212 UNION COUNTY PAST AND PRESENT
. In 1856, he returned to Morganfield and was elected circuit
1 court clerk by a large majority. In 1862, at the end of his six-
‘ year term, Mr. Geiger became a candidate for re-election but,
in the words of the old Union County history "the terror of the
country, John W. Foster, now United States Minister to Spain,
` was the supreme dictator, and said no to his claims. Foster
arrested him and took him to Henderson." Mr. Geiger was later
installed in this ofiice when Confederate General Johnson entered
this section of the country (see War between the States). After
the war he was twice elected county judge (1866-74), serving
during the contention over the removal of the county seat about
1870. Without any attempt to obtain the office, he was elected
police judge of Morganfield five successive times, serving from
1878 to 1898. During the administration of Gov. Proctor Knott
(1883-87) Mr. Geiger was made a Kentucky Colonel. As a parti-
san he was highly respected by his opponents as well as by his
supporters. For more than twenty years he served aschairman
of the county Democratic committee.
Mr. Geiger ably edited the Union County Advocate, -the first
newspaper established in Morganfield, in the 1870’s, and for a
number of years he was a correspondent for several newspapers
in the section, using the nom de plume "Harper," under which
he also contributed poetry. As a journalist he was a power in
local and State politics.
He was a Mason and a member of the Methodist Church. His
prominence in church activities was recognized by his election
to the annual Methodist Conference at Louisville for sixteen
successive years.
GEORGE HUSTON (1821-1904), author of Memories of
Eighty Years, lawyer and county judge, was born in Daviess
County, Kentucky. The family was of Scotch—Irish lineage, one
of his ancestors, Robert Huston, being a distiller in Scotland.
It was the son of this Robert Huston, also a Robert Huston, who
emigrated to this country in 1747 and first settled in Phila-
delphia. George Huston’s grandfather, William Huston, born in
Person County, North Carolina, was a soldier of the Revolu-
tionary War, and helped guard Burgoyne’s men after his sur-
render at Saratoga in October, 1777.
George Huston’s father died when he was six years old, and
when he was twelve he was sent to live with his aunt, Nancy
Spalding, in Morganfield. His first schooling was in a log cabin