George Weldon Funk was born to a prominent family in McLean, Illinois on October 30, 1895. His great-grandfather, Isaac Funk, had carved out an area for the family, aptly naming it Funk’s Grove. While his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather (Isaac George Funk, George Washington Funk, and Isaac Funk, respectively) had amassed acreages for agricultural and animal husbandry purposes, George Weldon Funk pursued other interests early in life, eventually returning to the family farm after spending much of his life outside of Illinois.
The collection contains a variety of material from 1912 to 1926—biographical information, materials from Princeton University, military documents, military notebooks which include equations for artillery shell chemical compositions and firing trajectory calculations, unidentified photos, bank statements, checks written to various individuals and business firms, registration cards, a yearbook of officers and military personnel of the 333rd U.S. Artillery division, a membership book for the New York Mason’s Lodges, and various personal and business correspondence.