Biographical Sketch of George W. Glick, Atchison County, KSGenWeb Digital Library

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Biographical Sketch
of
George W. Glick
Atchison County, Kansas

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The following transcription is from a 750 page book titled "Genealogical and Biographical Record of North-Eastern Kansas, dated 1900. These have been diligently transcribed and generously contributed by Penny R. Harrell, please give her a very big Thank You for her hard work!

George W. Glick

Whatever else may be said of the legal fraternity, it cannot be denied that members of the bar have been more prominent actors in public affairs than any other class. This is but the natural result of causes which are manifest and require no explanation. The ability and training which qualify one to practice law, also qualifies him in many respects for duties which lie outside the strict path of his profession and which touch the general interests of society.

Holding marked precedence among the members of the bar of Atchison county Mr. Glick practiced law for many years and later was called to public life by the vote of the people. As the 9th governor of the state his name is inseparably connected with the history of the commonwealth and at the present time he is serving as United States pension agent of the district comprising Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Indian Territory.

Mr. Glick was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, July 4, 1827, and when he was four years old his father's family moved to a farm near Fremont in the same state. There he attended a country school held in what is known as "Glick's schoolhouse," and when nineteen years of age taught in the same place.

He subsequently became a student in the Dioclesian Institute in Fremont, which was founded by Dr.
Dio Lewis who afterwards became famous for his views in regard to health reform. Later he attended the Central College of Ohio, but did not finish the course. Mr. Glick, Sr., was a thoroughly well informed and practical agriculturist and acquired a competence as a result of his labors.

His son was equally fond of the calling and would doubtless have been as successful in that line as his father, had not an accident by which his feet were severely injured in a threshing machine apparently put an end to all active work. Fortunately his fears were not realized and he entirely recovered his original strength and use of his limbs.

To this day, however, his love for country life continues, and as long as his father lived on the farm he spent his summers there, assisting in the haying and harvesting. While under the apprehension that he would be a cripple for life, Mr. Glick determined to take up law as a profession and began his studies, in 1849, in the office of Buckland & Hayes, of Fremont, the latter member of the firm being Rutherford B. Hayes, who afterward became president of the United States.

Two years later he was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati, passing an examination with the graduating class of the Cincinnati Law School. After eight years of successful practice in Fremont, Mr. Glick came to Atchison, in June, 1859, and the following January formed a partnership with Hon. A. G. Otis, which continued as long as he practiced law.

At the bar he won marked prestige by reason of his thorough understanding of law in its various departments and his devotion to his clients' interests. He prepared his cases with precision and exactness, studied the question at issue from every possible standpoint, and was thus ready to meet not only the expected but also the unexpected, which happens quite as frequently in the courts as out of them.

In 1872 he turned his attention to the less arduous duties of the farm, but maintained his residence in Atchison. He was the owner of a valuable tract of land of 640 acres, four miles west of the city, and there he successfully carried on stock raising, making a specialty of the breeding of Bates short-horned cattle. A number of times he has paid as high as one thousand dollars for a single animal, and among stock dealers he obtained a wide reputation, shipping cattle to Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, New Mexico, Colorado and other western points.

Mr. Glick has also been connected with the railroad interests of the state and was the first president of the Atchison & Nebraska road, which, under his direction, was constructed to the state line. For many years he has been a prominent factor in the public life of the state of his course, which has ever been marked by a patriotic spirit, is one over which there falls no shadow of wrong.

Mr. Glick has served nine terms in the Kansas legislature, a longer record than any other citizen of the state, and was once county commissioner and once county auditor. While holding the latter office in 1882, he was elected governor by nine thousand plurality over John P. St. John, who had been elected two years before by about fifty-five thousand.

In 1884 he was renominated for governor by the Democrats, but was defeated by John A. Martin, although he ran sixteen thousand ahead of his ticket. He was nominated for governor nine years after coming to Kansas, but the Republicans were in full command of the situation at that time and he was defeated.

In 1885 he was appointed pension agent, serving four years, and again in 1893, both times without solicitation on his part. Mr. Glick has been a Mason thirty-six years, being one of the original organizers of the Knights Templar Commandery and Royal Arch Chapter in Atchison.

He has always taken an active interest in everything calculated to develop the resources of the county and state and is one of the most valuable citizens in Kansas.

Last update: Friday, August 02, 2024 18:18:07

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