Osborn, George William, 1916-1935

OSBORN, OSBORNE, SPENS

Posted By: Lydia Lucas - Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:34

From the Alton Democrat, June 28, 1935, Rock Valley news:

George Osborne, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Osborne, passed away at the tubercular hospital at Glenwood, Ia., Friday, June 21, 1935, where he had been confined the past 18 years. Burial was made at the cemetery at Glenwood. The young man had never been in good health, having had no balancing power. The family has the sympathy of a host of friends.

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RESEARCH NOTES

No obituary was found in the Rock Valley Bee.

His death certificate gives his name as George William Osborn; born July 16, 1916 in Iowa; parents Frank Osborn and Louise Anna Spens, both born in Iowa; died at the Glenwood, Iowa Institution for Feeble Minded Children, where he had resided 14 years, 3 months, and 24 days, at 7:35 p.m. June 21, 1935; cause, chronic pulmonary tuberculosis.

His FindaGrave.com page repeats much of the information on his death certificate; buried in Glenwood Resource Center Cemetery, plot K-94. A photo of his headstone says only “G. Osborn K 94.”

The 1920 U.S. census for Rock Valley shows him living there with his family: grandparents George (55, a railroad laborer) and Bertha (48) Osborn; their daughter Viola Mae Osborn (18); their son Frank Osborn (27, also a railroad laborer) and his wife Louisa (24), George’s parents; and their three children, Charley L. (4-10/12), George (3-3/12), and Florence W. (1-6/12).

In 1930 he was one of several hundred inmates at the Iowa Institution for Feeble-Minded Children (many of whom were actually adults or elderly), and is noted as being unable to read, write, or speak English.