In 1840 Price was living in Exeter, Otsego County. In 1844 the family moved from New York and settled on a farm in section 36 in Grand Rapids. By 1850 George was living with his family on a large farm in Grand Rapids, along with his younger brother Orin, who would enlist in the reorganized 3rd in 1864. By 1860 George was a farm laborer living with his family in Grand Rapids Township, where his father owned a substantial farm and his mother was listed in the census for that year as “insane.” His younger brother Orin or Orrin was also living with the family as well.
George stood 5’11” with hazel eyes, black hair and a dark complexion and was 24 years old and probably still living in the Grand Rapids area when he enlisted in Company A on May 13, 1861. He was absent sick from October 11, 1862, through March of 1863. According to a Dr. Dorr at Ascension general hospital in Washington, D.C., “Prescott was attacked with rheumatism on or about the 3rd day of October 1862, at camp on Upton’s Hill, Va., and has not done duty since that date.” He was discharged for chronic rheumatism on March 11, 1863, at Ascension hospital.
After his discharge from the army George returned to Grand Rapids and began farming on 80 acres in Paris Township, Kent County, where he specialized in seed growing. “In the culture of the latter,” wrote Chapman in his History of Kent County, “Mr. Prescott exercises the utmost care, and in every case warrants his seeds true to name.”
He was living in Paris, Kent County in 1867 when he married New York native Agnes Powley (1846-1884) on November 27, 1867, in Paris, and they had at least four children: Jane (born 1868), Ada Clare (born 1869-1930, Mrs. Vandervere), Jennie A. (1872-1883) and Byron J. (1874-1875). Agnes was the sister to John Powley who had served in the 3rd Michigan.
George was working as a farmer and living with his wife and daughter Jane in Paris Township in 1870; in 1880 he was still working a farm and living with Agnes and two daughters Agnes and Jennie in Paris. He was still living in Paris in 1874 and 1881.
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| from Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Counties of Ottawa and Kent, Michigan, 1876 |
In late December of 1881 Agnes “filed a bill of complaint in the circuit court Saturday praying for a divorce from George W. Prescott whom she married in November of 1867. She charges him with extreme and long-continued cruelty, and prays for the custody of the children Ada C. aged 12 and Jennie A. aged 9. The requested preliminary injunction was granted.” Jennie died in early March of 1883 followed soon after by Agnes herself the following year.
The year after Agnes died, the Grand Rapids Democrat reported that Prescott had acquired the title of the “Michigan Crank.” Apparently he was “visiting the big show at New Orleans and is seeing all there is to be seen. He was very much interested in examining old war relics a few days ago and accidentally discharged a mitrailleuse, the ball passing through the post office. He was arrested and on trial pleaded his own case and was set free. He explained that ‘he didn't know the darned thing was loaded’. He has secured the title, ‘The Michigan Crank’.”
He was still living in Paris in 1894. He married English born dressmaker Anna Wride (1850-1936), on September 20, 1894, at the Kent County Fairgrounds.
In 1900 George was living with his wife Anna in Cascade, Kent County; living with them were two adopted children: Harry Johnson (born 1888) and Anna Johnson (born 1890), both born in Michigan but whose parents were born in Norway and Sweden. Next door lived Anna’s brother (?) James Wride and his family. By 1910 Anna and George along with their adopted daughter Anna were living on Spaulding Road in Cascade township, Kent County.
George was a member of the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry Association and Grand Army of the Republic Custer post no. 5 in Grand Rapids, until he was suspended November 26, 1908. In 1863 he applied for and received a pension (cert. no. 19338).
He died of bronchio-pneumonia in Cascade Township on September 24, 1910, and was buried in Martin Cemetery: W6-A.
In 1914 Anna was living in Michigan when she applied for and received a dependent widow’s pension (cert. no. 839880).
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