JOHN HENRY GEAR
John Henry Gear, of Burlington, was born in Ithaca, N. Y., April 7, 1825; received a common-school education; removed to Galena, Ill., in 1836, to Fort Snelling, Iowa Territory, in 1838, and to Burlington in 1843, where he engaged in merchandising; was elected mayor of the city of Burlington in 1863; was a member of the Iowa house of representatives of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth general assemblies of the State, serving as speaker for the last two terms; was elected governor of Iowa in 1878–79 and again in 1880–81; was elected to the Fiftieth and Fifty-First Congresses; was beaten for the Fifty-Second; was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Harrison, and was elected to the Fifty-Third Congress as a Republican; was elected January 23, 1894, a Senator in Congress from the State of Iowa for six years, beginning March 4, 1895. His term of service will expire March 3, 1901.
