 John F. Adair, his father, was a wheelwright , and in 1825, shortly after the birth of George, the family moved to DeKalb County.His mother died in 1835; his father sent him to Decatur to enter the employ of Green B. Butler as a store clerk.There he met James Calhoun, William H. Dabney, Charles Murphy and Ephraim M. Poole, who supported him with the means to study at the Decatur Academy.