Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/285

 GEORGE

GERHARD

New York mayoralty cauiijaign, he was unani- mously chosen as his father's successor to the candidacy of the Jeffersoniaii Democratic party, but in the election he could not command his father's probable vote. He was married at Chicago, III., in 1897 to Marie JJorel Hitch of that city. After his father's death he engaged in passing through the press a new and complete edition of liis father's works and in writing the full story of his father's life. IHOI.

GEORGE, James Zachariah, senator, was born in Monroe county. Ga.. Oct. 20, 1826. He was deprived of a father's care when two years old and in 1834 his mother removed with the family to Mississippi, settling first in Noxubee county and in 1836 in Carroll county. His edu- ( itional advantages were limited, but through reading and '.elf -directed study of the classics he ac- ([idred a good educa- tion. In 1846 he joined the 1st Missis- sippi rifles, com- manded by Col. Jef- ferson Davis, and served in the ranks at Jlonterey. After the war he was ad- mitted to the bar and 111 1854 and again in 1860 was elected state reporter for the high court of errors and appeals. In 1861 he was a delegate to the 3Iis- sissippi state convention where he voted for and signed the ordinance of secession and immediately after enlisted in the 20th Mississippi regiment, serving at Fort Donelson as captain. In 1862 he was commissioned brigadier-general of state troops and in 1863 colonel of the otli Mississippi cavalry. He led a charge at Collierville, Tenn., and was captiu-ed and kept a prisoner at John- son's island until the close of the war. In 1872 he formed a partnership with Judge Willey P. Harris at Jackson, Miss., and this brought him in touch with the prominent Democratic leaders of state affairs. In 1875 and 1876 he was chair- man of the Democratic state executive commit- tee. He was appointed a judge of the supreme court of the state in 1879 and was elected chief justice of the court. He resigned in 1881 to take his seat in the U.S. senate, having been elected in 1880. He was re-elected in 1886 and again in 1893. He was a delegate-at-large to the Missis- sippi state constitutional convention of 1890 and in the senate ably and logically defended the work of that body. In the senate he was chair- man of the committee on agriculture and for-

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estry. a member of the committee on education and labor, of the judiciary committee, of the transportation committee, and of the select committee on woman suffrage; and in 1895 was chairman of the select committee to investigate the condition of the Potomac river front at Washington. He published a digest in ten vol- umes of the decisions of the supreme court and higli court of errors and appeals of Mississippi. He died at Jackson, Miss., Aug. 14. 1897.

GERE, Charles Henry, editor, was born in Gainesville, N.Y., Feb. 18, 1838; son of Horatio N. and Julia D. (Grant) Gere; grandson of Dr. Isaac and Hannah (Tracy) Grant of Litchtield, Conn., and a descendant of George Gere, who came to Boston, Mass., in 1632; and of Matthew Grant, who immigi'ated to Windsor, Conn., in 1636. He was graduated from Dickinson college in 1861 ; was a private in the 10th Maryland infan- try, 1861-63; was admitted to the Baltimore bar in 1865, removed to Nebraska, and was attorney for Pawnee county, Neb., 1865-60. He was a member of the legislature in 1866 and the gov- ernor's private secretary, 1867-68. He founded the Xebraska State Journal and became its editor in 1867. He i-emoved to Lincoln, Neb., in 1868; was state senator, 1869-70, and 1881-82; a mem- ber of the state constitutional convention in 1875 and chairman of the state central committee for four terms ; and president of the board of regents of the University of Nebraska, 1881-91. He was Republican delegate to the national con%-ention in 1893 ; postmaster of Lincoln, 1891-95 ; and became president of the State Journal company in 1873. The honorary degree of A.M. was con- ferred upon him by the University of Nebraska in 1894.

GERHARD, William Paul, engineer, was born in Hamburg, Gerinaiiy. July 30, 18.54; son of BernharJ and JIathilde (Kiilin) Gerhard ; grand- son of Wilhelm Gerhard, author and poet, of Leipzig. Germany; and a descendant by a side line, from Paul Gerhard, Protestant divine and religious poet. He lived until his twelfth year in Alexandria, Egypt. He attended the gymnasium in Kiel and was gradaated from the Polytechnic school in Karlsruhe in 1875. In 187.5-76 he served as volunteer in the Railroad regiment of the Im- laerial guards at Berlin. In September, 1877, he emigrated to the United States and settled first in St. Louis, JIo., where he was assistant engi- neer to Col. Henry Flad, C.E., in the department of public works, 1877-79. In 1880 he helped James B. Eads to prepare the plates of the " His- tory of St. Louis Bridge " ; in 1881 became assist- ant to Col. George E. Waring, Jr., sanitary engineer in Newport, R.I.,; and in 1883 removed to Ne%v York city, where he was chief engineer of the Durham house drainage company till 1885.