Gary, Elbert Henry

Biography

The youngest of three children of Eratus and Susan (Vallette) Gary, Elbert Henry Gary was born near Wheaton, Illinois and spent over fifty years of his life in Illinois. He attended the Illinois Institute, a Methodist college which his father had helped to found in Wheaton. At the suggestion of his uncle, Henry Vallette, he embarked on a career in law, attending the Union College of Law in Chicago, from which he graduated in 1868 at the head of his class. Gary worked in law firms with his uncle and his elder brother, building a wide and lucrative practice which led to seats on Boards of important railway and industrial corporations. Gary was elected to the presidency of the Chicago Bar (1893-1894) and was at the top of the legal profession in Illinois when he accepted the presidency of the Federal Steel Company, moving to New York in 1898. In this capacity he was noticed by financeer J.P. Morgan , who turned over the Gary the major work of organizing the United States Steel Corporation, the largest industrial corporation to that date. Gary was an integral and dominant part of the politics of that corporation until his death. Gary married twice, firstly on 23 June 1869 to Julia Graves (d. 1902) of Aurora, IL, with whom he had two daughters, and secondly, following Julia's death, to Emma Townsend of New York on 2 December 1905. [excerpted from entry on Gary in DAB 7: 175-176]

Bibliography

1925

Tarbell, Ida M. The Life of Elbert H. Gary: The Story of Steel. New York, 1925

1928

Cotter, Arundel. The Gary I Knew. Boston, 1928

1933

DAB, 1943, 7: 175-176

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