Gage, Lyman

J., banker and philanthropist, born in De Ruyter, N.Y., June 28, 1836; educated at an academy at Rome, N. Y. Began his career at fourteen as a istant in the Rome post-office; subsequently was mail agent on the Rome, Water town & Ogdensburg Railroad, and (1854) clerk in the Oneida Central Bank. After many vici itudes he became connected with the Merchants Saving, Loan and Trust Company of Chicago; and in 1868 with the First National Bank of Chicago, of which in 1891 he became president. The succe of the World's Columbian Exposition was largely due to his enterprise, he being one of three men who pledged to it $10,000,000 on behalf of the city of Chicago. He also served as president of the Banker's Section of the World's Congre . Reforms for the improvement of the condition of the laboring cla es have found in him a sympathizer and worker, and he has taken an active part in the improvement of the city of Chicago. In 1897 he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President McKinley. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Beloit College, June 22, 1897.