GEORGE GILBERT-- Farmer, Woosung Township, Ogle County, Ill. There is no royal road to success in farming. Good land being conceded, the rest is wholly a matter of hard work and good business ability. Among the successful farmers of Woosung and Buffalo Townships the GILBERTs have long been held in high esteem, not alone for the success which has crowned their efforts, but for those qualities of manhood which make for neighborliness and good citizenship. The founder of the family in Ogle County was Daniel GILBERT, a native of Washington County, Md., whose wife was Elizabeth HARDNOCK, a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. Mr. and Mrs. GILBERT brought their family to Ogle County in the spring of 1857, from Washington County, Md. For two years the father was employed as a farm laborer in the vicinity of Polo; then for three years he rented a farm within the present limits of Woosung Township, and after that bought eighty acres of new prairie land at sixteen dollars an acre, which he began to improve and to which about two years later, he added forty more acres. So well did he prosper that he was able to buy other land from time to time, until he owned about 600 acres, most of which he eventually divided among his children, so that, in the final period of his life, he retained only 160 acres. He died March 25, 1905, in his sixty-ninth year, his widow dying December 24, 1907. They had ten children, of whom JOHN H. GILBERT of Buffalo Township was the eldest. He was born in Washington County, Md., March 19, 1856, and was about a year old when his parents settled in Illinois. Since that time, with the exception of about two years, he has lived in Buffalo and Woosung Townships. During all his active years he has given his attention exclusively to farming and stock raising, and he is now owner of 160 acres of improved land. He married in Woosung Township, February 8, 1881, Miss Mary C. MARKS, a native of Washington County, Md., and a daughter of Alexander and Rosina (BOOKER) MARKS. They have no children of their own blood, but have adopted a son who is known as Charles L. GILBERT. Mr. GILBERT has held the office of School Director and he and his wife are members of the German Baptist Church. George GILBERT, the ninth in order of birth of the ten children of Daniel and Elizabeth (HARDNOCK) GILBERT, was born within the present limits of Woosung Township December 15, 1872. He grew to manhood on his father's farm, got a substantial education in the public schools and at the age of twenty-two years began farming for himself. After managing his father's farm for two years, he bought 160 acres which constitute his present homestead. He has fitted it out with good buildings and all necessary accessories and by good farming has brought it to a high state of improvement. Mr. GILBERT married, May 11, 1896, Miss Mary A. BURGER, who was born in Lee County, Ill., a daughter of John BURGER (now of Whiteside County), where she grew up and was educated. Mr. and Mrs. GILBERT have had four children: RAYMOND, who died at the age of two months; GLENN D.; WILLARD L.; THELMA, who died September 22, 1907, aged one year and seven months. In a quiet but very patriotic way Mr. GILBERT takes a good deal of interest, not only in the public affairs of his township and county, but in all questions affecting the general prosperity of the nation. He is a Republican in politics and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He and his wife are members of the Lutheran Church...

Encyclopedia of Illinois and the History of Ogle County, Ill., Volume 2, by Munsell Publishing 1909, page 904

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