George Carver Updegraff

     George Carver Updegraff was born in 1822 at Indiana.¹ He was the son of William Dunn Updegraff and Nellie [—?—]. George Carver Updegraff married Jane Dunn Harrison, daughter of Carlisle Harrison and Jane Dunn, on Thursday, 26 January 1843 at Shelby County, Indiana. George Carver Updegraff died in 1865 at West of the Mississippi at age 43 years.¹
     He and his family are listed in the 1850 Census for Hendricks Township, Shelby County, Indiana, with George's father William as 'head of household'. They moved to Clark County, Illinois about 1853. Charles Dale Updegraff related that his dad told him that George's brother Ansel went looking for their dad and when he failed to return, Ansel brought back George's coonskin hat, which had been made by Mary who recognized her work; George had died in a farmer's woodshed from smallpox and was buried at night, people feared the disease and would not take him inside. They hung his hat on the shed for identification, buried him at the forks of a road somewhere out west. George was a circuit preacher and traveled alot, usually after the crops were harvested.