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From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 1 & 2
GEORGE W. EASTMAN, M.D., who passed away at his residence in Platteville, Grant county, Oct. 24, 1900, had been for sixteen years engaged in the banking business at Platteville. He was born in Strong, Franklin Co., Maine, March 29, 1824, and was a son of Hon. Samuel and Jane EASTMAN. The EASTMAN family came from a long line of New England ancestry which settled in Maine at an early date. Many of its members occupied honorable places in civic and business life. Hon. Samuel EASTMAN, the father of the subject of this sketch, served many years as a member of the Executive Council of the State of Maine. The eldest son, Hon. Ben. C. EASTMAN, came to Wisconsin in 1840, settling at Platteville, where he soon attained eminence as a lawyer; he served as secretary of the Territorial Council from 1843 to 1846, and was elected to Congress in 1850, serving two terms; he died at his home in Platteville in 1855. Another son, Col. H. E. EASTMAN, served through the Civil war as colonel of the 2d Regiment Wisconsin Cavalry, dying a few years ago at Benton Harbor, Mich., where he owned the celebrated Eastman Springs.
Dr. EASTMAN's elementary education was obtained in the common schools, and supplemented by an academical course, and after due preparation he entered Dartmouth College, from which institution he graduated with the medical class of 1844. In the spring of 1850 the Doctor came to Wisconsin, and located in Platteville, where he was actively and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession until the outbreak of the Civil war, at which time he was commissioned surgeon of the 16th Wis. V.I. After serving in that capacity one year he was appointed medical inspector of the 17th Army Corps, serving on the staff of Gen. J. B. McPherson; this office he held for the two succeeding years, when he returned to Platteville and resumed his extensive private practice.
In 1852 Dr. EASTMAN married Miss Anna S. MUNROE, daughter of Edmund S. MUNROE, a leading business man of Boston, Mass., and this union was blessed with three daughters and one son: Jessie, Mary E. (deceased), Julia, and George Edmund (who died in infancy), all natives of Platteville.
From 1850 until 1882, excepting the three years he was at the front during the war, the Doctor was in continuous practice in Platteville. From 1881 to 1884 he resided in Milwaukee. In 1884 he organized a private bank which later became the First National Bank, of which he was at once elected president, serving in that incumbency until his death. This bank has from the beginning done a profitable and extended business, and is still expanding, being recognized as one of the strongest and best managed monetary institutions in the county. At a regular meeting of the board of directors, held Oct. 30, 1900, the following testimonial of respect was read, and on motion duly seconded, and was by unanimous vote ordered to be spread upon the records, given to press for publication, and a copy of the same presented to the family of the deceased:
In the death of Dr. George W. EASTMAN, one of the charter stockholders of this bank and its president from its organization until the day of his death, we recognize the loss of a personal friend and valued counselor, one who was true to every interest of this bank, a man of unquestioned honor, integrity, and fidelity, whose presence will be sadly missed in this board of directors. In his memory we offer this testimonial of our friendship for him, of our recognition of his sterling worth as a man, and our sense of personal bereavement in his death.
Dr. EASTMAN ever stood at the "head and front" of progressive movements in Platteville, and invariably exercised his influence and liberally applied his means to the promotion of its welfare. He was a gentleman of expanding views, as well as of profound learning, filled with generous impulses, and stood before his fellow-men as the embodiment of the highest type of manhood. In his death Platteville lost one of her most honored citizens, the medical profession a wise counselor, and the family a kind husband and indulgent father. Dr. EASTMAN was a great lover of animals, was decidedly poetical and musical, and possessed great humor and sentiment. He was very fond of his home and family, and the center of attraction therein. After his death his executors found many medical accounts for services rendered to his neighbors and friends, which he had marked "balanced," evidently at a recent date, thus showing his kindness of heart by contributing his services without charge to those whom he thought might need their money for other uses.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck