ideal housewives and lovable characters in every sense of the term. The coming of the Mitchells to Illinois brought to that State, in 1819, John H. Gay and his wife. In the spring of 1815 Mr. Gay had removed to Bedford County, Virginia, where he conducted a tannery and a store, and also traded profitably in cattle, adding materially to his resources and his capital. When he came to Illinois he purchased a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1823 his brother died in the South, and Mr. Gay settled up his estate. In doing this a large amount of sugar, coffee, etc., came into his hands, and, in order to realize the best results from the sale of these products, he concluded to open a grocery house in St. Louis. This he did in 1824, taking into partnership with himself his brother-in-law, Mr. Estes. The firm of Gay & Estes began business on Main Street, near Market Street, dealing in both groceries and dry goods. St. Louis had then something like 5,000 inhabitants, and extended only three or four squares westward from the river. Their patronage came principally from Illinois, and extended as far as one hundred miles into the interior of the State. It soon developed that Mr. Gay was destined to become an eminently successful merchant, and that as a business man he had few equals. His innate sagacity and superior judgment enabled him to plan successfully for the extension of trade and to attract patrons, while his partner attended to the indoor concerns and details of the business of the house. Each of the partners supplemented the other in such a way that their business prospered continuously, and had grown to large proportions when Mr. Estes died. After the death of his partner, Mr. Gay's health became impaired, as a result of the close confinement which the conduct of the business necessitated, and in 1833 he sold the establishment to two young men who were engaged in the store, furnishing them with capital and credit. and enabling them to continue the business on the original plan. A man of keen foresight, he invested his profits largely in real estate in Illinois and St. Louis, which he purchased at a low figure. So judicious were his investments in St. Louis that the growth of the city made him very wealthy. He established his sons in mercantile pursuits and materially assisted them in building up commercial names and houses as honorable as

his own. In all the enterprises calculated to build up and bring permanent prosperity to St. Louis, John H. Gay took an active interest. He was a large stockholder in various railroad lines, in the Wiggins Ferry Company, and in the St. Louis Gas Company. He was also a stockholder in some of the first insurance companies organized in St. Louis, and was a director in the branch of the United States Bank, which had a creditable and useful existence in that city. A devout member of the Methodist Church throughout almost his entire life, he was one of the founders of Centenary Church of St. Louis, located then at the corner of Fifth and Pine Streets, and was one of the first stewards and trustees of that church. Regular in his attendance at all services of the church, he was a generous contributor, also, in aid of every movement to promote its upbuilding. During the later years of his life, on account of his removal from his old home, located in what had become the business portion of the city, to Union Avenue, he was a member, communicant and regular attendant of St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church South, at the corner of Ewing and Locust Streets, of which church he was a founder. In politics Mr. Gay was reared an old-line Whig and affiliated with that party until it passed out of existence. Thereafter he was a member of the Democratic party, holding liberal views and reserving to himself the right of independent action when he deemed it for the best interests of the public. His wife died September 14, 1869, after living in sweet companionship with her husband for fifty-six years. One who has written of Mrs. Gay says: "She was a rare woman; a ‘keeper at home,' devoted to her church, her hus band, her children and her household, reverencing the memory of her parents, whom she loved with an unusually ardent affection; a sister as well as 'a mother in Israel.' Her house was ever open to the ministers of the gospel, their special rooms being always ready, and it was her delight to make them feel it was home." Of six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gay, two sons, Edward J. and William T. Gay, survived them. Their eldest daughter, Eliza M. Gay, married Dr. Meredith Martin, of St. Louis, and died August 1, 1862. William T. Gay married Miss Sallie Bass, daughter of Ely E. Bass, of Boone County, Missouri. Edward J. Gay, who

achieved great distinction, is the subject of an extended sketch in this connection. Among the direct descendants of this worthy couple are Mrs. Philip A. Crow and family, of St. Louis; Mrs. Anna M. Gay Price, of La Fourche Parish, Louisiana; Andrew H. Gay, of Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, Louisiana; and John H. Gay, Jr., of San Diego, California. Other descendants live in Ohio and Virginia. In his long and not uneventful career, John H. Gay did not leave a line, a speech, a word or an act recorded against his integrity as a merchant, or against his character as a man. Few men have had such pure and unsullied records at the end of almost a century of life. Relying upon himself, he made for himself and his family an honored and esteemed name, and when he passed to a good man's reward the world was better for his having lived.

Gaylord, Samuel A., was born March 29, 1832, in Pittsford, Monroe County, New York, his parents being of old New England stock. Erastus Gaylord, his father, was a manufacturer in the above named village during the early youth of the subject of this sketch, and there his primary education was obtained. Later he attended college in Rochester, New York. Upon graduating he, for a short period, held a clerical position in a mercantile house in Rochester, from which he retired to come west. Arriving in St. Louis, in 1849, he at once became an employe of the banking house of George E. H. Gray & Co., with which the veteran banker, James M. Franciscus, was connected.

It

soon became evident that young Gaylord was eminently qualified for the business he had selected, as after a few years' service with this firm he had made to him an offer of a position in the Boatmen's Saving Institution, now the Boatmen's Bank. This position he held continuously until 1862, a ten years' service, from which he resigned to engage in the banking business with his father and brother, under the firm name of Erastus Gaylord & Sons. After the death of his father the business was continued as Gaylord, Leavenworth & Co., for some time, succeeded by S. A. Gaylord & Co., and afterward by Gaylord, Blessing & Co. In 1866 he married Miss Frances A. Otis, of Batavia, New York, by whom he had two children, both dying in infancy. Mrs. Gaylord died in 1876. Seven

years later, in 1883, he married Mrs. Clara Peterson Billon, widow of Louis C. Billon, and a daughter of Alexander Peterson, of the banking firm of Rennick & Peterson, in the early days of St. Louis.

Gaynor City.-A hamlet located in the interior of Independence Township, Nodaway County, about fourteen miles northeast of Maryville. There are two churches, Presbyterian and Christian, with a store, schoolhouse and other buildings. It has telephone connections with neighboring towns.

Gayoso. An incorporated village, the seat of justice of Pemiscot County. It is situated near the Mississippi River; was settled about 1799, and was named in honor of Manuel Gayoso, one of the early Spanish Governors of Louisiana. In 1852 it was laid. out as a town and made the county seat. It has a courthouse, public school, church, a shingle factory and numerous sawmills nearby. Population, estimated (1899), 300.

Gehner, August, banker and financier, was born in the city of Hanover, Germany, September 18, 1846. He obtained his early education in his native city, and, coming to St. Louis when he was thirteen years of age, completed his studies at the German Institute, in that city. He was still a school boy when the Civil War began, and had been but two years in the United States, but, notwithstanding his youth and his short-lived American citizenship, he had learned to love his adopted country, and in 1862 enlisted as a private soldier in Company L, of the First Missouri Light Artillery, and from that date until July 20, 1865, when he received an honorable discharge, at the end of the war, he served continuously with the Union forces. He returned to St. Louis to turn his attention to civil pursuits, and, having shown a remarkable aptness at drawing during his school days, accepted a position as draughtsman in the surveyor general's office, which he filled for three years thereafter. This naturally inclined him toward the realty business, and at the end of his three years' term of service with the surveyor general he became a clerk in the office of Hurk & O'Reilley, abstracters of titles. Three years with this firm thoroughly familiarized him with the details of the title abstract business, and

at the end of that time he opened an abstract business of his own. Under his careful and intelligent supervision the business which he had established speedily grew to large proportions, and it may be said that he has made. abstracts of the titles to almost every piece. of real property in St. Louis. In everything pertaining to this branch of the realty business he is a recognized authority, and as a banker and financier he is no less prominent. For some years he has been president of the German-American Bank of St. Louis, a monetary institution which has been most admirably managed, and which stands at the head of the banking houses of that city as a dividend-paying institution. In the business and financial circles of St. Louis Mr. Gehner is universally recognized as a broad-minded financier, as well as a successful banker. This has caused him to become identified with numerous corporations in the capacity of stockholder and official, among the more prominent of these corporations being the Mississippi Valley Trust Company, the German Fire Insurance Company, and the Planters' Hotel Company, in each of which companies he is a director. He was married, in 1870, to Miss Minna Wehmiller, of St. Louis, and has two children, a son, Albert Gehner, and a daughter, Pauline Gehner.

Geiger, Jacob, physician and surgeon of St. Joseph, was born July 25, 1848, at Wurttemberg, Germany. His parents were Anton and Maria G. (Eberhardt) Geiger. Jacob attended the Homer Seminary, at Homer, Illinois, and graduated from Bryant's Business College, St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1866. The same year he began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. Galen E. Bishop, of St. Joseph, and began the practice of medicine in 1868. Having acquired a substantial foundation for the life work he had chosen, the young physician determined to avail himself of a finishing course of lectures, and thus be better prepared for the professional future which determination. and ambition had in store for him. He, therefore, attended lectures for one year at the medical department of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, graduating from that institution in 1872. He then returned to St. Joseph and entered upon a career that has been marked by remarkable success-a degree of success that is attained by few men

engaged in his profession. The father died. in Obernau, Wurttemberg, Germany, in 1851, and Jacob was, therefore, thrown upon his own resources from early boyhood. Two of his brothers had emigrated to America, and in 1856 Jacob and his mother came to this country to find a new home and accept permanent citizenship. But the sons were to experience another stinging blow, for the mother was taken away from them two years later and they were left alone. The situation was most serious for Jacob, who was the youngest of the three, but he had inherited the pluck that was characteristic of the family, and in the midst of overwhelming sorrow the boy set his face toward the unpromising future and began to prepare himself for a battle against obstacles that would have to be surmounted and smoothed without the help of parents' hands. Shortly before her death, in 1858, the mother and her sons removed from Champaign County, Illinois, to Brown County, Kansas. After his mother's death, and a brief residence in St. Joseph, Jacob Geiger returned to Illinois, where he attended school as faithfully as limited means would allow, and gave close attention to the rudiments of an education that was afterward well rounded and completed. The close of the Civil War marked the end of Jacob's days at the Homer Seminary, and in 1865 he returned to St. Joseph. Limited finances compelled him to seek employment that was rewarded by exceedingly meager remuneration.. There were months behind the counter of a grocery store and tiresome days spent at even harder labor than that of a clerk. Through adversity he struggled manfully and succeeded in working his way through a business college, a training that has had the result of making him a successful business man, as well as one of brilliant professional attainments. Knowledge of drugs was gained by a short term spent in a drug store, and this was followed by a course of reading in a doctor's office under the careful guidance of an able preceptor. In 1878 Dr. Geiger helped to organize the St. Joseph Medical College. Two years later the St. Joseph College of Physicians and Surgeons was established, and in 1883 the institutions were consolidated under the name of the St. Joseph Medical College. In 1886 it became the Ensworth Medical College, and Dr. Geiger was its dean. He is professor of the principles