* Louise "Alice" GEORGE FITCH (1855 MO-1941)
* Charles Thomas GEORGE (1858 KS-1938)
* William Handley GEORGE (1861 MO-1945)
* Enoch Ezra GEORGE (1863 MO-1868)
* James Newton GEORGE (1865 MO-1941)
* Margaret Ellen GEORGE MATTHEWS LEONARD (1867 MO-1946)
* Walter "Reece" GEORGE (1870 MO-1932)
* Wesley Reuben GEORGE (1870 MO-1870)
* Nancy "Pearl" GEORGE (1874 MO-1964)

On October 6, 1975, Will George's daughter Beryl George Finch wrote: "All I can remember my Dad saying was his father (Reuben Andrew George) did not talk about his people and Uncle Charles Thomas was much the same. A very quiet man with a deep sense of humor. When he did talk it was worth listening to."

When Ollie Belle married, she married a Mr. Boatwright of Maryville, MO. I'm not sure what happened to their daughter, Bertie.

Of her father and mother, Beryl Finch, wrote in a letter August 31, 1975: "He had loved her and her only until he was 34 years of age. She married Boatwright of Maryville, MO, and they had one child - a girl named Bertie. After Boatwright died of T.B. my father married Ollie Belle in Hopkins, MO, Nodaway Co on Dec. 24, 1896"

Beryl continued in her letter of August 31, 1975: "I was born in 1898 and she died 1901 - a very brief span of years. She contracted T.B. from 1st husband it seemed. My father never married again. He was mother and father both to me and a very wonderful father at that - real Christian and lived the life as a pioneer he ministered to people for their bodies and soul. Also if in need would empty his purse and never tell anyone."

On October 6, 1976, Beryl wrote: "I believe Ollie Belle Boatwright George was born in 1867 - July 27. She died of T.B. at 34 yrs in 1901. Buried in December 1901 - temps 40 below and my father took her from Knowlton to Miles City a distance of 56 miles. He went in a sled - horse drawn - and alone as all Knowlton relatives were ill with Grippe as they called it then."

Beryl continued, "They moved to Montana because of my mother's tuberculosis and also three of her brothers were already in Montana and liked the country. Her brother Wayland Wood was a very close friend of my Dad and always continued so. His and my mother's father Wm. H. Wood married grandmother Mary Jane's sister but she died at birth of 1st child. So he married again and had 4 children."

Ollie Belle died the day after Christmas, 1901, after 5 years of marriage with Will and when their daughter Beryl was 3 and a half. The following April, Will's dad, Reuben A. George died from a runaway horse and wagon accident. Beryl said her grandmother, Mary Jane George came to live with Will for many years. In a letter written August 31, 1975, Beryl remembered her grandmother "mentioning brother Hadley and sister Kiziah. She also mentioned the Reeces, cousins, I believe. Her sister Sarah was my Grandfather Wood's (mother's side) first wife. No children as both babe and mother died at childbirth."

"He (Will) had studied in Valparaiso Ind and it must have been medical as he was expert in setting bones, in antiseptic hygiene, and nursing as gentle as a woman (more than most) at any sickness, fever or stomach ills or pneumonia and would go on call nite or day even if tired enuf to drop after building fence alone or thru darkest cold nite. When he died (84 years) one of the old timers left remarked "If ever anyone was a real Christian, Will George was one." (letter from Beryl Finch, August 31, 1975)

On August 31, 1975, Beryl wrote that there was a "descent of hereditary deafness in my mother's family (Wood) for many generations ... carried through mostly on the males - not many of the women afflicted."

The same letter continues, "..my grandfather Reuben A. George was very closed mouthed and left very little information anywhere concerning his relatives and where. We did learn he had several red-headed sisters. No red heads in his children's families but in children's, children's, children - 4th generation red heads everywhere!"

Beryl and O.D. had 11 children: three infant daughters who died young; three daughters, Olive Ladine Rodgers of Missoula, MT, Lila Claire Douglas of LaGrande, OR, and Bertie Joyce Clowers of Seattle, WA; five sons, Ozroe Dennis FINCH of Mountlake Terrace, WA, William Earl FINCH of Omaha, NE, Joseph Wayne FINCH of Great Falls, MT Lloyd George FINCH of Edmonds, WA, and Miles Curtis FINCH of Polson, MT.

She was born July 28, 1898, in Hopkins, Mo., soon moving to Knowlton, Mont., near Miles City and Baker, with her parents where they and several other Missouri families homesteaded.

Her mother died when she was 4, in 1902*, and General George Miles, namesake of Miles City, signed the deed to her cemetery plot. Teddy Roosevelt signed the homestead papers.

On May 25, 1918, she married Ozroe Dewitt (O.D.) Finch, and they farmed and ranched on the family homestead, also having homes in Miles City. In 1954, they purchased a cherry orchard 10 miles south of Bigfork, where the lived for 17 years. In 1975, she moved to Polson, residing there until 1984, when she moved to Seattle.

Beryl Finch loved people and being hospitable, loved cooking, flowers, Montana, and Christ. Her strong faith and witness were known throughout her life, and she was a member of Bigfork Chapel while residing in Bigfork and a member of New Life Christian Center in Polson at the time of her death. She attended both Shoreline Community Church and Christ Church of Northgate while in Seattle.

Survivors include three daughters, Olive Ladine Rodgers of Missoula, Lila Claire Douglas of LaGrande, Ore., and Bertie Joyce Clowers of Seattle; five sons, Ozroe Dennis of Mountlake Terrace, Wash., William Earl of Omaha, Neb., Joseph Wayne of Great Falls, Lloyd George of Edmonds, Wash., and Miles Curtis of Polson; and 24 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Ozroe, in August of 1971, and by three infant daughters.

Services will be at New Life Christian Center in Polson at 11 a.m. March 14, with burial at Lonepine Cemetery in Bigfork at 1 p.m.

Memorials can be sent to New Life Christian Center, 1414 Second Street West, Polson, Mont., 59860, and will be applied to some family-chosen cause.

Arrangements are by Mosley-Shrider Funeral Home in Polson.

(Source unknown)

* mother's date of death should be 1901, not 1902, per Beryl Finch.