John W. Geary
Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Governor of Pennsylvania, 1867-73; born, 1819, in Mt. Pleasant. His active career included other important offices: First Mayor of San Francisco, 1850; Governor of Kansas Territory, 1856; Major General, Civil War. Died, 1873.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
John W. Geary was born in this Westmoreland County town in 1819 and lived one of the most far-flung public careers of his generation. He served as the first mayor of San Francisco in the Gold Rush year of 1850, was appointed territorial governor of a bitterly divided "Bleeding Kansas" in 1856, rose to major general in the Civil War, and finally served as governor of Pennsylvania from 1867 until his death in 1873.
Why it matters
Geary's life traced the great arcs of 19th-century America—westward expansion, the sectional crisis, and the Civil War—through a single restless public servant.
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