Henry George Paulson (1838-1898)

Henry George Paulson
Born: 1838 in Beaver County, PA
Died: March 20, 1898 in PA
Mother: Mary Hall 1806-?
Father: Adam/Alem/Elam Paulson, 1801-?
Wife: Julia Ann Alexander, 1935-1921

Children with Julia Ann:
1. Drusilla, 1857-?
2. Charles Hall, 1860-1927
3. Fanny Mary, 1862-1915
4. Joseph Fillmore Paulson, born May 21, 1867 in New Brighton, Beaver County, PA; died 1957

The following information is from Genealogical and Personal History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Volume 2) by John W. (John Woolf) Jordan:

“The Paulson family, of New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, has been resident there for a number of generations, and in every generation they have proved their worth as good citizens and as valuable members of society.

(I) Henry Paulson was a machinist by trade. He married Julia Ann Alexander, born in New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania.

(II) Joseph Fillmore Paulson, son of Henry and Julia Ann (Alexander) Paulson, was born in New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, May 21, 1867. He was educated in the public schools of New Brighton, and at an early age learned the trade of brick laying, with which he has been identified since he was sixteen years of age. He is a member of the United Order of American Mechanics, and the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Paulson married, December 8, 1887, Gertrude Drusilla Funkhouser, whose ancestral history follows this sketch. They have had children: Alma Gertrude, Carrie Marie, Lila Catherine, Ruth May, Lois Christine, Joseph Osman, Dorothy Eleanor, Cromwell Truby, Virginia Elizabeth, who died at the age of eight months.”

Henry’s life was troubled; he may have been an alcoholic or compulsive gambler. This quote is from the “Record of the Family Powelson” by Frank Wible Powelson:

“Henry Powelson (Paulson) married Julia Alexander of New Brighton, Penna. From reports told by the members of his own family, he must have been a rounder, because his wife divorced him and went back to her people. There were three or four children by this union. Henry married a second time and there was at least one son born, whose name could not be learned.”

Note: A “rounder” is an old-fashioned word that means someone who throws money away by gambling or drinking. Records show that he and Julia divorced in 1867, the same year that their fourth child, a son named Joseph, was born. Joseph is my great-grandfather. 

Henry is listed as one of inmates of Allegheny County, Indiana Township, county work house in 1870 in this document:  

He died on 20 March, 1898, two days after being run over by an ice wagon, in West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. He was only 61 years old. The document below lists him as having lived most recently at 44- 30th Street, and having been buried on March 24, 1898, at Highwood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.