GEORGE W. LUCAS was born in Lee township, near Mount Sterling, in June, 1845. His father was a native of Butler county, Ohio, named Daniel R. Lucas, born in 1810. His father, John Lucas, was a native of Virginia, a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and emigrated to Ohio, where he died at an advanced age, having reared a large family, of whom our subject's father was the youngest. He was reared on the farm to that kind of life, and was educated in the English branches. After he reached manhood he obtained a medical education by his own efforts. He came to Mount Sterling when quite young, from Crawfordsville, Indiana, and began the practice of medicine. He bought 160 acres of land two and one-half miles southwest of Mounds, and sold it in 1851, three years after he had bought it. From there he went to Texas. Prior to this he and his brother-in-law, Dr. King, practiced medicine together in Clayton, Adams county. He remained in Texas only one summer, and then returned to Lee township and bought a farm of 160 acres one and one-half miles south of this village, on which he settled and where he died in 1884. He bought other lands, amounting in all to over 1,000 acres. He died January 26, 1884. He began life without any money, but the handsome estate he left at his death was worth at least $30,000. His wife was Sarah Ann Keith, of Kentucky, to whom he was married in 1836. They had twelve children, of whom nine are still living, and all are married except one. Mrs. Lucas died in 1890, six years after her husband.
His son, George W., followed his father in the choice of profession, and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk in 1878, and began his practice in the fall of the same year. The Doctor takes a great interest in the affairs of his State and county. In 1862, although only a boy of seventeen, he enlisted in the Third Missouri Cavalry, and served three years without receiving any wounds, although his health was impaired by the hardships of camp life. His bravery was rewarded by a medal from Congress. He is a member of the G.A.R., the R. K. McCoy Post, No. 311, of Clayton, Illinois. He has never sought after public office, but is the candidate of the Republicans in this district for the State Senate.
He was married in 1872, to Miss Josephine L. Kilby, daughter of C. G. and Leora E. (Hubbell) Kilby. They were from Cleveland, Ohio, her native State. They came to Illinois in 1870, but after four years returned to Ohio. Mrs. Lucas is one of four children, namely: Mrs. Lucas, Mary G. Kilby, Wilford H. Kilby and Amelia A. The father died in 1889, at the age of sixty-eight, but his wife is still living at her home in Ohio, at the age of sixty-three. The maternal grandmother was Annis Bell, and she lived to the age of ninety-three, not dying until 1881. Mrs. Lucas' maternal grandparents were Solyman and Lucinda Hubbell. Mr. Hubbell was a lineal descendant of one James Hubbell, who came to America in the early days of the settlement of Massachusetts, and came to Ohio in a very early day, locating near Cleveland, where he lived until his death, which occurred in October, 1874. Lucinda Hubbell still lives with her daughter, Mrs. Kilby, aged eighty-three. The paternal grandfather was William Kilby, a farmer of Massachusetts, who died at eighty-six.
Dr. and Mrs. Lucas have the following children: Charles H., Lena L., Mary Ethel and George D., aged nineteen, thirteen, eleven and nine, respectively. The oldest son is at the Normal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, in his second term, and is very proficient in his studies. Dr. Lucas has a good practice and his skill is depended upon by all the best people in the township and surrounding county.