Daniel Greene Garnsey (June 17, 1779 – May 11, 1851) was an American politician from New York, Michigan and Illinois.
Early life
Garnsey was born in the part of the Town of Canaan, New York which is now New Lebanon on June 17, 1779.[1][2] He was the son of Isaac B. Garnsey (1758–1824) and Elizabeth (Spier) Garnsey (1754–1838). On April 26, 1803, he married Lucy Hudson (1779–1870) in Troy, and they had eight children.[3] Later he moved to Halfmoon.
He studied law in Norwich, was admitted to the bar in 1811 and practiced in Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. Originally a member of the Federalist Party,[6] he served in local and judicial office, including justice of the peace, inspector of the common schools, Master in Chancery and Saratoga County Surrogate.[7][8]
In 1816, he moved to the area in the Town of Pomfret which later became the Village of Dunkirk. He was Surrogate of Chautauqua County from 1819 to 1821, and District Attorney from 1818 to 1826.
During the 1828 campaign, when Anti-Masons were considering whether to support John Quincy Adams for reelection as president, Garnsey wrote a letter to Adams to ask whether he was a Mason. Adams replied that he was not a Mason, but had known several individuals who were, including George Washington, and had no negative comments about them. Garnsey's letter and Adams' reply were made public in Anti-Masonic newspapers. Because Adams' opponent Andrew Jackson was a Mason, while Adams was not, Anti-Masons supported Adams.[13]
He later moved to Rock Island, Illinois. On March 22, 1841, he was appointed by Harrison as Receiver of Public Moneys at the Land Office in Dixon, Illinois, and served until removed by President John Tyler on August 25, 1843. When Harrison died in 1841 after only a few weeks in office, Garnsey was one of the official pallbearers at Harrison's funeral.[16]
Death and burial
Garnsey died suddenly in Gowanda, New York on May 11, 1851[17] while traveling from his daughter's home in Philadelphia to Dunkirk, where he was planning to attend the celebration of the completion of the Erie Railroad.[18] He was buried at the Pine Hill Cemetery in Gowanda.[19]
Note
Some sources indicate that Garnsey served in Congress as a Jacksonian. These sources seem to be incorrect, given that contemporary sources from the time of Garnsey's career indicate that he was a Federalist, and then an Adams Republican, and that he later became affiliated with the Anti-Masons and then the Whigs.
^"For Congress". Geneva Gazette. Geneva, N.Y. December 24, 1828. Archived from the original on 2014-09-03. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^Illinois State Journal Index, Fund-Nichols(PDF). Carbondale, Illinois: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Eastern Illinois University. p. 299. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
^Thompson, Charles Manfred (1915). The Illinois Whigs Before 1846. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois. p. 66. Retrieved August 26, 2014. daniel g. garnsey whig.