Biography - George Paisley
George William PAISLEY, attorney, Hillsboro, was born in this county in 1838; son of Joseph PAISLEY, born in North Carolina in 1797, and emigrated to this State in 1822, and spent first two years in Bond County, thence to his county, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died on his farm here in 1857. In 1837, he was married to Martha A. ALLAN, a native of Kentucky, born near Lexington in 1815, and is still living with her son, subject, in this county. Present raised but one son, subject, he being by the second wife. There are two half-sisters living by first wife. Our subject was educated at the Hillsboro Academy. He was admitted to the bar in 1870, having read law off and on some several years previous. He began life as a farmer, at the death of his father, which he followed for four or five years. He was next County Surveyor, being elected in 1865, an office he filled for two years. He next engaged in mercantile business, some two years. He held the office of Master in Chancery from 1868 to 1869; was elected to the State Legislature in 1880, a position he now holds; enlisted in 1862 in the One Hundred and Twenty-second Illinois Infantry as a private, and was afterward elected Orderly Sergeant, and served three years; participated in the battle at Nashville, Tupelo, storm and capture of the works of Blakely, at Mobile, Ala., besides several minor engagements; was never captured nor wounded during the war; belonged to the command that followed PRICE through Missouri and a portion of Kansas, in 1864, a distance of about 600 miles; left Jefferson Barracks on the 2d of October and got back to St. Louis on the 18th of November; Democrat in politics. He was married in Macoupin County, this State, on the 5th of June, 1872, to Maggie M. MIDDLETON. She was the daughter of Rev. John and Sibilla (GALBREATH) MIDDLETON; wife was born in 1846. Our subject has five children, all daughters, viz.: Anna, Ethel, Georgia, Maggie and Susie. His wife is a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, commonly called Covenanters, her father being a minister of that church. Subject owns about 1,000 acres of land in this county.
Extracted 19 Nov 2016 by Norma Hass from 1882 History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 2 Biographical Department, pages 112-113.
