History Of Rush County Indiana 1888 Brant & Fuller Surnames In This Biography are: PUNTENNEY, Russell, Van Buskirk, McKee, Ross GEORGE H. PUNTENNEY, editor, was born in Rush County, March 26, 1832. His parents were Joseph and Martha (Russell) Puntenney, who came from Adams County, Ohio, and were among the early settlers in this county. Mr. Puntenney passed his boy- hood and early manhood on the farm near Yienna. He improved such advantages for mental development as came within his reach. The common schools of that day offered little to the aspiring young man, but what they had to give he accepted, and then looked beyond them. D. R. Van Buskirk was then teaching a select school at Fairview; there was an academy at Fayetteville, and one at Richland. To all of these places Mr. Puntenney went to enlarge his views and educate himself. His work in this direction was interrupted by a call to arms. Sumter had been fired on end volunteers were wanted. Many of the young men in the Academy at Richland enlisted. Their teacher, John McKee, became their Captain. They formed Company K of the Thirty-seventh Indiana Volunteers, and in this Company the subject of this sketch gave three years to the service of his country, ranking as Sergeant, Orderly Sergeant and Sergeant Major. In 1866, he commenced the study of law, was admitted to practice in the following year, and for some years devoted himself to that profession with honor and profit. He enjoys the distinction of having been the first Mayor of Rushville, after its incorporation as a city. In 1873, he became editor-in-chief of the Rushville Jacksonian, and to the present time the readers of that paper continue to profit by the versatility of his genius. In October, 1868, he was united in marriage to Mary Josephine Ross, of Rushville.