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GEORGE J. LACY (deceased), late of the firm of G. J. & F. C. Lacy, lumber manufacturers, Goliuza, was born
in Nebraska, Forest Co., Penn , February 28, 1852. His father, George S. Lacy, was born in Penn Yan, Yates Co.,
N. Y, and about 1848 came to Forest county, where he purchased 7,000 acres of land, and carried on lumbering until
1864. In 1848 he married Miss Caroline Ford, whose father, John Ford, was the original purchaser of the land, and
also the lands now owned by D. T. Collins & Co., and a good share of German Hill; In 1865 George S. Lacy moved
to Philadelphia, and then in 1876 to Pittsburgh, where he now conducts a lumber yard and planing mill. His wife
died May 4, 1888. Their family consisted of three children: Mary C. (Mrs. Dr. C. W. Stranahan, in Erie, Penn.),
G. J., and F. C. (in Pittsburgh). George J. Lacy, at the age of twelve years, went to New Brighton to school, and
completed his education at Philadelphia. In business he was always engaged in the lumber trade, and, in 1872, in
connection with his brother, F. C. took charge of the business which was carried on under the firm name of G. J.
& F. C. Lacy, at Golinza. On June 15, 1880, he married Miss Martha Klies, daughter of the well known Dr. George
Klies, of Pittsburgh, Penn., and to this union were born two children: George S. and Caroline M. Mr. Lacy died
at noon, October 24, 1889, and was buried at Erie on the following Sunday, being laid at rest beside his mother.
He was one of the most active Democrats of the county, and filled various important offices. As a general business
man he was unexcelled, and as a lumberman, especially, he had not his peer in this part of the country, his ability
in that line having never been questioned, on one occasion being attested to by affidavits bearing the signatures
of over thirty gentlemen eminently qualified to judge of his superiority and unquestionable business sagacity and
acumen. Mr. Lacy was a man of very superior ]iterary attainments, also, at all times impressing his hearers with
his wonderful intellect and amazing retentive memory of things he had read. He could quote from the best ancient
and modern writers, as time and place required, and was a most pleasing, instructive and graceful conversationalist.
His library was pronounced by all to be the largest and best selected in Forest and adjoining counties, some well
known connoisseurs judging it to be the most complete in the western part of Pennsylvania. The library is still
in Mrs. Lacy's possession, with the addition, since his death, of a few rare books selected from a list he had
made out to purchase just before his decease. Mr. Lacy's researches for the truth were in rare and ancient manuscripts,
not trusting to the interpretations of others. At his funeral the feeling of the prominent citizens who were present
was that a good man had been removed, and that the community had. lost one who could not well be spared. Allusions
were made to his learning, his searches for the truth, and his kindness of heart. Mr. Lacy will ever be remembered
by his friends as a scholar, whose labors were indefatigable, and although at his death only thirty seven years
old, few have his mastery of book lore.
From:
History of the Counties of
McKean, Elk and Forest,
Pennsylvania
With Biographical Selections.
J. H. Beers & Co., Publishers
Chicago, 1890.
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