GEORGE H. SOUTHER. Among the many financiers who are favorably known in the business circles of Springfield, is the gentleman whose history will be briefly outlined in the accompanying paragraphs. He is now Treasurer of the Sangamon Loan & Trust Company, a corporation which was organized in 1886 with a capital stock of $100,000, and which is doing a general savings bank business, having about eight hundred depositors. The bank and private offices are located at the corner of Washington and Sixth Streets.

Mr. Souther is a native of Essex County, Mass., and a son of Timothy and Eliza (Greenough) Souther. In the paternal line he is descended from an old family which was first represented in the Bay State in 1657, and in the maternal line his ancestry is equally honorable. The parents removed to Madison County, Ill., during the year 1842, and in that county our subject completed his education. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits for a year or two prior to the breaking out of the Civil War. In 1862 he enlisted in Company F, Seventieth Illinois Infantry, and was detailed Post commissary Sergeant at Camp Butler. On his return from the army he served as Chief Clerk in the United States mustering and disbursing office at Springfield until 1865, when he began prosecuting claims against the Government.

In 1870 Mr. Souther embarked in the banking business, and in that enterprise has continued to the present time. He is a member of the firm of Latham & Souther, which was organized in 1874, and carries on transactions in real estate and real estate loans. The Sangamon Loan & Trust Company was organized by the members of this firm, and was incorporated with the following officers: John L. Davis, President; H. C. Latham, Secretary; and George H. Souther, Treasurer. Mr. Souther is also a Treasurer of the Abstract and Title Guarantee Company, which was organized with a capital stock of $100,000. He has not given his attention to politics, but devotes his energy to the business enterprises in which he is engaged, and in the prosecution of which he is winning a competence. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic.

At the bride's home in this city September 16, 1873, the rites of wedlock were celebrated between our subject and Miss Nannie E. Latham. Mrs. Souther is a sister of H. C. Latham, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, and is an intelligent, earnest woman, devoted to her family, yet social and hospitable. The happy home is brightened by the presence of three children - Latham T., Lucy A. and Elizabeth.

Timothy Souther, the father of our subject, was born in the old Bay State, and during Gen. Jackson's administration was Collector of Customs at Ipswich. After he became a citizen of Illinois he served for six years as Postmaster of Alton. During the latter part of his life he was busied as a railroad man. He died in Madison County in 1871, at the age of seventy-one years. His wife was born and reared at Bradford, Mass., and died in Springfield, Ill., in 1880, at the ripe age of seventy-eight years. Her father was William Greenough.