Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/23

 LYMAN J. GAGE

, of Chicago, Ill., Secretary of the Treasury, was born in Deruyter, Madison County, N. Y., June 28, 1836; received a common-school education in his native county, but, his parents removing to Rome, N. Y., in 1848, he there received the advantages of the Rome Academy; entered the banking business in the lowest position at the age of eighteen; going West in 1855 to seek a betterment in fortune, after some trials he obtained in 1858 a bookkeeper's position in the Merchants' Loan and Trust Company, of Chicago; his promotion was rapid; in 1868 he was cashier of the bank; believing that the national banking system was superior to the State law, under which the Merchants' Loan and Trust Company was organized, he accepted the appointment as cashier of the First National Bank of Chicago in the year 1868; its charter expiring, the bank was reorganized in 1882, with a capital of $3,000,000, and Mr. Gage was made vice-president and general manager, and in 1891 he was elected president; has never held political office, though often pressed to allow his name to be used, notably for the office of mayor of Chicago; on February 15, 1897, he resigned the presidency of the bank in order to accept the portfolio of the United States Treasury; was appointed March 4 and confirmed by the Senate March 5, 1897, and immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties as Secretary of the Treasury.