Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889 [page 391-392] GEORGE W. LEBOURVEAU, one of the original pioneer band which made up the Milford Colony, has been an important factor in the organization and development of Cherokee County. This brief review of his career is of necessity but a mere outline of his eventful live, thirty-three years of which have been spent in this county, the Milford Emigration Society landing here in 1856. Mr. LEBOURVEAU was born in the town of Keene, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, August 28, 1827, and is the second son of a family of eight children, three boys and five girls, only three of whom survive. His father's name was GEORGE, and he was also a native of the old "Granite State;" his mother's maiden name was BETSEY BLISS, a native of Massachusetts, of English descent; the father was of French extraction. The parents remained in New Hampshire until the death of the father, at which time GEORGE W. was two years of age. When he was seven years old he left home and worked on a farm until he was seventeen years old. He then began working for the railroad com- pany on the line between Boston and Rutland, Vermont, via Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was overseer of the construction department for three years, then became overseer of construction on the Norfolk Railway, serving in that capacity for three years. After leaving the work of railroad building, he engaged in the boot and shoe trade at Milford, Massachusetts, remaining there until 1856, when the Emigration Society was formed. He became a member of that colony, and for the details of his trip by rail and "prairie schooner" to the wilds of Northwestern Iowa, we refer the reader to the chapter on "Early Settlement." After piloting the company through to the "promised land," Mr. LEBOURVEAU'S first work was to assist in staking out and surveying the lands taken up by the colony. During his first year's residence he helped break prairie sod, and built four log houses, which afforded many of the members quite a comfortable home during that never-to-be-forgotten "hard winter" of 1856-'57. It may here be stated that the country was anything but homelike and pleasant to a person reared in the New England States. In the fall of 1857 Mrs. LEBOURVEAU made a visit to their old home at Milford, Massachusetts, and Mr. LEBOURVEAU in the fall of 1858, returning in the spring of 1859. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he became a member of Company I, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, and was sent to the frontier to guard the borders of civilization against the depredations of the desperado Indians. He served three years and was honorably discharged in November, 1864; he took an active part in the battle of White Stone HIll, Dakota, where the soldiers met with heavy loss. After receiving his discharge from the United States service he took up a homestead, part of which is the present site of Cherokee; he claimed eighty acres, which he improved, his house being the first erected within the town limits. Unfortunately he disposed of his land several years before land raised, but received all it was worth at the time he sold out. Mr. LEBOURVEAU was married in October, 1849, to Miss SARAH J. COOKE, at Providence, Rhode Island. She was a native of Bellingham, Massachusetts, and died at her home in Cherokee, February 5, 1885. Three children were born of this marriage, one of whom survives, CORA M. Politically our pioneer friend is a Republican, and has oftentimes been honored with county, township, and city offices. He was elected the first treasurer and recorder of the county, held the office of county supervisor for three terms, served as assessor and trustee, and was elected the first mayor of the incorporated town of New Cherokee, holding the office two terms, and acquitting himself with credit, and to the satisfaction of his con- stituents. He is Commander of Custer Post, No. 25, Grand Army of the Republic, at Cherokee. Mr. LEBOURVEAU is a man possessed of a strong will, and can not be turned aside from the path in which his con- victions lead him; he is of the every-day, practical, pioneer type, kind and generous hearted, and is thoroughly posted in regard to all the early events connected with the settlement of his State and county. ===========================================================================