George W. Tarvin was born December 14, 1828, a son of Elijah Tarvin, of Baldwin County, Alabama, and Elizabeth Tate. His grandfather, William Tarvin, came from England at an early day, settling in Buck County, Georgia, and afterward marrying Mary Miller in Pensacola, Florida, in 1783, where he opened a trading house. Mr. G. W. Tarvin’s mother, Elizabeth Tate, was second daughter to David Tate, and granddaughter to Colonel John Tate and Sehoy McGilleroy, and great-granddaughter to General Alexander McGilleroy, who came from Scotland in 1735 and amassed a large fortune in this country. He was colonel in the British army in 1776 and 1790, and was commissioned by George Washington as brigadier-general. He was a highly intellectual man. George Washington Tarvin, his great-grandson and subject of this sketch, was born in Baldwin County, Alabama, and in 1852, with his mother’s family, moved to Fort Bend County, Texas, bringing with them seventy engross, and starting in agriculture in the Brazos bottom. Here he remained until the outbreak of the war, when he joined the Confederate service under Colonel Elmore, Second Texas Infantry. After two years he returned home to assist his mother, who was alone on the plantation, and, procuring a substitute, remained with her until the close of the war, when he left for Mexico, and there took up his stay ten years, devoting his time to the mercantile business. Returning from Mexico, he began clerking in a store in Texas, and in 1870 or 1871 went to San Angelo (same State), where he clerked for a Mr. Withers for some three years. In 1885 he moved his family to Muskogee, and remained a short time at this place, moving out on the Verdigris River, where he farmed for one year, after which he moved, on account of his daughter’s health, to Vinita, Cherokee Nation. From thence he went to Red Fork, and from that place to Okmulgee, in 1888. Mr. Tarvin was married November 1855, to Miss Phoebe Harris, of New York, by whom he had one girl, born 1857 and now Mrs. Thomas, of Okmulgee. His wife died July 7, 1858, and he remained single until December 26, 1872, when he married Mrs. M. B. Hammett, widow of the late Charles Hammett, of Galveston, Texas, in the hardware business at that town. Mrs. Tarvin was second daughter of Jacob Kates, of Wimmerton, Delaware, well and favorably known in that country, and whose father came over when the Swedes first settled in that place. By this marriage he has one daughter, named Annie, born April 9, 1876. Mr. Tarvin is grandnephew of William Weatherford, a man who was of great prominence in the Creek Nation, and the hero of the fight at Fort Mimms. Mr. Tarvin is five feet eleven inches in height, and weighs 160 pounds. He is quiet and reserved, having all the traits of a true Southern gentleman, and is very popular.
