George Gary

George Gary (March 16, 1824 – October 22, 1909) was an American lawyer, newspaper editor, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was a member of the Wisconsin Senate and State Assembly (1854 & 1855), representing Winnebago County. He also served 12 years as county judge and authored a long-cited and re-issued work on Wisconsin probate law.

Early life George Gary was born March 16, 1824, in Potsdam, New York. When two years old, his eyes became severely inflamed, which lasted for much of his childhood and limited his ability to obtain an education. At age five, he moved with his parents to Clinton, Clinton County, New York, where he received his early education. Later in childhood, the family relocated to Keeseville, New York, where Gary received an academy education.

Attaining adulthood, a physician recommended that a sea voyage might improve his eye inflammation. Gary quickly signed up to crew a Nantucket whaling ship, and traveled the Atlantic Ocean from 1845 through 1847. He returned home with the inflammation reduced and his overall health significantly improved, though he suffered from poor health for his entire life.

While at the capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, he became involved with Horace Rublee, the owner of the Wisconsin State Journal, and bought in as a part owner. His association with the State Journal lasted a little over a year. Afterward, Gary returned to freight forwarding as a clerk for a company in Green Bay, but that business was soon ruined by a temporary suspension of navigation on the lower Fox River in the fall of 1856. He then returned to Oshkosh, and worked in the forwarding business in partnership with M. E. Tremble. He declined renomination in 1860. During his last year as clerk, he also became the owner of the Oshkosh Democrat newspaper, and, in December 1860, merged his paper with the Oshkosh Northwestern, becoming a minority owner in the new merged paper and remaining on as editor for the next several years. Gary participated in all of the Senate business of the 1867 legislative session, While serving as county judge—an office which was mostly devoted to probate court cases—Gary wrote a guide of forms and procedures known as Wisconsin Probate Law and Practice, which was extensively utilized throughout the state and in some neighboring states. He published an updated version in 1892, and further editions were reissued after his death.

For the rest of his professional career, he was engaged as an attorney.

Published works