Was living in Eugene, Oregon in 1947.
Born at the new Cannon home, built in 1865. Lived in De Soto, Missouri. When he was of age, his father gave hime the choice of having land and becoming a farmer, or $600 cash and going to college. George took the money and went to the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1889.
As a boy, on the family farm, George was always mechanically inclined and had a great desire to run a threshing engine or a sawmill. His next goal was to become a locomotive engineer. In 1900, he left home and became a fireman on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railway in Danville, Illinois. In 1902, he was a fireman on the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway in De Soto, Missouri. In 1903, he became partners in the ownership of a sawmill and cotton gin in Hickory Plains, Arkansas. In 1906, after my grandfather, Elmer V. Cannon was born, George sold his interest in the sawmill and cotton gin and moved the family to Moberly, Missouri, where he was employed as a fireman, and later as a engineer on the Wabash Railway. He retired from the Wabash in 1938. There is a family photo of George at work, in the cab of a Wabash steam locomotive in St. Louis in July 1937. George died at 75 on September 1, 1943 at the Wabash Hospital in Moberly, Missouri following a three-month illness. Before his death, he had completed a course in tool making that spring, at the War Training School at a junior college.
Mary's mother died when Mary was only three years old. Her father then took Mary to live with her grandparents, Samuel and Caroline Adams, near Wentzville, Missouri. Her grandmother then died, and Mary was sent to live with her aunt Emma Adams McCoy. Mary lived with her aunt until she was a young woman, and then married George Richard Cannon March 16, 1893, at the McCoy home in Wentzville.
Mary died at the age of 35 on August 29, 1907 in Moberly, Missouri from complicatons resulting from gallstones and a weak heart. She had been under great stress over the death of her daughter, Oma in Arkansas June 13, 1904. Mary was ill for about ten days and was thought to be getting better when her she suffered a heart attack and died almost instantly.
Jesse Cannon says Mary Oma Cannon died June 13, 1904.
He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1912 and served on the cruiser U.S.S. Pittsburgh during WWI until it was sunk by a German U-boat (submarine) off the coast of Virginia. He survived the sinking without injury. His next assignment was to the Pacific Fleet, during WWII, where he served until his retirement, as a Chief Quartermaster. He was 46 when he retired, after 32 years of service as a Warrant Officer. When he left the Navy, he was awarded a license to navigate any ship of any tonnage on any ocean. After the Navy, in 1944, he joined the Merchant Marine and made many voyages as navigator, from San Francisco to Asia. During the Korean War, his ship delivered avaiation fuel to Pusan, under war conditions, for the U. S. Army Air Force.
Ethel and her baby brother Elmer had been sent to the home of their paternal grandmother, following the death of their mother, Mary Charlestonia Rollins. She and Elmer were raised by Sarah Catherine Lewis until their father remarried, at which time they returned to live with him and their new stepmother. Ethel worked for the Mississippi Valley Trust Company.
Went to school in Keytesville and spent her entire there and in Dalton. Was a member of the Dalton Methodist Church. Palbearers at her funeral were Ed Grotjan, Gilbert Grotjan, Dale Grotjan, Ed Freisz, George James and Louis Inglehart.
Johann Heinrich Ludwig (Louis) Grotjan
Came to America with his parents in 1840, settling first in Maryland. In 1841,
the family moved to Franklin County, Missouri. In 1845 They moved to Chariton
County, Missouri, near Brunswick. In 1848, they moved to Bowling Green Prairie.
In 1856, Louis started in the tobacco growing business. In 1874, he started a
store, L. & A. Grotjan, with his brother, August. In 1875, his son William
joined him in the operation of the store, and in 1877, when August died, Louis
became sole proprietor. William later became a partner and the business was
renamed Grotjan & Son General Merchants & Tobacco Dealers & Shippers. The store
was in Dalton, Missouri and handled about 300,000 pounds of tobacco per year.
Louis owned three farms in Chariton County, including the Harper Farm, on which
he lived. The three farms comprised and area of over 600 acres.
Lived, for a period, in Mascoutah, Illinois.
Mary's father was a doctor in Mascoutah, Illinois.
Farmer and stock raiser near Forsitell, Missouri. Deacon of the Olivet Presbyterian Church (abt 1877). At the age of 23, George went west to California to prospect for gold and found it. He returned to Missouri in 1856, after his father died. His farm consisted of 310 acres, and he also owned another 140 acres of land nearby, plus 230 acres in Pulaski County.
Source: "History of St. Charles, Montogomery and Warren Counties, Missouri," published by the St. Louis National Historical Company in 1885.
At the close of the Civil War, in 1865, the Cannons built a new home near the old homestead. Their son, James Thomas Cannon was the last of the Cannons to be born at the old Cannon homestead at Big Creek. George donated an acre of land, on which the Cannon School was built, in 1889. This is where all of his children went to school, along with other children in the area. Classes were taught by Jennie Lanier. This building was still standing in 1977, at a location 2 miles west of Missouri State Highway 61, on Dietrich Road. At that time, it was in use as a summer home by a St. Louis, Missouri family.
George retired from the farm to Moscow Mills, Missouri, where he died on January 1, 1906. Funeral services were held at Olivet Presbyterian Church. George left behind his wife, his nine children, four brothers, sister, and twenty-one grandchildren, as well as a host of friends.
On August 13, 1902, the first Cannon family reunion was held at George's home in Moscow Mills. In attendance were George and his wife Sarah, as well as George Richard Cannon, Philip Cannon, James Thomas Cannon, Curtis James Cannon, Albert Cannon, Mae Cannon, Catherine Cannon, Roma Cannon, Dr. John Edward Cannon, J. T. Browning, Ethel Browning, Reid Browning, William Browning, Oma Wheeless, Allen Wheeless, Ina May Wheeless, Horner Wheeless, Lizzie Browning, Lucy McCormick, Laurence E. Beck, Sarah Ellen Beck, and Jacob Beck. There were eight grandchildren who did not attend.
In his unpublished "The Cannon Book," my grand uncle, Jesse A. Cannon relates a story told to him about the Cannons at this time. It seems George Moore Cannon had buried his gold, found in California, in a box under an apple tree on their farm. One day, during the Civil War, a troop of soldiers came to their farm looking for horses. The horses were tied up in the woods, where they couldn't be found. The soldiers then asked for food, and Sarah, George's wife, told them they could eat the apples off the trees in the orchard. While they were doing so, she was worried that they would find the box of gold. She anxiously waited until the soldiers left the farm and then ran to the tree to see if the gold was still safe. To her surprise, she found the hogs had gotten into the orchard and were rooting around the tree and had partially uncovered the box of gold. She was relieved to find the soldiers hadn't noticed it.
After the death of Mary Charlestonia Rollins, August 29, 1907, Ethel Cannon, then 7, and her brother Elmer Vandegrift Cannon, age 2, were raised by Sarah Catherine Lewis, their paternal grandmother, until George Moore Cannon remarried, at which time the two children went back to live with their father and their new stepmother, whom Elmer grew to despise.
Born at the new Cannon home, built in 1865.
Lucille and her husband Charles Isle honeymooned in Hawaii May 21, 1937.
Lived in Kansas City, Missouri for sixty years and was a member of the Methodist Church. Pallbearers at her funeral were Donald Lee Grotjan, Larry Grotjan, Doug Grotjan, Lloyd F. Grotjan, Robert Pearman, and Bob Miller.