George (Ikey) Jensen

Birth: He was born around 1902 in Washington.  

Family Information: Listed on the 1930 US Census as head of the household, he was the brother of Beatrice, Christian and Elmer Jensen.

He married Bondell Banta on October 6, 1936 - the ceremony took place at the Commonwealth Colony with the Reverend Irwin officiating.

Description:  

Pre-Colony History:  

Home in Colony: In 1930 he was living with his brothers and sister in a home in the colony.

After his marriage, the Jensen family lived in the "old Gaddis home" which was the last home on the south side of what is today Pershing St. in New Llano.  

Job in Colony: Most often worked on the wood and lumber crew. In 1928 he was handling the team hauling logs to the hardwood mill and sometimes running the cut-off saw.

Also in 1928, helped repair the dam in the creek from which the colony got water for their boilers and cooling tower plus helping Ole S. and Szpila build a rig for cutting big logs into veneer blocks, a process expected to help save labor.

In 1930, he was listed as a chauffer for the colony on the US Census.

In October 1930 he was on the crew turning logs into lumber as rapidly as the saw mill would cut it. Other colonists on the crew were Comrade Haering, Comrade Stevens, Fred Jensen, Peterson, Shepherd, John and Jesse Armacost, Wilkerson and Ernest Kimball.

In January 1931 Comrade Stevens was running the sawmill, with his small cutting crew including: Comrade Ruffner, Sturman, Ikey Jensen, Shoemaker, Peterson and "Buzzard" Wilkerson.

In May 1931 he, Long and Horney were attending to the power plant which kept all the machinery of the colony moving.

In July 1931 the veneer plant was going in full force with Johnny Dougherty, Long, Ole Synoground, Carl Bradshaw, George Jensen, Slaughter, Ray Bradshaw, Fred Hamel, Hoag and Roede on the job; as well as Bennie Brown, Jimmie Brown, Helen Joe Dougherty, Lucille Oberlitner, Rhea Mae Baldwin, George Maki and Jimmie Dix.

At the veneer plant in September 1931 he, Claude Allred, Carl Nelson and Ben Hewett were fishing the blocks out of the cooking vat and sending them up to George Collins for Ernest Kimball and Fred Busick to peel, after which they were fed to the big veneer machine; while Roede's and Mrs. Killian's crews took care of the cutting and stacking.

In January 1932 he was part of a group including Leo Roscoe, Banks and Clarence Long sawing heavy timbers to shore over a driveway to the filling station.

In 1935, he was again hauling logs -- stocking up the rice ranch with wood and another time when he, Bert Busick and Clarence Long were bringing loads of logs back to the colony that had lain on the skidway of the Anacoco Creek Mill; the logs were sawn into fine lumber to be used for crate-making.

In September 1936 he and A.M. Murray were hauling slabs from the Weber-King slab pile in Leesville to the colony power plant while the diesel engine [was] "gone on strike". In 1936 he was the acting industrial superintendent. That year he organized workers to clean out the cattle guards which had gotten so bad that "neighbors' cattle found no trouble in getting inside colony property." Afterwards, cattle from the outside were "about as scarce as hen's teeth."  

Other Info: Drove Miss (Rosebud) Cuno, Mrs. Shutt and Joe Winegar in the Buick car, recently near donated to the colony by Dr. Irwin, out to view the chicken ranch which they thought looked fine, even though Sidney and Mrs. Archer were not at home for their visit.

In July 1930 he visited the Rice Ranch along with Mrs. R.W. Banta, Mrs. Charles Brannon, Ernest Kimball, Sextus Garrett, Bee Jensen, Laura Synoground, Royall Thompson, Lois Thompson and Hope Shoemaker.  

Post-Colony History: In 1940 he was still living in Vernon Parish with his wife and her two children while he worked as a laborer for the WPA.  

Death: He died in 1974 in Louisiana and was buried in the Port Hudson National Cemetery.  

Sources: "Llano Colonist": July 14, 1928, September 22, 1928, December 1, 1928, December 29, 1928, July 19, 1930, October 11, 1930, January 24, 1931, May 9, 1931, July 4, 1931, September 5, 1931, October 9, 1931, January 9, 1932, April 13, 1935, August 24, 1935, January 11, 1936, February 29, 1936, April 4, 1936, September 25, 1936, October 17, 1936; US Census: 1930, 1940; FindAGrave.com