George Hall Large (December 1, 1850 – August 15, 1939) was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who served as President of the
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...
. He was also the longest surviving participant in the first-ever
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
Hunterdon County
Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, the son of John K. and Eliza (Hall) Large. He was tutored at local schools before attending
Rutgers College
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
.
On November 6, 1869, Large was one of 25 Rutgers players to face The College of New Jersey (now
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
At Rutgers, Large was also associate editor of '' The Targum''. He graduated in 1872.
Legal and political career
After graduating from Rutgers, Large
read law
Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...
and was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1875. He first practiced law with his brother-in-law John N. Voorhees in Flemington and then opened his own law office in 1882.
In 1885, Large ran successfully for the
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...
on the Republican ticket. He was the first Republican elected to the State Senate from traditionally Democratic
Hunterdon County
Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,Robert S. Green was out of the state.
In 1889, President
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
appointed Large the Collector of
Internal Revenue
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...
for New Jersey's Fifth District. He served in this position for five years before returning to private practice.
Large joined with his son, George K. Large, to establish the Flemington law firm of Large & Large (later known as Large, Scammell & Danziger). From 1900, he owned the
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
mansion located at 117 Main Street in Flemington, designed in 1847 for James N. Reading (now known as the Reading-Large House). The historic Reading-Large house is currently occupied by the law firm of Large, Scammell & Danziger LLC and other businesses.
Later life
Large married the former Josephine Ramsey on November 15, 1877, and she died not long before their sixtieth anniversary, on January 5, 1937. They had three children: George Knowles (born February 3, 1879), Edwin Kirk (born August 14, 1880), and Helen Brokaw (born August 12, 1889). George K. Large served as judge of the Hunterdon County Court of Common Pleas and was an assistant prosecutor in the
Lindbergh kidnapping
On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (born June 22, 1930), the 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his crib in the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home, Highfields (Amwell and Ho ...
trial. Edwin K. Large served as postmaster of
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
.
Large outlived all of the other participants in the 1869 Rutgers-Princeton game. On November 5, 1938, when Rutgers defeated Princeton for the first time since the original game, Large was on hand for the victory. Coincidentally, William Preston Lane, the last surviving Princeton player, had died that morning.
In 1939, Large died at his Flemington home at the age of 88.
The Political Graveyard
The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations of ...