Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/777

 II1STOKY OF GOODHUE COUNTS 675 county, and its activities had their part in the upbuilding of the city during- the seventies and eighties. Mr. Sterling was a Re- publican in politics, but always refused to accept public office. In fraternal affiliations he was a Mason, and in religious belief a follower of the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church. Ho died September 21, 1897, at his home in Red Wing. George R. Sterling was married at Red Wing. June 29, 1862, to Eliza McGarvey, daughter of Edward and Eliza (Henry) McGarvey, natives of Belfast, who located in Canada in the early days. There the father died in 1874. and the mother came to Red Wing, where she ended her days in 1884. To Mrs. Eliza Sterling were born five children : Myrtie. of Chicago; Jennie, wife of Dr. F. W. Dimmit, of Red Wing; Florence, wife of Charles C. Lenth, a missionary who died in India in 1900: Mary L., wife of Dr. C. A. Ishman, of Minneapolis, and Edward M., who was born in 1876 and died in 1881. Mrs. Eliza Sterling died January 7. 1877. April 13, 1878, Mr. Sterling married Isabelle McGarvey. a sister of his first wife, born in Belfast, Ireland. February 20, 1847. To this union have been born three children : Alice H., born October 5, 1880, is a successful school teacher; as is Georgiana R., born September 25, 1883. AVilliam M. was born July 17, 188."). and died May 5, 1888. During his lifetime Mr. Sterling was noted as a hunter. He loved the out-of-doors and was an unerring shot, many a wild beast fall- ing a victim to his rifle. He had an inexhaustible supply of hunt- ing stories, and being of a sociable disposition, his stories of life in the woods after big game became well circulated throughout the county, many of them being still remembered and told to the present day. Fred Seebach, county treasurer and ex-postmaster of Red Wing, was born in Germany, May 28, 1841, son of Ahrenfield and Mary (Kreuz) Seebach, the former of whom was born in 1808 and the latter in 1815. The father was a machinist and farmer in the old country- He came to America in the spring of 1844, and with his family located near Milwaukee, Wis., where he pur- chased a farm, which he conducted until after the Civil war. He then located in Goodhue county, carried on general farming for a time, and then moved to Red Wing, until his death in 1897. He was a veteran of the Civil war, having seen service from 1863 to the close of the hostilities with the First Wisconsin Heavy Artil- lery. The mother died in 1887. Fred spent his boyhood at school and working on his father's farm, and later moved to Racine, AVis., where he purchased a large farm. He enlisted in the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin A^olunteer Infantry in August. 1862, was taken prisoner at the battle of Chickamauga, and incarcerated in both Andersonville and Libby prisons. He was discharged from service at the close of the war. In 1873 he sold his farm in Racine