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 law preceptor. He was elected to the Kansas legislature in 1862 without opposition, and reëlected 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 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 that convention as its candidate for vice-president, after the nomination of Grover Cleveland 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 8,079 votes. Governor Glick was inaugurated January 8, 1883, and his administration was marked by dignity, intelligence, and a careful and 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 recommended in his message to the legislature were accomplished. He entered an earnest protest against the burdens imposed upon the agricultural classes by the railroads and asked that legislation be enacted to prevent these 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 re-appointed 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 such places 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 plate of the statue, were, by authority of Congress, printed and distributed.
HORACE MORTIMER JACKSON.
He who leaves behind him, when he passes beyond the goal from which no mortal man has ever returned, a pleasant and abiding memory of his existence on this earth, and has bequeathed to his progeny and posterity a heritage of right living and right thinking, has accomplished much. His memory will be revered long after that of the individual who has done nothing but accumulate wealth and has made no effort to leave this earthly abiding place a better place to live than when he came upon it. Judge Horace Mortimer Jackson, deceased, was a man who lived an upright life, and was accorded the universal respect of his fellow men and was a legal practitioner of high rank, whose honorable methods of practice and manner of living were such as to commend him for most favorable mention in the archives of his adopted county of Atchison.
Judge Horace M. Jackson was born near Albion, Penn., July 11, 1839, a son of Lyman Jackson, who was the son of Michael Jackson, whose father was also named Michael, and was a native of Ireland. Michael Jackson, the founder of the family in America, came from Ireland and settled near Hartford, Conn. He went to the coast to trade and was not thereafter heard from and was supposed to have been killed by Indians. He had three sons, one of whom, Ebenezer, died in service as a soldier during the French and Indian war. Another son went south, and the third was Michael Jackson, the direct ancestor of Horace M. Jackson. Michael was born March 28, 1735 and on June 4, 1755, was married to Susanna Willcocks, who was born April 19, 1732. They settled in Windham county, Connecticut, later removing to Pownal, near Bennington, Vt. Michael Jackson was a soldier in the colonial army during the French and Indian war, and was a member of Company Ten, First regiment. He was discharged December 12, 1759. He also enlisted in the Seventh Company of the Third regiment of volunteers, Army of Independence, May 5, 1775, and was discharged December 15, 1775. He later volunteered for service in Col. Samuel Herrick’s regiment of “Alarm Men.” Lyman, the son of Michael, also served in the Revolution on the American side. He was born February 29, 1755, at Simsbury, Hartford county, Connecticut. He enlisted eight different times in the American army. Lyman married Deidama Dunham on January 3, 1782. This couple lived at Albany, Otsego and Wyoming, N. Y., at different times. To them were born thirteen children. About 1805, Lyman Jackson settled in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and obtained a dense tract of timber land in the Holland Purchase from which he cleared a farm. Seven sons and a son-in-law of this redoubtable patriot fought in the War of 1812.
Lyman Jackson died March 20, 1835. David Bardsley Jackson, a son of Lyman, born May 29, 1797, at Richfield, Otsego county, New York, married Lucy Hendryx, on April 11, 1822, near Albion, Penn. He was the ninth child of Lyman Jackson and cleared a farm of forty acres in the Holland Purchase on which he resided until the year 1830. He then sold his land, loaded his effects in a farm wagon, drove to Pittsburgh, and took passage down the Ohio river and thence up the Mississippi to Warsaw, Ill., from which landing place on December 15, 1839 he drove to Knoxville, Ill., and bought a farm ten miles west of the village. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1841, driving overland with his team 1,000 miles each way accompanied by his wife and two youngest children. In the year 1846 he removed to a residence in Knoxville and engaged in the grocery business. In 1854 he settled on a farm one-half mile west of Cambridge, Henry county, Illinois. He lived here until 1876, then sold out and made his home at Gilson, for the remainder of his days. This sturdy pioneer died January 18, 1879. His children were: Mrs. Elizabeth Ruth Pierce, Zaremba, Obadiah H., Gershom, David, Francis Marion, Charles Wilmer De Loss, Horace Mortimer, and Mrs. Annie Lucelia Wing.
Horace Mortimer Jackson was reared on the farm, attended the schools of Knoxville, Ill., clerked in his father’s grocery store, sawed wood for forty cents per cord, and did the hardest kind of farm work while yet a boy. During 1860–61, he taught school for $28 per month. On August 7, 1861, he started for De Soto, Neb., by way of Hannibal and St. Joseph. On April 12, 1861, he boarded a steamer at St. Joseph en route for Omaha. Arriving there he joined his brother Zaremba on his farm in Nebraska. He worked here for some time and assisted his brother in tilling the farm with oxen in the most primitive way. He saved his money and in 1862 returned to Cambridge, Ill., taught school during the winter and read law at night. He followed farming, served as deputy sheriff of the county and finally located at Versailles, Mo., in the practice of law. He was a member of the board of education which gave the first public school to the town of Versailles. He married Lavanchia Isabelle Valentine, December 12, 1865. She was the eldest daughter of John O. Valentine. For a time the newly wedded couple were in very poor circumstances.