GEORGE F. THURSTON. A man of enterprise, intelligence, and excellent business capacity, George F. Thurston, living two miles east of Summitville, stands high among the wide-awake, progressive farmers of this section of Madison County, A native of Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana, he was born January 16, 1864, a son of John F. and Margaret (Morris) Thurston, of whom a more extended notice may be found elsewhere in this work, in connection with the sketch of R. O. P. Thurston.
Educated in his native Township Mr. Thurston attended the Dead Dog school as a boy and youth, in the meantime obtaining on the home farm practical experience in farming, Finding the occupation most congenial, he rented the farm where he now lives a year before attaining his majority, and began the battle of life for himself, taking up his residence in the old log house standing upon the place, This farm was entered- from the government during the administration of President Jackson by Robert Spear, who erected the first frame blacksmith’s shop put up in this section of the state. At the end of two years of successful farming Mr. Thurston received a sum of money from the parental estate, and immediately invested it in land, buying the farm which he had been renting, He has now one hundred and twenty acres of rich and productive land, on which he has made improvements of great value, including the erection of his fine residence and other necessary farm buildings, He is carrying on general farming with satisfactory results, making a specialty of raising Duroc-Jersey hogs, a branch of industry which he has found pleasant and profitable. He is one of the largest breeders of that grade of hogs in the County, from bis estate, which is known as the Duroc-Jersey farm, having shipped in two years $7,000 worth of that breed.
Mr. Thurston married, in 1884, Sarah Etta Ellsworth, daughter of Walker and Martha (Harris) Ellsworth, and they have one child, Alva W. Thurston, who married Bessie Rutherford. Politically Mr. Thurston is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Democratic party.