Colonel George M. Young

Colonel George M. Young, of Valley City, North Dakota, is one of the younger members of the Barnes county bar, but his prominence is by no means measured by his years; on the contrary, he has won a reputation which many an older practitioner might well envy. He was born at Lakelet, Ontario, Canada, December 11, 1870, and is a son of Richard and Jane (Eaton) Young, also natives of that country. The father was born in Leeds County, Ontario, in 1822, and during his active business life was engaged in the lumber trade, in which he was successful. For a time he served as first lieutenant in the Tenth Regiment Volunteers of Canada. He died in 1885, and his estimable wife who was born in 1832, passed away in 1896. The paternal grandfather of our subject served with distinction as colonel of a volunteer regiment in Canada. He was born in Ireland in 1798, and died in Lakelet, Ontario, at the advanced age of ninety-three years.

George M. Young, began his literary education in the public schools of his native land and later attended the high school at Orangeville. On coming, to the United States in 1888 he first located at Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he engaged in newspaper work. In the summer of 1890 he commenced the study of law in the law office of Pollock & Young, of Casselton, North Dakota. Later he attended the College of Law of the University of Minnesota, from which college he graduated. In 1893 he returned to North Dakota, where for a year he was in the law office of Hon. O. W. Francis, at Fargo. In November, 1894, he took up his residence in Valley City, where he opened an office and engaged in practice alone until May, 1899, when he formed a partnership with Lee Combs, under the firm name of Young & Combs. They do a general law business, but make a practice of practicing in the state and federal courts, doing more than any other firm in that line in Barnes county. Mr. Young is very popular and influential, and is now a member of the governor's staff.

In January, 1899, at the home of the bride, in St. Charles, Michigan, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Young and Miss Augusta L. Freeman, a daughter of Jared and Caroline M. ( Adams) Freeman. The father is a prominent lumber merchant of that place, and the mother is a direct descendant of President John Adams.

Source: Compendium and History of North Dakota 1900 Page 195