Biographies G
George Gordon
George Gordon, Muhlenberg County, was born December 1, 1831, in Stockport, England. He is the first of nine children (four sisters and one brother living in England) born to Joshua and Hester (Combs) Gordon, of Stockport, England. Joshua was the son of John Gordon. They were all weavers from grandfather.
George Gordon sailed from England, August 23, 1856; landed in New York, October 2; went immediately to Fall River, Mass., where he took charge of forty-eight looms. In April, 1857, he moved to Perry County, Ind., and took charge of seventy-five looms at Cannelton; there he remained most of the time for nine years.
January 11, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Fifty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, commanded by W.O. Gresham; was discharged in December, 1862, at St. Louis, on account of disability, caused by a fall; was at Shiloh, siege of Corinth; at the siege of Memphis, and the battle of Davis Bridge on Latache River, Tennessee. He was discharged as sergeant. He returned to Cannelton where he resided until April, 1865, when he went to Gallatin, Tenn., where he worked until July of the same year. In 1863 he was compelled to leave Owensborough because of his being a Yankee.
On leaving Gallatin, he with his family proceeded to Cincinnati, where he worked for Gould, Pierce & Co., till January; then took charge of the building of looms for Brommull. In April, 1868, he moved to Milan, Ind., and took charge of woolen-mills. In November of the same year he moved to Owensborough, where he was general superintendent of the woolen-mills until 1870, when he went to Cannelton, Ind., for five months; thence to Casaville, where he ran a factory one winter; thence to Owensborough, where he took one-fourth interest in the mills a short time. He then engaged in the saloon business for four years and a half.
In April, 1876, he moved to where he now resides in Central City, Ky.; purchased Central City park grounds and engaged in the hotel and saloon business. In June, 1881, he made a trip to England and returned in the following November.
Mr. Gordon has lived a very eventful life. During the war he was on several occasions employed as a spy; he boarded the tug Pink Barble and ascended the Cumberland as far as Nashville, Tenn. On the return trip the tug was taken by the Confederates at Dover, and the men blindfolded and transferred to Tennessee River.
Mr. Gordon was married July 31, 1857, to Agnes Gibson, of Cannelton, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and a daughter of Daniel and Margaret (Duncan) Gibson, natives of Cannelton and Lenox, Scotland, respectively. To this union were born six children, two living: Lucinda (Fitzgibbons) and George F. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon are church members, he of the Episcopal and she of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Gordon was formerly a member of the I.O.O.F.
Source: Battle, J.H., W.H. Perrin, and G.C. Kniffen. Kentucky: A History of the State. Louisville, KY: F.A. Battey, 1885. Page 905.
Updated July 9, 2018