John W. Geary | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byMathew Bradyc. 1865 | |
| 16th Governor of Pennsylvania | |
| In office January 15, 1867 – January 21, 1873 | |
| Preceded by | Andrew Gregg Curtin |
| Succeeded by | John F. Hartranft |
| 3rd Territorial Governor of Kansas | |
| In office September 9, 1856 – March 20, 1857 | |
| Preceded by | Wilson Shannon |
| Succeeded by | Robert J. Walker |
| 1st Mayor of San Francisco | |
| In office May 1, 1850 – May 4, 1851 | |
| Preceded by | Himself asAlcalde |
| Succeeded by | Charles James Brenham |
| 18th Alcalde of San Francisco | |
| In office August 1, 1849 – May 1, 1850 | |
| Preceded by | Thaddeus M. Leavenworth |
| Succeeded by | Himself asMayor |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John White Geary (1819-12-30)December 30, 1819 Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | February 8, 1873(1873-02-08) (aged 53) Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Kalmia Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic(before 1866) Republican(after 1866) |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 5 |
| Profession | Teacher, clerk, land speculator, engineer, soldier |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service | United States Army Union Army |
| Years of service | 1846–1848, 1861–1865 |
| Rank |  Brigadier General BrevetMajor General |
| Battles/wars | |
John White Geary (December 30, 1819 – February 8, 1873) was an American lawyer, politician,Freemason, and aUniongeneral in theAmerican Civil War. He was the finalalcalde and firstmayor of San Francisco, a governor of theKansas Territory, and the 16thgovernor of Pennsylvania.[1]
Geary was born nearMount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, inWestmoreland County—in what is today thePittsburgh metropolitan area. He was the son of Richard Geary, an ironmaster and schoolmaster ofScotch-Irish descent,[2] and Margaret White, a native ofMaryland. Starting at the age of 14, he attended nearbyJefferson College inCanonsburg, Pennsylvania, studying civil engineering and law, but was forced to leave before graduation due to the death of his father, whose debts he assumed. He worked at a variety of jobs, including as a surveyor and land speculator inKentucky, earning enough to return to college and graduate in 1841. He worked as a construction engineer for theAllegheny Portage Railroad. In 1843, he married Margaret Ann Logan, with whom he had several sons, but she died in 1853. Geary then married the widowed Mary Church Henderson in 1858 inCarlisle, Pennsylvania.
Geary was active in the statemilitia as a teenager. In December 1846, during theMexican–American War, he was commissioned in the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry, serving aslieutenant colonel. He led the regiment heroically atChapultepec, and was wounded five times in the process.[3] Geary was an excellent target for enemy fire: a huge man for that era, he stood six feet six inches tall, 260 pounds (118 kg) and solidly built. Altogether, he was wounded at least ten times in his military career. Geary's exploits atBelén Gate earned him the rank ofcolonel and he returned home a war hero.
Moving west, Geary was appointed postmaster ofSan Francisco byPresidentJames K. Polk on January 22, 1849, and on January 8 1850, he was elected[4] the city'salcalde, before California became a state, and then the first mayor of the city. Aged thirty at the time of his appointment, he holds the record as the youngest mayor in San Francisco history. As alcalde, he served as the city's judge in addition to the city's mayor.[4] In 1849, he was nominated forGovernor andSenator, but did not win either office. Geary returned to Pennsylvania in 1852 because of his wife's failing health. After her death, PresidentFranklin Pierce wanted to appoint him governor of theUtah Territory, but Geary declined.
Geary accepted Pierce's appointment as governor of theKansas Territory on July 31, 1856.[5] Proslavery forces opposed Geary, favoring instead either acting governorDaniel Woodson or Surveyor General John Calhoun (an Illinois politician). Geary spent a month preparing for his new position and then left for the territory. While traveling up the Missouri River, his boat docked atGlasgow, Missouri, where he happened upon recently fired governorWilson Shannon. They briefly discussed the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis and Geary had previously met with Missouri governorSterling Price, who promised Geary thatFree-staters would be allowed safe passage through Missouri.
Geary arrived atFort Leavenworth on September 9 and went to the territorial capital atLecompton the following day, becoming the youngest territorial governor of Kansas. He believed that his previous administrative experience in government would help bring peace to the territory, but he was unable to stop the violence. He told his first audience, "I desire to know no party, no section, no North, no South, no East, no West; nothing but Kansas and my country."[6] Geary disbanded the existing Kansas militia, organized a new state militia, and relied heavily on federal troops to help keep order. On October 17, he started a twenty-day tour of the territory and spoke to groups everywhere he stopped to gain their opinions.
Despite his efforts to be a neutral peacemaker, Geary and the proslavery legislature clashed. Geary stopped a large force of Missouri border ruffians who were heading toLawrence to once again burn the town. Additionally, he vetoed a bill which would provide for an election of delegates to the Lecompton constitutional convention. This bill would have bypassed any referendum on a constitution before being submitted to the U.S. Congress for ratification. The legislature, however, overrode the veto.
Geary also angered Free-staters when he turned away $20,000 from theVermont legislature that was intended to help the suffering from the harsh winter of 1856–57. Geary wrote in his response, "[there is] doubtless some suffering ... consequent upon the past disturbances and the present extremely cold weather; but probably no more than exists in other territories or in either of the states of the Union."[7]
Initially, Geary solidly abhorred the proposals he received from Kansasabolitionists. By the time of the 1856 presidential election, however, he had completely reversed his position and had become intimate friends withCharles Robinson andSamuel Pomeroy. Additionally, he totally distrusted the proslavery forces and in letters to President Pierce, he blamed them for the deprivations in the territory. Geary even went so far as to reject his candidacy from the Democratic party of Kansas for the U.S. Senate. Instead, he worked with the Free-staters to create a plan for Kansas to be admitted to the Union under the Topeka constitution as a free state, with himself as governor of a Democratic administration. Support for this plan in Congress was lacking.[8]
Geary soon began to fear for his personal safety after his private secretary, Dr. John Gihon, was assaulted by proslavery ruffians. Geary submitted his resignation to incoming PresidentJames Buchanan, expecting that he would be reappointed. Instead, Buchanan fired Geary on March 12, 1857, with an effective date of March 20. In his farewell message to the territory, Geary stated that he had not sought the office and "[that it] was by no means desirable." He added, "most of the troubles which lately agitated the territory, were occasioned by men who had no especial interest in its welfare... The great body of the actual citizens are conservative, law-abiding and peace-loving men, disposed rather to make sacrifices for conciliation and consequent peace, than to insist for their entire rights should the general body thereby be caused to suffer."[9]
Armed with two guns, Geary left the territory during the night on March 21 and returned to Washington, D.C. Afterward, he spoke at many public meetings about the dangers in Kansas. Although he did not bring peace to the territory, Geary's administration did leave the territory more peaceful than it had been before his arrival. Geary returned to his Pennsylvania farm and remarried.
At the start of the Civil War, Geary raised the147th and28th Pennsylvania Infantry regiments and became colonel of the latter.[10] Commanding the district of the upperPotomac River, he was wounded and captured nearLeesburg, Virginia, on March 8, 1862, but was immediately exchanged and returned to duty. On April 25, 1862, he was promoted toBrigadier General, U.S. Volunteers and the command of a brigade inMaj. Gen.Nathaniel Banks's corps, which he led in theShenandoah Valley againstThomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. His brigade joined Maj. Gen.John Pope'sArmy of Virginia in late June. He led it at theBattle of Cedar Mountain on August 9, 1862, where he was seriously wounded in the arm and leg. He returned to duty on October 15 as the division commander; the corps was now part of theArmy of the Potomac, designated theXII Corps, under the command of Maj. Gen.Henry W. Slocum.
Geary's division was heavily engaged atChancellorsville, where he was knocked unconscious as a cannonball shot past his head on May 3, 1863. (Some accounts state that he was hit in the chest with a cannonball.)
At theBattle of Gettysburg, Slocum's corps arrived after the first day's (July 1, 1863) fighting subsided and took up a defensive position onCulp's Hill, the extreme right of the Union line. On the second day, heavy fighting on the Union left demanded reinforcements and Geary was ordered to leave a single brigade, underBrig. Gen.George S. Greene, on Culp's Hill and follow another division, which was just departing. Geary lost track of the division he was supposed to follow south on the Baltimore Pike and inexplicably marched completely off the battlefield, eventually reaching Rock Creek. His two brigades finally returned to Culp's Hill by 9:00 pm that night, arriving in the midst of a fierce fire fight between aConfederate division and Greene's lone brigade. This embarrassing incident might have damaged his reputation except for two factors: the part of the battle he was supposed to march to join had ended, so he wasn't really needed; and, because of a dispute between army commander Maj. Gen.George G. Meade and Slocum over the filing of their official reports, little public notice ensued.
The XII Corps was transferred west to join the besieged Union army atChattanooga. Geary's son Edward died in his arms at theBattle of Wauhatchie, enraging him sufficiently to prevail in a battle in which his division was greatly outnumbered. He distinguished himself in command during theBattle of Lookout Mountain, the entireAtlanta Campaign,Sherman's March to the Sea, and theCarolinas Campaign. He oversaw the surrender ofSavannah, Georgia, and briefly served as the city's military governor, where he wasbreveted to major general.
After the war, Geary was electedGovernor of Pennsylvania in1866, serving two terms from 1867 to 1873. He established a reputation as a political independent, attacking the political influence of the railroads and vetoing many special interest bills.
On February 8, 1873, less than three weeks after leaving the governor's post, Geary was fatally stricken with a heart attack while preparing breakfast for his infant son inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was 53 years old. He was buried in Harrisburg with state honors inMount Kalmia Cemetery, now, the Harrisburg Cemetery.
Geary was made a Mason at Sight on January 4, 1847, in Pennsylvania (Philanthropy Lodge #255), just before he left with his troops to fight in the Mexican War. During the Civil War, he was the commanding Union general at the fall ofSavannah, Georgia. He placed Federal troops about the quarters of Solomon's Lodge No. 1 to save it from looting and damage. Later, while Geary was governor of Pennsylvania, the Lodge sent him a resolution of thanks. He answered by claiming it was the principles and tenets of Freemasonry that helped Reconstruction to be as successful as it finally turned out to be. In this reply, he said: "... I feel again justified in referring to our beloved institution, by saying that to Freemasonry the people of the country are indebted for many mitigations of the suffering caused by the direful passions of war."[11]
Geary County, Kansas, was renamed in honor of John W. Geary in 1889 (previously named Davis County forJefferson Davis, it was renamed at the insistence of its citizens; in 1893, the county electorate rejected an attempt to restore the Davis County name), as isGeary Boulevard in San Francisco, a major artery in that city, Geary Avenue on the field at Gettysburg, Geary Street inNew Cumberland, Pennsylvania (where Geary owned a home), Geary Street in Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, and Geary Hall, an undergraduate dorm building in East Halls atPennsylvania State University. There is a monument to Geary in the town center ofMount Pleasant, Pennsylvania.Geary, Kansas (inDoniphan County) was also named in his honor, but the town ceased to exist in 1905. In 1914, a monument to Geary was erected on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg, but it was not formally dedicated until August 11, 2007.[12]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
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| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of Pennsylvania 1866,1869 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| New office | Mayor of San Francisco May 1, 1850 – May 4, 1851 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Territorial Governor of Kansas September 9, 1856 – March 20, 1857 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Pennsylvania January 15, 1867 – January 21, 1873 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
