George R. Waldron, and is the third of the seven that are still living. He was well educated in the district school, and when yet quite young was put to work in his father's printing-office to learn that trade. His talent, however, appeared to lie in the direction of art; and he was earnestly advised by his father's partner, ex-Postmaster-General Thomas L. James, to take instruction in engraving. But, his country being in need of soldiers, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York Volunteer Infantry in July 1862,, and was mustered into the service of the United States September 19, same year, as a private in Company A, of which company J. Hunt Smith was Captain. He served three and a quarter years, and saw much campaigning. In the battle of Gettysburg he was taken prisoner; but, being mistaken for an army nurse when the Confederates were collecting their prisoners to march them off to the South, he concealed himself in a blacksmith's shop, and thus eluded them. He did not, however, dodge the bullets of the other side quite so luckily, as he met with several narrow escapes, and received a bad flesh wound in his left arm, in consequence of which he was taken to Gettysburg hospital, and lay there thirteen weeks before he was able to rejoin his company. When he did rejoin them, they were at Jacksonville, Fla.; and there he was placed in charge of the printing-office, serving under General Birney two months, when he was transferred to Hilton Head, S.C., where he had charge of the government printing-office, and was also connected with the secret service under General Gilmore. After performing his duty faithfully for his full term, he was honorably discharged, and mustered out in July, 1865.
In the fall of 1863 Mr. Waldron secured a furlough, returned home, and married Mary A. Harrison, of Churchville, Monroe County, N.Y., a daughter of Edmund Harrison. Mr. and Mrs. Waldron have buried one son, Frankie, who died at the age of three years. They have one daughter, Jennie Estelle, an intelligent, studious girl, fifteen years of age, who is doing well in the general branches of learning and in music, and, like her father, has a natural taste for art. Among the many specimens of the handiwork of Mr. Waldron in the line of drawing and carving is a spread eagle, twelve by twenty-eight inches, carved out with a knife from a cherry board. Mr. Waldron is a member of Arthur L. Brooks Post, No. 272, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he has held all the offices at different times. He is a Knight Templar Mason; and, though a stanch Republican in politics, he hopes to remain Postmaster at Hamilton another year.