James Albert Gary (October 22, 1833 – October 31, 1920) was a U.S.

political figure A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. Gary ran as the Republican candidate for Maryland Governor in 1879, losing to William Thomas Hamilton. He served as the

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...

between 1897 and 1898. He married Lavinia Washington in 1856. They had ten children with only eight surviving to adulthood. He spent much of his working life in textile manufacture in the

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, region, and was involved with cotton mills along the Patapsco and

Patuxent River The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeast ...

s, including Ely, Guilford, and

Laurel, Maryland Laurel is a city in Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington and Baltimore on the banks of the Patuxent River. While the city limits are entirely in northern Prince George's County, outlying developments extend into Anne Arunde ...

Gary was a prominent member of Baltimore's prestigious

Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is a large, Gothic Revival-style church built in 1870 and located at Park Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in the city's Bolton Hill neighborhood. Named in memory of a Bal ...

and led the movement to establish Babcock Memorial Church there in memory of Brown Memorial's minister, Maltbie Babcock. He also contributed to the construction of a church in Daniels, MD, which was later named in his honor: Gary Memorial United Methodist Church.Gary Memorial United Methodist Church; Gary had a home in the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore and a summer place in Catonsville.

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* , - United States Postmasters General People from Laurel, Maryland 1833 births 1920 deaths McKinley administration cabinet members 19th-century American politicians Maryland Republicans {{Maryland-politician-stub