Lyman J. Gage

Who was Lyman J. Gage?

Lyman Judson Gage was an American financier and Presidential Cabinet officer.

He was born at DeRuyter, New York, educated at an academy at Rome, New York, and at the age of 17 he became a bank clerk. In 1853 he removed to Chicago, served for three years as bookkeeper, and in 1858 entered tile banking house of the Merchants Loan and Trust Company, of which he was cashier in 1861-1868. Afterwards be became successively assistant cashier, vice-president and president of the First National Bank of Chicago, one of the strongest financial institutions in the Middle West.

He was chosen in 1890 to be president of the board of directors of the World's Columbian Exposition, the successful financing of which was due more to him than to any other man. Following the exposition, he became president of the newly formed Chicago Civic Federation, which sought to reform city governance. In politics he was originally a Republican, and was a delegate to the national convention of the party in 1880, and chairman of its finance committee.

In 1884, however, he supported Grover Cleveland for the presidency, and came to be looked upon as a Democrat. In 1892 President Cleveland, after his second election, offered Gage the post of secretary of the treasury, but Gage declined the offer. In the free-silver campaign of 1896, Gage labored effectively for the election of Republican candidate William McKinley, and from March 1897 until January 1902 he served as Secretary of the Treasury in the cabinets successively of Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.