Roy Wilhelm: Fremont's George Washington Glick rose to national prominence

Rutherford B. Hayes was not the only Fremonter who served as governor and earned a prestigious spot in Washington D.C.

Hayes, of course, became the 19^th president of the United States after practicing law and serving as governor of Ohio.

Well, George Washington Glick practiced law in Fremont, learning the profession in the office of R. P. Buckland and Hayes. He later became the ninth governor of Kansas which led him to his prestigious position in the nation’s capital.

Statue of Glick was placed in U.S. Capitol Building

According the Kansapedia, a publication of the Kansas Historical Society: “The Kansas legislature approved a resolution in 1913 for the appropriation of a statue of Glick to be placed in Statuary Hall in the U. S. Capitol Building. The statue was designed by Charles H. Niehaus and accepted by Congress as a gift from Kansas in 1914. There it remained until 2003 when the state replaced the Glick statue with one of Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

The Glick statue is now at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka.

The National Statuary Hall Collection is comprised of statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history. The other Kansas statue is of famed pilot Amelia Earhart.

Glick came to then Lower Sandusky with his parents in 1834 when he was 7 years old. Long interested in becoming a lawyer, he studied law in the office of R. P. Buckland and Rutherford B. Hayes beginning in 1848, was admitted to the bar in 1850 and began his own practice that year.

Glick moved to Kansas Territory in 1859

In 1857, he moved to Sandusky. Interestingly, the next year, always having been interested in politics, he ran for state senator against Buckland, one of his earlier instructors. He was defeated but made the strongest showing on the party ticket by a wide margin. In 1859, he moved to the Kansas territory where he joined the law practice of A.G. Otis and was very successful. According to Meek’s “History of Sandusky County,” at one time: “He was general attorney tor two banks, three railroads and some other corporations.”

In 1874, Otis was elected district court judge and the law firm was dissolved with Glick “retiring” to farming and stock raising and politics.

Glick served in Kansas state legislature for nine terms

He served the state legislature for nine terms beginning in 1863; was defeated by James Harvey in a bid for governor and returned to the legislature, serving as Speaker Pro Tem in 1876. He always served the legislature as a member of the Judiciary Committee and was appointed to that panel by officers of a different political party.

In 1882, he was successful in his second bid for the Kansas governorship, an impressive accomplishment since he was the only state Democratic Party candidate to win. On top of that he defeated the incumbent Republican John St. John and Greenback candidate Charles Robinson.

He held numerous other state offices in Kansas.

He died in 1915, two years before the Kansas legislature honored him with the resolution to have his statue in Washington D.C.

Roy Wilhelm started a 40-year career at The News-Messenger in 1965 as a reporter. Now retired, he writes a column for both The News-Messenger and News Herald.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Fremont's George Washington Glick was honored with statue in US Capitol