Figure of the Week

George Kiger (c.1773-1857) was an apprentice in his uncle Fielding Lucas’ tannery in Fredericksburg.  Fielding’s tannery burned in 1807 and George established his own tannery in Falmouth in 1809.  This was located on the west side of U. S. Route 1 on the northern edge of Falmouth town.  In 1843 he paid taxes on 5 enslaved people, 2 horses, 2 carrioles (small, covered horse-drawn carts with room for one person), 1 wood clock, 4 lots in Falmouth, and one acre in Stafford.  George was a veteran of the War of 1812.  From at least 1831 to 1836 he was a tobacco inspector at Dixon’s Warehouse in Falmouth.