Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/666

governor. The ex-governor's devotion and ser- vices to the Republican party were rewarded in 1812 with the office of vice-president, and he held this office at the time of his death, which occurred while he was on his way to the capitol. He mar- ried Ann, daughter of Charles Thomson, secretary of congress, who, with three sons and six daugh- ters, survived him. Mr. Gerry's career, though characterized by de- votion to party, and such episodes as the refusal to assent to a vote of thanks to Hancock on his re- tirement from the presidency of con- gress, the opposi- tion to the Society of the Cincinnati, and the unhappy French mission, was honor- able and useful ; and his patriotic services in the Revolution- ary struggle entitle

him to a high place

among the statesmen of the early days of the re- public. A monument was erected to his memory in the congressional burial-ground at Washing- ton by the government. (See accompanying illus- tration.) His messages to the legislature have been published as follows : " Speech of His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts to both Houses of the Legislature, at the Ses- sion commencing on the Second Wednesday in January, 1812 " (Boston, 1811) ; " Legislature of Massachusetts. Speech, June 7, 1811. At twelve o'clock. His Excellency the Governor, attended by His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor and the Hon- orable Council (completely attired in cloth of American manufacture), met the two Branches of the Legislature " (Boston, 1811) ; " Message from His Excellency the Governor, February 27, 1812, re- garding Libellous Articles " (Boston, 1812). See his life by James T. Austin (2 vols., Boston, 1828-9) ; and a sketch, by Henry D. Gilpin, in Sanderson's " Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence." — His grandson, Elbridg'e Thomas, lawyer, b. in New York city, 25 Dec, 1837, was graduated at Columbia in 1857, studied law with William Curtis Noyes, and afterward became a partner in the firm of Noyes and Tracy. On the death of Mr. Noyes, in 1864, he formed a partner- ship with William F. Allen and Benjamin B. Ab- bott, which was subsequently dissolved. He has attained note at the bar, and owns one of the finest law libraries in the country, numbering 12,000 vol- umes. He became counsel of the Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals in 1870, took an active part in the formation of the Society for the prevention of cruelty to children in 1874, and in 1879 was elected its president. Mr. Gerry was a member of the State constitutional convention in 1867. He was chosen commodore of the New York yacht club in 1886, and re-elected in 1887.

GERRY, Samuel Lancaster, artist, b. in Boston, Mass., 10 May, 1813. He was mostly self-taught, and, with the exception of three years abroad, his professional life has been passed chiefly in Boston. He was an original member of the Boston art club, and its president in 1858. Among his works are “The Gorge of the Rhine,” “The Old Man of the Mountain,” “Pasture Gate,” “Land of Beulah” (now owned by Wellesley college), “Over the River,” “Bridal Tour of Priscilla and John Alden,” “The Artist's Dream” (1878), and “American Tourists,” sent, to the exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876.

GERSTÄCKER, Friedrich, German traveller, b. in Hamburg, Germany, 16 May, 1816; d. in Vienna, 81 May, 1872. He was apprenticed to a grocer in Cassel, but in 1837 engaged as cabin-boy on a vessel bound from Bremen to New York. In this country he was forced by poverty to become successively fireman on a steamboat, deck-hand, farmer, silversmith, wood-cutter, merchant, and hostler. After wandering through most of the states of the Union, spending some time as a hunter and trapper in the Indian territory, and keeping a hotel at Point Coupée, La., in 1842, he returned to Germany in 1843, and engaged in literary pursuits, but subsequently made trips to South America, Egypt, and around the world. Gerstäcker was a voluminous writer. Those of his works that relate to this country include “Streif- und Jagdzüge durch die Vereinigten Staaten Nordamerikas” (2 vols., Dresden, 1841); “Die Regulatoren in Arkansas,” a novel (3 vols., Leipsic, 1846); “Mississippibilder” (2 vols., Dresden, 1847); “Die Flusspiraten des Mississippi” (3 vols., Leipsic, 1848); “Amerikanische Wald- und Strombilder” (2 vols., 1849); “Reisen,” giving an account of his first journey round the world (5 vols., Stuttgart, 1852-'4); “Nach Amerika” (6 vols., Leipsic, 1855); “Unter dem Aequator” (3 vols., 1860); “Neue Reisen durch die Vereinigten Staaten, Mexico, Ecuador, Westindien und Venezuela” (2 vols., Jena, 1868); “Die Blauen und die Gelben,” a Venezuelan character-sketch (2 vols., 1870); and “In Mexico” (1871). Several of his books have been translated into English.

GERVAIS, John Lewis, b. in Germany, 8 Oct., 1753; d. in Charleston, S. C., 2 Oct., 1798. He represented South Carolina in the Continental congress in 1782-'3. On 10 Sept., 1782, he voted for a motion that the secretary for foreign affairs be directed to obtain returns of slaves and other property carried off by the enemy during the war, such information to be used in negotiating a peace. In April, 1783, he was a member of a committee to which were referred letters from U. S. representatives abroad, and on 15 April of that year favored instructing the commander-in-chief to arrange with the commander of the British forces for receiving possession of the posts in the United States that were occupied by British troops.

GESCHEIDT, Louis Anthony, physician, b. in Dresden, Germany, 19 Feb., 1808; d. in Hastings, N. Y., 20 Aug., 1876. He was educated at the Karl-Schule in Dresden, and was designed for the church, but, displaying great talent for natural science, was sent to Dresden university, and afterward to the University of Leipsic. On his return to Dresden he became the assistant of Dr. A. Carus, the physiologist, and Dr. F. A. Von Ammen, the oculist, and during the cholera epidemic in Berlin was sent by the Dresden municipality to investigate the nature of the disease. He came to this country in 1835, and settled in New York, where he became prominent in his profession, and in 1870 retired with a fortune. He published a work on “Diseases of the Eye” (Dresden).

GESNER, Abraham, Canadian geologist, b. in Cornwallis, N. S.. 2 May, 1797 ; d. in Halifax, N. S., 19 April, 1864. He was a son of Henry Gesner, a loyalist, who, during the Revolutionary war, fled to Nova Scotia, where he received a grant of land in compensation for that confiscated in New York. The young man studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's hospital, and surgery at Guy's hospital in London, and, after receiving his degree, returned