1989

Old Timers Corner - Biographical Sketch of George Henry James

George Henry James was born in Canada, September 11, 1859, the son of Thomas and Susan Sywer James. His two sisters and six brothers were all born in Canada. Tom and Susan and their family except their first born child, Mariah, who died twenty days after her birth, came to America. They settled in Fink Hollow, east of Short Tract, NY about 1871.

George married Arabelle Voss, daughter of George and Leah Bennett Voss, on March 13,1883. They had five children. He was a cheesemaker and ran the cheese factory in Short Tract across from his home and received $360.00 a year in wages. In the winter they only made cheese every other day, so he also cut wood and did carpentry work.

He enjoyed making violins and hunting. One day he flushed out some partridge and shot three, one right after the other.

He owned a radio set which had tubes and a big bell speaker. His grandson, Bob James, said that when he was a little boy back in the early 1920’s, he went with his folks, Guy and Maude James, to the funeral of Uncle Harry Voss, Sr. Afterwards they went to Harry “Coon” Voss, Jr.’s home there he heard voices and music coming out of the air waves from great distances away, through the ear phones of their radio set. It was an exciting wonder that he’d never heard before.

George has always supposed that he was a United States citizen and had voted for 56 years! Then he found out that he wasn’t a citizen because he had passed his 18th birthday between the first and the final naturalization papers of his father. This was discovered when 30 or 40 years after he had paid off the mortgage on his place, some question was raised because it was thought he still had a mortgage on it. Thus he had to apply for citizenship and it took him several years to get it. He had to go to Buffalo, NY quite a few times to take tests. He said, “I’ll get it if I have to crawl up the courthouse steps on my hands and knees.” He was finally granted citizenship when he was about 80 years old. He died January 7, 1954 at the age of 94.

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