GEORGE W. VAUGHT, an
old pioneer who has been identified with the growth and advancement of Clarke
County for over thirty years, is a native of Clark County, Indiana, born
December 12, 1828. His parents, William and Elizabeth (Giltner) Vaught, were
natives of Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively, and to them were born
fourteen children, of whom our subject was the second child. He passed his
early life in working on the home farm, his education being limited to the log
school-houses of those early days. For several years he was engaged in
flat-boating on the Ohio river, freighting wood and hay to the Louisville
market. At the age of twenty-one years
he came to the then Territory of Iowa, locating in Jefferson County, and a
short time later removed to Appanoose County, where he resided until 1854. He
then came to Clarke County, Iowa, and located on Government land in Green Bay
Township. August 11, 1862, he enlisted
in Company D., Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry, and at the battle of Parker’s
Cross-Roads he was shot through the left arm at the elbow. He was then confined in the hospital six
months, and from the hospital was sent to Memphis, Tennessee, but being unfit
for active duty in the field on account of his wound, he was placed on duty in
the Provost Marshal’s guard, where he served till his discharge, August 11,
1865, just three years from the date of his enlistment. He then returned to his home in Clarke
County, remaining there till he removed to his present farm in 1879. His farm
is located on section 30, Green Bay Township, and contains eighty-five acres of
choice land under a high state of cultivation, with comfortable house and farm
buildings for stock, a fine orchard, etc. He is still engaged in general
farming and stock-raising, in which vocation he has met with success. Mr. Vaught was married at the age of
twenty-two years to Miss Melissa S. Sherlow, of Appanoose County, Iowa. They
have seven children living – Sophrona, Leonidas, Savilla, Dora, Ellsworth,
Libbie and Isabelle. In politics Mr. Vaught is a Republican. He is in religious
faith a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. During his long residence
here he has taken a deep interest in everything connected with the welfare of
the township, and has become widely known and universally respected throughout
the county.
SOURCE: Biographical
and Historical Record of Clarke County, Iowa, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago,
Illinois, 1886 p. 316-7
