GEORGE WASHINGTON GLICK

George W. Glick, ninth governor of Kansas, was born at Greencastle, Fairfield County, Ohio, July 4, 1827. His great-grandfather, Philip Glick, a Revolutionary soldier, was one of five brothers who came to Pennsylvania from Germany. His grandfather, George Glick, served in the War of 1812 as did also his mother's father, Capt. George SANDERS. Governor Glick's father, Isaac Glick, was a man of influence in the community in which he lived, took an active interest in State and local politics and held many positions of public trust. His mother, Mary Sanders, was of Scotch parentage. Both parents lived to a good old age.

George W. Glick was reared on his father's farm near Fremont, Ohio and there acquired the habits of industry, economy and self-reliance that made his later life so successful. At the age of twenty-one he entered the office of BUCKLIN & HAYES as a law student and was admitted to the bar two years later at Cincinnati by the supreme court. He began practice at Fremont and soon won an enviable reputation as a hardworking and successful lawyer. He fully sustained this reputation after coming to Kansas.

Locating at Atchison in the spring of 1859, he formed a partnership with Hon. Alfred G. OTIS, which lasted until 1874, when an affection of the throat compelled him to abandon the practice of law. Mr. Glick soon took a leading place at the Kansas bar. His practice extended to all the courts. He was a salaried attorney for two railroads and a number of corporations.

Mr. Glick was a natural leader and began early in life to take an active part in politics. When but thirty-one years of age he was nominated for Congress by the Democracy of his district in Ohio, but declined the nomination. The same year he was nominated for State senator and made the race against Gen. R.P. BUCKLIN, his former preceptor. He was elected to the Kansas legislature in 1862 without opposition and reelected in 1863, '64, '65, '66, '68, '76 and '82.

During his service as a legislator, he secured the passage of many needed and important laws which have settled and fixed the policy of the State on matters of vast interest, that have stood the test of time and experience. In 1876, Mr. Glick was made speaker pro tem of the House of Representatives, although that body was strongly Republican. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1856, 1868, 1884 and 1892. The Kansas delegation in the Democratic National Convention at Chicago in 1892 presented his name to the convention as the candidate for vice-president, after the nomination of Grover CLEVLAND for President and, although not the nominee of the convention for that office he received many votes. He was nominated for governor in 1868 and made the race in obedience to his party's call, though his defeat was inevitable. In 1882 he was again the unanimous choice of his party for governor and made a memorable campaign, speaking in nearly every county in the State; and, though fighting against great odds, among them being a Republican majority of over 52,000, he defeated that distinguished Republican and Prohibitionist, John P. St. JOHN, by 8,070 votes. Governor Glick was inaugurated January 8, 1883, and his administration was marked by dignity, intelligence and a careful discreet management of the material and financial interests of the State. His long experience as a legislator gave him an intimate knowledge of its needs and many valuable reform measures recommenced in his message to the legislature were accomplished. He entered an earnest protest against the burdens imposed upon the agricultural classes by the earnest protest against the burdens imposed upon the agricultural classes by the railroads and asked that legislation be enacted to prevent those exactions. A law creating a railroad commission and embodying substantially all the improvements asked by him was passed and proved of great benefit to the people of the State.

In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland pension agent at Topeka and reappointed when Mr. Cleveland again came into office. During Mr. Glick's two terms as pension agent at the Topeka agency, he received and disbursed over $85,000.00.

In 1857 he married Elizabeth RYDER of Massillon, Ohio, a lady descended from a distinguished colonial ancestry. Her ancestors were among the first settlers of Concord, Mass., and she derived her name from forbears who were well known among the early colonists of New York City. For fifty years and more this noble matron, having with her the best traditions of American life, presided over the hospitable home of George W. Glick, with the grace and dignity inherited from a fine ancestry. She added to the success of his public life the greater blessings of domestic happiness. Two children were born to this union: Frederick H. Glick and Mrs. James W. ORR of Atchison, Kan. He died at Atchison, Kan., April 13, 1911, aged eighty-four years; his wife and children survive him.

Each state is entitled to place in Statuary Hall at the capitol in Washington, statues of two of its citizens renowned in literature, art, war or civil life and several years ago one of each place was filled by the State of Kansas with a statue of John James INGALLS of Atchison, Kan. The regular session of the 1913 legislature of Kansas adopted a concurrent resolution and made an appropriation for the purchase of a suitable statue as a tribute to the memory of George Washington Glick, to be placed in Statuary Hall, where the Nation has granted to its people the privilege of placing it. The statue was designed and executed by Charles H. NIEHAUS and accepted by Congress as a gift from Kansas with suitable ceremonies and is now in Statuary Hall. A cut representing it precedes this sketch. Sixteen thousand five hundred copies of a volume containing the proceedings in Congress and a place of the statue were by authority of Congress printed and distributed.

Taken from:

History of Atchison County, Kansas

by Sheffield Ingalls - 1916

Submitted by:

Clemi Higley Blackburn, July 2001