Whitney, George bio

History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co., Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 933, Vermont Township
Geo. Whitney, merchant, Vermont, was born in 1835, in Henniker, N. H.; remained on the farm with his father, Asa Whitney, until his 19th year, when he came to Springfield, Ill., where he commenced on the Wabash railroad as brakeman, and was promoted to the position of baggageman and finally conductor; in 1863 he entered business with Grover Ayres, a leading merchant of Springfield, and two years afterward he retired from the dry-goods business and began brick-making; in 1871-6 he was passenger conductor on the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis railroad, and now he is a member of the prosperous dry-goods firm of Ayres (Grover Ayres) & Whitney, Vermont.
Note: I believe that "Ayres" is "Ayers" and that this is the George W. Whitney married to Ada Ayers, daughter of Grover Ayers I & Jane Stockdale. See the bio of Mortimer Ayers, MD from the book ""Biographical Review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois 1892" on the GT Schuyler County site.