Grosvenor P. Lowrey (September 25, 1831 – April 21, 1893) was a 19th-century American

corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

who served as counsel to numerous powerful interests such as

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

and the New York Metropolitan Railway Company. After graduating from

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

in 1854 Lowrey was admitted to the bar he became the personal secretary to his former teacher

Andrew Horatio Reeder Andrew Horatio Reeder (July 12, 1807 – July 5, 1864) was the first governor of the Kansas Territory, Territory of Kansas. Biography Reeder was born in Easton, Pennsylvania to Absolom Reeder and Christina (Smith) Reeder. He was educated at ...

, the first Governor of the Kansas Territory. Lowery aligned himself with the abolitionist Free-Stater wing of the Kansas Territory government, but was forced to return east when the

Border Ruffian Border ruffians were proslavery raiders, crossing from the slave state of Missouri into the Kansas Territory, to help ensure Kansas entered the Union as a slave state. They were a key part of the violent period called Bleeding Kansas, that pea ...

elements gained control of the legislature. Lowrey later worked for the Fremont Campaign of 1856 and during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

wrote pamphlets defending President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

's expanded war powers while doing legal work for the Treasury Department. After the war he worked for various clients, being employed as general counsel for Western Union for 15 years, while being hired on the side for numerous merges and consolations in the period. However his most famous work was defending Edison's

quadruplex telegraph The Quadruplex telegraph is a type of electrical telegraph which allows a total of four separate signals to be transmitted and received on a single wire at the same time (two signals in each direction). Quadruplex telegraphy thus implements a fo ...

and

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxida ...

patents. Lowrey was also instrumental in the formation of the

Edison Electric Light Company General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energy ...

, and convinced J.P. Morgan to back it. He died on April 21, 1893 in New York at his

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

home from complications of gout.

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowery, Grosvenor 1831 births 1893 deaths Lafayette College alumni 19th-century American lawyers