Biography - GEORGE W. PAISLEY
George William Paisley, a representative business man of Montgomery
county, who at the head of the Montgomery Coal Company is now controlling
one of the important productive industries of this section of the state, was
born and reared within the borders of the county and obtained his early
education in the country schools. Later he attended for three short terms
the Hillsboro Academy and then put aside his textbooks to take up the active
work of the farm. At a later date, however, he put aside agricultural
pursuits and entered upon a three years' service in the Civil war as a
member of an Illinois regiment. He did his full duty as a soldier, and when
hostilities had ceased returned to his home.
After the war Mr. Paisley took up the study of law and for a time served as
county surveyor of Montgomery county, while later be engaged in the
publication of a newspaper. He has always been a man of much activity in
both business life and in connection with public affairs, and from 1881
until 1883 he was a member of the lower house of the Illinois legislature.
In 1892 he was chosen to represent his district in the state senate, of
which his continued a member for four years. During President Cleveland's
first administration he was connected with the interior department of the
government and had charge of the land offices and surveyor general's offices
in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas,
Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. He is at present
engaged in the mining and production of coal at Paisley, where there is a
very rich vein of bituminous coal. The Montgomery Coal Company, the
corporation with which Mr. Paisley is connected, was chartered July, 1895,
and the first shaft was commenced in the fall of the same year, while on the
4th of July, 1896, coal was struck. The output is now extensive and the
business profitable.
Extracted 11 Apr 2020 by Norma Hass from 1904 Past and Present of Montgomery County, Illinois, by Jacob L. Traylor, pages 39-40.
