My maternal grandfather was Vernon Eugene Coltrane; his maternal grandfather was George Wakefield, the fifth child of Ann Haines and Henry Wakefield. George was the middle child of nine, born September 11, 1862, near present-day Varney, Ontario, Canada.
When George was still a boy the family immigrated to the United States, settling in the Friendship community a few miles west of Greensboro.
The Wakefields prospered in the warmer southern climate, and their integrity earned them the respect and friendship of their new neighbors. It is known that Henry Wakefield, Sr., and at least one of his sons, William, became naturalized citizens in 1880. Whether Ann or the other children ever became citizens I have not yet been able to determine.
As a young man, George attended the New Garden Boarding School, a few miles east of the family farm. The Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers, founded New Garden in 1837. It became the four-year liberal arts institution known today as Guilford College in 1888.
George has been painted, perhaps unfairly, for much of the last seventy years or more, as a wanderer, based on a passage in The Family of Henry Wakefield, North Carolina, 1805-1950.
Compared to his brothers, who managed a successful business while attending medical school or seminary at the same time, George may not have seemed headed for a life of distinction, but George Wakefield did something not many humans do: he lived to be almost a century old. In fact, George Wakefield outlived all but one of his siblings.
Let's start over.
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| George Wakefield, seated |
The Wakefields prospered in the warmer southern climate, and their integrity earned them the respect and friendship of their new neighbors. It is known that Henry Wakefield, Sr., and at least one of his sons, William, became naturalized citizens in 1880. Whether Ann or the other children ever became citizens I have not yet been able to determine.
As a young man, George attended the New Garden Boarding School, a few miles east of the family farm. The Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers, founded New Garden in 1837. It became the four-year liberal arts institution known today as Guilford College in 1888.
George has been painted, perhaps unfairly, for much of the last seventy years or more, as a wanderer, based on a passage in The Family of Henry Wakefield, North Carolina, 1805-1950.
"As a young man he had the wanderlust and his first work away from home was with Mr. Seymour Steel's Livery stable in Greensboro... where he earned $10 per week and his board."Moving ten miles down the road, even in the days before automobiles, hardly seems like wanderlust. Ten dollars in 1880 was equivalent to about $223 in today's money. Add meals and a bed and George had a pretty sweet deal going on down at the stable.
Compared to his brothers, who managed a successful business while attending medical school or seminary at the same time, George may not have seemed headed for a life of distinction, but George Wakefield did something not many humans do: he lived to be almost a century old. In fact, George Wakefield outlived all but one of his siblings.
Let's start over.
George Wakefield was born in Canada during the American Civil War, and moved to North Carolina with his family, during Reconstruction. George got an education and set about finding something useful to do.
As a farmer's son, George was no stranger to physical work, and like many of the Wakefields, he was very tall, so he was probably a powerful man in his prime. George was was neither lazy nor dull, he excelled at mathematics while at the New Garden school, but he was more physically suited to working with his hands and body than sitting behind a desk, so George went to work.
After earning a little nest egg at the livery in Greensboro, George is known to have traveled to Missouri to visit one of his uncles (perhaps the wanderlust remark noted above would be more applicable here), where he lived and worked in a sawmill camp.
As a farmer's son, George was no stranger to physical work, and like many of the Wakefields, he was very tall, so he was probably a powerful man in his prime. George was was neither lazy nor dull, he excelled at mathematics while at the New Garden school, but he was more physically suited to working with his hands and body than sitting behind a desk, so George went to work.
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| George Wakefield, in 1948, with his daughter Pearl, grandson, Vernon Coltrane, and great-granddaughter, Brenda |
Upon returning to Greensboro, George joined Company Number One of the Greensboro Volunteer Fire Department and worked for a time with his brothers at their hardware store. Later he worked for the Richmond and Danville Railroad as well as for J.I. Case, but George Wakefield is perhaps best remembered as a dairy farmer.
In 1888, at 26 years old, George married Alice Hayes Reid, three years his junior. The marriage produced eight children over the next fifteen years: Pearl, Lillian, Hallie and Beulah, Edna, Esther, George, and Thomas. Hallie and Beulah were twins, but Beulah died at a very young age. George and Alice had been married for fifty-one years when Alice died in 1939. George was 76. Their daughter Edna died the following year.
George lived another seventeen years, part of the time with his daughter, Pearl, and her husband, Lee B. Coltrane. George and Alice Wakefield's surviving children produced thirty-one grandchildren, the largest branch of the Henry Wakefield family tree. When he died, George Wakefield was over 93 years old.
In 1888, at 26 years old, George married Alice Hayes Reid, three years his junior. The marriage produced eight children over the next fifteen years: Pearl, Lillian, Hallie and Beulah, Edna, Esther, George, and Thomas. Hallie and Beulah were twins, but Beulah died at a very young age. George and Alice had been married for fifty-one years when Alice died in 1939. George was 76. Their daughter Edna died the following year.
George lived another seventeen years, part of the time with his daughter, Pearl, and her husband, Lee B. Coltrane. George and Alice Wakefield's surviving children produced thirty-one grandchildren, the largest branch of the Henry Wakefield family tree. When he died, George Wakefield was over 93 years old.
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