GEORGE RUSTON is a dealer in produce, choice dairy butter, eggs, paper and rags, etc., at Nos. 155 and 157 Stephenson street, Freeport, Ill., which business he established in 1862, first opening on lower Stephenson street, where he began in a modest way. Through his energy, and by close application, he has succeeded in building up a large business, and is looked upon as one of the live and enterprising business men of Freeport. Mr. Ruston was born in London, England, on the 18th of December, 1840. His father was John Ruston, a merchant in early life, who married Matilda Edwards, and settled in London, where they resided until the spring of 1842, when they emigrated to the United States, arriving at New York, in which city they permanently settled, and where they both died. George Ruston was educated in that city, attending school until the age of fourteen, when he entered the banking house of Kissman & Taylor, where he occupied the responsible position of Collector and Recorder, in which capacity he served two years, at which time he severed his connection with that firm, enjoying their fullest confidence and esteem. In 1857 he determined to cast his lot somewhere in the West, and came to Batavia, Ill., where he accepted a clerkship; after remaining there some time, he went to Janesville, Wis., where he stopped for one year, and thence to Chicago, in which city he remained three years. In the spring of 1862 he left Chicago and came to Freeport, where he began his present business.

In 1881 Mr. Ruston was married to Miss Lyma E. Bordmer, of Freeport. She was born in Stephenson County, Ill., and is a lady of culture. They have two sons – Leonard B. and George Alfred. Mr. Ruston has been in active business in Freeport so long that he has become a part and parcel of the business history of the city. In the various lines in which he deals he is an authority as to quality and prices, and his transactions are so extensive that he comes very nearly naming the prices for those products in that vicinity.

Mr. Ruston and wife are acceptable members of the First Presbyterian Church, of which he is one of the Trustees, and in the affairs of that organization they both take a lively interest.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 254