John Addison Gurley was born in East Hartford, CT,
on December 9, 1813. His father was a minister of a
Congregational church. Gurley attended district schools
in Hartford County and learned the hatter's trade. As
a young man, he became interested in the ministry, and
so studied theology and eventually became a minister.
From 1835 to 1838, he served as pastor of the Universalist
Church in Methuen, Massachusetts.
In 1838, Gurley moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and became
the owner and editor of the Star and Sentinel,
a Universalist newspaper that later became known as
the Star in the West. Gurley also worked as a pastor
in Cincinnati until he retired from the ministry in
1850. In 1854, he retired from the newspaper business
as well, sold his paper, and went back to his farm just
outside of Cincinnati.
Gurley did not retire from involvement in public life,
however, and earned a reputation for never avoiding
controversy whether political or theological. He was
outspoken in condemning the Democratic administrations
of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan. Gurley backed John
C. Fremont for President in 1856 and encouraged people
at rallies in Cincinnati to vote for him. Partly because
of his strong Republican stance in those early days
of the Party, Republicans in Ohio nominated him to run
for Congress. He lost the election but increased his
popularity among anti-slavery groups and others dissatisfied
with the Democratic Party of the 1850's.
Gurley ran for Congress again in 1858, and this time
won the election for the Representative of Ohio's 2nd
District. In 1860, the same year Abraham Lincoln was
elected President, Gurley won re-election to the 37th
Congress, again as a Republican. Factions among Ohio
Republicans at the time made Lincoln and the Republican
Party in general somewhat unpopular in Ohio. This dissension,
combined with the general strain of the Civil War and
the high taxes and many regulations that came with the
war, resulted in a reaction against the Lincoln administration
in the 1862 elections. Many Republicans lost their Congressional
seats that year, including John Gurley.
Gurley shifted his attention to the military and served
briefly as colonel and aide-de-camp for General John
C. Frémont, one of the Union's most prominent generals.
President Lincoln then appointed him governor of Arizona,
but before he could begin his duties as governor, he
died of a sudden attack of appendicitis on August 19,
1863. He was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati,
Ohio.
Sources:
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Wikipedia
Scholarly Journal of the OH Historical Society,
Vol. 80, pg.38
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