George Vail (July 21, 1809 – May 23, 1875) was an American

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

politician who represented in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

from 1853 to 1857. His father

Stephen Vail Stephen Vail (1780–1864) was a founding partner of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia and the creator of the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey. Biography Stephen Vail was born in Malapardis, New Jersey on June 28, 1780 ...

, and his brother

Alfred Vail Alfred Lewis Vail (September 25, 1807 – January 18, 1859) was an American machinist and inventor. Along with Samuel Morse, Vail was central in developing and commercializing American telegraphy between 1837 and 1844. Vail and Morse were the f ...

were the driving force behind the success of the Speedwell Iron Works. Father and sons assisted in the technical expertise and financial development of this family business. The Vail family contributions to mechanical inventions, early communication, transportation industry, and mass production placed Speedwell at the cutting edge of the

Industrial Revolution in the United States The Industrial Revolution in the United States was an epoch during the first 100 years of United States history where the economy progressed from manual labor and farm labor to a greater degree of industrialization based on labor. There were ma ...

Biography

He was born in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

on July 21, 1809 to

. His brother,

, partnered with

Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...

to invent the telegraph and the

Morse Code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

. He completed preparatory studies and attended The Morris Academy in Morristown. George Vail's cousin was

Theodore Newton Vail Theodore Newton Vail (July 16, 1845 – April 16, 1920) was president of American Telephone & Telegraph between 1885 and 1889, and again from 1907 to 1919. Vail saw telephone service as a public utility and moved to consolidate telephone networks u ...

, who became the first president of

American Telephone & Telegraph AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...

Vail was a member of the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts for ...

in 1843 and 1844, and was appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to represent the State at

The Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

in London, England, in 1851. George Vail was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1850 to the

Thirty-second Congress The 32nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1851, ...

. In a political cartoon, George was surrounded by tools, patterns and drawings, with the Iron Works smoking in the background. George Vail was elected as a Democratic Representative for

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

to the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses, serving in office from March 4, 1853 to March 3, 1857. After his end of term in Congress, Vail was appointed on February 3, 1858, by President

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...

, as consul to

Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, then served until August 10, 1861. When Vail returned to the United States and settled in Morristown, New Jersey where he engaged in literary pursuits. Vail was also member of the Court of Pardons, and served as a Judge of the

New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals Prior to 1947, the structure of the judiciary in New Jersey was extremely complex, including Court of Errors and Appeals in the last resort in all causes. The Court of Errors and Appeals was the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey from ...

from 1865 to 1871, which was the State of New Jersey's highest Court of Law at the time. Vail died in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

on May 23, 1875, and was interred there in the

First Presbyterian Church Cemetery The First Presbyterian Church Graveyard is the oldest graveyard in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Established in the 1790s, the graveyard contains the graves of some of Knoxville's most prominent early residents, including territorial gov ...

External links

George Vail
at

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 ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vail, George 1809 births 1875 deaths Vail family Democratic Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey New Jersey state court judges People from Morristown, New Jersey Politicians from Morris County, New Jersey Burials in New Jersey 19th-century American politicians