Click here for the John Martin Family home page. 4th Generation - George Martin 

Photo of George

George Ellsworth Martin, as pictured in Nebraska State Teachers College Blue & Gold Yearbook, 1935.

George Ellsworth Martin was born 19 March 1872 at Falls City, Nebraska; he was the third child born to Rev. Elza Martin and his third wife, Eliza Ann (Holland) Martin, but only the second to survive.  (An older brother had died about a year before he was born.)  George’s birth family also included six older half-siblings (four from Elza’s second marriage and two from Eliza Ann’s first marriage).  He was the last child for both of his parents.

George is one of the best known and most noteworthy among all the descendants of John Martin and Sarah Stanley.  His eventual role as president of the Nebraska State Teachers College at Kearney earned him a listing in Who’s Who in America, which is shown below.

George grew up on his parents’ farm south of Falls City and attended the local grade school, known as the Falls School, and later attended Falls City High School.  A newspaper item in March 1889 listed him as one of the students doing “perfect work” in math at the high school.  However, by the following winter (January 1890), another news item noted that he was attending classes at Holton, Kansas (along with his sister Anna).


George’s listing from Who’s Who
in America 1932–33
, p. 1515.

Image of the Who's Who listing

Later that year (August 1890), George apparently interrupted his own education to begin his teaching career, at the age of 18.  His first teaching assignment was back at the Falls School, his old grammar school.  In her memoir, Of Such as These,* George’s niece Minnie Alice Rhoads relays a story told her by her husband, Ralph Rhoads, about George’s classroom management technique in those early days:  “The first morning when George arrived he had a fair sized bundle of right keen switches which he put in a hole in the foundation, dusted his hands but said nothing.  He never did use one and had no trouble.”  Minnie also described her Uncle George as “a fine and memorable person, more than six feet tall and well built; noticeable in a crowd and equally tall in character.”

Photo of Alice

Alice Kriger in 1892.  (Photo
courtesy of Sherry Chew.)

In spite of having taken classes both at the Falls City High School and in Holton, George apparently did not earn a high school diploma from either of those places, inasmuch as his biographical sketch included in the 1932 publication Nebraskana notes that he “graduated from the high school at Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1892.”  Although I can’t say what impelled him to pick out an institution 160 miles from home for the completion of his high school work, the move was significant.  Had he not gone there, he never would have met and fallen in love with Alice Kriger, who (according to her obituary) had come to Fort Scott from Clinton, Kentucky, to attend art school.  Again, I don’t know what was so special about Fort Scott that a girl from Kentucky would travel more than 320 miles to take classes there, but this is where George met the young lady who would become his wife.

George and Alice were married at her home town of Clinton, Hickman County, Kentucky, on 12 June 1895.  She had been born 13 April 1868 at Paducah, Kentucky, and was the daughter of Michael and Frances (Avey) Kriger.  Minnie Alice Rhoads described her as “a southern girl, petite, lovely . . . .  She had a beautiful singing voice and said her singing could be heard across the wide Mississippi.” *

I don’t know how this couple sustained their romance in the 3 years between when they met at Fort Scott and they were eventually married.  Falls City newspapers mention George teaching in Richardson County during the 1892–93 term, but I find no mention of him for the 2 years after that.  Maybe he went to Kentucky for part of that time?  Maybe Alice came up to Nebraska?  Or maybe they just kept up a long-distance correspondence during this time?  Hard to say.

After marriage, they settled together in Richardson County, first in Falls City, where George was teaching again in 1895–96, and later in Dawson, where he apparently started teaching either in 1896 or ’97.  George was principal at the Dawson High School from 1899 to 1903.  All four of George and Alice’s children (all daughters) were born during these years — the eldest in Falls City and the other three in Dawson.  They were:

  • Alice Inez Martin, 1896–1957 (never married).
  • Ruth E. Martin, 1898–1921 (married John T. Nicholas).
  • Frances Martin, 1900–1974 (married William W. Little).
  • Kathryn Martin, 1903–1990 (married Harold Rondthaler).

In 1903 the family moved up to Nebraska City in Otoe County, where George was hired to be principal of Nebraska City High School.  On 10 May 1907, the editor of the Nebraska City Daily News wrote of him:

Prof. Martin has been one of the ablest teachers we have had for years, and during his stay in this city has endeared himself not only to the scholars but the patrons of the schools in general and the teachers.  He is an able educator and a man whom everyone respects.  He has done more for the upbuilding of the high school and retaining the boys therein than any other man that has ever been there, as the graduating class of this year plainly shows.  It is the first year in the history of the school where there were any large number of boys in the graduating class, and it is due to his efforts and influence that the boys have stayed and graduated. . . . [The scholars] have all learned to love and respect him for the manner in which he has taught them, been a companion with them, and in every way commanded their love and respect.  The teachers also hold him in the same high esteem . . . .

In 1908, George was promoted to Superintendent of Schools in Nebraska City, and served in that position for seven years.  During this time, he collaborated with J. W. Searson, of the Peru State Normal School, to produce an English textbook, Studies in Reading (first printed in 1910, but a subsequent edition, from 1912, has been scanned and is now available on line).

In 1915, George took on the role of the head of the English Department at the State Normal School at Kearney, Nebraska, and so the family moved again.  Finally, it seems, George had found his niche, for he spent the rest of his career (indeed, the rest of his life) there at Kearney.  He earned respect and praise from the students, staff, and the whole community.  Then in 1919, a revolt broke out among the students (many of whom had just returned from service in the World War).  As Minnie Alice Rhoads tells it, “The former president and several of the teachers had been driven out.  The State Board asked him what he would do if faced with such a situation.  He answered, ‘I don’t know, never having had anything like that happen to me, but I believe I would stand in the door and knock them down as long as I was able.’” *

I don’t know if it was that answer that so impressed the Board, or just his generally excellent reputation and qualifications, but they chose him to be the next college president.  Again, according to Minnie, “The students soon found he was their best friend as long as they did their part.  He often walked the streets of Kearney to solicit help for a worthy student.  He introduced sports in the school for he loved a good clean contest.  His one dislike was of a liar, and if he was ever lied to by a student, that one lost all his sympathy.” *

Photo of Ruth
Ruth E. Martin, as pictured in the Kearney State Normal School Blue and Gold Yearbook, 1917.

During all the time that George’s career as an educator was advancing, he also continued enhancing his own education, mostly through summer courses.  He graduated from the Peru State Normal School in 1909, and he earned a B.A. degree from the University of Nebraska in 1914 and an M.A. from Columbia University in 1919 (just before assuming the role of president at Kearney).

In June 1920, George and Alice’s daughter Ruth was married to John Nicholas, and just one year later tragedy struck.  Ruth died on 13 June 1921, in the course of giving birth to their first grandchild.  Ruth’s body was returned for burial in Kearney, the infant girl was given the name Ruth, in honor of her mother, and George wrote a touching remembrance of his deceased daughter, which was published in the Kearney Daily Hub.

That same year, 1921, the “Normal School” changed its name to the Nebraska State Teachers College (now known as the University of Nebraska at Kearney), and George continued as president for the next 15 years.  During his tenure, the school gained formal accreditation from the North Central Association and began granting full four-year degrees, annual registration grew from about 400 students to more than 800, and the faculty nearly doubled as well.

On 28 May 1936, George presided over the college’s graduation ceremonies, closing out yet another successful academic year.  A week later, he fell critically ill and was rushed to a local hospital.  After languishing there for more than a month without improvement (the local paper gave almost daily reports of his condition), George returned home, at his own request, where he died on 18 July 1936.

His funeral service was held at the college auditorium, to accommodate the large number of mourners.  The Daily Hub carried a lengthy obituary and also printed, in full, the tribute to George presented at his service by Dr. Paul Hillman.  George was laid to rest in Kearney Cemetery, close to his beloved daughter Ruth.

After George’s death, Alice remained in Kearney for a year or two, to settle George’s affairs, then moved to Oregon to be closer to two of her three remaining daughters.  A brief note in the Daily Hub of 27 June 1938 refers to her as “Mrs. George E. Martin of Portland, Oregon” (which is where her daughter Alice Inez Martin had settled).  The 1940 census shows her living with her daughter Kathryn Rondthaler and family in Pine Precinct, Baker County, Oregon.  Apparently, though, she subsequently moved back to Portland, for that is where she died on 15 October 1944.  The Daily Hub carried a brief notice of her death, and a somewhat longer obituary a few days later.  She was laid to rest between George and her daughter Ruth at Kearney Cemetery.

If you can suggest any corrections to the information above or provide any further details about the lives of George, Alice, and their descendants, please contact me at the address shown in the image below:

P L Martin C O at G mail dot com

Thanks,      
     —Pete Martin

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*Of Such as These, by Minnie Alice Rhodes.