| Notes |
- History of Vermilion County, Illinois: A tale of its evolution, settlement and progress for nearly a century. Jones, Lottie R. Chicago, IL, Pioneer Publishing Co, 1911. V.1. pp236-237
https://archive.org/details/historyofvermili01jone/page/236
George W. Hoskins was born three and on-half miles southwest of Georgetown, near the Little Vermilion river, February 20, 1830. His father, Azariah Hoskins, came to Vermilion County, in 1825, by flatboat from their home in Virginia, down the Ohio river to Cairo, in Illinois, where they took wagons and came to Vermilion County. It took several weeks for them to make this trip. Mr. Hoskins, the father of George W. Hoskins (who was born in Vermilion County) settled on what was known as the Helt Prairie, and later removed to the vicinity of Georgetown in the timber, and married Sarah Swisher. When George W. Hoskins was about a year old his father moved to what is known as the Walnut Grove, or where Rossville is now located. He had bought a tract of land there and it did seem to be very near to the end of the settlements. There was only one family living in the grove and only one white family living between their house and Chicago, which was better know as Fort Dearborn. Danville had only one store in it at that time. George Hoskins never had any but home-made clothing, up to the time he was twenty years old. The material from which his garments were made was the product of his mother’s spinning wheel and loom, and the cut and making was her work as well. When he was twenty years old he bought some cloth, hired a tailor to cut it, and had a neighbor woman sew it. They had no matches but hunted punk in the woods and made a fire by using flint and tow. This fire was carefully kept, and if by any misfortune it should go out, someone must run to the neighbors and borrow a little on the shovel. The corn they raised was worth ten cents per bushel and other produce corresponding in price. He married Mary E. Gritton, who was born in Indiana in 1850, and afterward bought a farm in Ross township for which he paid $6 per acre. Mr. Hoskins was the parent of six children who lived to maturity and others who died in infancy. All of their children married and settled within six miles of them; they had bought the old home farm in 1867. Mr. Hoskins has served as tax collector and school director and been identified with the building of churches and schools in that neighborhood.
- George W. Hoskins Dead.
Special in The Herald.
Danville, Ill., Jan. 16. - George W. Hoskins, one of the pioneer residents of Henning, this county, died at his home. Mr. Hoskins was born in the county eight-four years ago and lived his entire life in the county. He is survived by his widow and three sons, William, John and Theodore, and one daughter, Mrs. Hattie Potter.
Anderson Herald, Anderson, Indiana. Sunday, 17 January 1915, page 2.
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- Trails West: A history of the Hoskins family.
By Robert J. Hoskins, Ella N. Nielsen Hoskins, and Donna Hoskins Higley. March 1993.
Page 20-22.
George Washington Hoskins is the fourth in the genealogical line. George was born on 20 February 1830 to Azariah and Sarah Swisher Hoskins in a small log cabin, near the Little Vermilion River in Vermilion County, Illinois. When George was small the Indians were still friendly in the area and occasionally visited the Hoskins and the other cabins in the neighborhood. In 1833 his parents moved farther north in Vermilion County and settled on a track of land that is now in Blount Township. It is in this area that George grew to man hood, married, raised a family, owned considerable land (some he broke from virgin prairie sod) and died at an advanced age.
George was educated in a one room log school house with slab benches and a huge fireplace. He lived in and grew up in a pioneer home where his mother spun flax and wool for clothing, cooked over a wood fire in a fireplace while the men worked the fields, split the rails and raised the live stock. George received enough education in his early years to conduct his lifetime business, to be a factor in the local school and church and dabble in politics in his later years.
On 2 April 1854 George married Mary Ellen Gritton who was born on 29 January 1831 in Parke County, Indiana. Her parents were Amos and Elizabeth Hold Gritton, both of Mercer County, Kentucky. After their married they immediately settled on a farm in Ross Township in Vermilion County, Illinois. Their first house was also a small log cabin with a breakfast table and chairs and crude home made furniture. A little latter they were able to build a small house of more conventional design on their farm.
As time went by George W. Hoskins grew in prosperity and eventually owned 340 acres of good prairie land. In 1867 his father, Azariah sold his farm to George and he and Sarah moved to Stearns County, Minnesota where they homesteaded 160 acres of land. After George purchased his father’s farm he moved his family to that location which was then located on Section #7 in Newell Township, Vermilion County, Illinois.
George and Mary Ellen had nine children, three of whom died young and the other six grew to adulthood and had families of their own. On 14 January 1915 George died and was buried in Johnson Cemetery in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois. His wife, Mary Ellen Gritton Hoskins died on 14 October 1915 and was buried beside her husband George.
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1830 - 1915 (84 years)
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