George L. Inman was for many years a. business man of power and influence in Champaign County. He was accustomed to handling large things in a large way, and besides the New Inman Hotel at Champaign, citizens of the county have reason to remember him for many other influences and activities.
Mr. Inman was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1867, and was only a little past his fiftieth birthday when he died April 5, 1917. His death occurred at Cramer, Indiana, but he was laid to rest at Champaign, where he had his home for over a quarter of a century. Mr. Inman’s mother, Emily Drake, was a direct descendant of the great English admiral, Sir Francis Drake. Mr. Inman was the youngest of six children, the others being: Mrs. Dora Orton, of Erie, Pennsylvania; Sylvester C., of Erie; Fred, of Erie; Herbert and Emily, both deceased.
George L. Inman grew up in Erie County, Pennsylvania, where his father was a lawyer, and he studied law under his father’s direction as part of a liberal education, not for the purpose of practicing. His first important enterprise was promoting the publication of a paper called the Farmers Ledger, located at Danville, Illinois. In the interests of that publication he traveled extensively throughout the Middle West. About 1891 Mr. Inman came to Champaign and engaged in the real estate and farm mortgage business. Mr. Inman is remembered by all with whom he came in contact as a man of great magnetism and personality. He had a host of friends, and. also an extended business acquaintance. He did much to develop Champaign County. In Champaign he erected a large brick building at the corner of University Avenue and Market Street, and in 1915 he built the splendid six-story brick hotel known as the New Inman House, where he had his home and where his widow still resides. This hotel is at the corner of University Avenue and Walnut Street. Mr. Inman was independent in politics, and never found time for clubs or for church affairs.
His first wife was Minnie Swearingen, of St. Joseph, Champaign County. She died in 1899. On May 13, 1900, Mr. Inman married Nora Trumbull Stevenson. By her first marriage to Elijah Stevenson Mrs. Inman had two children: Arthur G., who lives at St. Louis, Missouri, and by his marriage to Madeline Fuller, a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, there are three children, Arthur G., Robert L. and Madeline. Mrs. Inman’s second child, Elizabeth, is the wife of Jay C. Taylor of Champaign, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have a child, Croydon Stevenson, born September 6, 1916.
