Elbridge Thomas Gerry

For other people named Elbridge Gerry, see Elbridge Gerry (disambiguation).
Elbridge Thomas Gerry
Born Elbridge Thomas Gerry
1837
Died 1927

Elbridge Thomas Gerry (1837–1927) was an American reformer.

Biography

In 1860 he was admitted to the New York State Bar Association. He became an adviser to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Soon afterward he became interested in child welfare and in 1875 he and Henry Bergh founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (sometimes called the Gerry Society). Ultimately he devoted most of his attention to this cause, though he still retained his interest in other humanitarian movements.[1]

In 1874 he took up the case of Mary Ellen McCormack and argued before the Supreme Court of New York.[2]

He was married to Louisa Matilda Livingston and was the father to Robert Livingston Gerry, Sr. (1877–1957) and Peter Goelet Gerry (1879–1957). His mansion in New York at 61st Street was a center of cultivated and fashionable life but was demolished to make way for the Hotel Pierre. But he also lived in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1904 he was painted by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862–1947), and he presented the portrait to the New York Yacht Club where it hangs today.

Notes

  1. ^ Gerry, Elbridge Thomas. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07
  2. ^ Markel, Howard (December 14, 2009). "Case Shined First Light on Abuse of Children". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/health/15abus.html?ref=science. Retrieved 2009-12-15. "In fact, though, the quotation is from the 1874 case of Mary Ellen McCormack, below, a self-possessed 10-year-old who lived on West 41st Street, in the Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan. It was Mary Ellen who finally put a human face on child abuse — and prompted a reformers’ crusade to prevent it and to protect its victims, an effort that continues to this day."