05/27/2026
Last summer I was committed full-time to the Douglas County Historical Society until we were able to hire new staff - while a worthy cause to be sure, it kept me out of the cemetery and away from the stories I so love to share.
While I have a son getting married and a daughter having twins this summer (actually scheduled for the same weekend - you can't make this stuff up), let's get our hands dirty, our hearts full and tell some great stories and restore some very worthy monuments, shall we?!
George W. DeLong was born in Ohio in February 1827.
In April 1853, he married Jane Ann Wheeler, born in betw 1827 – 1835 (no definitive record found).
Jane Ann’s father Portius, an early pioneer in Ohio whom they named a son after, is said to have built the Wheeler Tavern around 1835 near the Scioto River. According to local historians this was the first brick residence constructed in Hardin County. Tradition maintains that Wheeler Tavern was a station on the Underground Railroad, a network of contacts and places that aided escaping slaves making their way to the free North. Wheeler Tavern was built to accommodate travelers on the Old Sandusky Trail that ran from Cincinnati to Sandusky and Portius' log cabin was turned into a trading post. Reportedly Wheeler Tavern had guests who included Henry Clay, General Harrison and Stephen A. Douglas, whom Douglas County is named after.
Together they had 5 children, all born in Ohio: Dominik (1854), Lillie (1855), Portius (1858), Edward (1863), and Mark (1868).
In 1864, George, age 37 and listed as a farmer, served in the Union army during the Civil War in the 135th Regiment, Ohio Infantry (National Guard). The regiment mustered in May 1864 and left for Cumberland, MD right away. Assigned to duty as railroad guard on Baltimore RR at North Mountain, Opequan Station and Martinsburg until July 3. Operations about Harper’s Ferry July 4-7 and guard duty at Maryland Heights until September. Seven soldiers were lost during service during combat and 66 died of disease. The regiment mustered out Sept 1, 1864.
https://www.nps.gov/places/000/maryland-heights-mountain-fortress-of-harpers-ferry.htm
We don’t know exactly when the DeLong family arrived in Superior. The family is listed in Ohio until the 1880 Federal Census when they are in St. Paul, MN. They were here in Superior in 1889 as widow Jane is listed in the City Directory as such. George established a grocery store here and after his death it was co-owned by mother Jane and sons Portius and Edward in the 1892 City Directory. The store was located at 614 Tower Avenue. The building is no longer there but in the 1892 City Directory they had moved to 1205 Tower Avenue - that is the old Woolworth store, now VIP Pizza.
George died of heart issues here on June 9, 1889 and thereafter Jane is listed in the residence of their son Portius at 621 Grand Avenue (home no longer there). Jane dies in January of 1893 at his home located at 1514 11th Street East (also no longer there).
After both George and Jane passed, their sons Portius, Edward and Mark continue in this city for some time.
There is a William Clark DeLong that owned a prominent hardware store here and is listed as arriving from New York that may have been distantly related as Edward DeLong is working at the store in the 1896 City Directory. I went back 4 generations and couldn’t locate a familial connection.
The Restoration: When the volunteers arrived to place flags last week, they asked me to help locate a “DeLong” on their list. I checked the burial maps and saw that name but no marker was visible. Using the metal probe, I was able to connect with a marker about 10” below the surface. Having dug a test hole, I could see the letters “De L” on the stone. This weekend, when it wasn’t 42 degrees out, we extracted both George DeLong’s and wife Jane’s marble footstones and gave them a new foundation and cleaning. It was a muddy process that took about 3 hours.
Buried next to Jane, the map shows their son Edward however probing the ground revealed no sunken marker – as he was never married and his parent’s pre-deceased him it’s likely no marker was ever purchase or placed. In the wet, red clay earth that makes up Nemadji Cemetery, it’s fairly commonplace to locate sunken footstones – the stone itself is often in excess of 100 pounds and it’s likely these have been hidden from the world for decades.
Researching and restoring monuments like these is about more than stone and red clay. Every monument represents a life, a family, and a piece of history that deserves to be remembered and preserved.
We are honored to help keep these stones and stories standing for future generations.
