Born at Westfield, New York on September 7, 1836, George Edwin Dibble was the first son born to Ezra H. and Harriet Dibble, nŽe Tinkham. In 1849, the Dibble family packed up their belongings and joined the ever popular westward movement and settled in Rock County, Wisconsin. From there, the family moved to Clermont, Iowa in 1852. The Dibble family had to rely on their ingenuity and one another to survive in the Iowa and Wisconsin wilderness. In many ways, the Dibble family epitomizes Northerner westward expansionists in the 1850s and early 1860s.