Gage, George W.

Born: 1812-03-09 Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

Died: 1875-09-24 Chicago, Illinois

Flourished: 1853 to 1875 Chicago, Illinois

George W. Gage, hotelkeeper, was born in Pelham, New Hampshire, and following a common school education worked as a machinist in Lowell, Massachusetts. Gage subsequently found employment in hotels, working variously in hotels in Methuen, Lowell, and Boston. In 1853 he went to Chicago, where he and his brother, David A. Gage, became proprietors of the Tremont House. Two years later, they were joined by John B. Drake to form the partnership of Gage, Brother & Drake, which lasted through about 1862, when David A. Gage left the firm and it became just Gage & Drake, and continued in the operation of the Tremont House. Politically, Gage was Republican. He represented Cook County in the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention, and was a delegate from Illinois at the 1864 Republican National Convention. Gage won election from Cook County to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1862, but after problems with the vote tally were found, his opponent contested the election and Gage resigned the seat. He was subsequently an alderman for Chicago’s first ward in 1864 and 1865. Gage married Sarah H. Barker in 1844 and was survived by six children.

Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2011); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 4, Boston, Suffolk County, MA, 187; Hall & Co.’s Chicago City Directory and Business Advertiser. For 1854-’55 (Chicago: R. Fergus, 1854), 109; E. H. Hall, comp., The Chicago City Directory, and Business Advertiser (Chicago: Robert Fergus, 1855), 48; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:3; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 2, Chicago, Cook County, IL, 253-54; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Methuen, Essex County, MA, 457; Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 1 November 1862, 2:1; The Chicago Times (IL), 11 November 1862, 2:3; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 225; T. M. Haplin, comp., Halpin & Bailey’s Chicago City Directory For the Year 1862-63 (Chicago: Halpin & Bailey, 1862), 141; T. M. Haplin, comp., Halpin & Bailey’s Chicago City Directory For the Year 1863-64 (Chicago: Halpin & Bailey, 1863), 166; Proceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions of 1856, 1860 and 1864 (Minneapolis, MN: Charles W. Johnson, 1893), 253; A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1884), 1:635; 2:49, 50; The Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 26 September 1875, 12:6-7.