George W. Schuyler

George Washington Schuyler (February 2, 1810 Stillwater, Saratoga County, New York – February 1, 1888 Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York) was an American businessman, author and politician.

Life

His family moved to Ithaca, N.Y., in 1811. There he worked on the family farm, and attended the public schools. At age sixteen, he began to work at a drugstore and learned this trade. In 1834 he enrolled at New York University and graduated in 1837. Afterwards he returned to Ithaca, N.Y., and opened his own drugstore.

In 1848, he entered politics as a Free Soiler, and was Trustee of the Village of Ithaca for two years. In 1855, he was among the founders of the Republican Party in Tompkins County. He was a delegate to the 1860 and 1864 Republican National Conventions.

He was New York State Treasurer from 1864 to 1865, elected on the Union ticket nominated by the Republicans and War Democrats. He was Superintendent of the New York State Banking Department from 1866 to 1871.

In 1872, he joined the Liberal Republicans, and later became a Democrat. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Tompkins Co.) in 1875. Afterwards he was appointed by Governor Samuel J. Tilden as Auditor of the Canal Department.

He was a Trustee of Cornell University from its foundation, and Treasurer from 1868 to 1874.

In 1885, he published Colonial New York: Philip Schuyler and His Family (Charles Scribner's Sons; 2 volumes).

Writer and diplomat Eugene Schuyler (1840–1890) was his son.

Sources

• Political Graveyard
• Google Book Life Sketches of State Officers, Senators, and Members of Assembly in the State of New York in 1867 by S. R. Harlow and H. H. Boone (page 59; Weed, Parsons & Co., Albany NY, 1867)
• Expected to die soon, in NYT on November 8, 1885